 Sonic Foundry’s Acid Pro 3.0—Music by the Numbers, by David English. Is your video or multimedia project missing something? Are you looking to spice up your visuals with some catchy music? If you've  found
clips from music libraries to be too clichéd or one-dimensional,
consider Sonic Foundry's Acid Pro 3.0. You can use it to produce
great-sounding music essentially by moving musical phrases on a
time grid. It doesn't require that you play a musical instrument,
but it does require a good ear for what works and what doesn't work
musically. moreSonic Desktop’s SmartSound SonicFire Pro—No Experience Necessary, by Matt Payne. SmartSound Sonicfire Pro from Sonic Desktop automates the creation of custom music tracks for video and multimedia projects. Designed for a broad range of users, SonicFire Pro is best for those who have little or no experience editing sound  tracks.
The box says users can “create custom, professional music soundtracks
for any visual project, in minutes.” Surprisingly, that claim
is accurate. moreNeutrik Test Instruments—Minilyzer ML1 Review, by Eddie Ciletti. Have you been avoiding the plunge into the world of geek-dom? Neutrik has solved that problem once and for all by packing an arsenal of the most essential and powerful measurement tools into an affordable user-friendly package called the "Minilyzer." The "street"  price
at MCM $399. The ML1 is a handheld audio analyzer designed to be
used at the moment an audio mystery appears — because we all
know that when the technician shows up the problem will be gone...
moreRecycle 2.0 In the House! Versatile loop construction program from Propellerheads, by JD Mars. Recycle is now stereo in version 2.0, and is brought to you from those Propellerhead folks in Sweden, makers of software synth programs such as Reason and ReBirth. Recycle is designed to work with quite a number of popular hardware  samplers,
but also to integrate seamlessly into Steinberg programs. Recycle
2.0 "the ultimate tool for sampled grooves" is currently
available, with an MSRP of $179.95. moreBBE Sonic Maximizer Plug-in—It's back, and distributed by Cakewalk!, by JD Mars. Cakewalk has resurrected this still mysterious technology in the form of a DirectX plug-in. The BBE Sonic Maximizer plug-in is currently available, and can even be downloaded from the Cakewalk website, www.cakewalk.com. It's $129, but for you registered Cakewalk users, it  can
be had for an affordable $99. Explanations and theories aside, the
effect is certainly a presence enhancer extraordinaire. moreBook Review: Sonar Power! —Author Scott R. Garrigus, by JD Mars. Scott R. Garrigus has been using Cakewalk products since the DOS days (not to be confused with dog days). Mr. Garrigus is  the
author of Cakewalk Power! as well as Sound Forge Power!,
as well as an accomplished writer for several magazines.
A popular software
or hardware often inspires a guidebook that can be much more user-friendly
than the product's own manual, and written by a user for users.
moreNuendo—Media Production System Pt. 2, by JD Mars. This is a wrap-up of this review, covering a switch to Windows 2000 and and overall analyses of the product. We left the first part of the Nuendo review with me crashing in Windows 2000. I'm happy to say that Steinberg tech support helped me through this one. I had heard talk of Windows 2000 in Standard PC mode, but who would have imagined that W2K would default to a mode that forced all devices to share IRQs? more Color My World, by Eddie Ciletti. Crane Song's HEDD 192 along with the Great River MP-2NV both provide the kind of "sonic airbag protection" associated with vintage using two radically different approaches. HEDD is a stereo converter with analog emulation and the MP-2NV is a stereo mic preamp a la Neve. While it is not customary to evaluate two products from two manufacturers within one review, the coincidence of theme and timing was just too perfect. Each approach proves that t  here
is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat, but in this case,
no animals were harmed in the testing process. more |
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Polywell 1.333 GHz Athlon Workstation, by Paulo De Andrade. It is common knowledge that the latest generation AMD Athlon chips are very fast. Still, it is not easy to admit that they are that much faster than  Intel's
Pentium 4s. Luckily I found other independent benchmarks that confirmed
the results that I had obtained, rating the 1.333 GHz Athlon chip
84% faster than a 1.5GHz Intel P4 and 97% faster than a 1.3GHz Pentium
4. moreAudio Cuisinart—Cakewalk’s Sonar XL, by David English. Here's another spin on Cakewalk's new addition to the software world, already reviewed once on Digital Pro Sound. This review comes courtesy of AV Producer magazine. If you’re familiar with Cakewalk Audio Pro 9, you’ll be pleased to find that the core editing engine is significantly improved. The internal MIDI resolution is now 960 parts per quarter note (ppqn) for more precise recording, editing and synchronization (Cakewalk Pro Audio Pro 9 was only 480 ppqn). more Digital Mixing To Go—Roland’s VM-7200 V-Mixing System, by Randy Alberts. The 48-channel VM-7200 and its smaller cousins, the VM-7100 and VM-3100, are the first separate-component digital-mixer family ever introduced. Up to 94 channels and eight stereo and 16 mono onboard multi-effects are possible, and an  extremely
flexible routing system and built-in speaker and microphone modeling
capabilities combine with a myriad of optional equipment in the
VM-series to handle just about any audio one can throw at it. moreNuendo—Media Production System From Steinberg, by JD Mars. Just before the "real millenium" was upon us (i.e., the end of 2000), Steinberg released its long awaited Nuendo audio production program for the Windows operating system.Nuendo version 1.5 is now available for both Mac and Win 98/NT/ME/2000 on the PC, with a suggested retail of $1,295. Steinberg has come out with a Nuendo Surround  Edition,
which includes several surround effects plug-ins and other features.
Steinberg offers some audio I/O options, as well as an optional
hardware synchronizer.
more Fostex D-2424—Hard Disk Recorder Review, by Eddie Ciletti. here are several stand-alone multitrack hard disk recorders designed specifically to replace linear tape in both analog and digital forms. Fostex stands out as one company whose experience in the field spans nearly ten years - before it was affordable and before many people considered it an  acceptable
concept. While you've been wrestling with jammed tapes and crashing
computers, Fostex has been quietly perfecting their dedicated hardware.
moreMotor Mix—Digital Mixer Worksurface from CM Labs, by Eddie Ciletti. Motor Mix is an extremely compact motorized-fader controller, with a list price is $995. Motor Mix conserves physical space, yet the layout is spacious and comfortable. In addition, 
multiple controllers can be mechanically connected into either a
single "linear" package or with "wedge" inserts
to form an arc. Some of the 56 back lit switches are labeled, others
are "soft," and all can be applied to variety of mixer
and transport functions.
more Cakewalk Sonar XL—Digital Multitrack Software Recording System, by JD Mars. Available since April of 2001, Sonar is Cakewalk's latest addition to the world of MIDI/Audio production software for the Windows  environment.
While it lies at the forefront in the evolution of Cakewalk's Pro
Audio software line, Sonar is much more than Pro Audio 10.
Sonar comes in two separate editions, Sonar, and Sonar XL. more |
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last updated: Monday, June 18, 2001 12:00:18