Oct
9
Written by:
masterblogger
10/9/2009 10:18 AM
Time flies when you're geeking out. Day one of the 127th AES
convention is over, and I want to give you a taste of the gear I
checked out today. As I write this, I'm rendering some videos I took of
a few demos. I have to come clean and admit that I'm more of an
audio person than a video person, but I'll get the hang of it. I just can't guarantee awesome camera work. But I
used this little Sony MP4 hand held HD camera, which is super small and really easy to use.
One demo you'll see is of the
Cakewalk Sonar V-Studio 700 and Sonar 8.5 software. Since Cakewalk
merged with Roland, the two companies have meshed some of their
engineering concepts. The V-Studio combines a control surface,
audio interface, Fantom hardware synth, and Rapture virtual instrument
into one package with the VS-700C console, VS-700R I/O and synth
module, and Sonar 8.5 Producer software.
There's also the Sonar
V-Studio 100 for both Windows and Mac, which functions as an audio and
MIDI interface and DAW controller. And the 100 works with other DAWs outside of Sonar,
including Logic, Live, and Cubase. I also got a demo of Cakewalk's Studio Instruments Drums virtual instrument, which also works with both PC and Mac.
A couple rows over from Cakewalk is iZotope, with its new audio
plug-in Alloy. I'll upload a demo of that, as well. Alloy is a group of
six mixing tools and was created in response to the
full-featured Ozone 4 mastering effects system, which features
analog-modeled processing but can trip up less robust systems with
latency issues. Alloy's zero-latency MacroPresets were created to allow
for more convenience of mixing whenever and wherever you want.
I also had a chance to check out Milab's microphones at the FDW Worldwide booth. Milab is a small mic company based in Helsingborg, Sweden. The Milab SRND 360, which came out earlier this year, caught my eye. A remarkably sturdy (and heavy) little mic, the SRND 360 was manufactured to capture 5.0/5.1 and 6.0/6.1 surround sound. Inside the mic are three matched DC-196 rectangular capsules functioning as cardioids and placed at 120 degrees angles. The combined signal from two adjacent capsules in turn creates a virtual third output. Consequently, the various configurations produce six cardioid outputs.
Okay, time for me to hit up the Ableton Live, Blue Microphones, Adam Audio, and FDW parties. Stay tuned for the videos and more demos and info on gear.
Speaking of which, is there anything debuting at AES that you're curious about? Comment here or at our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/EQ-Magazine/53833625615), and I'll go get a demo of it for you!