Whether summer seems like a distant memory, or you’re finally waving goodbye to longer, colder nights, engineers the world over had some formidable choices on the table in October. Here we list some of our favourites…

Apple New M3 Computers

At the beginning of the DAW revolution, computing power meant going big in every way. Starting with a landscape strewn with fully tricked-out towers vying for machine room real estate, the disconnect between power and size sees highly capable portables and all-in-ones increasingly replacing the big studio computer, including Apple’s next generation of SoC powered products.

At the end of October 2023, Apple hosted a virtual event named 'Scary Fast,' during which they introduced the newest generation of Apple Silicon processors: the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. These chips are at the core of their latest offerings, including a new 24-inch iMac desktop and the fresh 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops.

The new M3 processors represent the latest line of Apple Silicon to employ the cutting-edge 3-nanometer manufacturing process technology. This advancement allows the integration of a greater number of transistors within a reduced physical footprint, leading to enhanced performance and efficiency.

At least you can still use your old beige tower to hold the door open or just count the days until Apple decides that your current M3 investment is now yesterday’s news…

Acon Digital Acoustica 7.5

Of the many devs that make engineers’ lives easier with whole ranges of audio utilities and problem solvers, Acon Digital are the Norwegian DSP maestros who give the Big Beasts of audio restoration a run for their money. Readers of the the blog will be aware of their audio plugins, but perhaps fewer know of their versatile audio editor Acoustica.

New to Acoustica 7.5 is a raft of new features designed to better outrun the competition. These include an Automatic Speech Recognition feature, which simplifies the process of adding captions and allows users to export them in various formats. The introduction of the Edit History pane makes it easy for users to track all the changes made within the clip editor, providing a seamless way to revisit previous editing states, examine processor settings, and undo selections. In the Premium Edition, you can also export complete audit trails in HTML format.

Additionally, Acon Digital has unveiled the all-new DeEss: Dialogue tool as well as the Remix tool which has been updated to incorporate the same algorithms as the recently released Remix audio plug-in. Extract: Dialogue tool has also been upgraded to version 1.5.

The new Tab-to-Transients and freehand waveform editing features have also been introduced, giving the self-proclaimed industry standard tools something else to think about. You can see and hear more about how Acoustica stacks up against the competition here in Paul’s article.

BFD Player

The complexity of recreating drums and cymbals inside the DAW is no mean feat. This is confirmed by the fact that up until around the mid 2000’s, organic-sounding drums were still the preserve of the real thing. Up to that point, the huge number of samples and layers needed to convince were simply too much for any computer not belonging to Google or NASA.

Expanding upon BFD's rich heritage, Player arrives in a familiar configuration, featuring a Core Library of sounds with a mixer and a commendable selection of categorised MIDI beats and fills. One notable absence is its dedicated arrange track or transport controls, but users who employ it within their DAW can easily live with that. Both the plugin instrument and the bundled standalone application offer a multitude of keymaps for widely recognized virtual instruments (VIs) and digital drum kits. This ensures that these instruments can seamlessly work with input from drummers or pre-existing MIDI data.

It still goes that the ultimate route to real drums is to use them. That said, tools like BFD player actually make flawed recordings of the real thing less satisfying than the fluidity and realism of digital alternatives. That would be mind-blowing enough if it weren’t for BFD Player’s trump card: it’s free.

Sonible Smart De:ess

Familiar to many, the conventional de-esser is, dare we say, a bit utilitarian. Created to control and reduce intrusive fricative sounds like the "s" and "t" found in various languages, it generally employs frequency-sensitive compression, with most devices implementing their own take on this fundamental approach. While many incorporate a detector tuned to the specific target frequency, some take it a step further by utilising split-band processing for the output, for treatments with a lighter touch.

Taking a unique approach, Sonible is recognized for their utilization of AI technology in solving various audio processing challenges. In this instance, they've harnessed their expertise to develop an intelligent de-esser. Unlike traditional processors, smart:deess does not depend on a manually set threshold to trigger its action. With smart:deess, entire sounds are treated, rather than solely focusing on their most prominent peaks. As a result, Sonible claim more natural-sounding outcomes compared to threshold-based devices.

SSL PURE DRIVE QUAD and PURE DRIVE OCTO

With classic creations such as some of the most mixed-though analogue consoles in history, as well as their current crop of mini (and maxi) mixers, plugins, and rack sweeteners, SSL are the one of the big guns in audio production. We on the blog love a new piece of choice equipment to pore over, and whenever it comes from one of the industry’s grandees we hope it’s going to be good.

Many mixer-less studios rely on decent standalone preamps to sit in-between mic and convertor. These have morphed into a whole world of 1 and 2U boxes that can do more than just make the signal bigger. The differences can range from tiny to wow, and at this latter end of the scale are a number of boxes with tuneable grit to make sounds pop with extra size and complexity.

On October 2023, SSL introduced two new 2U rack-mounted microphone preamp solutions: the PURE DRIVE QUAD and PURE DRIVE OCTO. These are available in 4-channel and 8-channel configurations, respectively. Both of these products utilise SSL's SuperAnalogue PureDrive Technology, which was initially introduced in the ORIGIN recording console. They also come equipped with a newly introduced asymmetrical DRIVE mode, extensive analogue and digital connectivity choices, and an integrated USB-C interface.

These boxes are confident enough in their own abilities to shout about themselves in CAPITAL LETTERS. We hear you SSL, and we’re looking forward to hearing Pure Drive for ourselves. Let the mojo flow…

How About You?

What were the things October 2023 that rocked your studio world? Was it virtual instrument nirvana or hardware heaven? Or maybe there’s an entirely different hidden gem that we’ve missed vying for your studio’s budget. Let us know in the comments.