ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
A Music Editor’s Take on NAMM 08
By Michael Jay
 Michael Jay Photo: Jessica Wood |
Many editors are likely to have kept up with new and improved technology by attending trade shows such as NAB or even the super-sized Consumer Electronics Show (CES). But for a music editor—or any musician––there’s a special draw to NAMM, an association of 9,000 retailers and manufacturers of musical instruments. NAMM now holds its huge annual trade show in Anaheim, California in mid-January, and with about 8,900 of those members seeming to be blasting sound at the same time, you can imagine the experience is both amazing and overwhelming. Following is a peek at what the show had to offer.
AudioEase
Speakerphone (http://www.audioease.com/Pages/Speakerphone/speakerphone.html)
is a new convolution product from AudioEase, and it focuses on, well, speakers.
With impulses from diverse sources such as cell phones, bullhorns and PA systems––plus
equalization, compression and built-in samples of crowds and other ambiances––this
plug-in represents an invaluable tool for “worldizing” your material
and really selling your temp’s source music cues.
Digidesign
While many sound editors may have moved to Pro Tools 7.4, this latest version
was new to this year’s NAMM. 7.4 (http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=100&navid=234&itemid=28112&ref=74-f)
features many music creation elements, including a suite of virtual instruments,
but most intriguing is Digi’s new time compression feature, Elastic
Time, which features a choice of algorithms (rhythmic, polyphonic, etc.) and,
in general, appears very intuitive.
Also new to NAMM, but undoubtedly already in use by many editors, is the Mbox Micro (http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=100&navid=220&itemid=5343&ref=micro-f), essentially a studio in a USB dongle, for $279 list price, including Pro Tools LE 7.4. For those who couldn’t afford the cartage to lug around one of the earlier Mboxes, the Micro is big. You just can’t record; (it’s playback-only.
M-Audio
AVID/Digidesign also now owns M-Audio, and their neighboring booth featured
the new MicroTrack II (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrackII-main.html)
hand-held digital recorder. With a street price under $300, it’s amazing
to get balanced, +4 mic and line inputs, resolution up to 24 bit/96k and built-in
phantom power. If you had shown such a thing to a classical engineer or field
recordist back when, they would have thought it had been beamed down from
orbit.
Other Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) Controllers:
Euphonix
This company, which of course makes dub stage-size mixers and control surfaces,
has entered the workstation market with their MC Control ($1,500) (http://www.euphonix.com/artist/products/mc_control/).
The MC features “EuCon,” a high-speed control protocol over Ethernet
that offers 250 times the speed and eight times the resolution of MIDI. This
very sexy unit, which includes a customizable touch screen, provides potential
control for a large degree of DAW functions.
Mackie
The latest incarnation of Mackie’s ubiquitous DAW controller is the
MCU Pro (http://www.mackie.com/products/mcupro/index.html),
which debuted about a year ago. While limited to communication via MIDI, the
MCU Pro lists for about $300 less than the aforementioned Euphonix controller.
Mackie has made some good strides with its modest speakers, and brand new to this show was the MR8 self-powered monitor (http://www.mackie.com/products/mrseries/index.html) . While it may not be in the stratosphere of self-aligning monitors from JBL and Genelec, at least one thing makes these Mackie’s noteworthy: Their street price is under $500 a pair.
Yamaha
Rounding out our look at DAW controllers are the new n12 and n8 mixers from
Yamaha. While in the price range of the Euphonix controller, these are different
creatures; namely, full digital mixers, including 12 and eight analog inputs,
respectively. They are not, however, full controllers. But they do offer DAW
control for Steinberg CUBASE AI4 (bundled), including transport and some other
key features such as track selection and record toggle. It’s an interesting
hybrid approach, and certainly a nice mixer.
Other Workstations: Digital Performer, Logic, Nuendo
Logic 8 (http://www.apple.com/search/?q=logic+8)
is likely known to many by now, with Apple notably having finally
“remastered” the program’s idiosyncratic window
sets to provide for operation on a single screen. Nice to see an interface
that looks like it’s from the 22nd century. I’ve asked
both Apple and Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) to include support of sample
rate pull-downs in their sequencers; we’ll see…
MOTU was demonstrating the features of its forthcoming Digital Performer 6 (http://www.motu.com/products/software/). I was a de facto beta tester for DP version 1!. DP 6 will include several new features of interest to those working to picture, including XML file interchange with Final Cut Pro and support for 23.976 frame rate. Note that DP 6 will include a convolution reverb.
Steinberg
And, finally, Steinberg premiered Nuendo 4 (http://www.steinberg.net/1409_1.html)
, which features a new media bay for library searches and new high-quality
VST3 plug-ins geared for post work (EQ capable of extremely narrow 30db notches).
Most intriguing to me were the program’s new automation modes, such
as a Preview mode, which suspends your current mix state and lets you quickly
audition a new one, such as that intended for a perspective change. Very cool.
Michael Jay was music editor for “El Cantante,” Jennifer Lopez’s recent retracing of the genesis of salsa music. In his work as a recording engineer, he engineered the first TV show to be mixed digitally (for a Neil Young concert on HBO), and the first album to be recorded to PC, for the band Yes.
Editor’s Note: An expanded version of this NAMM 08 report
will appear in the MAR-APR 08 of Editors Guild Magazine.