Show Reports

Whenever the AES comes to San Francisco, it’s all about bridges. Whether getting across San Francisco Bay or just crossing the road to get to the Moscone Convention Centre, there’s always the promise of something better on the other side. Inside the Moscone, the industry was busy with all kinds of connections, making this metaphor easily the most appropriate.

The most anticipated new release was Avid’s Pro Tools 9, a direct replacement for Pro Tools LE in the hierarchy and the latest generation of the 20-year old Digidesign legacy that has transformed the recording landscape. Notably, this version incorporates a trophy from Avid’s acquisition of rival Euphonix in the form of the EuCon control protocol, further expanding its I/O reach across the industry.

Automatic Delay Compensation, a popular feature of advanced Pro Tools systems, is now included as standard, while the track count has doubled to 96 mono or stereo voices, the internal buss count has bounced from 32 to 256 and there are now 160 aux tracks. Other modernisations include Time Code Ruler, Beat Detective and a facility to export directly to MP3. To support the launch, Avid invited several big name producers and engineers to the show including Garbage main man Butch Vig, who described Pro Tools 9 as ‘essential’.

Elsewhere, restaurant Lulu was the relaxed setting for a remarkable initiative that could redefine recording studio ownership. In a radical shake-up of music industry business models, globally recognised manufacturers API, PMC, Prism Sound, SPL, Euphonix/Avid and Eggleston Works co-hosted the announcement that Holland’s famous Wisseloord Studios would be revived into full commercial operation once again. This time, however, the investments necessary are to be made by the consortium of manufacturers itself, rather than the traditional sources from within record company, publishing or broadcast organisations.

‘I know you were expecting a merger announcement, but sorry to disappoint you,’ teased Paul Reynolds, leading spokesman for the consortium and former SACD evangelist at Philips. The brainchild of Reynolds and renowned engineer Ronald Prent, the new Wisseloord is a reaction to the negative mood found latterly within the studio community. ‘We wanted to do something about it,’ Reynolds said. ‘I know we’re going against the trend, but that’s the idea! The customer dynamic has changed, and so have the delivery media, but the basic audio expertise is still absolutely essential – perhaps even more so now than ever.’

The 30-year old infrastructure of Wisseloord is to be updated over the next six months, alongside the establishment of a new type of service-led operation that will draw upon the technical auspices of each supplier. The precise details of this model have yet to be revealed, but suffice to say that the high-profile presence of the manufacturers at this AES in San Francisco suggests an unprecedented level of technology-led management for such a project.

UK mixer mainstay Solid State Logic continued the inexorable trend toward compact hardware controllers for DAWs with Nucleus, a controller and ‘SuperAnalogue Audio Hub’ for professional project studios. Blending control and sonic performance, its primary target is the producer ‘working inside the box’, according to SSL’s head of marketing Dan Duffel.

‘It’s for someone with a high turnover of work,’ he said, ‘earning their living but in need of something highly compact with each of the limited number of things they want: a high quality DAW control surface; a very high quality analogue monitoring path; a couple of quality mic pres to track vocals or some instrumentation; and a set of bundled plug-ins. As I said, they’re staying inside the box but they want SSL quality.’

It is not, however, a summing mixer or similar gambit for a ‘coating’ of analogue. ‘These are not people who want to pull the audio out of the workstation,’ added Mr Duffel. ‘It’s a stereo audio interface. There may be occasional recording, but it’s a monitoring device – a professional monitoring device, too. This isn’t amateur hour.’

SSL also showed a new incarnation of the AWS 900 compact console, called the 948. The paradigm of combining analogue console with workstation control surface has already spun off into the company’s Duality, Matrix and, now, Nucleus products but the 948 acknowledges the enduring popularity of the motherlode – 600 AWSs sold and counting. The upgrade doubles the channel count: physically it’s the same size but each channel strip is now stereo, with a mic input and two line inputs together with three operating modes – classic in-line tracking, DAW return or automatable send, and stereo mode for stem mixing. ‘Commercial studios aren’t going away, they’re just getting smaller,’ said Mr Duffel.

French manufacturer Focal Professional enticed guests to the Michael Romanowski Mastering Studio on Mission Street for the launch of a new studio monitor. The SM9 is a major statement by the company, housing two independent monitoring systems within the one cabinet. One is 3-way, with a 1-inch dome tweeter, a 6.5-inch midrange driver and an 8-inch bass driver, all matched with an 11-inch passive radiator. The other is 2-way, with just the 1-inch tweeter and 6.5-inch mid. Both tweeters use Focal’s proprietary Beryllium inverted domes, and the two systems are of course switchable.

‘The 3-way is for absolute reference,’ explained Focal’s Nicolas Debard, ‘while the 2-way provides instant mid-range cross reference, to verify the mix for limited bandwidth such as TV, computer, iPod and in-car environments. The best of every world.’

Back on the show floor, JBL introduced the MSC1 Control Centre Software for Macintosh, allowing Mac users access to JBL’s MSC1 Monitor System Controller for speaker tuning and full software control, while Lexicon introduced the PCM Native Effects Plug-In Bundle. The new software package makes all the effects processing of the PCM96 available as a plug-in. ‘Our PCM hardware now also talks to System Architect,’ added Tiffany Stalker. ‘Everyone using HiQnet can now incorporate Lexicon’s PCM effects. We’re terrifically excited about that.’

Denmark’s DPA Microphones announced the new Reference Standard range of modular microphones, essentially the original 4006, 4011, 4015 and 4017 capsules separated from the preamps – MMP-A, MMP-B with low cut and high boost and MMP-C compact – and again from the microphone bodies via custom XLR connectors.

‘We’ve always wanted to make these models into a modular system,’ revealed Morten Støve. ‘Capsules are expensive and it’s so handy for them to be interchangeable. It’s much more cost-effective.’

An encouraging green thread ran through the show, with energy efficient technology and other solutions beginning to make a mark. Crown Audio launched the ComTech DriveCore series of amplifiers, four new models described as 1RU, convection cooled and ‘ultra-energy efficient’. They’re among a new generation of products at the forefront of Harman International’s GreenEdge environmental initiative, even to the extent of using fewer resources in manufacturing. Crown also introduced VRACK, an integrated amplifier management system in modular rackmount form.

Meanwhile sound control solutions provider Auralex Acoustics extended its own reputation for green innovation by unveiling what it claims is the first line of acoustical products made from 100 per cent eco-friendly bamboo: the Sustain Bamboo Sound Diffusor Series. The range consists of the WavePrism, WaveLens, QuadraTec, Peak Pyramid Diffusor and KeyPacs models. Auralex also showed its new Studiofoam Pro, said to be the industry’s first melamine-free, Class A fire-rated acoustical foam.

In another sign of the times, Primera Technology’s Bravo 4100-Series disc printers and publishers claim to be the fastest in the world, taking just six seconds to complete each disc in a compact, desktop solution. This is thanks to new belt-drive robotics, while other enhancements include separate ink cartridges for CMYK, Lexmark ink-jet printing up to 4800dpi and automatic front dispensation. ‘Apart from independent music production, we have important markets in the Government, for training videos, education and worship,’ said marketing manager Jennifer Loegering.

Designed and manufactured in the US by Lynx Studio Technology, the LT-USB is an LSlot interface for the Aurora 8 and Aurora 16 A/D D/A converters providing digital input and output to desktop and laptop computers using USB 2.0 ports. It allows up to 16 input and output channels at up to 96kHz and eight channels at 192kHz. ‘When used with popular recording, audio production and mastering applications, the LT-USB allows Aurora’s compact size to be an integral part of a compact mobile studio.’

Apogee’s Symphony I/O unit was described by Marc Fenton, Asia Pacific sales representative, as nothing less than ‘the culmination of 25 years of Apogee’s engineering prowess,’ and a flagship product that takes configurability and expandability ‘one step further’. The heart of the unit is a converter card with slots for further options, currently including eight-channel Optocore and eight-channel AES/EBU I/O with 16-channel on the way. New to this type of package is an optional eight-channel mic preamp module.

Studio Six Digital of Boulder, Colorado is a specialist in iPhone apps and accessories for audio, and showed an iPhone and iPad version of SMAART, the acoustic measurement software now developed by Rational Acoustics. ‘We find that people are very interested in having a scaled down version of SMAART that they can access with extreme mobility,’ said SD6’s Andrew Smith. ‘So we’ve put the hi-res RTA, spectograph, magnitude, phase, delay finder and coherence curve onto this app. It’s scaled down to fit the smaller screens but that’s not an issue. Engineers love being able to do this without having to open up a laptop every time.’

Tascam spanned its own peninsulas with the US800 interface for USB, with eight inputs and six outputs across Neutrik, XLR and quarter-inch connectors plus Midi. ‘So many people are doing computer recording these days,’ said operation support manager Neal Faison, ‘that you want an interface that doesn’t cost a whole lot, sounds good and has x-number of inputs. There are also two mic ins located on the front of the unit, along with a headphone out.’

At the end of the first day booth number 708 saw UK signal processing pioneer Focusrite raising a champagne toast to celebrate the company’s 25th anniversary, followed by ‘a voyage through Focusrite recording hardware history’. Several milestones were on show, including the last ever Red 1 Quad Mic-pre ever made – to be signed by Sir George Martin and others for a charity auction – and the ISA110, the main input section of the Forté and Studio consoles made by Focusrite throughout the 1980s and 90s, the legacy of which is found in current products ISA One, the ISA430 MkII and the new ISA428 MkII.

Best of all, Focusrite noted in audacious marketing that the new Pro Tools 9 was ‘now Focusrite ready’, a neat shift in brand emphasis given that Focusrite’s new plug-in RTAS Mix Control was actually developed for Pro Tools 9. Cheeky, but still a kind of bridge, in the end.

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