Apogee Director of Marketing Sean McArthur brought more light to the company’s plan for the new Thunderbolt IO technology announced by Apple in the release of their new MacBook Pro laptops.

“Simply stated, Intel’s Thunderbolt technology on the Mac marks the end of difficult choices and the beginning of unlimited performance,� he says. “In the near future, Thunderbolt will take the confusion out of choosing a professional connectivity standard for audio production.� McArthur continues, “Too often we have seen our customers frustrated by the options: Should I go with USB 3, FireWire 800, PCI cards and when is that LightPeak thing coming? Now we know, as manufacturers and customers, where we are headed.�

Apogee R&D designed architecture perfectly suited to embrace Thunderbolt. Symphony I/O’s modular, user definable system was the first step. AD/DA conversion modules (our primary technology) were designed to be independent of the Symphony I/O Chassis. This allows Apogee to address interfacing from the Chassis level without impacting I/O module implementation.

Powered by Thunderbolt, the Symphony I/O platform is the foundation of future digital audio production systems. Any Mac equipped with Thunderbolt technology and paired with Symphony I/O will deliver incredible, high-performance recording from the Hollywood soundstage to the hotel room nightstand.

More info coming soon on Apogee’s website

Today, Apple made a game-changing move with the introduction of Thuderbolt in its new MacBook Pro laptop computers. Developed by Intel and formerly known as Light Peak, the pipeline is more than 12 times faster than FireWire 800 and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0 and twice as fast as USB 3.0. Already, Avid and Apogee have released statements about it on their websites:

“Thunderbolt technology is connectivity without compromise and will enable the full promise of Symphony I/O, Apogee’s professional digital audio recording platform.”
– Betty Bennett, CEO, Apogee

“We are very excited by the capabilities of Thunderbolt technology. To have two 10Gbps, bi-directional, multi-protocol channels in a single cable is a great step forward for high performance audio and video solutions.”
– Max Gutnik, Sr. Director, Product Management, Avid Technology

For now there are no audio products that offer Thunderbolt IO, but watch for it to start becoming available in digital IO devices very soon.

In an effort to bring awareness to the loudness wars, March 25th is Dynamic Range Day in the UK and it’s being supported by some major manufacturers and engineers.

You can win an SSL X-Desk, Bowers & Wilkins CM-1 speakers or a mastering session at Fluid Mastering

They’re looking for support in the following ways:

Post your nominations for great, dynamic music in the comments section of their site
Add a Dynamic Range Day banner to your site or blog
Follow @DynamicRangeDay on Twitter – start talking and using the #DRD11 hashtag!
Put a post on your site or blog telling people about the day – include a link to this page
Sign up to the Production Advice Newsletter on their site

Do you own Omnisphere? Yes, right? And you haven’t downloaded the free 1.5 update? What are you waiting for?! Spectrasonics founder Eric Persing gets it right in the video that can be found on the company site (www.spectrasonics.net)- most users will focus on the new “Orb” page. The Orb introduces random variations to the presets and sounds you create, imparting movement and coloration that you can capture.

Omnisphere 1.5 includes a ton of new sounds, and iPad users- particular those who use Omnisphere in live performance- will be sure to take advantage of the new ‘Touch Remote” concept that 1.5 features. TR turns your iPad into a full bown Orb control surface.

Atmosphere was cool, the initial Omnisphere release was a major advancement, and Spectrasonics seems determined to keep pushing the bar forward.

It’s finally time. We have opened our doors and had our first 2 sessions this week. We’ve already mixed 3 songs on the the new SSL Duality SE and are currently working with Darryl Jones (The Rolling Stones, Miles Davis) this week on his upcoming release. Brady Blade is tracking drums on Darryls project. The room is really sounding nice. The big test was tracking Brady’s drums in the large space. When we pulled up the room mics we were pleasantly surprised. Russ Berger did a fantastic job with the design of the room. The CLASP system is being used on several of the tracks for Darryl as well. The CLASP is connected to our Studer 827 then running into the Pro-Tools rig which is 32 in and 64 outs. We are still getting a few more pieces of gear daily to add to the already stocked racks in Studio A. Last week Allen Sides stopped by to tweak our new Ocean Way HR-2 Monitors and they sound fantastic. You can also keep up to date with all our progress on facebook as well.

Just released at NAMM and slated for a Spring launch, the new Sonnox Pro-Codec plugin has all the earmarks of a must-have plugin for those delivering audio in multiple formats. Produced in collaboration with mp3 creator, Germany-based Fraunhofer IIS, the Pro-Codec plug-in makes it possible precisely audition 5 multiple codecs in real time from within your DAW. All major codecs, including mp3, mp3 Surround, AAC-LC and HE-AAC are supported, as are lossless codecs such as mp3 HD and HD-AAC. Sonnox has developed an intuitive FFT display to illustrate the input signal, output difference signal and a unique graphical indication of the audibility of codec-induced noise.

Bit-stream integrity meters reveal potential decode overloads. Instant A-B auditioning enables engineers to glitchlessly switch between codecs. A ‘blind listening mode’ (ABX) augments codec comparisons by letting the engineer hear the outputs of multiple streams in a row without knowing the source. Then after making a true choice by ear, you can see which codec won the shootout by pushing the “Reveal” button.

I got the $10 tour in the Sonnox booth at NAMM and this plugin is well-designed and slick. You can instantly see if you’ll have any overs before committing to the burn, and also see and hear what artifacts the process is creating. This gives engineers yet another way to improve quality while saving the time it would take to produce these products on a one-off basis. You’ve got to love a product that gives you more control over your output while making your job easier.