111^th AES Convention
Sunday

  Crest audio refuses to manufacture digital boards... Still manufacturing 100% analog products, seen here is their V12 mix board with 52 input channels ($72,000). There are 16 aux channels, 12 VCA channels, 8 mono, 4 stereo matrix... Of course if you desire more channels, you can link five of these babies together for... gosh, i lost count. You can do the math.

Harman owned JBL has not given up on horn technology... at least not in their pro audio division. Seen above is their new PD (Precision Directivity) large format coax mid/high system. Model PD 700 series (seen here) mates to their PD 100 series woofer (beam steered low frequency system). The PD 700 ($5,570 each) employs two neodymium magnet three-inch diaphragm compression drivers and a single HF horn. All of this is mounted coaxially on the large midrange horn driven by two NDD dual voice-coil eight-inch cone. These babies are already in use at American Airlines Area, Tulsa Stadium and the U.S. Tennis Center.

Earthworks, who just last night earned a TEC award for their microphone, now offers their Sigma 6.2 loudspeaker ($3,000/pr). This is their very first loudspeaker product and it features a 6.5-inch mid/woofer mated to a Vifa 1-inch tweeter. Claimed to produce a virtually flat frequency response, this makes sense as Earthworks has long been a manufacture of measurement grade microphones. They also specialize in live recording and studio microphones.

My fave PCMCIA soundcard company for those of us who desire mobile recording via computer laptop, Digigram will soon be releasing their new VXpocket 440 soundcard ($850). It can record four channels input and provides for four channels of output (balanced). It also includes S/PDIF in/out as well with digital recording at 24-bit/48kHz.

M+K, a company long known for making very high quality loudspeakers, has released their new 2510P (pro version) and will soon be offering the S150P (consumer version). This bi-amplified loudspeaker has two 180 watt amplifiers. One amplifier powers the three one-inch tweeters while the other amplifier drives the two 5.25-inch woofers. M+K has insured this unit will easily integrate with one of their many subwoofers.

HEY YOU!! To the back of the bus... Here is a group of kids from Stuyvesant High School laying down some tracks in the back recording studio on the John Lennon bus. Having been on this bus quite a few times, it is very small inside yet hold some very impressive recording gear.

The John Lennon Songwriting Contest bus.

The new Manley SLAM! ($3,500) is a stereo mic pre-amplifier/limiter. Lots of toys and gadgets. If you like a plethora of flexibly as well as 24-bit/192 kHz inputs and outputs, then this unit may be for you.

Bruel & Kjær was displaying their loudspeaker modal breakup measurement software as recorded by a laser scanning vibrometer. Resolution you ask? Each picture sample is done at 48k. That mean 48,000 data point each second!

Sequerra Audio Labs model 1070A ($1,500 for each pre-amplifier and $1,000 for power supply that can be used with up to four mic pre-amplifiers) microphone pre-amplifiers fully differential solid-state designed to mount on a mic stand next to the microphone to insure line level output to the usually long cable lengths to the mix board.

The Neumann Solution-D system (between $10k-$15k, tentitive) is said to be "the dawn of a new era" where the microphone has a built-in interface for AES 42-2001 digital output. A claimed rating of 130dB dynamic output is achieved. This may be the widest capable of being captured and recorded to date folks. Of course one does wonder about the effects of thermal noise in the ADC chip and how that alters the true dynamic range capabilities. Various parameters of the microphone's system output can be conveniently controlled via software.

Groovin' with a collection of Groove Tubes. Tubes are very widely used in the pro audio field from guitar instruments to microphones, pre-amplifiers, amplifiers...

SACD fans wondering about the Meitner Design ADC8 and DAC8... here it is! This system allow for eight channels of DSD recordings that can be employed for SACD usage. The ADC8 (top) is the analog to digital converter while the DAC8 (bottom) is the digital to analog converter. Alas, you still can not manipulate the DSD signal with industry standard software (Pro Tools, Cakewalk, etc.) as of yet.

Of course Dolby is promoting DVD-Audio and MLP (Meridian Lossless Packet) format. In fact the Sony SACD booth is literally only seven feet away from the DVD-Audio booth. The war continues... Speaking of "The War" concerning the two audio formats, we will have much to report on that situation shortly. Stay tuned for tomorrow's report my friends.

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