Pro audio is increasingly a software-based proposition, and that observation was revalidated at the AES Show, the annual confab of high-tech soundhounds (17,892 of them, to be exact) that met this year in San Francisco’s Moscone Center (Oct. 3-5, 2008). And while there is a vocal contingent within the pro audio community that bemoans, with some justification, the commoditization of sonic quality that has to some extent accompanied the evolution of digital audio, ultimately software is what will also assure that sound keeps pace with picture as media head into a high-def media future.

“I like analog signal processing as much as anyone else,” comments music recording engineer and multimedia producer Mark Hornsby at the show. “But I would never trade that for what I can do with audio in a digital file format.”

The software of pro audio these days lies in two main arenas: platforms and plug-ins. The former are represented by the leading multitrack recording, manipulating, editing, mixing and transfer platforms, of which Digidesign’s Pro Tools continued to dominate the market. Digi used AES to debut its new Pro Tools 8, whose basic LE version upgrade sells for $149 with its HD version upgrade costing $249. It dovetails with Digi’s new Ethernet-connected Video Satellite link that interfaces Pro Tools with an AVID Media Composer, putting the power of a full-on video editor combined with fully synched HD audio. “Pro Tools 8 was designed to let the user stay within Pro Tools from conception to completion,” says Digi marketing manager Max Gutnick. PT 8’s GUI has been redesigned along with the addition of new features, including the doubling of inserts per channel. Fans of PT v.7.4’s Elastic Time time-stretch feature will enjoy using Elastic Pitch on PT 8, which allows a selected audio region to be transposed, in semitones or cents, in real time, up to four octaves.

The newest iteration of the V-Studio from Roland’s Cakewalk integrates the former’s expertise in hardware design with the latter’s software prowess. Updates to the core Cakewalk SONAR software engine within the new VS-700C workstation offers workflow enhancements, new features and performance optimizations throughout. New SONAR features include: updated Loop Explorer 2.0 view, dedicated instrument track (single track optimized for mono/stereo virtual synths), numerous audio engine optimizations; and new transport, control surface, routing, and editing refinements.

Basic system software upgrades were prolific at the show. Fairlight upped its Dream II recording/editing/mixing on the CC-1platform to v.2, centered mainly on workflow enhancements for the integrated audio-video platform. New features include internal file importation and conversion and the ability to upconvert SD program material to HD. SSL’s AWS 900+ SE upgrade was introduced and includes the MIDI-over-Ethernet system introduced earlier this year with the SSL Matrix console. MIDI over Ethernet replaces existing MIDI connectivity with a single Ethernet connection that enables the console to communicate directly with the DAW host computer.

Plug Me In
The other big space in play was with plug-ins, a fast-growing cottage industry in which (mostly) third-party developers have been busily rendering virtual versions of most of pro audio’s signal processing engines. No need for a pricey vintage LA-2A compressor when the same processing can be had for a couple hundred dollars as software. Not surprising then that nearly one entire wall at the expo had demo stations lined up like stalls in a Middle Eastern souk, where companies including Celemony, Antares, Serato, OverLoud, Sound Toys and Neyrinck showed off the latest entries into the plug-in universe:

• Waves Audio added its popular Z-Noise noise reduction processor to its Restoration, Broadcast & Production and Diamond bundles, along with processors including X-Noise, X-Hum, X-Crackle, and X-Click. The 24-bit/96kHz Z-Noise reduces a wide variety of unwanted sonic artifacts -- hiss, ground hum, computer noise and many other undesirable sounds – in real-time without impacting the quality of the original source. Z-Noise includes both Learn and Extract modes for capturing noise profiles plus a 5-band graphic noise profile EQ, and its Adaptive mode continually updates profiles that change over time. The new Restoration bundle lists for $1,800 Native, $3,000 for the TDM version. Diamond, Broadcast & Production and Restoration owners with Waves Update Plan coverage can add Z-Noise for $400 through their user accounts.
• Overloud’s Breaverb comes with a hardware controller reminiscent of the classic Lexicon 224 XL. Various values can be input through six sliders that control reverb category, room and plate sizes and characteristics, predelay, tone, equalization and gating. Overloud also introduced its THI guitar amp simulator plug-in, which offers tons of cabs, amp heads, speaker simulators and some useful add-ons like a tuner and a configurable user interface.
• Eventide debuted a TDM plug-in version of its E-Control that provides real-time control of its H8000 series H7600 and Eclipse multi-effects processors, available in December for $199.
• Virtual instruments were represented by products like Spectrasonics’ Omnisphere power synth plug-in. A hybrid synth engine has plenty of onboard samples as well as filtering that includes chaos envelopes, composite morphing, DSP synthesis, variable waveshaping, and Spectrasonics’ patented Flex-Mod modulation routing system. MSLP: $499.

Phil French, president of storage solutions provider Glyph, which was showing its GT 050Q FireWire portable drive, agrees. He and director of marketing Peter Glanville see music on hard drives increasingly migrating to solid-stage storage, once more choices and lower prices in that space appear. “Three to five years and we’ll see a pretty much complete transition to solid state in pro digital audio applications,” says Glanville.

The AES Show has settled into a routine now of shuttling between New York and San Francisco in alternate years. Both locations have plenty of music business and history as context for the expo, but underneath it all, as audio goes deeper into digital territory, the journey will seem more like a cruise between Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley.

Dan Daley (danwriter at aol.com) is an experienced journalist and author, covering the business and technology of the entertainment industry for over 20 years. His work has appeared in numerous publications, both trade and general interest, including Billboard, The New York Daily News, Mix Magazine, GRAMMY Magazine, American Way, Spin, History Channel, TravelHost, International Business, USA Today, ArchiTech, and many others.

The Authoritative Blu-ray Disc (BD) FAQ Has Moved!

Hugh Bennett’s The Authoritative Blu-ray Disc (BD) FAQ has moved to its new home at Hugh’s News (www.hughsnews.ca).

It can now be found at: www.hughsnews.ca/faqs/authoritative-blu-ray-disc-bd-faq

Aleratec Inc., leading developer and manufacturer of "Prosumers' Choice" solutions for the USB, Flash, HDD, Blu-ray, DVD/CD, duplicating, and publishing markets, announced today at the London LightScribe Duplicator Day event its new Aleratec DVD/CD RoboRacer LS Duplex™, the first in the industry LightScribe disc publisher that automatically copies data, flips the disc over and LightScribe labels each disc. With few moving parts, it has maximum reliability and is capable of up to 100 unattended direct to disc LightScribe labels and disc copies. Just load it with 100 blank LightScribe discs, use your PC to select the disc image and label with the powerful Aleratec Disc Publishing Suite. Enter the number of published discs needed and DVD/CD RoboRacer LS Duplex will automatically produce up to 100 DVD/CD copies with silk screen quality labels with no operator intervention.

"Since the introduction of LightScribe, publishing complete discs meant that the discs had to be manually flipped over after burning data or LightScribe labeling. Cost effectively making the disc flipping process truly automatic was the technological challenge," stated Perry Solomon, Aleratec President and CEO. "With the DVD/CD RoboRacer LS Duplex, Aleratec innovation completes the disc loading, unloading, and flipping process automatically with only 6 moving parts completely enclosed in a low cost and attractive desktop unit. Now true unattended LightScribe publishing is affordable and readily available for all Prosumer, Government, Education, Worship, SMB users, anyone looking for an economical way to project their message on attractive, professional, silk screen quality labeled DVDs or CDs."

In LightScribe optical drives, the laser burns one side of the disc only - either while labeling or data writing. LightScribe discs have a data side and a LightScribe label side. To do both data recording and LightScribe labels, discs must be flipped over and re-introduced in the LightScribe drive.

"A key prosumer disc publishing requirement is to fully automate both data recording and labeling processes", stated Kent Henscheid, LightScribe Marketing Manager. "This new Aleratec innovation delivers fully automatic operation and affords the benefit of unattended LightScribe disc publishing to a wide array of users, including small business."

Since the introduction of LightScribe, publishing complete discs meant that the discs had to be manually flipped over after burning data or LightScribe labeling. Cost effectively making the disc flipping process truly automatic was the technological challenge The Aleratec DVD/CD RoboRacer LS Duplex (Aleratec Part No. 280111, Ingram Micro SKU V06234, Tech Data SKU 90844M), proudly assembled in the USA from components sourced globally, automatically records data and LightScribe labels up to 100 discs completely unattended at a low Estimated U.S. Retail Price of $1049.

U. K. customers only, Free Shipping Offer (excluding customs, duties and VAT) go to Aleratec Rebates for details. Offer valid with the purchase of Aleratec LightScribe Publishers (not media) for the period October 8th to October 31st 2008.

The full line of Aleratec solutions, and accessories is featured at AAFES, Adorama, Amazon.com, B&H Photo Video, Best Buy, Buy.com, CDW, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Insight, J & R, Mac Connection, MacMall, Meijer, Micro Center, NewEgg, Office Depot, PC Connection, PC Mall, PC Nation, ProVantage, Quill, QVC.com, Ritz Camera, Staples, Tech Depot and Wal-Mart in addition to other leading U.S. retailers. Government and Education customers may purchase from Government and Education Specialists including AAFES, B&H Photo Video Gov, Best Buy Gov/Ed, CDW-G, CompuCom, EnPointe, GovConnection, GTSI, Insight Gov, PC Mall Gov, Pomeroy, Sayers, Shi.com, Softchoice, telcobuy, TIG, and Unisys. All products are available to resellers in the U.S. through D&H Distributing, Ingram Micro, and Tech Data; in Canada through D&H Canada and Ingram Micro Canada; in Latin America and the Caribbean through Tech Data Miami. All international sales requests should be made to internationalsales@aleratec.com.

www.aleratec.com

Verbatim Americas, LLC, announced today the first LightScribe 8X DVD+R Double Layer (DL) discs. At 8X speed, an entire 8.5GB single-sided disc can be filled to capacity in 15 minutes or less. Verbatim will begin shipping LightScribe 8X DVD+R DL discs in November.

LightScribe certified, Verbatim?s new double layer media is fully compatible with LightScribe-enabled drives, duplicators and the latest software licensed by Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). When combined, the same drive that burns content to the data side of the disc can be used to burn monochrome labels directly on the label side of the discs. The discs are produced with LightScribe Media Version 1.2 coating technology on the label side to provide enhanced contrast for photos, graphics, images and text.

Verbatim LightScribe 8X DVD+R DL media will be offered in 10-disc spindles with hanger boxes. The media will be available in the US in November through retailers, Internet resellers and distributors.

Verbatim also offers LightScribe CD and DVD-R/+R media products, including 700MB 52X LightScribe CD-R media, 4.7GB 16X LightScribe DVD-R media, 4.7GB 16X LightScribe DVD+R media and Color-background LightScribe 16x DVD-R and DVD+R media in shades of red, orange, yellow, blue and green.

www.verbatim.com

LaCie today announced the 5big Network, the most complete five-bay RAID solution for small and medium workgroups or offices that need large storage and backup capacity, improved performance and advanced security.

Offering capacities of up to 7.5TB (7500GB) and a versatile hot-swap feature, the 5big Network supports seven RAID modes including RAID 5 and RAID 6 for more flexibility and superior data protection.

“The LaCie 5big Network delivers the best storage RAID value for workgroups and medium-sized offices,” said Edin del Mar, LaCie Product Manager for SOHO NAS Solutions. “Now small companies can benefit not only from huge capacities and extra security, but also from a complete backup solution for their business.”

Responding to the expanding storage needs of small and medium workgroups or businesses, the 5big Network’s huge capacity can be expanded by connecting external hard drives via its Hi-Speed USB port or three eSATA ports. Users can also easily set up scheduled incremental backups onto external disks to protect the 5big Network’s data.

Designed by Neil Poulton with the modern professional office in mind, the 5big Network is housed in a sleek and durable aluminum tower with five lockable, removable drive trays. Its stackable design helps to save space and its browser-based access and management system allows administrators to quickly set up the 5big Network and allow multiple users to share, store and access data without taxing the bandwidth of a central server. This solution additionally features Active Directory Support (ADS) for easy integration into Windows-based networks and a Wake on LAN (WOL) function, indispensable features for IT managers.

To facilitate its industry-leading backup solutions, the 5big Network ships with three licenses each of Genie Backup Manager Pro™ for Windows and Intego Backup Manager Pro™ (for Mac) with a disaster recovery option, the most complete network backup and restore software for small businesses.

Compared to traditional four-disk RAID towers, it uses 25 percent less energy, and its revolutionary, ultra-reliable cooling system is 37 percent quieter, despite the additional disk. The 5big Network’s embedded technology, user benefit features and superior design make it an ideal addition to any workgroup.

Availability
The LaCie 5big Network will be available in 2.5TB, 5TB and 7.5TB in October from the LaCie Store Online or through LaCie Storage Partner and LaCie Reseller+ at the suggested retail price starting at $899.00 (excluding VAT). For more information, visit www.lacie.com.

Blackmagic Design Inc. today announced that Digidesign, a part of Avid Technology Inc., has certified its DeckLink HD Extreme card for use with Pro Tools|HD® 8 and Pro Tools LE® 8 on OS X Leopard.

“HD video monitoring is now the norm in audio suites, and Blackmagic Design's DeckLink HD Extreme provides the perfect balance of flexibility and price for Pro Tools users who want full-quality real time HD QuickTime output,” said Gordon Lyon, Senior Product Manager, Post Production, Digidesign.

With Blackmagic Design's DeckLink HD Extreme, Pro Tools users can now monitor most common QuickTime HD and SD video formats directly from their Pro Tools video track out to high end professional video monitoring devices such as broadcast monitors, large screen LCDs or plasmas.

“Compatibility with Pro Tools is one of the most requested features from our customers and I'm very happy that Digidesign has now certified DeckLink HD Extreme. Digidesign's Pro Tools is a very well respected audio tool and we're very pleased to be supporting such a powerful tool,” said Kristian Lam, Product Manager, Blackmagic Design.

www.blacmagic-design.com