PC and Music News

Thinking about setting up a project studio but don't know where to start? Want to learn valuable techniques for recording and producing music? M-Audio's new publication Overdub takes you through the process of building your studio—from choosing the right gear to fine-tuning your current system.

Volume One: A Guide to Studio Monitors details everything you need to know when setting up a reference monitor system. Topics include :

- How to select the right monitors
- Guidelines for monitor placement
- Dealing with room acoustics
- Using acoustical treatment
- Testing your system

The Audio Damage Team is teasing us once again with this photo published on their blog and this laconic sentence :

"Meet Rough Rider. Does about what you'd think. Costs a lot less than you'd think."

Looks like a compressor but who knows...

When more details get published we'll let you know.

Auralex Acoustics unveils SonicPrint, its custom-printed ProPanels featuring "The Art of Sound" theme which blends unlimited design and style options for any room with the company's acoustically proven technology of its ProPanel product line.

For more information, please visit their website.

Tascam's 24-track / 24-bit workstation has been upgraded to the 2488neo. The updated model has a bold new look and new mastering effects to create punchy, polished mixes. Like its predecessor, the 2488neo has eight microphone inputs, seven effects processors, a 80GB hard drive and the simple user interface common to all TASCAM Portastudios.

The 2488neo features an 80GB hard drive, enough for hours of 44.1kHz/24-bit recording. The eight microphone inputs, four with XLR and phantom power, can be assigned to any track for recording large ensembles. A reverb effect, multi effect with guitar amp simulation, and up to 9 compressors are also included. The new mastering effect includes multi-band EQ, compression and limiting for professional-sounding mixes which can be burned to CD or transferred to computer through the USB 2.0 jack.

For more information, please visit their website.

After three years of research and development SoundField has announced that their SPS200 A-Format microphone for stereo and 5.1 surround recording is finally shipping.

This is the first SoundField microphone to not require an accompanying outboard control unit, the SPS200 A-Format microphone relies on software for all format conversion, decoding and manipulation. The SoundField Conversion Lounge plug-in handles A to B-Format conversion and the SoundField Surround Zone plug-in looks after all aspects associated with stereo and surround sound decoding and manipulation. With its four low-noise, studio grade condenser capsules and weighs-in at less than 8 ounces (220 grams), the SPS200 provides the ability to capture 5.1, 6.1, 7.1-channel audio and simultaneous stereo with variable width and to continuously vary the effective polar pickup pattern and orientation without moving the microphone.

The SPS200 A-Format microphone is available now with a USD list price of $2,995.00.

Sensomusic unveils version 4.0 of Usine, it's universal audio software application designed for live or studio utilization. This new version will feature more than 100 improvements, including :

- Touch screen management.
- 16 audio in/out.
- Clear/save/open current track command in the main menu.
- New possible location for Interfaces builder windows: patch or parent patch.
- New rack mode : 'grid', 'rack' or 'play all'.
- Customizable layouts for all displayed controls (set the colors you want to all controls).
- Reset + reset values in steps modules (step, step-midi, lines, switches, points, array).
- No more auxiliary busses order limitations.
- etc...

Usine 4.0 will be released "soon"... Note that a demo video upon the touch screen feature is available at :