Welcome To AES v.2.0

The AES show in New York Oct. 5-8 saw 20,674 visitors to 445 exhibits and more than 150 conference events, making this the largest AES show in more than ten years, according to an AES press release. Time on the show floor suggests that while software and hardware can coexist, it''s truly become a virtual world out there.

Among the big news at the show was the new iteration of Digidesign''s Pro Tools platform. Version 7.4 offers numerous new music and postproduction features and workflow enhancements for Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, and Pro Tools M-Powered users. Topping the list is a multifaceted new music composition and production tool called “Elastic Time,” which allows users to easily change the tempo and timing of loops, music, dialog, and other sound files in realtime without cutting up audio tracks. Users can now audition or import loops and audio files that instantly sync with a session''s tempo. Users can also use the Elastic Time feature to quantize audio to the session grid or extracted grooves, and to fine-tune regions with precision control over each individual beat. Postproduction users will like 7.4''s improved networking compatibility with Avid Unity ISIS shared storage systems and new support for HD video workflows. With Pro Tools HD 7.4 software on Windows XP systems, editors can record and playback audio and video directly from qualified Avid ISIS shared storage systems. In addition, running on a separate computer, new Avid Media Station PT 2.7 software coupled with the new Video Satellite Option brings Pro Tools more deeply into the Avid workflow by enabling Pro Tools editors to play Avid video sequences in sync with Pro Tools|HD. The Video Satellite option eliminates video exports and removes all video-processing burdens from the Pro Tools|HD system by synchronizing playback with Media Station|PT on a separate, dedicated computer.

Not to be outdone, Steinberg''s Nuendo platform rolled out its next edition. Nuendo 4 new features include (reasonably) self-descriptive terms such as Preview mode, Fill commands, Punch Logs and Virgin Territories. The new MediaBay file management system for audio, video, and other media files can replace many external FX database solutions. MediaBay browses, archives, retrieves, and searches media files across any connected drive. Using intelligent database technology, user-definable tags, and other features MediaBay allows instant pulling up and filtering of search results and smart file management. Nuendo 4 sees a vastly upgraded set of 38 new surround- and sidechaining-capable VST3 audio effect plug-ins that cover dynamics, spatial FX, and filtering. Standard on each channel is a new VST3 Channel EQ.
Nuendo 4 offers a range of features designed specifically for audio postproduction workflow. Advanced post pro-editing commands allow faster editing workflows, including new options to move, place, and trim audio faster and more precisely. Flexible new recording and routing options offer new ways to route and manipulate audio, with any track now able to record audio from any summing object such as groups or FX returns. Common recording configurations such as stems and print master recording are now simple to setup, eliminating the need to route audio outside the system for recording on external recorders.

But there was plenty of hardware to see, too. Solid State Logic, a company whose comeback in a landscape in which battleship consoles were battered by software-based recording has been remarkable and satisfying, introduced its own cool new software product. Pro-Convert is a translation application for moving sessions from one DAW environment to another, enabling workstation users to convert session files from one format to another, and it can handle many commonly used formats including the latest versions from: Pro Tools, Soundscape, Cubase/Nuendo, Sony Vegas, Sonic Studio, SADiE, Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Audition, OMF, AES31, Sequoia, Open TL, and Tascam BU. (Pro-Convert underscores another way in which the pro audio business looks more and more like the computer industry: The software came via the acquisition by SSL of the company that developed it, Cui Bono Soft, a deal done literally days before the show.) “Think of it as a matrix that can take any format and convert it to any other format,” says Dave Engelke, a principal of the company. “From a workflow perspective, it will greatly expedite moving files between people and facilities.”

But there are still things that resist going digital, and the two far ends of the audio process, the microphone and the speaker, lead that list. Microphones, in particular, seem to have taken on a biological imperative, resembling less a product category than a fertile rabbit hutch. “Every time you turn around on the show floor you see more microphones,” exclaimed one flustered engineer. Bob Reardon at sE [sic] Electronics, which markets the several lines of microphones, says boutique microphones are a definite expansion trend and a profitable one, too, for manufacturers and retailers alike. “A lot of this is being fueled by the fact that many boutique microphone makers are having the capsules made in China and then customizing them here,” he says, noting that sE builds its microphones from scratch in the United States “But it''s a product category where design can mean as much as performance.” Blue Microphone''s new Joe ($499) is a cardioid large-diaphragm condenser mic that sports a classic look and anodized finish, with Class A discrete electronics. Blue''s Snowflake ($79) is the MySpace of transducers—a portable USB mic with stylish looks and a USB bus-powered capsule that makes for plug and play on both Mac and PC. But microphones aren''t all about industrial design, and there are those pushing the transducer into digital territory: Soundfield showed two new products: the DSF-1, a surround-capable digital microphone system aimed at concert venue recording and broadcast markets, and the DSF-3, a digital surround processor for the DSF-2 and the new DSF-1. Both products build on the technology underlying the DSF-2, Soundfield's first digital microphone system.

The pervasive notion of convergence is affecting product development and marketing. Andy Wild, director of marketing for Euphonix, which has traditionally targeted the large-format mixer market for film and music, states that the company''s proprietary control protocol, EuCon, is a response to the fact that what we call consoles are rapidly evolving into control surfaces, which will need to be broadly compatible with a wide range of workstations. “The effort going forward is to focus on offering controllers that can accommodate a wide variety of DAWs,” he says. (Ever since Digidesign got into the hardware business the Holy Grail of intercompatiblity has taken on a new urgency on the part of console makers.) New EuCon support was announced at the show for Steinberg''s Nuendo, Apple''s Logic Studio and Merging''s Pyramix.

Other new products of interest include AMS Neve''s new Genesys—a hand-built expandable analog recording console with digital workstation control and a base configuration starting at less than $50,000. The base configuration offers 16 channels of mic/line preamps, 16-channel DAW monitoring, 16-channel analog summing at mixdown, DAW control for Pro Tools, Logic, Nuendo, as well as eight auxiliary buses, eight group buses, two main outputs, four effects returns, 5.1 monitoring, two cue mixes, and an internal power supply. Genesys can be expanded to more than 60 channels in a straight or articulated frame, with options including motorized fader automation, recall, mastering-grade A/D and D/A converters, digitally controlled EQ and dynamics, and remote mic amp control.

High-definition audio is increasingly portable. Korg''s MR-1 professional mobile recorder delivers 1-bit, 2.8MHz recording and playback, while the tabletop MR-1000 delivers up to 1-bit, 5.6MHz. Both MR recorders support multiple recording formats including DSDIFF, DSF, and WSD 1-bit formats, as well as multi-bit PCM format (BWF) with resolutions up to 24-bit,192kHz. Meanwhile, redoubtable field friend Nagra announced the new Nagra VI, a 6-channel 24/16-bit selectable digital recorder that features internal hard drive and removable CF media storage; a color menu-driven interface; and mic, line, and AES 31 inputs. The deck will cost about $7,000 when it hits the streets later this year.

More than a controller, Fairlight''s new Xynergi controller was one of the hits of the show. It can process 230 96kHz audio channels concurrently, each with eight bands of EQ and three stages of dynamics, and it provides enough processing power to support a large-format mixing system with access to 72 mix busses, 220 physical I/Os, a comprehensive monitoring system, a fully integrated 192-track DAW, onboard HD/SD video, and access to most popular third-party plug-ins. Xynergi''s control surface is self-labeling—a keystroke reconfigures it from QWERTY to Mandarin in a nanosecond. But what drew the oohs and aahs was watching video playout across the LCD keys themselves.

Focusrite''s new Liquid4PR 4-channel microphone pre-amplifier uses its Liquid technology, marrying a flexible analog front end with dynamic convolution DSP to deliver the sounds of 40 vintage and classic microphone pre-amplifiers across all four channels. Augmented by fully digital controls and remote software control over Ethernet, Liquid4PRE has a 99 setup memories that provide total recall of every parameter across all four channels, delivering multiple user presets and a comprehensive backup of session settings. These memories can be managed either via the hardware, or via Liquid4PRE''s dedicated control software, Liquid4Control. Communication between one or more Liquid4PREs and the DAW flows via Ethernet. A similar Pro Tools TDM/RTAS plug-in allows integrated remote control via Pro Tools hardware and software, including Icon and Venue systems.

The fact that audio is being done in so many disparate environments these days could drive demand for products such as IK Multimedia''s Advanced Room Correction (ARC) system, an acoustic room correction system in a DAW plug-in form. The ARC System combines a calibrated microphone, standalone software that captures sound information and calculates proper room correction, and a multi-platform plug-in. The system measures acoustical information throughout the listening area in the studio, then combines this information to provide an accurate representation of the room''s acoustical problems. The equalization solution then corrects for both time and frequency response problems.

Lexicon doesn''t come out with a new processor all that often so when it does it''s worth a look. The new PCM9 works as a control-only DAW insert or FireWire streaming hardware plug-in, and it offers an array of new and classic reverberation patches. Features include two channels XLR analog and two channels XLR AES/EBU digital I/O, as well as MIDI, word clock, and Ethernet and Firewire connectivity.

The first question people walking the show floor ask one another is, “What have you seen that knocks you out?” The fact that the business is so software-driven has made that harder question to answer lately, but Steve Horowitz, who scores comedic documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock''s Supersize Me and the forthcoming Where In The World and who also composes music for games, stopped in the aisle long enough to observe that the convergence between film and game audio is being facilitated by many new products. “The upgrades to software like Logic and Pro Tools are really encouraging the ability to make film music and audio more interactive and game audio more cinematic,” he says. Going a step further, he adds that remote collaborative ventures, such as eSession, will blur the lines even further. “When everyone is working from home, there''s no more pigeonholing of talents,” he says. “You''re not a ‘film'' audio person or a ‘game'' audio person. It''s all going to be just audio. Plus, with the composers on the same technical level as everyone else, video editors won''t have to work with temp tracks anymore, and won''t that be great?”


--D.D.