Las Vegas, NV, April 22, 2008 – RF Central, a leading digital microwave technology provider, presented the best of both worlds for transmission capabilities through the introduction of its RFX-ENG-II Dual Band package, which made its debut at NAB 2008. Presenting a state-of-the-art system capable of originating either 2 GHz or 7 GHz COFDM digital transmissions from one unit, the RFX-ENG-II is ideal for ENG news operations where broadcasters require use of both 2 GHz and 7 GHz bands. more

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Writer/Producer Steven Greenberg Digitizes Disco Classic

Pictured at Cups ‘N Strings (L-R) are owner/engineer Bruce Maddocks and “Funkytown” writer/producer Steven Greenberg. Photo by David Goggin.

“Funkytown,” perhaps the last big hit of the Disco era, has been restored and transferred to digital from fragile 24-track 2-inch tape masters. Engineer Bruce Maddocks handled archiving at his Cups ‘N Strings studios with the song’s writer/producer Steven Greenberg on hand to supervise the project.

“Funkytown” was a #1 record in over 40 countries,” says Greenberg, “and 28 years later, not a day goes by that I don’t get a request to license the tracks for some sort of use somewhere around the world.”

With deceptively simple hooks and instrumentation, “Funkytown” merged the sounds of disco, new-wave pop and R&B to create a major crossover phenomenon. The enduring hit was recorded by the group Lipps, Inc. in Minneapolis at the famed Sound 80 Studios, where artists such as Prince, Cat Stevens, and Bob Dylan had worked. The song featured a Moog Vocoder effect that became the hit’s signature sound.

“Funkytown” can be heard in more than 20 films, including Mel Brooks’ “History of the World,” “Contact,” “Shrek 2,” and in the recent feature “Alvin and the Chipmunks.” The film’s soundtrack CD is currently hovering at the top of the Billboard album charts. “Funkytown” has been used in more than 100 TV shows, in sporting events such as the Opening Ceremonies for the 2006 Winter Olympics, and in a number of video games.

“The tapes were very finicky,” explains Greenberg. “But Bruce works with just about every tape configuration ever made. He’s got all the different analog head stacks, speed controls, and the means to bake the tapes before archiving and preserving to hi-res digital. We’ve been re-naming and organizing the individual elements so that re-mixers and soundtrack producers can easily work with the material for their own projects.”

To learn more about “Funkytown,” visit: http://www.funkytown.com
For info about Cups ‘N Strings, visit: http://www.cupsnstrings.com

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Hip-hop founding father and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Grandmaster Flash is recording his upcoming full-length album, “The Bridge,” with a new JBL Professional LSR4300 Series studio monitor system. Revolutionizing modern music by helping to create arguably the most popular genre of the past 30 years, Grandmaster Flash remains on the cutting edge of technology, recently installing a state-of-the-art recording studio that includes a pair of JBL LSR4326, bi-amplified 6-inch studio monitors, a pair of LSR4328, 8-inch studio monitors, and companion LSR4312SP subwoofer. In addition to “The Bridge,” Grandmaster Flash also uses the LSR4300 Series studio monitors to mix his syndicated Sirius Radio show, “The Flash Mash.”

Grandmaster Flash is recognized as the first DJ to use a turntable as an instrument, preceding the late-1970s emergence of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, one of the first groups to feature rapping over beats. These innovations placed Grandmaster Flash at the epicenter of hip-hop, and in 2007 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five became the first hip-hop act to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Prior to beginning production on “The Bridge,” Grandmaster Flash learned about the JBL LSR4300 Series studio monitors. “A friend of mine brought me to Guitar Center and told me to check out these speakers,” Flash recalled. “I played a Dr. Dre song that I really love, and I couldn‘t believe what I heard. The vocal was right up front, the bass line was at my feet, the trumpets were right at my chest. I played a couple of songs that I mixed on other speakers, and I have to admit that when I listened to them on the LSR‘s, I was slightly pissed off because I was hearing things I never heard before! The LSR monitors will show you exactly where things are in the mix. They tell you the whole story.”

Grandmaster Flash most often uses his pair of LSR4326P, 6-inch monitors with the LSR4312SP sub, although he will sometimes use a setup with two additional LSR4328P 8-inch monitors for added output. (Or as he puts it, “When I want my head ripped off!”) Regardless of the setup, he consistently uses JBL‘s RMC™ Room Mode Correction software to correct any acoustical problems that may exist in the room. “I use the RMC feature, because my studio is shaped a little strangely, so when I‘m using the RMC I know I‘m getting the right sound. I used to spend tons of money having the room acoustically tested and treated every six months. Now I can correct the same problems with this software.”

While his eclectic and inquisitive approach to technology is at the core of his success, Flash has very specific criteria when it comes to studio monitors. “To create a great composition, you have to listen to the nuances, the tiny details,” he said. “It‘s not always about what‘s playing at that second, it‘s also about what hasn‘t been played yet. It‘s those spaces in between the notes. To trust the mix, I need monitors that are reliable enough so I can hear each minute detail, because everything has its place.”

While maintaining a steady schedule of live performances, Grandmaster Flash plans to have “The Bridge” ready for release later this year. “I‘m in the musical stages at the moment and haven‘t decided which vocalists I‘ll be working with yet, but I‘m having a lot of fun taking all these ideas I‘ve had on my voice recorder for the past 10 years and putting them together,” Flash said.

An artist that relies on spur-of-the-moment creativity, Grandmaster Flash has found himself pulling all-nighters in his studio since installing the LSR system–a difficulty in the past because of inevitable listener fatigue. “When I‘m using the 6-inch models, I can stay in the studio forever,” Flash said. “The other night, I started working in my studio around 9 p.m. and didn‘t get tired until I came out of the studio at 7 the next morning. My ears just don‘t fatigue with these speakers.”

Grandmaster Flash‘s memoirs, “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash–My Life, My Beats,” penned by David Ritz, is scheduled for release June 10, 2008. Please visit www.grandmasterflash.com for more information.

Epic Synthesizer Features Powerful Synthesis engine and Huge Library of unique ‘Psychoacoustic‘ Sounds

After many years of development, Spectrasonics today previewed their brand new flagship virtual instrument Omnisphere(r). The revolutionary ‘Power Synth’ breaks completely new sonic ground by combining a wide variety of hybrid realtime synthesis techniques, an epic library of remarkable ‘Psychoacoustic’ sounds, and many innovative features that have never been seen before in any hardware or software synthesizer. The new instrument is the first to be based on Spectrasonics’ STEAM Engine, the company’s newly developed core technology. Omnisphere is set to be released September 15, 2008, the MSRP is $499 US; and 399 Euro.

Starting at NAMM and leading up to the release, the Omnisphere development team will be revealing the new instrument to the public through a series of video episodes from the Spectrasonics website showing features and behind the scenes details on how the instrument and its unique sounds have been created.

“This is truly an Epic project,” said Eric Persing, Founder and Creative Director of Spectrasonics. “We have been working for many, many years sampling unique sounds, experimenting, specifying the synthesis features and building the STEAM Engine to run it all. It’s been a very exciting process involving our team of software engineers, sound designers, musicians, and graphic artists from all over the world. We’ve been very deliberate in making it easy to use, and yet extremely powerful. Omnisphere is our new flagship synthesizer, and points the way to all our future virtual instruments. We are thrilled to offer a new product that will have a host of expansion capabilities in the future.”

Although the new synth is extremely powerful, Omnisphere is designed with a unique user interface containing progressive layers of ‘zooming’ to accommodate the complete range of users – from musicians who just want to be inspired by the sounds and customize them in an easy way, to expert synthesists and the most advanced sound designers. Users can go deeper and deeper into the software and progress in their synthesis knowledge by simply exploring additional levels of sound manipulation options. To make sure that all users get the most out of the new capabilities, Omnisphere will ship with an extensive set of video tutorials and synthesis lessons taught by the renowned Spectrasonics sound design team.

Omnisphere offers a host of hybrid synthesis and new control capabilities including Variable Waveshaping DSP synthesis, Granular synthesis, Timbre Shifting, FM synthesis, polyphonic Ring Modulation, high-resolution streaming Sample Playback, Harmonia(tm), Dual Multimode Filter structure, Chaos Envelopes(tm), an advanced Unison mode, and the innovative Flex-Mod(tm) modulation routing system – to name a few.

The huge core library of Omnisphere is filled with years of creative sampling experiments and thousands of inspiring patches. Spectrasonics has pioneered several brand-new types of sampling for the core library of this instrument, including unique “Psychoacoustic” sounds and sound-sources created with a new Composite Morphing Technique (CMT) – which morphs the harmonic characteristics of one instrument to another. As a bonus, a section of the core library is also devoted to representing the best of Spectrasonics award-winning sample libraries. When all of these organic core library sound-sources are combined with the synthesis power of the STEAM engine, the sounds become “alive” in a truly dynamic and expressive way.

Among the many unique features this new multitimbral synth offers are its flexible arpeggiators with the innovative Groove Lock(tm) integration with Stylus RMX – allowing the arpeggiator’s pattern to instantly groove with the feel of the RMX drum loop; Live Mode for transitionless patch switching and layering, Stack Mode for powerful performance mapping; and integrated modulatable FX Racks.

Omnisphere is also the successor to Spectrasonics’ popular Atmosphere(r) instrument, and contains enhanced versions of all the classic Atmosphere sounds. However, the brand new core library in Omnisphere is 10-times the size of Atmosphere and features thousands of completely new and different sounds. There will be an upgrade path for all Atmosphere customers, details to be announced in September.

Omnisphere is set to be released on September 15, 2008, and has an MSRP of $499 US; and 399 Euro.

Omnisphere is cross-platform compatible with Apple Macintosh OS X 10.4 and higher as a native Universal Binary and also with Microsoft Windows XP/Vista.

Audio Units, VST, and RTAS plug-in formats are supported for compatibility with all major host software.

For more information visit the: Teasr Website

Paul Stubblebine Mastering (PSM) and valve electronics experts Bottlehead Corp. have introduced “The Tape Project,” a new music-delivery format and ‘record label.’ The Tape Project is presenting a series of analog releases on reel-to-reel tape that offer the discerning audiophile an analog listening experience that comes as close as possible to that of hearing the original master tape. Slated for ten releases per year and sold primarily on a subscription basis, the 15ips (inches per second) half-track stereo, reel-to-reel recordings encompass a wide range of musical styles, the first of which include Classical, Jazz, Blues, Americana and Roots music. The company is recommending tape machines and specifications for playback, as well as offering its own specially modified tape decks with custom valve components from Bottlehead Corp.

“The only two requirements for the music that we release are that the master must exist on analog tape and that the music be great. That it be music that moves the listener. That it be music that can stand the test of time, and continue to bring satisfaction for years,” stated Paul Stubblebine, one of the founders of the company along with mastering engineer Michael Romanowski, and Bottlehead Corp owner, Dan Schmalle.

The company has already secured the rights to release a variety of extraordinary recordings. The first ten titles are:

1) ‘The Number White’ by jazz singer Jacqui Naylor
2) Dave Alvin’s ‘Blackjack David’
3) ‘Arnold Overtures’ original music by Malcolm Arnold with the London Philharmonic Orchestra recorded by Grammy-Winning engineer and audiophile equipment designer Keith Johnson
4) The album that established Robert Cray as a strong new voice in the blues ‘False Accusations’
5) Raphael Fruhbeck de Burgos with the New Philharmonia Orchestra performing Albeniz – Suite Espanola
6) David Oistrakh and the London Symphony Orchestra with music by Bruch and Hindemith
7) Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra performing Exotic Dances from the Opera (Saint-Saëns, Strauss, Rabaud)
Bill Evans ‘Waltz for Debby’ live at the Village Vanguard in 1961
9) Mose Allison in 1959′s ‘Creek Bank’ engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
10) The incomparable Sonny Rollins in ‘Saxophone Colossus.’

Full descriptions of each music selection is available at The Tape Project website:
www.tapeproject.com

There are two tiers of subscription costs for The Tape Project: $1200 US for a selection of six of the ten releases a year, or charter subscriptions of $2000 US a year to get all ten releases. Each album will be also sold individually for $329 US to non-subscribers. Each tape release comes in a custom designed box with full-size color artwork and custom tape flanges inscribed with serial numbers for charter subscribers.

Michael Romanowski, revealing the tech behind the analog said, “We have assembled the highest quality duplicating system that has ever been attempted. The result, for those with ears to hear, is the most involving and satisfying experience that has ever come from reproduced music. I work with master tapes everyday, and these releases are sonically everything that a master tape has to offer. And now listeners get to have this experience in their own home.”

Noting specifics about the playback systems, Dan Schmalle added, “In order to play these tapes correctly, a machine must meet the following requirements: It must play15 IPS half track stereo, and must be set to the IEC curve -formerly known as the CCIR curve. There are many machines that meet these specs, but many that don’t. We have looked at the various machines made for home use and decided to adapt the Technics RS1500 family.” The company offers an on-line database of tape machines that meet the requirements.

The tape machines offered by The Tape Project, approximately $7500 US each, are supplied with a custom playback head designed for us by Flux Magnetics, acknowledged as the highest quality tape head manufacturer in the world. Generally, reproduce heads are designed as some sort of compromise according to the speeds at which they will be expected to operate. Schmalle asked Flux Magnetics to design a head for The Tape Project strictly optimized for 15 IPS, with no compromise for other speeds. The resulting head has response extended well beyond that of the stock heads on both ends of the audio spectrum.

The playback head is mated with the latest generation playback electronics, developed by Paul Joppa and Dan Schmalle of Bottlehead Corp. exclusively for The Tape Project. The combination of superior transport, optimal head and advanced electronics yield a truly gourmet level of performance. There is even an optional wireless remote control for the Technics RS1500 offered by The Tape Project.

The company has started an online forum for customers to request albums that they would love to have releases of in the future
www.tapeproject.com/

About Paul Stubblebine Mastering
PSM mastering engineers include owner Paul Stubblebine and Michael Romanowski. As a 30-year veteran sound engineer , Paul has mastered a wide variety of music including classic sounds of San Francisco: The Grateful Dead, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Sly Stone, Santana, Joan Baez, Bill Evans and practically every release for David Grisman’s Acoustic Disc label to name just a select few of his projects.

Michael Romanowski has been mastering music in the Bay Area since his move here from Nashville in 1994. Michael has mastered releases ranging from rock and jazz to punk and folk. Some of the artists he has worked with include Badfinger, Pete Ham, Norton Buffalo, Joe Craven, Too Short, E-40, Jacqui Naylor, Mimi Fox, The Samples, Jim Campilongo, Dallas Wayne, Houston Jones, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Trichromes, Lydia Lunch, The Radiators, Runaways UK, The Wilted, and Free Peoples.

To ensure the highest quality and to produce the best sounding masters, PSM offers carefully selected audio technology such as the Pacific Microsonics analog and digital converters, Esoteric Audio Research, Z-Systems, Weiss and TC Electronic signal processors, and mastering workstations from Sonic Studio, along with Alon Wolf designed “Magico” speakers. For more information visit the PSM website at www.paulstubblebine.com or call (415) 522-0108 or email info@paulstubblebine.com

About Bottlehead Corp
Bottlehead Corp. has been on the high-end tube audio scene for 12 years, designing and selling a line of single ended vacuum tube audio amplifier and preamplifier kits and now manufacturing custom tube based equipment for both audiophiles and the recording industry. Innovations that Bottlehead has brought attention to in the tube audio scene include parallel feed, active loaded shunt regulation and extensive use of exotic materials in transformers. President Dan Schmalle combines his physics degree with 25 years of manufacturing production experience. Head of R&D Paul Joppa is an acoustical engineer and AES member with over 30 years of experience. Ed Fallon, who manages the assembled components division, is a senior engineer with 20 years of experience in the medical electronic field. www.bottlehead.com/

Holophone, a leading manufacturer of surround microphones, has brought Dolby Pro Logic II® encoding technology and the portability of the company‘s popular H4 SuperMINI to its larger mic models, the H2-PRO and H3-D, with the introduction of the Holophone N-CODE portable multi-channel encoder. The Holophone N-CODE will be on display at NAB 2008 (Booth N6438, N6435). more

Holophone, a leading manufacturer of surround microphones, is simplifying workflow when editing the Holophone PortaMic 5.1‘s and H4 SuperMINI‘s Pro Logic II encoded audio with the introduction of the Holophone D-CODE multi-channel Pro Logic II® decoder. The Holophone D-CODE will make its industry debut at NAB 2008 (Booth N6438, N6435). more

Producer Dave Cooley and Engineer Tony Hoffer in Studio D

Pictured in Studio D at Ocean Way (L-R, Standing) are Will Canzoneri, keyboards; Rob Barbato, vocals, bass; Tim Presley, vocals, guitar; Jared Everett, guitar; Dave Cooley, producer. Foreground (L-R) Wesley Seidman, assistant engineer; Tony Hoffer, engineer/mixer. Photo by David Goggin.

Popular indie band Darker My Love, explorers of the 60s-style psychedelic rock frontier, have mixed their sophomore album, “2″, in the Neve 88R equipped Studio D at Ocean Way. Producer Dave Cooley helmed the project with Tony Hoffer at the mixing desk.

Darker My Love’s self-titled debut album was released in 2006, reinforcing the powerful reputation their live show had garnered. Taking a cue from the greats who inspired them, My Bloody Valentine, The Velvet Underground, plus stimulus from their peers: The Dandy Warhols, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Darker My Love established themselves as a vital component in the psychrock scene.

Darker My Love’s much anticipated follow-up “2″ will be released on August 5, 2008 on Dangerbird Records. For more info about the band, visit: http://www.myspace.com/darkermylove

For info about Ocean Way, visit: http://www.oceanwayrecording.com

ALBANY, NEW YORK, APRIL 9, 2008–Cotton Hill Studios in Albany, NY has been busy with automatic dialogue replacement (ADR) sessions for a number of high-profile clients for such television shows as “Battlestar Gallactica,” “Flash Gordon,” “Jericho”, and “The Kill Point.” In the middle of it all, making the jobs of the actors and engineers easier and more productive, is Aviom with its Pro16 Monitor Mixing System. more