To be eligible for an Editors’ Choice Award, products must have shipped between September 15, 2007, and October 15, 2008, when we began editing our January issue. We also considered several products that shipped so close to the 2008 Editors’ Choice Awards deadline that it was not possible for us to test them in time for that year’s awards. If a product shipped too close to this year’s deadline for us to properly evaluate it, we’ll make it eligible for next year’s awards. We give awards to software upgrades only if they were major improvements over the previous version.

All of the winning products have been field-tested by EM’s editors and a select group of authors. We also solicited opinions from the editors of our sister publications Mix and Remix. The final selections were made by EM editors Gino Robair, Mike Levine, Len Sasso, and Geary Yelton, and former EM editor in chief Steve Oppenheimer edited the resulting article. All award-winning products have been covered in EM reviews, or the review is in progress and our tests are far enough along that we feel confident about our conclusions (see the online bonus material “The Award Winners in Review” and “The Winning Manufacturers” at emusician.com). Please join us as we applaud the winners of the 17th annual EM Editors’ Choice Awards!

AUDIO-EDITING SOFTWARE

Adobe Audition 3.0 (Win, $349)
Adobe Audition gets more powerful and full featured with each upgrade, and version 3’s new features make it a no-brainer for this year’s award. Perhaps the biggest surprise is MIDI sequencing and support for VST instrument plug-ins, which takes Audition one step further into the world of digital audio workstations. Just click on a MIDI track to reveal a Sequencer window where you can enter, edit, and route MIDI by channel to up to 16 virtual instruments. Surround support with the new surround encoder is another major addition.

Audition’s complement of signal processors has been expanded, adding a convolution reverb, a mastering tool, tube-modeled compression, analog-modeled delay, and guitar effects. IZotope’s Radius is included, enabling time-stretching, and the new Top/Tail views make loop editing a snap. The software’s already excellent spectral-editing capabilities have been further improved. You also get new noise-reduction and phase-correction tools. For audio editing and basic MIDI sequencing, Audition is an excellent choice for Windows users.

AUDIO INTERFACE

Apogee Duet (Mac, $495)
Only a few years ago, Apogee released the Mini-Me, which combined the company’s sought-after A/D converters with a pair of high-quality mic preamps. However, its $1,500 price point may have kept it out of many personal studios. That certainly won’t be the case with the Duet, which puts a pair of Apogee’s mic preamps and converters into a FireWire bus-powered audio interface for under $500.

A Mac-only product, the Duet’s clean look fits the Apple design aesthetic, with one rotary encoder that covers everything thanks to the included Maestro configuration software. The product does more than look great next to a Mac: Maestro is built into the current versions of Logic Pro, Soundtrack Pro, and GarageBand for easy access. (Apps that support Core Audio are also compatible.) With two XLR mic/line inputs, a pair of unbalanced instrument-level inputs, and two unbalanced ¼-inch outputs, the Duet is a cost-effective way to get the excellent Apogee sound, especially for musicians on the go. That’s certainly something worth celebrating.

AUXILIARY SOFTWARE

Cycling ’74 Max 5 (Mac/Win, $250 [MSRP])
The Auxiliary Software category includes a diverse range of apps, so it’s fitting that the latest update of Max was the winner. Max gives you the tools to do just about anything you can think of with digital signals. With the latest version, Cycling ’74 didn’t add a ton of new features, but it refined the user interface and documentation. As a result, this powerful programming environment is less intimidating to newbies, while work flow is improved and the inner workings are more transparent to experienced users.

For example, the new Patcher palette gives you a one-stop shop for adding UI Objects to a project. Ticks and traditional musical-note values have been added as timing increments. And the new Presentation mode lets you easily design an interface to hide the internal workings of your patch. Overall, the upgrade is a winner because it makes Max not only more convenient for power users, but also so easy to use that mainstream musicians should finally be convinced to look deeper into an application that they have considered (incorrectly) to be only for artists on the fringe. “Well, if it’s good enough for Radiohead . . .”

CONTROL SURFACE

Euphonix MC Control ($1,499)
Known for high-end digital consoles and control surfaces, Euphonix made the intriguing decision to release two controllers priced for the personal studio. One, the MC Control, easily took this year’s Control Surface category, offering four 100 mm touch-sensitive motorized faders; a color touch screen surrounded by eight Velocity-sensitive knobs and a dozen soft-key buttons; eight navigation buttons; and transport controls, including a Jog/Shuttle wheel. Despite this wealth of controls, the MC Control fits neatly on a desktop, even when mated with the Euphonix MC Mix fader-and-knob bank.

The MC Control uses Ethernet and the Euphonix EuCon protocol to communicate with a Mac, resulting in higher resolution and greater throughput than MIDI- or USB-based controllers. It offers HUI emulation and supports the Mackie Control protocol for non-EuCon-aware applications. Whether it’s used to control tracks on a DAW, tweak virtual instruments, or edit video, the MC Control’s elegant user interface is powerful and flexible, outshining all contenders this year.