CEntrance today released their “Ideal Driver” for FireWire™ audio interfaces. The Windows™ audio software features one-third of the latency and higher stability than the typical drivers that are shipped with FireWire audio interfaces.

The CEntrance Ideal Driver’s unique technology bypasses the Windows audio engine to bring the recording latency down to previously unattainable levels. Musicians who routinely perform live or overdub with a DAW will appreciate the immediacy of response afforded by the new Ideal Driver. The CEntrance Ideal Driver (ID) is compatible with ASIO2, GSIF2, and MIDI applications and supports sample rates of 44.1 through 192kHz at 16 or 24-bit resolution. The product is offered for sale directly to consumers from the CEntrance website at $39.95 US.

“We’ve noticed that some FireWire audio products could perform significantly better if only they had better drivers. The Ideal Driver is the answer to those consumers who want to push their gear up a notch,” said Michael Goodman, Managing Director of CEntrance. “Our technology works with all major FireWire chips, so it was possible to create the replacement driver compatible with many FireWire audio products.”

The CEntrance Ideal Driver features easy installation and robust performance while achieving latencies as low as 5.9mS roundtrip, about one-third of many existing audio interfaces. To measure the true roundtrip latency CEntrance offers a free download of the Latency Test Utility, a handy way to compare different drivers and optimize a DAW-based recording setup.

CEntrance developed the software to be compatible with the majority of commercially available audio hardware, including Alesis, Apogee, Behringer, Focusrite, Mackie, M-Audio, Presonus, Tascam, and most ASIO and GSIF software applications. Support for other audio interfaces is constantly added. Please check the company’s website for an up-to-date list of hardware and software compatibility.

Earlier this year, CEntrance released the “Universal Driver” (UD), which combines interfaces from several vendors into a single recording setup. The Ideal Driver is based on the same technology, but differs from the UD in that it works with a single audio interface.

For more information, visit their web site at www.CEntrance.com.

Posted in Audio, Computer, Plug-Ins, Recording, Software, Technology

Audio Renaissance Man to Address Live Sound: The Heart & Soul of Professional Audio

Robert Scovill, a concert sound and recording engineer and six-time TEC Award-winner, has been named Keynote Speaker for the 121st AES Convention. In making the announcement Committee Chair John Strawn remarked, “With a list of credits that includes Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Matchbox Twenty, Prince, Rush and Def Leppard, Robert Scovill’s presentation at noon on Thursday, Oct. 5th sends a clear signal that Live Sound remains a cornerstone of the AES constituency.”

Entitled Live Sound, The Heart And Soul of Professional Audio, Scovill’s AES keynote speech will address, the on-going technology evolution/revolution and other critical issues impacting today’s Live Sound community.

Robert Scovill has accrued over 3000 live event mixing credits during the course of a 27-year career. He is a highly regarded technical consultant and product endorser for many leading manufacturers, including Neumann, Audio Technica, Electrovoice, Servo Drive and Alesis. He currently holds the position of Market Manager for Live Sound Products for Digidesign where he contributes to all aspects of that company’s burgeoning presence in the live sound market. He is an accomplished producer in all facets of media production for events including large scale concerts and services for houses of worship. A respected figure on the international seminar, education and convention lecture circuit, he has emerged as a pro audio industry renaissance man.

Scovill makes his home in Scottsdale, AZ where he operates his own Eldon’s Boy Productions Inc. and MusiCanvas Recording Studio and lives with his wife, three children and a dog named Dino.

The 121st AES Convention will be held in San Francisco’s Moscone Center October 5-8, 2006.

For more information, visit their web site at www.aes.org.

Posted in Audio, Education, Recording, Technology

Smokin Loops, a company offering hard-to-find acidized wav loops, is beginning business by releasing its first loop library.

Smokin’ Joe’s Harmonica Loops is a collection of loops performed by Joe Hendrick. Joe has been playing harmonica for over 30 years and is accomplished in the Rock, Blues, and Country, Folk, and Bluegrass styles. His first loop library is from the Rock & Blues style. This is an awesome collection of loops with many of the loops being over 4 measures long so as to make inserting a lead in a bridge easy and fast.

The loops are recorded without effects; however, Smokin Loops has included a section of loops that were recorded through a dirty sounding amp that is totally smokin’ and great for a nasty sounding Rock and Blues. The library features:

• The loops are offered in both 16 bit (on CD) or 32 bit (on DVD)
• Over 1000 acidized wav files (665 MB on CD or 1.39 GB on DVD)
• 427 loops are recorded through a dirty sounding amp
• The loops are recorded in 4 keys A,C, E, and G for easy pitch shifting
• The loops are recorded in both 90 and 120 bpm for easy stretching into any project

Smokin’ Joe’s Harmonica Loops retails for $39.95 (16 bit files on CD) or $49.95 (32 bit files on DVD).

For more information, visit their web site at www.smokinloops.com.

Posted in Audio, Computer, Recording

Sample Logic has released a new sound library, Ambience, Impacts, and Rhythms. A.I.R. is focused on blending three essential building blocks for the composer into one library: Ambience, Impacts, and Rhythms.

Powered by Native Instruments’ Kontakt 2 player, Ambience, Impacts, and Rhythms is available for AU, DXI, RTAS, VST and standalone configurations. The two DVD set contains over 6GB of instruments categorized by genre, timbre and the mood they evoke. The system is designed to help you with organization and finding the sound you are looking for without having to funnel through thousands of presets to find the sound you want.

Features:

• Over 300 Ambient Instruments
• 100 Impact Instruments & Kits
• Tons of Killer Combination Platters that Combine Several Ambiences with Impacts and Rhythms
• 300 Tempo Adjustable Rhythms

A.I.R. covers all the bases, from sci-fi, piercing, distorted tensions, and chilling action sounds to light, sacred, and spiritual atmospheres.

MSRP: $299.00

Sample Logic was founded by Joseph Trupiano and Keith Robinson in 2005 to introduce a fresh approach to sampling and virtual instruments.

For more information, visit their web site at www.samplelogic.com.

Posted in Audio, Computer, Plug-Ins, Recording, Software, Technology

Music Unfolding announces the release of xEQ, which is offered for free as part of the Twister Series, a new line of Audio Unit effects.

xEQ is a parametric EQ/Tone Control. It consists of Low and High shelf filters and three Peak/Cut filters. It is very useful for placing around distortion effects. Place one xEQ before your distortion effect to act as a preamp’s tone control. Place another xEQ after your distortion effect to simulate a speaker cabinet’s frequency response curve.

Music Unfolding provides some example presets that are useful starting points for tailoring your tone. Presets that begin with “TC” are tone control curves and those that begin with “SC” are for speaker cabinet response curves.

xEQ is free and is available for OS X as a Universal Binary. A demo version is available here.

For more information, visit their web site at www.MusicUnfolding.com.

Posted in Audio, Events, Plug-Ins, Recording, Software, Technology

Music Unfolding announces the release of hD, the third of the Twister Series, a new line of Audio Unit effects.

hD is a distortion effect with harmonic generators. It can generate two pitch-shifted copies of up to two octaves above the input signal. The volume level of the two voices can be set independently. hD also has a sub-octave generator. hD’s design uses its harmonic generators to enhance the distortion. The two harmonic voices are mixed into the signal before the distortion stage. Music Unfolding developed the sub-octave generator algorithm specifically for hD. It is latency-free. Placed after the distortion stage, hD delivers a good rumble without sounding like you’ve run a bass through a fuzz box.

hD can also be used to generate 12-string guitar effects and as a note doubler. Music Unfolding recommends also downloading and using their free parametric EQ, xEQ, when demo’ing hD. xEQ is available on the Music Unfolding website.

hD is $19.99 and is available for OS X as a Universal Binary. A demo is available here.

For more information, visit their web site at www.MusicUnfolding.com.

Posted in Audio, Computer, Plug-Ins, Recording, Software, Technology

Gigfiles.com has announced the JD-800 Best Pads library for GigaStudio, Halion, Kontakt, Exs, and Soundfont samplers.

This library features more than 1800 samples, multi-sampled and looped in 18 compatible patches with all samplers (see the list below). The JD-800 is used by some of the best-known artists in the world, including William Ørbit, Emerson Lake & Palmer, 808 State, Depeche Mode, and many more.

Sampled presets in the JD-800 sound library:

Aqueous Strings
Atlantis
Blow choir
Choir&Synth
Horizon
Hybrid Strings
Invocation Strings
JMJ Choirs
Little big V
Midnight Pad
MrBird Song
Mystique
Prologue
Returning 0
Score I
Space Voices
Tempest
Underwater Piano
Xoted Strings

Sampled every 3 notes with 4 levels of velocity to reproduce the exact sound and expressivity from the original with no compromises on quality. More than 4 GB of sounds on one DVD-ROM.

Converted to AKAI (.akp), PULSAR (.p), HALION, KONTAKT, GIGASTUDIO 2 (.gig), EXS24. Universal WAV files can be used with any MPC, MC-909, including Reason or Acid softwares.

Everything is compressed on a single DVD-ROM, PC/MAC compatible.

For more information, visit their web site at www.gigfiles.com.

Posted in Audio, Computer, Recording, Software, Technology

Virtuasonic releases Synesthesia in the more Mac-friendly AIFF format. This particular collection was previously available only in WAV format and contains over 1,000 experimental impulse responses designed to turn any convolution engine into a powerful multi-FX processor.

Synesthesia is particularly suitable for sound design and electronic music, but it can become a secret weapon for every musician and sound designer looking for new ways to improve his creativity flow. Every music work, from film scoring to rhythmic electronic and ambient music, could gain benefit from the use of this unusual set of impulse responses that can transform sound in many ways:

Reshape spectral balance
Add new nuances
Melt sounds into new sonic textures
Create alter-egos of traditional acoustic and electro-acoustic musical instruments
Reverse and pitch-bend audio in interesting ways
Generate unusual delays and supernatural acoustics

Synesthesia is priced US$34.95 and is available as CD-ROM and as a downloadable product, in WAV or AIFF format.

For more information, visit their web site at www.virtuasonic.com.

Posted in Apple Mac, Audio, Computer, Recording, Technology

Universal Audio, a manufacturer of high-quality vintage audio hardware and DSP software plug-ins for digital audio workstations, today announced the immediate availability of the UAD-1e Express PAK and UAD-1e Expert PAK, PCI Express DSP Cards & Powered Plug-Ins(tm). The UAD-1e Express PAK (US$499 street) and Expert PAK (US$999 street) will both ship in Q3 2006 bundled with UA’s core 15 free Mix/Gtr FX plug-in suite plus a UAD$100 (Express) and UAD$750 (Expert) voucher that customers can use to pick and purchase UA plug-in authorizations online.

“The UAD-1e Express PAK and Expert PAK offer DAW users with new PCIe-based Mac/PC computers access to UA’s DSP-powered and sonically superior mixing and mastering plug-ins.” said Mike Barnes, VP of Marketing for Universal Audio. “This is the first big milestone in our UAD strategy to offer a wider range of UAD solutions, help our customers cross-grade to new systems and give them total flexibility to choose precisely which plugs they actually want at the UA online store.”

Key Features include:

• UAD-1e Express PAK ($499 with UAD$100 plug-in voucher for my.uaudio.com)
• UAD-1e Expert PAK ($999 with UAD$750 plug-in voucher for my.uaudio.com)
• UAD-1 & UAD-1e can be used together seamlessly in the same system
• Cross-grade UAD$ voucher program for existing UAD-1 users who buy a new UAD-1e

Customers keep their UAD-1 & purchase an Express PAK for an extra UAD$100 voucher, or purchase an Expert PAK for an extra UAD$250 voucher.

“The PCI Express (PCIe) bus offers exceptional performance, lower system overhead, and higher reliability for low-latency audio signal processing while allowing us to maintain software compatibility with legacy PCI and PCI-X systems.” stated Joe Bryan, VP of Technology. “This approach allows users to mix and match UAD-1 and UAD-1e cards in any combination for maximum flexibility. The PCIe bus and ExpressCard system interfaces are vastly superior to other high-speed interconnects, and allow us to run many more channels (up to 254 channels per card), operate reliably at higher sample rates, and offer much more powerful DSP expansion than alternatives using FireWire or EtherNet. Put simply, PCIe is the professional solution.”

For more information, visit their web site at www.uaudio.com.

Posted in Audio, Computer, Plug-Ins, Recording, Software, Technology

With final arrangements being polished for the Audio Engineering Society 121st Convention, (Moscone Center - Oct. 5-8), the AES has posted a Detailed Preliminary Calendar of Events at www.aes.org. Designed to aid attendees in pre-planning their visits for optimum efficiency (and enjoyment) the Calendar is available as an easy-to-navigate, full-color schedule with drop-down boxes of essential information.

“As with all AES Conventions, the goal of the Committee has been to create an extremely comprehensive and contemporary program,” said AES Executive Director Roger Furness. “With a full complement of Workshops, Papers, Tutorials, Technical Tours, Platinum, Broadcast, Live Sound, Student, Historical and Special Events, the 121st Convention will epitomize our mandate to continually raise the standards for quality and relevance.”

Committee Chair John Strawn adds, “A quick perusal of the Preliminary Calendar will illustrate the diversity of our events and presenters. We’ve developed one of the best programs in AES history. There may be some additional fine-tuning, but attendees can certainly start using the Calendar to plan their AES schedules now. Visitors should also use the www.aes.org site to book hotel reservations at reduced rates.”

To preview the AES 121st Convention Preliminary Calendar and to book hotel accommodations please visit www.aes.org and click on ‘121st Convention.’

For more information, visit their web site at www.aes.org.

Posted in Audio, Events, Recording