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

here we are with Jason Miles…what’s your thoughts on the show thus far?

I’vebeen to about 20 AES shows.The NY show is always the best hang.People seem to always pick up on thr NY energy.It is always evident that things in our business change.It’s now about Multi media and software.A few cool companies have hung on and I hope they thrive.I will check back in a few days to see if anything in this show excited me enough to break out the credit card
Peace, Jason Miles

Just got back from the American Music & Sound booth and they’re brimming with lots of new goodies: Focusrite‘s ISA 828 8-channel mic pre (now shipping) and the Liquid 4PRE, and Allen & Heath‘s ZED-14 stereo mixer and iLive-80 control surface. In other news, Turbosound joins the AM&S family, effective now.

Wel, this booth wins “best of show” so far…just got a tour of a replica of Peter Gabriel’s garden shed at Real World studios. But while you might have trowels and trash cans in your shed, his has an SSL AWS 900+ console as a creative centerpiece, connected to SSL XLogic processing and converters, with additional equipment provided by Guitar Center, acoustic treatment by Auralex, Argosy studio furniture and Henick-Lane air conditioning. This ‘shed of your dreams’ professional studio costs under $250K, depending on exact finish, specification and location. As a bonus, studio package includes a visit by one of SSL’s engineers to verify installation, provide introductory console training and certify the facility. Peter gave me apersonal tour of the amenities, which include a tea set and wine, “essential for any creative process.” If you’re at the show, check out booth 154, or watch for the video tour this month on mixonline.com.

We’re kicking off the blog with Charles Dye, mixer/producer, who is here to tell us about a very important set of guidelines developed by the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy, due out in a couple of weeks. Charles, what can you tell us?
DAW session/project files can contain a byzantine amount of info, and become easily disorganized. So, to address this the P&E Wing of NARAS has created the “DAW Guidelines for Music Production,” with two key goals. The 1st is to help DAW users, regardless of platform, to organize their projects/sessions in a way that can eliminate confusion for themselves or other operators, provide answers to anticipated questions, solve certain problems before they arise, and shorten the time between when an operator opens a session and when they are able to go to work. The 2nd is to make it easier for users to exchange projects/sessions from one platform to another.
Check the Grammy site in the next couple of weeks for the complete set.