What’s better than a stereo mic? How bout a stereo mic with four outputs? The new ELA M216 is a dual capsule microphone with 4 outputs! Telefunken’s Toni Fishman tells the tale of two mics in our Mix interview.

Mark Ludmer from Rode talked to me about their new M3 condenser microphone. It’s battery or phantom powered and ready for a multitude of uses. Get all the skinny in our exclusive Mix interview.

photo caption: Niall Feldman from SSL in front of the “shed”

Aside from their booth, SSL had a “shed” for sale on the show floor. It wasn’t just any shed but a replica of Peter Gabriel’s own personal recording studio. The whole thing was shipped from the UK and it will be sold at the show. Better bring a big wallet though, as the asking price is about $300k.

Michael Deming and Jennefer Wason from Charter Oak showed me their new headphones and handmade pop screen. The new cans are aimed at the high end and promise to be very easy on the ears, both from a comfort and sonic standpoint. The pop screen velcro’s on most any mic and is made from a top secret material that rejects moisture as well as plosives. Listen to Michael talk about the new products in our exclusive Mix interview.

Check out Markus Revito’s interview with David Cross from Ableton who dishes what’s new in Live 7. The new version offers 64-bit mix summing, new and improved devices with side-chaining capability, better MIDI timing and hardware integration.

photo caption: MTV’s Marc Repp in the Lawo booth

Herbert Lemcke from Lawo showed me their cool new plug-in server that delivers beaucoup horsepower for Lawo Console users. Check out my interview with Herbert for full details on the capabilities of this new product.

Peter Janis promised me that his new Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizer makes your listening experience a wonderful thing. Of course I’m the constant skeptic until I heard his booth demo. He’s got something here! I heard two identical sets of speakers playing the same source material and the stabilized set had a decidedly sharper image. You’ll want to check these out, especially for $99 each.

Tascam brought a full load of new goodies to AES this year. Starting with software, Gigastudio 4 is now a virtual instrument workstation, with the new ability to load VSTi and GVI instruments alongside a the Giga Sample libraries. It supports 64-bit OS’s, including Vista. The new GVI4 is now cross-platform.

The new line of Tascam monitors, the VL-A Series are powered, bi-amped, near-field monitors that come in three paired sizes: the 32W VL-A4, 90W VL-A5 and 140W VL-A8. The series also includes a 50W LF-S8 subwoofer.

Two 1U rack products round out Tascam’s new introductions. the US-1641 USB2.0 audio/MIDI interface includes 10 front-panel inputs (8 of them XLR) include front-panel level controls, and there are another 4 1/4-inch inputs and outputs on the back. It includes Cubase LE4 software. The HD-R1 stereo audio recorder is a solid-state, two-channel recorder and playback device that records 44.1/48 khz, 16/24-bit, PCM or MP3 files.

In case you thought Ableton was abandoning its major-Live-update-every-year tradition, think again. The first thing I saw on the Javits floor today was the beta version of the new Live 7. The new version includes an improved audio engine with 64-bit mix summing, POW-r dithering, optimized sample-rate conversion and more.

A new compressor effect integrates three compression models, and integrates a side-chain. The Gate and Auto Filter effects now also include side-chaining. The EQ Eight plug-in has an improved user interface and a 64-bit mode for increased accuracy. Also a new Spectrum analyzer provides visual feedback for any audio.

Live 7’s MIDI engine has been reworked to minimize jitter. Hardware synthesizers and effects can now be inserted into device chains just like software plug-ins. Live 7 comes as a download ($499) or a boxed version, which includes the Essential Instrument Collection 2 ($599).

Ableton has also introduced three new add-on instruments resulting from a collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems (AAS). Tension is based on AAS String Studio VS-1; Electric is based on AAS Lounge Lizard EP-3 electric piano instrument; and Analog is based on AAS Ultra Analog VA-1. However, in Live, all those instruments retain the Live GUI and integration with the sequencer. Other new instruments include Session Drums, Drum Machines, Orchestral Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Percussion; and Essential Instrument Collection 2.

Ableton Suite ($799 download; $999 box) is a combination of Live 7 plus a choice selection of Ableton instruments. The download version includes Sampler, Operator, Electric, Analog, Tension and Drum Machines. The boxed version adds Essential Instrument Collection 2 and Session Drums.

All of Ableton’s new releases are scheduled for Q4, after extensive testing and bugfixing. The first round of beta testing for Ableton Live 7 is starting today with a limited participant group. A public beta version of these products will be available soon.

Additional Prices:

Tension, Electric and Analog: $159 each.

Essential Instrument Collection 2: $119

Session Drums: $179

Drum Machines: $79

Orchestral Strings, Orchestral Brass and Orchestral Woodwinds: $249 each

Orchestral Percussion: $199

Orchestral Bundle (Orchestral Strings + Brass + Woodwinds + Percussion): $799

Upgrade prices can be found at www.ableton.com.

Sony has introduced the successor to its PCM-D1 portable recorder, and it’s priced (at $599) about a third lower! The PCM-D50, which resembles the PCM-D1 (though smaller and without the VU meters) offers many of the same basic features, as well as some new ones: S/PDIF input (as well as output), digital pitch control for playback, a wired remote control, MP3 file playback, and hardware switches for filter and limiter. In addition, the mics can be moved laterally, allowing you to escape the x-y stereo setup when a recording situation calls for it. The PCM-D50 has new mics and preamps, so it remains to be seen how it sounds. However, it’s a feature rich device and holds a lot of promise if it works as easily as the PCM-1. I certainly can’t wait to try one out!

ginorobair