By the time the doors open at NAMM 2008, the optional eight-channel A-D converter card for Focusrite’s new ISA828 eight channel pre will be available from all good pro audio stores across the globe. 

The ISA828 eight channel 192kHz A-D is the first audio A-D converter to utilise Burr-Brown Pro Audio Amplifiers and flagship PCM4220 A-D converter chips. With cutting-edge conversion technology seated within Focusrite custom analogue circuitry, the card delivers unparalleled performance; specifications include a dynamic range of 122dB and jitter less than 250 picoseconds. The card can be retrofitted at any time and, thanks to its convenient 25 pin D-Type connector, integrates seamlessly with ProTools HD as well as other popular hard disk recorders and mixing desks.

Digital formats include an eight-channel single/dual wire AES/EBU and SPDIF output, as well as an eight-channel ADAT lightpipe (SMUX/SMUX2) output. Wordclock I/O is provided via dedicated BNC connectors.

Source: Focusrite website

The Audio Workbench wishes you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year! May 2008 enter bringing prosperity and happiness all over the world. Many thanks go to all those who bother to visit my first ever blog during its first few months of operation and I can only hope that you enjoy browsing it as much as I do publishing posts. Always keep in touch for the latest and greatest musical, tech, and musical tech news. And please remember that if you wish to support this website you can always help by clicking on the right column’s ads.

Thanks again and once more…

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Insiders tell us that Apple expects to announce sales of roughly five million iPhones at Macworld 2008 in January.  Of these, around one million are expected to come from Europe.  Apple is seeing very strong Christmas sales despite AT&T’s announcement that a 3G iPhone will be hitting in 2008 (May-June is our best guess at this point) that could’ve hampered demand.

Apple sold 1 million iPhones in 74 days around the same time it dropped the price to $399 from $599.  Also, Apple opened in Europe’s three biggest markets in November - just in time for the holidays.

Some sources expect Apple to release a 16Gb iPhone upgrade at Macworld in mid January, however, no hard evidence to this effect has hit our ears.

Apple had originally expected to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008 and reaching the halfway point this early is likely to bolster Apple’s stock price.  Apple’s iPhone is a leader in the smartphone charge in the US and has gained marketshare at an unprecedented pace.

Source: 9to5mac.com

Today’s post will not will not be a news flash. Instead I wanted to share this one with you. Yesterday while surfing the web I was informed by a friend that the progressive rock band ‘A Perfect Circle‘ have released a remix of John Lennon’s ‘imagine’. So I instantly found and listened to the track on YouTube and was immediately touched. I liked their approach very much, and I think they did a terrific job if you consider that it is has to be a whole lot harder to remix one of the most legendary songs in the history of mankind because the comparison between the two is unavoidable.

Although there’s a few hard scenes included in the video, it successfully depicts the wrongs of mankind, as well as how heavenly everything could be if we all helped… And since Christmas is coming, I grabbed the chance to remind everyone that every now and then we should do something to improve our situation… whether that’s by helping a fellow human being who is in need, or by simply being careful not to mindlessly litter around. All this place needs to be ok is a little more responsibility from each one of us. Happy Christmas to all!

It really does matter little whether you are a grown-up with a passion for guitars or you’re that pimpled-face teenager looking for a way to become a rockstar… if you’re a serious guitar player, there will come a day when you’ll feel like doing some recording. Now, we could talk for weeks and even years about how to record a guitar… but if you’re looking for a recording that really sounds at least decent, plugging your axe in the back of your computer is not the best way. At least it dramatically diminishes the chances that the girl at school you have a crush on will listen to your song instead of running away from your red pimples…

Well, since going to a pro recording studio might be a little overhand, why not try to do things the right way in your room? Now, there’s of course a major impediment to that: electric guitars mean LOUD almost all the time and there’s little chance your parents will come at your room’s door headbanging as you try some death metal “tunes”… The song is ready, your fingers are warmed up, the axe’s in perfect tune, your distortion pedal can barely hold on the clean tone; what’s next?

If you want to do things like a pro, the Dead Room from Grendel Sound should be next. The Dead Room is nothing mystical (like a room that’s been killed) but a highly practical recording solution for the places where quiet is a must. Namely, we’re talking a special-design box loaded with a guitar speaker and to which you’ll connect the “silent out” of your amp. Obviously, the fairly large box is loaded with phono-absorbing materials that will “deaden” the enclosure, letting only the pristine, uncolored sound of your speaker resonate inside.

Unlike other similar silent recording boxes, the Grendel Sound Dead Room will never give you the “trapped” sound; its 6″-thick lid will take away any resonance and coloration, offering only the true sound of your guitar. Forget about the amateur-built boxes: this one sports highly engineered space calculations and thorough absorption for spectacular results. It is entirely hand-built and soldered for impeccable quality and it comes with a Warehouse Veteran 30 speaker for $399 / €273 or can be ordered unloaded for $359 / €245.

Well, now it looks like you could even record your grindcore smash-hit in the same room with your sleeping granny. Rock on! Sample recording here.

Source: Softpedia news

Also check out Harmony Central’s review, as well as Grendel Sound’s official website for the Dead Room cabin.

Spectrasonics has released a new product package called “Stylus RMX Xpanded” which includes the acclaimed Stylus RMX Realtime Groove Module virtual instrument software, with all five of the company’s award-winning “S.A.G.E. Xpander” expansion libraries: Backbeat, Retro Funk, Metamorphosis, Burning Grooves and Liquid Grooves. The new package is priced at only $399 / €349 and offers a tremendous value — saving the user almost $400 US off the combined price of the individual titles. The addition of the Xpanders’ 5.5 gigabytes of outstanding acoustic drum and percussion grooves enhance Stylus RMX’s already massive 7.4 gigabyte remix-oriented core library.

Stylus RMX has become one of the most popular and widely-used virtual instruments in the world — offering a quick and easy way to creatively assemble incredible sounding grooves in all the popular host sequencers: including Apple Logic, Digidesign Pro Tools, MOTU Digital Performer, Steinberg Cubase, Ableton LIVE, Cakewalk Sonar and many others. Although the core library of Stylus RMX is focused on “remix” genres, the thousands of Xpander grooves that are included in the new package vastly broaden the musical scope of RMX by offering grooves and sounds for any style of music. The wide range of tones and styles of the five Xpanders provide a versatile starting point for users to create authentic rhythm tracks.

Stylus RMX Xpanded includes:

• Stylus RMX: Realtime Groove Module virtual instrument for Macintosh and Windows
• Backbeat SAGE Xpander: Live Acoustic “Straight-ahead” drum grooves
• Retro Funk SAGE Xpander: Authentic vintage acoustic sound, feel & classic grooves
• Burning Grooves SAGE Xpander: Maximum impact, aggressive live drum grooves
• Liquid Grooves SAGE Xpander: Acoustic ethnic drum and percussion grooves with unique processing
• Metamorphosis SAGE Xpander: 21st Century remix grooves designed by producer Eric Persing
• Multi Library: Hundreds of amazing Multi-groove patches that combine the Xpanders in creative ways
• Bonus Section: Unique grooves from Vocal Planet, Distorted Reality and more
• A total of over 13 Gigabytes of massive sounds and grooves

Stylus RMX is fully compatible with all current Mac OSX computers including Apples’ Intel Mac hardware, and also with all current Windows PCs including Vista. The Stylus RMX Xpanded package includes Stylus RMX and five Spectrasonics SAGE Xpanders: BackBeat, Retro Funk, Metamorphosis, Liquid Grooves, Burning Grooves and has a suggested retail price of $399 / €349.

Source: Harmony Central

You might also want to take a look at the Spectrasonics website, as well as the Stylus RMX Xpanded subpage.

Ableton finally releases a range of new products available today: Ableton Live 7, several new add-on instruments and Ableton Suite.

Version 7 renews the core of Live:
- The enhanced audio engine improves fidelity with 64-bit mix summing, POW-r dithering, optimized sample rate conversion and other advances.
- The new compressor device integrates three compression models, one of which is based on a feedback design commonly found in the most praised vintage compressors.
- Fully integrated side-chaining capability is available for the new Compressor as well as Gate and Auto Filter.
- High-Quality modes have been added to Operator, Dynamic Tube and Saturator for anti-aliased processing, reducing typical “digital” artifacts.
- EQ Eight has an improved user interface and a 64 bit mode for increased accuracy.
- The new Spectrum analyzer provides visual feedback for any audio signals within Live (and it looks really cool!).
- The MIDI engine has been reworked to minimize timing error (jitter) of recorded MIDI.
- Hardware integration has been streamlined—hardware synthesizers and effects can now be inserted into device chains just like software plug-ins.
- New memory management technology allows users of large sample libraries, such as Ableton’s new sampled instruments or third-party libraries imported via Sampler, to run an impressive number of instruments at the same time. This happens automatically, with no setup changes required.
- New Audio and MIDI fact sheets explain exactly how signals are (or are not) being modified when using specific features in Live and provide tips for achieving the highest quality results.

Read the full article at Harmony Central, and be sure to visit the official Live 7 website, as well as the sub-page of Ableton’s whole new product range.

Nady has finished their second effort on USB mics, after the release of the USB-24M mic they are now introcuding the Nady USB-1C Condenser Mic, a condenser mic with a better design than its predecessor that will be very helpful for computer-based vocal or acoustic instruments recording tasks and for podcasters, as well.

The Nady USB-1C Condenser Mic features cardioid unidirectional polar pattern, 19 mm gold-sputtered diaphragm, FET preamps, 16-bit audio resolution, 44.1 and 48 KHz sampling rate, 20 Hz to 20 KHz frequency response, low self-noise and USB 2.0 port. This combination of components produces a high-quality, warm and natural sound.

The mic comes with a 10″ USB cable and a mic basemount and optional Sony ACID Music Studio 7 recording software that includes effects and loops that will allow you to create your own compositions. The Nady USB-1C Condenser Mic is now available and its price is $150 / €102.

Check out the articles at PCmusic.org, musicgadgets.net and Harmony Central. Also visit Nady Systems official website here.

I’m sure most of you have heard or used BFD, FXpansion’s excellent drumming VSTi, which also happens to be one of my personal favorites when producing music. While browsing through various forums today, I fell on an old post (January 2007) at Vdrums.com, but yet very detailed on what we should expect from BFD 2 which is currently under development. Here is the thread as written by its author (I’m only filtering out some facts that weren’t finally confirmed):

At NAMM I was able to speak to someone in the FXpansion booth about BFD 2.0. Here is a sneak preview of what to expect:

- If it’s true that BFD 2.0 is being completely rewritten from the ground up, this date seems pretty aggressive to me. I’m guessing they mean public betas start in the summer. And if 1.5 is any indication, the public beta program could run 6 months or longer.

- Although he didn’t say this, I’m expecting BFD 2.0 to be a paid upgrade.

- It’s ironic that now that Toontrack EZ Drummer and Addictive Drums have copied so many parts of the BFD 1.5 interface that BFD 2.0 will have a completely redesigned interface designed for better workflow. With the new interface will be a whole new look and feel.

- FXpansion is working on a new library recorded at George Martin’s Air Studios in London that’s supposed to “redefine the sampled acoustic drum experience”. Let’s hope that means it includes positional samples.

- One of the biggest features in BFD 2.0 is built-in studio-quality EQ, compression and effects. And although Addictive Drums user might think this is a me-too feature, FXpansion is apparently going to great pains in the way they’re modeling their effects. Since I know that FXpansion is close to both Universal Audio and SSL, I wouldn’t be surprised to find licensed copies of their legendary effects, which may blow away the DSP Addictive Drums is using.

- Unfortunately VST effect support will not be found in BFD 2.0. Although I’ll miss this, this will allow them to standardize presets, so you can have the full Andy Johns drum sound. Not just his EQ. This feature is huge for V-drummers like me who would rather play than tweak.

- MIDI support in BFD 2.0 will be greatly expanded with the ability to completely edit MIDI drum sequences. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could create sequences from scratch as well. Although this doesn’t seem of use to V-drummers, it is a nice way to preview kits.

- Apparently FXpansion is close to announcing several licensing deals for new drum sample libraries.

In the following video, you can see Steve Baker presenting some of the new features of BFD 2. Check it out. Thanks to my buddy Spiros Dafalias for sharing this video, whose article about BFD 2 you can find here (in Greek).

The Zoom H2 Handy Recorder puts pro-quality audio literally in the palm of your hand! The followup to Zoom’s super-successful H4, the H2 Handy Recorder gives you an amazingly versatile tool for capturing top-notch 2-track audio. Its internal 4-mic capsule allows for several different polar patterns which, combined with its signal-processing capabilities, give the H2 the ability to record 4-channel data that can be authored into 5.1 surround! With a USB interface, external Mic In, and time stamp function, the Zoom H2 Handy Recorder is a compact wonder!

H2 Handy Recorder Features:

• 4 mic capsules and signal processing make flexible polar patterns possible
• Built-in USB interface
• WAV 96kHz/48kHz/44.1kHz and MP3 up to 320kbps VBR data format
• External Mic In can connect general plug-in-power stereo mic
• Time stamp function
• Possible Polar Patterns: front 120 degrees cardioid, front 90 degrees super cardioid, rear 120 degrees cardioid, rear 90 degrees super cardioid, 360 degrees polar pattern
• Includes 512MB card, Stand, Mic Clip Adapter, Windscreen, Earbuds, USB Cable, and AC Adapter
• Dimensions: 2.5″ wide x 4.33″ high x 1.26″ deep