EQ Magazine - November 2008 - (Page 64)

GEAR HEAD parameters. You can’t realize how useful this is until you actually try it. The third surprise concerns the VS700R audio interface, so let’s investigate. VS-700R AUDIO INTERFACE Just what the world needs . . . another audio interface, right? Well, in this case, yes. First off, it sounds great— Roland put some serious mojo into the mic pres. Second, it has lots of I/O: eight ins (XLR or 1/4" balanced/unbalanced), 10 separate 1/4" balanced/unbalanced outs, XLR main monitor outs, 1/4" balanced/unbalanced Sub out, and plenty of digital I/O—AES/EBU, S/PDIF, word clock, ADAT “light pipe,” and MIDI. There’s also a Fantom synth built inside the box, giving you a zerolatency hardware tone generator that takes the pressure off your CPU; and there’s a card slot for an optional ARX expansion board if you want extra synth power. But what makes this special is the integration with the console. The mic pres are digitally-controlled, so you can control gain directly from the console, and save presets for the interface—very convenient when switching between sessions, where in one case you want the pres to work with vocals, and on another, to mic a drum set and guitar amp. And while the synthesizer is integrated with Sonar so it appears like a virtual instrument, you can also play it like a physical instrument. Furthermore, the console itself has a front panel line/guitar input with gain control, and two headphone outs. USING THE V-STUDIO Although the unit being reviewed was a production prototype, glitches were not an issue and after a few days of testing, I started using it for mission-critical projects. That bodes well for what users can expect when everything is totally tweaked out, although it seemed like that point had already been reached. The first thing I had to do was change around my (physical) desktop to accommodate the controller’s size. By raising the monitors about six inches, I had no problem fitting the console between a QWERTY keyboard and the monitors. The controls are all obvious, but the most important “accessory” is the PDF list of commands. In addition to the toplevel controls, there are many supplementary functions you can access with Shift, Ctrl, Alt, and Command buttons. While logical, I recommend referring to the command list and committing the most important keystrokes to memory— it’s worth the effort. Overall, there’s a big difference between using Sonar with “a bunch of other stuff” and using it as part of a tightly integrated system. For example, it may seem like a small thing, but being able to tweak the interface gain from the Console is a real time-saver. And while I’ve used control surfaces with Sonar, there was always a dichotomy between the moving fader device used for mixing, and a second control surface dedicated to ACT. Having them in one place—and being able to tweak EQ like a “real” mixer— makes for a truly comfortable working environment. Bottom line: If you use Sonar on a professional basis, I predict that over the course of a year (or less) you’d easily save enough time for the V-Studio to more than pay for itself. ARTURIA ANALOG FACTORY EXPERIENCE PRICE: $349 STRENGTHS: Great variety of sounds with lots of presets. Tweakability is welcome. Sturdy, wellmade keyboard controller. Fast and fun. LIMITATIONS: Much more limited editing options compared to using Arturia’s dedicated instrument software. We covered using keyboard “workstations” like the Yamaha Motif XS and Korg M3 as control surfaces in last month’s issue (“Studio Meets Stage”). But Arturia’s Analog Factory Experience is something else: It mates VST/AU/RTAS virtual instrument software (with 3,500 sounds, useable stand-alone or as a plug-in) to a control surface designed specifically to tweak those sounds, thus restoring some of the “feel” of programming an analog synth. As the controller is our main interest, we’ll breeze through the software. It’s version 2.0 of the original Analog Factory—essentially a “greatest hits” presets package from various Arturia soft synths: Moog Modular V, CS-80V, Minimoog V, ARP 2600 V, Prophet V/VS, and Jupiter-8V. Because there are so many presets, they’re organized in a browser format so you can specify attributes (for example, “Minimoog V 64 EQ NOVEMBER 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - November 2008

EQ Magazine - November 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In Brian Wilson Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Sony Acid 6 Abelton Live 7 Controller World New Controllers Analysis Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - November 2008

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