The Best Of NAMM 2020 - Day 3
Each day our team on the show floor at NAMM 2020 are on the lookout for products that catch their eye and in this pick of the best of NAMM 2020 from day 3, James Ivey, Dan Cooper and Julian Rodgers share their top choices.
Vochlea Dubler Studio Kit
The Vochlea Dubler Studio Kit is a real-time vocal recognition MIDI controller. It offers up a never seen before way to translate your musical ideas into reality, using the one instrument you’ve been practising since birth— your voice. With Dubler Studio Kit you can hum a melody or synth pattern, beatbox to trigger a virtual drumkit, or manipulate effects and filters with a “hmmm”, “laaaa” or “oohhh” sound— all in real-time.
The kit consists of the Dubler software, which is a virtual MIDI instrument (desktop application for Mac + PC) Compatible with any production software [DAW] as well as the Dubler microphone. which is a low latency custom USB mic, designed to guarantee optimal performance.
Price And Availability
Price: £295 but you can preorder a kit for £250.
Availability: Early February 2020
PreSonus Quantum 4848
The PreSonus Quantum 4848 has been designed to be the perfect solution to take your analogue gear into the digital domain. Equipped with 32 inputs and outputs of DB25 line-level connectivity and pristine digital conversion with 120 dB of dynamic range, the Quantum 4848 allows you to bring vintage and boutique analogue gear into your DAW thanks to its near-zero-latency Thunderbolt interface.
The Quantum 4848’s 32 inputs and outputs are enough for many studios, but if you want to patch in a larger console, extensive outboard gear, and hardware synths, you’ll need more. For that there is a dual ADAT Optical I/O provides up to 16 more channels of digital I/O at up to 48 kHz (up to 8 channels at 96 kHz), so you can connect any ADAT-compatible A/D/A converter, such as the PreSonus DigiMax DP88. Or you can have up to four 4848s working together.
Price And Availability
Price: $1,500
Availability: Shipping now
If you want to know more about PreSonus Quantum 4848 then check out our article Everything You Need To Know About The PreSonus Quantum 4848 - Extended Video With Product Specialist.
Metric Halo 3D Upgrade System
The 3d Card Upgrade is a user-installable hardware and software combination that completely refreshes your Metric Halo devices for the next leg of the digital revolution. It replaces all the digital & computer interfacing on your hardware with up-to-date, cutting-edge implementations.
Anyone who has bought a Metric Halo interface in the last 18 years can upgrade it to modern-day specs.
The 3d Card Upgrade System includes:
MH Link — Exceptionally low-latency, Ultra-high-bandwidth audio, clock and data connections over Gigabit Ethernet.
MH EdgeBus — An Ultra-high-bandwidth programmable and pluggable audio expansion slot. MH EdgeBus allows you to effortlessly extend your system to be exactly the interface you need at any given moment.
MH Console – A modern, 64-bit application to control your entire system with a simple, lightning fast and flexible routing model and a stunning new visual design.
MH Mixer – 128 input x 64 bus multi-box unified zero-latency mixer.
MH MonitorControl – Integrated surround capable monitor controller with system processing capability. Includes Analog Domain level control on ULN-8/LIO-8 hardware.
MH Record – 128 input ultra-reliable multitrack recorder with deep hardware integration.
MH DSP Engine — Enhanced processing power and massive memory in the hardware. All 3d hardware includes the +DSP license providing over a hundred plug-ins and the unique Metric Halo Graph environment.
MH Link Audio — Direct Ethernet CoreAudio driver (with support for up to 128 channels of I/O @ 192k).
USB Audio — USB-C Class Audio Interface.
If you want to learn more about the Metric Halo 3D Upgrade System then check out their web site.
Price And Availability
Price: From $499
Availability: Early Access shipping now.
Cranborne Audio CAST System
Cranborne Audio has designed C.A.S.T. (Cat 5 Analogue Signal Transport) to replace 4 balanced XLR cables with 1 Cat 5 cable. C.A.S.T repurposes the internal copper wiring of a shielded Cat 5 cable to transmit 4 channels of balanced analogue audio over distances of up to 100m.
They developed C.A.S.T. to enable them to provide the perfect platform for distributing audio around studios or stages whilst reducing cable clutter, improving sonic performance, reducing costs, and increasing the flexibility of any audio distribution setup.
The N22's bigger brother N22H features all of the same Cat 5 facilities as N22 and includes a reference-quality, high-current headphone amp strapped across its outputs. Connect an N22 with an N22H and now you can use their C.A.S.T. system to deploy headphone amplification where it is needed on the end of a Cat 5 cable.
Price And Availability
Price:
N22 £99/€124 inc.VAT/local tax or $99 (plus sales tax) in the US
N22H £149/€189 inc.VAT/local tax or $169 (plus sales tax) in the US
Availability: Shipping now
Music Production In Dolby Atmos
On arriving in LA for NAMM 2020, the team were invited to Capitol Studios by Steve Genewick and they got the opportunity to listen to some music mixes in Dolby Atmos. Dan described how the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, listening to music in Dolby Atmos. He added, “It’s like listening to music for the first time”.
If you want to learn more about Dolby Atmos and mixing in Dolby Atmos then we have a growing library of content on Dolby Atmos here on Production Expert. In fact, we have just published the latest in the series in an article entitled Dolby Atmos - Remastering Music - An Introduction, in which a panel of practitioners already mixing music in Dolby Atmos discuss how they are mixing music tracks in Dolby Atmos. The panel consists of…
Greg Penny – Record Producer, Recording Engineer, Mixing Engineer, Musician, Songwriter, Artist
Bruce Botnick – Audio Engineer, Record Producer
Steve Genewick – Grammy-nominated Recording Engineer
Doug Higgins – VP, WW Audio at Pixelogic Media
Voyage Audio 2nd Order Ambisonics Spatial Mic
Streamlining the recording workflow when dealing with multi-channel microphone arrays was a top priority for Voyage Audio during the development of Spatial Mic. With built-in USB and ADAT connectivity, no external mic preamps, multi-channel cables carrying analogue signals or converters are needed. An individual calibration profile stored within each mic ensure consistent quality.
Spatial Mic Features
8 x 14mm capsule array for Second-Order Ambisonics
8 x Multi-stage, digitally controlled analogue capsule front ends
Live binaural monitoring using Google Resonance HRTFs
USB Streaming and ADAT Light-Pipe can be used independently or concurrently
Individual calibration stored in each mic
USB bus-powered via USB-C or external 5v source via micro-USB
Bit Depth: 16/24-bit / Sample Rate: 44.1kHz and 48kHz
16-core processor and high-resolution SiLabs clocking scheme
Includes Spatial Mic Converter DAW plugin for raw capsule output conversion (VST, AAX, Mac OSX and Windows 10)
Includes Spatial Mic Control app, allowing for remote operation of all hardware controls and more (OSX and Windows 10)
High-quality construction with aluminium and nylon parts, combined with a bright LED display, knob and metal head basket
Included accessories: 3 meter USB C to C or USB C to A cable, metal mini swivel ball hard-mount, foam windscreen and quick-start guide
Designed to fit the Rycote InVision shock mount (sold separately)
Spatial Mic Converter Plugin Key Features
Encodes raw audio from Spatial Mic to first or second-order ambisonics in AmbiX or Fuma formats
64-element frequency-independent output filter matrix
2 types of output filters — created using measurements from an anechoic chamber
Change Spatial Mic’s aim and orientation live or after recording
High pass filter, gain trim and comprehensive level metering
Spatial Mic requires a host device supporting multi-channel USB Audio 2.0 or ADAT lightpipe input. Spatial Mic, the Spatial Mic Converter plugin and Spatial Mic Control app have been tested to work on Mac OSX 10.11 and higher or Windows 10.
Price And Availability
Price: $899 USD - Shockmount sold separately
Availability: Shipping now
If you want to learn more about the new Voyage Audio 2nd Order Ambisonics Microphone then check out their website.