NEW PRODUCTS
May 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Doug Eisengrein
STANTON C.303, C.304
TABLETOP CD PLAYERS
It is clear by now that more and more DJs are shunning their crates of vinyl for the ease of a book full of CDs, and Stanton's new tabletop CD players, the C.303 ($449) and the C.304 ($679), are yet another testament to this trend. These new units are especially aimed at serious turntablists and come packed with goodies. The flagship C.304 features a large touch-sensitive platter with anti-shock playback that can be cued, scratched and manipulated like vinyl. The C.304 has the DJ-CD-player basics onboard, such as a pitch-adjust slider and a bold LCD, and specialties include auto beat sync, key lock and pitch bend for elastic audio; track-marker visuals; and built-in sampling with four sample-trigger buttons. The unit brings home the extras with eight effects, including filter, echo, phase, flanger, transform, pan, scratch and skid. The C.303 shares many of the C.304's features but is less expensive and boasts a large jog platter, sampling and four sample triggers, as well as a 10-second antishock buffer for reliability.
Stanton;
www.stantonmagnetics.com
NUMARK CM200USB
USB-EQUIPPED DJ MIXER
Everything is connected directly to a computer these days, so why should DJ mixers be any different? This was obviously the thinking of the minds at Numark, which is officially the first and (so far) only company to design a mixer with built-in USB. The new CM200USB ($299.95) DJ mixer offers a healthy five channels in a 19-inch rack-mountable mixer that boasts dual USB ports. The advantage, you might ask? How does mixing your vinyl, CDs and computer-dwelling audio files all simultaneously with no drivers or soundcard sound? The other advantage is that live mixes can also be sent to the computer via USB for instant DJ-set recordings. The CM200USB comes complete with DJ software for Mac and PC.
Numark;
www.numark.com
E-MU MO' PHATT X, PLANET EARTH X, VIRTUOSO X
SOUND LIBRARIES FOR PROTEUS X, EMULATOR X
E-mu tends to have a cultlike following, and for those of you in that faithful camp, three new-but-old kids customized for the Proteus X and Emulator X are in town. Mo' Phatt X ($49.99), Planet Earth X ($49.99) and Virtuoso X ($69.99) are the first in a line of classic sound-module libraries for Proteus X and Emulator X. E-mu's original Mo' Phatt, Planet Earth and Virtuoso 2000 were wildly popular rackmount sound modules that were considered studio must-haves for many a producer. These three sound libraries bring every single sample in each of those respective hardware units alive again for the company's Proteus X and Emulator X instruments. The libraries have been specially programmed for the X-family units, with the Z-Plane filters, tempo-based preset parameters, MIDI modulation and dual effects processors intact.
E-mu;
www.emu.com
MOOG MINIMOOG VOYAGER RME
RACKMOUNT SYNTH
The analog wizard is back: Taking the best features from his 50th Anniversary Edition Voyager, including the electric-blue backlit panel, Bob Moog is back for more action with the new Minimoog Voyager RME (Rackmount Edition, $2,195). The RME packs all of the Voyager's punch but is housed in a 5-rackspace, 19-inch chassis. The synth comes with rackmounting hardware, and the frame is angled so that the RME can sit perfectly on a desktop. Solid-ash wood sides that replace the rack rails are sold as an option ($69). Standard MIDI In/Out/Thru ports are available for connecting a MIDI keyboard or for chaining as many as 15 RMEs to an existing Voyager for expanded polyphony. Audio outputs are switchable between -2dBm un-balanced and +4dBm balanced; four inputs and four outputs are also included, along with two accessory port connectors. All of the original Voyager's controls are found on the RME with the exception of the touch screen. Production began in March and will be limited until August.
Moog;
www.moogmusic.com
RED TYPE B
INTERCHANGEABLE-CAPSULE MICROPHONE
Blue Microphones must be seeking the most-innovative-yet-quirky-microphones award. It was the first to design a combination dynamic/condenser mic (with a perfect spherical shape); now, its sister company, Red Microphones, presents the Type B ($699), a Class-A, discrete solid-state mic designed around Blue's Bottle concept: interchangeable capsules. Included in the basic package is the Type B body; a 22-AWG Cranberry mic cable; a Type B shockmount; and the starter Lollipop capsule, which is designed to be useful with vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, drum overhead and close-miking, piano, horns and more. The various capsules from the Bottle mic, dubbed Bottle Caps, are interchangeable, along with classic Neumann-Gefell capsules. For its versatility (not to mention Blue's quality), the price is amazingly right.
Red;
www.vintagemicrophone.com
SONY SOUND FORGE 8
DIGITAL AUDIO EDITING/CD-MASTERING SOFTWARE
Sound Forge has seen many iterations form its inception more than 10 years ago (including a change of companies from Sonic Foundry to Sony), and the latest version of this venerable digital audio editing software is Sound Forge 8 ($399.95). New features include audio scrubbing, application scripting, fully automated batch-file processing, user-definable keyboard shortcuts and Windows XP theme support. But perhaps the most notable new feature is the inclusion of CD Architect 5.2 — a previously separate yet pretty much absolutely necessary app for professional CD mastering — which works hand-in-hand with Sound Forge. The veteran CD Architect software, included for free, provides fast, accurate and intuitive Red Book Standard audio-CD creation. Sound Forge also features low-latency ASIO drivers, and its VST plug-in support significantly enhances special effects and mastering options. Sound Forge supports a wide variety of audio and video formats and sports streaming-media creation capabilities.
Sony;
www.screenblast.com
ELECTRIX FILTER FACTORY MK2
DIGITALLY CONTROLLED ANALOG FILTER
A few years ago, a newcomer wowed studio musicians with its impressively fat yet unbelievably affordable analog processors. That newbie was the company Electrix, and it mysteriously disappeared as fast as it rose to stardom. Regardless of where it went, Electrix is back with vigor, and one of seven new products to kick off its return is the Filter Factory MK2 (price TBA), which is based on the company's original and probably most popular unit, the Filter Factory. The FFMK2 is an analog filter with a digital brain; it includes four types of filters: lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch. An LFO is onboard, with modulation that can be synched to tap tempo or MIDI Clock. On top of that, five waveforms (saw, inverse, triangle, square and random) are included, making for myriad sound-shaping possibilities. Also present are an ADSR envelope emulator, MIDI In/Out/Thru and a CV input. Screeching highs to distorted buzz to subwoofing lows are the name of the game with the FFMK2.
Electrix;
www.electrixpro.com
JAZZMUTANT LEMUR
TOUCH-SCREEN CONTROL SURFACE
One of the rare items at this year's Winter NAMM music-industry trade show that stopped passersby in their tracks to curiously examine it at length was at distributor Cycling '74's booth. There, a new French company, JazzMutant, had its Lemur ($2,495) multitouch control surface on display. A roughly laptop-size controller for computer-music applications, the Lemur boasts a proprietary 12-inch touch-sensitive LCD that is capable of simultaneously tracking multiple finger movements. This translates into at least 10 possible MIDI control maps happening simultaneously. The Lemur communicates over fast Ethernet (100Base-T) and makes use of the emerging Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol developed at UC Berkeley. Among other advantages, OSC features 32-bit data resolution and low latency. The Lemur can be configured with a drag-and-drop graphical editing app that is Mac OS X-, Windows XP- and Linux-compatible.
Jazz Mutant (dist. by Cycling '74);
www.jazzmutant.com
or
www.cycling74.com
MACKIE TRACKTION 2
DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION
Mackie took the audio world (and probably some software companies) by surprise with the first release of Tracktion, its unbelievably affordable yet feature-rich DAW software package. Now, the company is back for an encore with Tracktion 2 (price TBA). The second-generation, humorously dubbed T2 adds a bunch of new functionality, such as more powerful MIDI editing and mapping, improved keyboard control, a high-resolution 64-bit mix engine, better external sync support, eight aux sends and returns, and complete integration of Mackie's Control Universal and C4 control surfaces. In addition, T2 supports files from Mackie's HDR, MDR and SDR lines of hard-disk recorders. The program's original, powerful yet simple design remains a single-screen cross-platform (Mac and Windows) user interface that offers multitrack digital audio and MIDI automation and mixing, with support for VST instrument and effect plug-ins. Perhaps nicest of all is the inclusion of several disks' worth of plug-ins from Acuma Labs, MDA and Raw Materials, as well as IK Multimedia's AmpliTube LE and SampleTank SE.
Mackie;
www.mackie.com
EDIROL PRC-M30, PRC-M50, PRC-M80
MIDI KEYBOARD CONTROLLERS
Edirol's PCR series was among the first to lead the masses toward slider-and-knob-drenched USB MIDI keyboard controllers, and Edirol has overhauled the line with the new PCR-M series, which comprises the 32-key PCR-M30 ($225), the 49-key PCR-M50 ($285) and the 61-key PCR-M80 ($375). Along with a bevy of MIDI-assignable knobs and faders, some refinements to the original PCRs include more comfortable keys and a new key mechanism with less mechanical noise; rubberized knobs; 12 velocity curves; and the choice of sending notes and MIDI controllers out via USB, MIDI Out or both simultaneously. The advantage is that users can assign some controls to affect only computer software, some to only outboard gear and some to both. A Windows- and Mac-compatible PCR Software Editor is included, and downloadable control maps for many DAWs and soft synths are available.
Edirol;
www.edirol.com
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