PC and Music News

Hot on the heels of the portable Solid State Logic Duende Mini unit (launched in January 2008), Musikmesse sees the launch of Duende PCIe. This new product aims to put the legendary SSL sound inside your workstation hardware. This card is ideal for those who work with lots of external firewire equipment, or those who want to integrate their SSL processing and workstation into a single case unit.

Duende PCIe matches the processing power of its 19" Classic Duende sister with a stack of DSP processing power available to drive up to 32 channels of plug-in processing (at sample rates up to 96kHz) within your host application. You can run two Duende PCIe units on a single computer system for up to 64 channels of processing, it can also partner with firewire connected Duende Mini or Classic to achieve increased channel processing count.

Duende PCIe will be available worldwide through selected SSL Resellers from April 2008 with a MSRP of £600 + Local Tax.

Another co-operation between Steinberg and Yamaha have resulted in two FireWire Interfaces, the MR816 CSX and MR816 X Advanced Integration FireWire audio interfaces.

Both units feature unprecedented integration into Cubase, and offer a full range of audio I/O options and onboard DSP with the renowned REV-X reverb. MR816 CSX also offers the acclaimed Sweet Sport Morphing Channel Strip plug-in, with both DSP effects available as a VST3 plug-in in Cubase.

Features :

- True Integrated Monitoring: no latency, DSP-powered FX* and full Cubase Control Room support including independent Studio mixes
- Complete Cubase user interface integration throughout: direct access from Cubase with no additional software mixing or external windows required
- 8 discrete Class A analog 'D-Pre' mic preamps with combination XLR and TRS analog inputs with advanced new inverted Darlington circuits and switchable phantom power per channel, as well as digital ADAT and S/PDIF I/O
- Quick connect: Next-generation of plug and play with instant routing of inputs to Cubase channels from the hardware with the push of a button
- DSP power for Cubase*: Up to 8 simultaneous onboard DSP-powered Sweet Spot Morphing Channel Strip with compressor, EQ as well as REV-X reverb – available within Cubase during mixing

*Sweet Spot Morphing Channel Strip available in MR816 CSX only

Those new units will support Mac OS X, Windows XP and Windows Vista, and will ship in Q3 2008.

Celemony introduces Direct Note Access for Melodyne at the Frankfurt Musikmesse, heralding a whole new age in audio editing. With Direct Note Access it is possible for the first time to edit individual notes within polyphonic audio material. Possible applications range from the simple correction of errors to the complete refashioning of harmonies and timing.

With Direct Note Access, polyphonic audio material is 'exploded' in the Melodyne Editor's display, so that the user can see the individual notes of a chord displayed at their various pitches and edit them individually using the familiar Melodyne tools. As parameters, you therefore have access to the pitch, position in time and duration of each note as well as its vibrato, pitch drift and formant spectrum – you can also change the volume and even the internal evolution of each note.

The first product to feature the revolutionary Direct Note Access will be Melodyne plugin 2, which is due for release in late summer as a VST, AU and RTAS plug-in. The full version will cost 349 €/399 US$; the update from Version 1 will cost 129 €/129 US$. Customers purchasing Melodyne plugin after the 12th March 2008 will receive the update free of charge. The update will also be free of charge for the version of Melodyne plugin included with Melodyne studio provided the purchase was made after the 12th March 2008.

MusikMesse sees Thermionic Culture announcing the Fat Bustard Valve Mixer.

Previewed at the last AES NYC show, the Fat Bustard has a total of 12 inputs arranged as 4x stereo pairs and 4x mono with pan controls, all with toggle mute switches. The simple but amazing Bass and Treble EQ has 0.5dB stepped Lift controls while there are 6 way stepped Bass & Treble Cut controls. This unit also includes a really sweet and effective stereo width control, a little reminiscent of some vinyl lathe cutting EQ's. Four valves are used on the master buss, a pair of 5965 double triodes, the first half of which is pre-amp/eq, the second half is gain makeup in conjunction with the dedicated 'Attitude' feedback control which determines the amount of THD. The Attitude control can yield a clean signal or add gain and some "valvy" 2nd harmonic distortion. The other pair of valves is the larger 6SN7 double triode connected in parallel to give massive headroom cleanly (approaching +30 dBm).

Additional pair of AUX inputs is also provided for future channel expansion by adding the optional Little Bustard 16 channel expander, which will be due later this year.

Retail will be approximately £2800.00 ex VAT.

TC Electronic announces Tap Factory, a hybrid delay/reverb plug-in for PowerCore that combines multi-tap delay effects with early reflection reverb effects.

Tap Factory is designed primarily for the user who is looking for delay effects beyond the usual vintage style which will help him create a unique sound that is all his own. The combination of delay effects and reverb effects generates an unusual set of parameters such as the 3-band parametric EQ with a diffuser capable of simulating the change in sound that occurs when a tap hits a metal or wooden wall.
Tap Factory's extremely intuitive and clean user interface allows you to make individual parameter settings for each of its 24 taps within seconds.
Note that Tap Factory includes a bonus LE version that enables the user to run multiple instances per DSP on current PowerCore systems, and supports discontinued PowerCore hardware.

Main Features :

- Multi-tap delay with 24 taps
- Early reflection reverb
- Tap tempo/rhythm tap
- 3-band filter with diffusion
- Intuitive user interface for single tap/group tap editing
- more than 150 adjustable parameters
- Includes Tap Factory LE, supporting first generation hardware

Tap Factory will ship end of March 2008 at a suggested retail price of €299.

RME presents the new MADIface, the world's first portable MADI solution for Laptops, providing 128 channels of audio with up to 192 kHz.

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. While many MADI-based devices require an additional word clock or AES line, the MADIface uses SteadyClock to extract the reference clock at lowest jitter directly from the MADI signal, making long-distance connections even more convenient. Although not available at the MADIface itself, word clock input and output are thus available when using another RME MADI device.

Included software: DIGICheck for Windows: Spectral Analyser, professional level meter for 2, 8, or 64 channels, Vector Audio Scope, Global record, various other audio analysis tools.

Drivers: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/64 (full ASIO multi-client operation of WDM, GSIF 2.0 and ASIO 2.0), Mac OS X Intel (Core Audio and Core MIDI).