New Products, November 2008

Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Asher Fulero

LINE 6 JM4 LOOPER

AMP MODELING LOOPER/JAM PEDAL

Packed full of warmly human jam-along tracks recorded by L.A. and Nashville A-list studio players, Line 6's new JM4 Looper ($459.99; www.line6.com) offers a whole lot more than just a quickie backing band. With 24 minutes of internal recording time (expandable via the 2 GB-capable SD card slot) you can record, loop, layer and jam along to anything you can input or transfer to/from your computer. Inputs include a hi-Z ¼-inch guitar input, an XLR input with Gain knob, a ¼-inch line-level auxiliary input and a stereo ⅛-inch iPod/computer input for jamming with your favorite tunes. Outputs include stereo ¼-inch, plus an ⅛-inch headphone output and a ¼-inch To Amplifier output. Like any good Line 6 device, the JM4 also includes detailed guitar amplifier and effect modeling, with a ton of presets and slots for your own creations. Loops can be overdubbed infinitely or cut to half speed, and a superhandy Undo feature keeps you from being stuck with a bad layer.

MIXCITY KUEIT

SAMPLER SOFTWARE FOR DJs

Designed to replace the cumbersome hardware samplers or even the bloated software DAWs that DJs carry around to trigger the drops, jingles and one-shot samples they use amid the rest of their turntable manipulation, KueIt ($149.99; www.kueit.com) makes it simple to run all the single sounds you could need from just your laptop — no controller needed. Each setup is saved as a Profile, and each Profile features eight banks. Each bank offers 38 sample triggers with truly instant seamless playback for a total of 304 files per Profile. Forgot to set up a sample you need? No problem; KueIt also has six extra Players and a minibrowser, so you can find the sample you need, drop it in and hit it instantaneously. Color tagging helps you set up your custom layout. While there may be other programs that can achieve this functionality, there are none so simple and straightforward to use.

BEHRINGER UMA25S

USB MIDI CONTROLLER & AUDIO INTERFACE

Stepping out into keyboards, Behringer drops the UMA25S ($189.99; www.behringer.com), which looks a lot like M-Audio's O2 but with a few twists. Either way, a new battery-operable portable controller is always a welcome thing. With 25 velocity-sensitive keys, eight rotary controllers, transport controls, pitch and mod wheels, octave control and an assignable Volume slider, there are plenty of assignable controls for the on-the-go producer. To sweeten the deal, there is also a basic USB audio interface with stereo RCA inputs and outputs, as well as stereo ⅛-inch headphone output and an ⅛-inch microphone input, each with a level knob. You can monitor input signals from the output at zero latency via the Direct Monitor knob, and the MIDI Out lets you connect or sync other MIDI gear without the need for another interface.

ANTARES AUTO-TUNE VOCAL STUDIO

VOCAL PLUG-IN BUNDLE

Packing a powerhouse combination of vocal-specific plug-ins, Antares Auto-Tune Vocal Studio ($899; www.antarestech.com) combines the company's most recent Auto-Tune incarnation — Auto-Tune Evo — with its Avox 2 plug-in bundle, for a price that's significantly lower than buying them separately. Available in Native or TDM versions, the 11 total plugs comprise a well-rounded suite of tools designed to deliver the highest possible class of vocal sounds already achieved by a worldwide community of Auto-Tune users. Capable of tackling any potential vocal issue, the Avox 2 plug-ins include Harmony Engine, Throat, Mutator, Articulator, Warm, Punch, Aspire, Duo, Choir and Sybil. When combined with either the automatic or manual tuning/re-pitching from the heavily enhanced Auto-Tune Evo, there is not a more powerful collection of vocal software tools.

CAKEWALK SONAR 8 PRODUCER

DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION

One of the bigger players in the Windows DAW market, Cakewalk continues its breakneck pace of development with Sonar 8 Producer ($619; www.cakewalk.com), which the company updated, expanded and enhanced in a number of ways. First off, the audio engine has been optimized for speed and accuracy, higher track counts, faster launch times, lower latencies and overall better performance. Cakewalk also added a dedicated Instrument track for VSTs and soft synths, Anytime Recording and Live Bouncing for grabbing ideas without stopping the music and the Loop Explorer 2.0 for superfast browsing, previewing and drag-and-drop usage of loops, patterns, clips and samples from wherever you keep them. New Instruments include the MPC-like looping instrument Beatscape and Dimension Pro 1.2, with new sound libraries. New effects include the TL-64 Tube Leveler, TS-64 Transient Shaper and an integrated Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 LE. There are also a ton of other editing/recording/mixing/workflow enhancements, as well as expanded file compatibility and the inclusion of QuickTime codecs for playing nicely with Mac audio.

M-AUDIO STUDIOPHILE DSM1 & DSM2

STUDIO MONITORS

Created in collaboration with Digidesign (yes, technically they are the same company), M-Audio's Studiophile DSM1 and DSM2 Studio Monitors ($649.95 and $749.95; www.m-audio.com) take the reins as the company's new flagship in its quest to dominate yet another gear segment. Equipped with a powerful onboard DSP system that can, among other things, compensate for phase differences between the two drivers and manage the fourth-order digital crossovers, the DSM series sports a variety of analog and digital inputs, including XLR, ¼-inch, S/PDIF and AES/EBU with support for sampling rates as high as 24-bit/192 kHz. With sturdy 180W bi-amplified Class D Power Amps (80W in the tweeters and 100W in the woofers) and a high-density cabinet design, the DSM series is here to stake a claim on studio monitor supremacy.

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