AudioMedia - December 2008 - (Page 35) GEAR OF THE YEAR 2008 DiGiCo SD8 DiGiCo’s SD8 console brings the super FPGA floating point technology used in the company’s ground breaking SD7 at a lower price point. The compact frame hosts a powerful array of live sound tools, and the stage MADIrack has 48 mic inputs as standard, eight analogue outputs, and dual MADI. There's also a digital MADI multicore and eight line outputs that can be reconfigured for monitoring, while the Stealth processor allows up to 120 internal channels to be processed for large numbers of inputs with EQ and dynamics. www.digico.org EDITOR’S COMMENT “FPGA technology is finding footholds in several areas of our industry, and SD8 is the latest exponent. Technology shouldn’t be the deciding factor in product choice, but consequences – more power, lower price – could be.” Earthworks PM40 Euphonix Artist Series Euphonix’s new Artist Series line of Ethernetbased DAW controllers was certainly the talk of the hi-tech contingent at the NAMM Show Earthwork’s PM40 High Definition PianoMic System mics are designed to be placed within the sound field of the piano rather than the more traditional ‘free field’ position. Designed to pick up sounds uniformly, whether they arrive at the front, the sides, or the rear of the microphone, the PianoMic System achieves much of its remarkable performance through the use of specially designed, 40kHz randomincidence High Definition Microphones. www.earthworksaudio.com “The clarity and versatility of the PM40 is second to none and will surprise the most experienced of engineers.” (Simon Allen, Audio Media, February 2008) EDITOR’S COMMENT “Reports of the PM40 advantage have been travelling swiftly by word of mouth. So with engineer endorsement anecdotes flying, it would be irresponsible to ignore it. – and rightly so. Available in two flavours, the MC Mix offers eight faders, channel control buttons, rotary encoders, and OLED displays, while the MC Control has only four faders but with the addition of a large colour screen with encoders and user-definable buttons, transport control, and more. www.euphonix.com “The MC Mix is focused on faders, but there is enough extra that you can navigate your session, play with plug-ins, and so on without a problem. Add in the four faders, transport, and a display with much potential, and the MC Control can easily be a standalone ’do everything’ unit.” (Paul Mac, Audio Media, April 2008) EDITOR’S COMMENT “Euphonix took an admirable route to this product line – get the protocols right, work closely with the third parties, make a high-end product and get that right, then produce a product that benefits from that foundation for a bigger market. Possibly the first inexpensive and comprehensive third-party control solution that talks the DAW’s language fluently.” DPA 5100 The DPA 5100 is a c o m p a c t ‘p l u g and play’ surround microphone Employing for five 5.1 audio capture. miniature pressure transducers, the microphone has extremely low sensitivity to wind and mechanical noise, alongside low distortion and consistent low frequency response and large dynamic range. DPA’s proprietary DiPMic (Directional Pressure Microphone) technology preserves level matching between the discreet analogue output channels, as well as channel separation and directionality. The lightweight Editrol R-44 HHB DualBurn CDR-882 Edirol’s R-44 is a compact solid state four channel field recorder housed in a sturdy compact package. Its almost silent operation, ability to capture up to four channels of uncompressed audio with selectable bit depths and sampling frequencies directly onto SD or SDHC cards means it should find many HHB’s DualBurn CDR-882 Dual Drive CD Recorder ’s genuine REC-REC drive configuration, supports seamless extended recording times across two or more discs, simultaneous recording off two discs and and portable mic can be mounted on a camera while the robust build quality is also highly resilient to inclement weather conditions. www.dpamicrophones.com or microphone stand, suspended or handheld, ✳ ✳ ✳✳ ✳✳ ✳ EDITOR’S COMMENT “A surround microphone that does everything for you? The 5100 is another design triumph from DPA, simultaneously winning the prizes for ‘simplest route to surround’ and ‘most overdue use of cardioids in the front of a microphone array’.” ✳✶ ✶✳ ✳✳ ✶✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳✳ ✳ ✳✳ ✳✳✶✳ ✳ ✶ ✳ ✳✶ ✶ ✳✳ ✳ ✳ ✶ uses in the portable recording world. www.edirol.net “What you really need from a four-track recorder is good pre-amps, reliable metering, and easy access to the result – and that’s what you get.” (Paul Mac, Audio Media, July 2008) EDITOR’S COMMENT “The R-44 is one of those products that points out the obvious answer when everyone else is following the herd. Great four-track recorder at a price that puts some of the two-trackers to shame.” high-speed duplication. The unit is suitable for a wide range of professional applications, sound recording, and duplication. www.hhb.co.uk including broadcast, music production, live EDITOR’S COMMENT “Breaking out of the time constraints and lack of redundancy imposed by the more ordinary recordable CD hardware is a great way of extending the life of this format in the professional arena.” ✳✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ > ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ ✳ AUDIO MEDIA ✳ ✳✳ ✳✳ ✳ ✳ 35 DECEMBER 2008 ✳ ✳ ✳ http://www.euphonix.com http://www.digico.org http://www.earthworksaudio.com http://www.edirol.net http://www.dpamicrophones.com http://www.hhb.co.uk
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.