The Sonic Reality crew with AP MD, Martin Warr (3rd from left) at NAMM 09.
Florida based sound development company Sonic Reality, has appointed The Audio Professionals as their UK and Eire distributor. Sonic Reality has built an extensive range of products which include the award winning “Ocean Way Drums”, developed and recorded at the legendary Ocean Way Studios in LA, and “Drum Masters” which offers some of the finest grooves available known to rhythm by celebrated drummers including Bill Bruford, Steve Gadd, Ed Greene and Jerry Marotta. Their recent launch of their NI powered expandable virtual instrument “Infinite Player” gives you 24 bit fidelity, disc streaming, key switching, custom controls per instrument and many advanced features that suit a wide range of sounds from Sonic Reality’s vast and growing sound catalogue.
Dave West (The Audio Pros Sales and Marketing Manager) said of the appointment “We are very excited to be working with Sonic Reality. They are a very experienced company who are well respected for their programming and development of their exceptional range of virtual instruments and sample products.”
We have just received the exciting news that Heavyocity’s debut Virtual Instrument “EVOLVE” has won Electronic Musicians 2009 “Editor’s Choice Award” for best Sample Player Software! Described as “groundbreaking” the em award was announced this morning (Dec 22nd 08) on the Electronic Musician website.
With an emphasis on the dramatic, EVOLVE doesn’t just contain the typical instruments and sounds that form the foundation of most composer setups. Instead, it accentuates them with a powerful combination of diverse rhythmic percussion and evocative tonalities in ways that have never been heard before. You can listen to the Evolve demos on the Heavyocity page.
We would like to thank everyone who stopped by our stand at this year’s SBES show at the Pavilions, NEC in Birmingham. As well as exhibiting and demonstrating a large range of MADI based RME products, we were also very pleased to premier “The Tap(e) Machine”, which drew a lot of attention.
As always, the RME MADI products were of great interest to all those in broadcast offering 64 channels of I/O up to 192kHz, and with total remote control of RME Micstacy Mic Pre’s over MADI.
We were also able to show the SPL 2Control for the first time, look out for details soon.
The SPL "Analog Code" Plug Ins (Click Image to Enlarge)
As the 125th AES Convention springs into life in San Francisco, one of the first ‘new product’ announcements comes from SPL, and what surprising and exciting news it is too.
SPL have long been known for their innovative handmade analogue hardware processors. The range has grown over the years, producing groundbreaking products such as the Transient Designer™ and the Charisma and then later the exquisite Mastering Series which reaches a whole new level of achievement in specifications and performance due to the use of 120 V rail technology.
While SPL’s hardware has been captivating audio professionals from home studio owners to mastering engineers in the world’s most famous facilities, there has been a continuing and ever growing demand for digital (DAW) users to be able to enjoy this technology.
Now, SPL are proud to announce that their software design team has transferred the features and performance of their analogue processors into the digital domain. Using the latest, most powerful methods available for high-precision modeling of their analogue circuit designs, SPL has produced results far beyond pure mathematical approaches. These digital products are so amazingly close to their analogue equivalents that they call them “The Analog Code™” plug-ins.
The first plug-ins from SPL, the Transient Designer and the Ranger set of EQs (Vox Ranger, Bass Ranger and Full Ranger) will be available as RTAS, VST and AU versions. TDM versions are soon to follow.
The new 2Control combines speaker and headphone monitoring control with innovative features in an attractive high-quality package. The all-analog 2Control allows for connection and selection of two stereo input sources, two stereo speaker sets and two headphones. A third mono speaker output can feed a subwoofer. Speaker volume is controlled by the central, massive volume potentiometer. Each headphone output is fed by its own amplifier stage and can be controlled independently. Mono and DIM switches provide further necessary monitoring functions.
But the key function is undoubtedly the crossfeed control, a new innovation from SPL. It simulates frequency-dependent interaural level differences from both channels so that the super stereo effect on headphones can be adjusted to the stereo width of a given speaker set, which essentially means that the user is able to adjust the crossfeed with the headphones to match the stereo imaging of the speakers in the room. This is a new and unique feature which allows audio to be mixed on headphones.
The 2Control addresses all DAW users in audio mixing and AV production with the need for monitoring control and is especially effective in avoiding acoustically problematic environments (desktop workspaces, recording mobiles etc.). The 2Control will be available from December 2008.
Plasa 08 saw the launch of Digico’s new SD8 digital console. The SD8 has a fixed architecture and employs a smaller Super FPGA than the SD7, yet it benefits from all the major features and versatility of the acclaimed DiGiCo D Series, plus the advances already made in the SD7.
The SD8’s feature list is endless and includes up to 60 mono or stereo channels with full processing (equal to 120 channels of DSP processing), 24 mono or stereo busses + Stereo Master with full processing (equal to 50 busses of DSP processing), On Board local I/O with 8 Mic/Line inputs, 8 Line Outputs and 8 AES I/O . They have also featured MADI as their chosen I/O digital format which is the ideal I/O for their new open format recording facility.
RME MADIface with
Digico SD8
Digico have long been RME advocates, recommending RME products to be used with their consoles for various tours throughout the world. So, it was no surprise when they asked to show the new RME MADIface working with the SD8 at Plasa ‘08.
The RME MADIface works seamlessly with the Digico SD8 and other digital consoles employing the MADI format.
For more information on RME products or to request a demo contact us on
01923 693 756
Lauten Audio, the Californian based professional microphone company, has begun shipping three new studio microphones: the Oceanus LT-381, the Clarion FC-357 and the Torch ST-221. Each new model compliments each other as well as the company's first product, the Horizon tube microphone, and enriches its professional studio microphone line.
“We are very excited to begin shipping and filling our pre-orders,” says Brian Loudenslager, Founder of Lauten Audio. “I am really proud of everyone involved that made these new mics come to life.”
Lauten Audio’s new studio microphones include:
Oceanus LT-381 - RRP: £1159.00 (Inc VAT)
The highly anticipated Oceanus LT-381 features a newly designed large dual-diaphragm capsule, NOS military grade pentode input, transformer-less triode output, and variable omni, cardioid and figure-8 polar patterns. Visually stunning, the Oceanus is a fantastic vocal mic. It is an original high-performance tube condenser microphone that produces full and detailed recordings.
Torch ST-221 pair - RRP: £1159.00 (Inc VAT)
The Torch ST-221 is a small diaphragm tube microphone that is packaged in pairs. These microphones feature interchangeable cardioid and omnidirectional capsules, NOS military grade vacuum tubes and premium high-resolution electronics. The Torch combines the characteristics of the small diaphragm and the tube, making it an ideal choice for recording instruments. The package includes 21 components and accessories.
Clarion FC-357 - RRP: £599.00 (Inc VAT)
The Clarion FC-357 is a solid-state multi-pattern large diaphragm condenser microphone. The microphone is a blend of classic and modern FET sound. It has class-A electronics and a dual-diaphragm capsule capable of omnidirectional, cardioid and figure-8 polar patterns. It also features a unique three-position attenuation and gain switch, which offers powerful recording options
“Each of these models offers a unique sound to recordists, and all of the Lauten Audio studio microphones are designed to complement each other," says Mr. Loudenslager. "The feedback we received from our pre-release evaluations beat our expectations and really validated what we wanted to accomplish. I am very confident we have raised the bar for original sound and innovation as a boutique brand.”
“This really is a new and exciting brand for the UK” says Dave West of The Audio Pros “Lauten offers a fresh approach to design and quality at this price point and is an already proven performer, even before it hit the UK”
Mr. Loudenslager adds, “We have taken steps to differentiate ourselves in a crowded microphone market. Whether it is unique circuits, new capsule designs, or including more relevant accessories, we make products that empower recordists at all levels.”
Cian Ciaran, keyboard player and guitarist for rock (and some would say psychedelic rock) band, The Super Furry Animals, is a long time user and advocate of RME products. The RME Multiface with Cardbus card which had been at the core of his PC system had been rock solid since the day he bought it. But, Cian recently upgraded his PC and found that he was unable to use his old PCMCIA card.
So, knowing that the launch of the Express card was imminent, Cian borrowed a Fireface 400, which of course worked flawlessly live, and it saw “The Furries” through a whole bunch of dates on their European tour. As soon as the RME Express Card became available (earlier this year), Cian bought one and installed it into his massive new PC set up along with his original RME Multiface II, and it all instantly came to life.
Cian remains a big fan of RME saying “in almost 7 years of working with RME in the studio and on the road, I haven't had a problem yet. Rock solid and jitter free playback and a customer support department that's second to none. " ............ and we love you too Cian!
Find more about Cian Ciaran and the Super Furry Animals
Front of House Engineer David Powles, uses Lauten at Fiddlers Green Festival
Aug '08
Australian act Marcia, Damian and Howard with the Lauten Horizon mics
David Powles has over 30 years experience as an engineer with acts including Pink Floyd, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Frank Sinatra, Dionne Warwick, Genesis, Procol Harum, Bad Company, Rory Gallagher, George Benson, Alice Cooper and others. And now David has decided to commit much of his time to acoustic based live work, which has lead him to work with many acts. It is this expertise that was also the reason for David to be selected as front of house for “The Fiddlers Green festival” in Rostrevor, Northern Ireland.
David used a range of Lauten mics on the Festival in August which was also recorded by the BBC (N. Ireland) for broadcast. “I enjoyed using the mics at the Festival” said David “They provided a very warm, precise and musical sound, requiring very little EQing apart from Hi-Pass filters, I didn't want to colour the natural sound of the mics by EQing for monitoring purposes”. David went on to single out one mic in particular “I thought the Horizon mics were excellent”
Even artistes commented to Dave that the mics in certain cases provided the best acoustic guitar sound that they had ever heard.
We are pleased to announce that The Audio Professionals are now the exclusive distributor for all SPL products in the UK. A well established brand with engineers and producers throughout the world, SPL has been very successful due to their “Tube”, “Analogue” and “Mastering” range of quality and award winning recording and monitoring products. Dave West (The Audio Pro’s Sales and Marketing manager) said of the appointment “we are of course delighted with this opportunity, especially as SPL continue to launch new and innovative products.”
In addition to the long awaited RackPack modules, 2008 will also see the launch of two new products from German based SPL. The first is the “Phonitor” which as the name implies, is an innovative headphone preamp that is a genuine full alternative to monitoring with speakers. To allow for control of sound impressions comparable to speakers in a room, the Phonitor offers new parameters such as Crossfeed, Speaker Angle and Center Level.
The New SPL "Frontliner"
The second is the “Frontliner” which is a recording channel AND compact analogue processing rack that comes with a bit of a surprise. Because as well as including the SPL De-esser, EQ and Tube output, each stage of the Frontliner is equipped with dedicated I/O’s that can be used separately. So, routing via a patchbay will allow you to insert the whole toolbox into any studio environment.
Martin Warr (The Audio Professionals), Dr Chen (Lauten, Chief Engineer), Mike Terry (Producer), Brian Loudenslager (Lauten, Founder)
The Audio Professionals are delighted to announce our appointment as the exclusive UK distributor for the complete range of Lauten microphones. Dave West said of the appointment “Lauten is a genuinely exciting prospect and comments from engineers and producers that have already auditioned the Horizon indicate that there is a big future for these impressive microphones”.
Under the terms of the agreement, The Audio Professionals will serve as the sole distributor in the United Kingdom for the Santa Clara, California-based company’s entire microphone line, including their highly successful Horizon tube microphone and three new models. The entire microphone line will be on display at the 2008 Musikmesse Pro Light and Sound show in Hall 5.1 D50.
Martin Warr, Director at The Audio Professionals said “In a market packed with a huge range of microphones, we found Lauten Audio to be extremely refreshing in their approach to design and manufacture. The Audio Professionals are constantly looking to align ourselves with quality and forward thinking companies of integrity, where the products are never compromised; Lauten Audio absolutely fits this criterion. The people behind Lauten Audio are some of the most experienced and trusted figures in the microphone industry today, and we know [the founder] Brian Loudenslager has some exciting plans for the future, so we are looking forward to working with him and his team."
Lauten Audio’s first commercially available product, the Horizon tube microphone, is a hand crafted boutique quality microphone that has proven to be a must-have for many recordists. Lauten Audio’s new microphones include the FC-357 Clarion, the ST-221 Torch, and the LT-381 Oceanus. The FC-357 is a solid-state multi-pattern large diaphragm condenser microphone, designed for recordists looking for very clean and natural sound reproduction. The ST-221 is a pair of small diaphragm tube microphones. The ST-221 combines the characteristics of the small diaphragm and the tube, making it an ideal choice for recording instruments. Finally, the LT-381 features a newly designed large dual-diaphragm capsule, unique circuit topology with a pentode input and transformerless triode output circuit, and variable omni, cardioid and figure-8 polar patterns. The LT-381 is designed to be a high-performance vocal microphone that produces incredibly full and detailed recordings.
“We are very pleased to partner with The Audio Professionals in the United Kingdom,” says Brian Loudenslager, founder of Lauten Audio. “Martin Warr and Dave West have more than 30 years of combined industry experience in marketing professional audio products. With their value-added distribution approach; Lauten Audio is poised for a very successful introduction to the UK.”
About Lauten Audio:
Lauten Audio is a high-end microphone manufacturer formed by professionals with diverse backgrounds ranging from microphone design, physics, recording engineering, electrical engineering, international business, and manufacturing. The company’s philosophy is to build better sounding microphones through unique designs, careful component selection, efficient manufacturing processes, and extensive listening tests.
RME Launch HDSPe MADIface for Frankfurt Musikmesse
Mar '08
Performance without compromises! - 128-Channel MADI ExpressCard for notebook computers
New RME MADIface
Consisting of the HDSPe ExpressCard MADI and a small breakout box, the MADIface offers full MADI power:
64 channels input and 64 channels output, up to 192 kHz sample rate, in MADI embedded MIDI transmission, complete TotalMix that is even remote controllable and has all features of the HDSPe MADI, as well as lowest latency and CPU-load. To make the usage as comfortable as possible, no external power supply is required.
RMEs HDSPe ExpressCard MADI is a true PCI Express solution, which consequently takes full advantage of the new format, not only provides the pro-audio MADI format to latest generation notebooks, but achieving significant performance gains in mobile multitrack audio.
Current laptops offer calculation power on par with fast desktop systems. Dual core processors, 2 Gigabyte RAM, big and fast hard drives, dual monitor operation with a quick graphics card - today all this is also available small, lightweight and portable. No wonder that RME receives more and more requests for a portable MADI solution. Thanks to the fast PCI Express bus and the latest, extremely powerful FPGAs, RME is proud to present another milestone in the company's history - the world's first and only MADI interface for laptops, based on an ExpressCard: the MADIface!
Consisting of the HDSPe ExpressCard MADI and a small breakout box, the MADIface offers full MADI power: 64 channels input and 64 channels output, up to 192 kHz sample rate, in MADI embedded MIDI transmission, complete TotalMix that is even remote controllable and has all features of the 'bigger' HDSPe MADI, as well as lowest latency and CPU-load. To make the usage as comfortable as possible, the power for the breakout box is provided directly by the ExpressCard, so no external power supply is required.
The MADIface is fully compatible to all devices with MADI interface. Of course it can be used perfectly in combination with RME's own MADI series products. For example with the ADI-648 an 8 x ADAT optical PC interface is realized, unbeatable in price and performance. And with the ADI-6432 a bidirectional AES/EBU frontend with 64 channels is set up hassle-free.
Thanks to RME's flash update technology, future firmware improvements, adjustments, and bugfixes can be installed easily at any time
The Hammer falls again! - 72-Channel ADAT/AES PCI Express Card
New RME RayDAT
4 x ADAT optical I/O, SPDIF I/O and AES/EBU I/O. That's a whopping 36 channels of inputs and outputs. On top, there are 2 MIDI I/Os and TotalMix, RME's unsurpassed DSP-based real-time mixer/router, with hardware-calculated level metering and complete MIDI remote capability. The new HDSPe RayDAT is a multi-channel, multi-format and multi-task tool in stunning professional quality, the ideal solution from recording up to the final mastering.
Of course the "RayDAT" supports the optional TCO for synchronization to timecode (LTC/video).
HDSPe RayDAT is a multi-channel, multi-format and multi-task tool in stunning professional quality, the ideal solution from recording up to the final mastering. For the first time, even SPDIF (phono) and AES/EBU (XLR) are simultaneously operational due to separated hardware and record/playback devices. RayDAT offers no less than 4 x ADAT optical I/O, SPDIF I/O and AES/EBU I/O. That's a whopping 36 channels of inputs and outputs. On top, there are 2 MIDI I/Os and TotalMix, RME's unsurpassed DSP-based real-time mixer/router, with hardware-calculated level metering and complete MIDI remote capability. HDSPe RayDAT also supports the optional TCO for synchronization to timecode (LTC/video).
Internal ADAT inputs and outputs allow to add up to two TDIF ports directly inside the computer via RME's optional expansion boards.
HDSPe RayDAT is the newly developed PCI Express version of the HDSP 9652. A genuine PCI Express core consequently takes full advantage of the new format, achieving significant performance gains in multitrack audio. Thanks to RME's secure flash update technology, firmware improvements, adjustments, and bugfixes can be installed easily at any time.
At the beginning of January 2008, The Audio Professionals announced the launch of their new distribution operation. This business expansion necessitated a move to modern new offices in Watford, Herts, bringing The Audio Professionals under the same roof as their sister company, Synthax Audio (UK), exclusive UK distributors for RME and ALVA cabling.
The Audio Professionals will be representing a complimentary range of pro audio products, the first of which will be announced before Musik Messe.
The Audio Professionals are pleased to announce the appointment of Dave West as Sales and Marketing manager. Dave brings huge experience to this position having worked for many years in the industry. Starting out as a session bassist working with many major acts, he then went on to engineer and producer many acts across Europe. More recently, Dave has become a trusted figure in the distribution and supply of pro audio equipment.
Commenting on the appointment, Martin Warr (The Audio Professionals, MD) said “Dave’s experience in selling and marketing pro audio equipment to many sectors including studio, live, education and UK dealers will be a great asset to our growing team. I’ve known Dave for many years and now we have the opportunity to grow this company together.”
David Kahne is one of today’s most respected and prolific pop producers. With credits ranging from Paul McCartney, Sean Lennon, Sugar Ray, Tony Bennett, Fishbone, Imogen Heap, The Bangles, Stevie Nicks, Matthew Sweet and Wilco, just to name a few, he has carved out a very respectable place in the history of pop music. David has also scored several orchestral pieces for various ballets.
"I switched to native audio for all my computers to try to avoid some of the phasing issues inherent in certain proprietary systems. I was able to switch because of the solidity and ease of use of the RME optical audio cards. I was up and running so quickly, and within a day was free of the tyranny."
