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[Fred Rogers]

Come on all you AES attendees!  What's the report?  Man, the rest of us are stuck at home while you guys are out at the fun parties after fun days of serious gear lust fulfillment.  Please share your show highlights!!!!

PPPPPLLLLLLEEEEEEAAAAAASSSSSSEEEEEEE!

[George Massenburg]

No highlights just yet.  Just alot of work...

George

[Fred Rogers]

George Massenburg wrote on Sat, 08 May 2004 18:46

No highlights just yet.  Just alot of work... George

I was thinking..."work?  what work?  drinking with pretty europeans?  work?".  Then I got to thinking..."ah, George must be working the show".  Sorry.  I guess a good bit of your time is stuck on the booth.

Hope you have fun and success anyway.  

[Ruairi O'Flaherty]

Be patient grasshopper,

I can only speak for myself but I am busy doing the show.  First I do then I tell.  I will post later in the week with my highlights,

cheers,
Ruairi

[Roland Storch]

Sonic Solutions showed a new application for creating DDP Masters on OS X.
They are thinking about to make it possible that you can import audio files from foreign applications like ProTools.

As far as I know this application doesn?t need the Sonic hardware and costs about 450,-

[Former Oceanway drone]

ADAM (http://www.adam-audio.de/professional/) showed the P33-A monitors which they claimed would be shipping "in four weeks." They use three internal class D amplifiers (i.e. digital switching amplifiers) that were developed in association with Phillips. They will retail for 990 Euros/speaker. I hesitate to say anything about a monitor that I listened to on a show floor, however I will say that for the price, I found them to be worthy of further listening. If that sounds like I'm damning with faint praise, let me be clear that this is not the case. I would find it genuinely interesting to hear them in a more "controlled"(i.e. non-show) environment .

Cheers,

Alan Tomlinson

[Ruairi O'Flaherty]

Ok here goes,

these are my show highlights in the gear category


Cranesong Avocet - Dave Hill (aside from being a cool MF) has thought this box out so well.  I got a demo from him and loved everything about it.  Obviously I couldn't check out the D/A section on the show floor but if the D/A section matches or beats my DAC-1 for quality I'll be purchasing one of these puppies I fear. Also heard the Phoenix plug, gotta have that too.

Chandler stuff - Again the show floor is obviously not the place to check out mic pres and eqs but this stuff sounded great to me.  Definitely worth further investigation.  Wade is also a very cool guy.

Princeton Digital Reverb 2016 - Man this is one sweet reverb.  I spent maybe 10 minutes flicking through a cd of dry demo material (vox, acoustic gtr, kits etc.) and dialling up suitable reverbs.  It is so warm sounding and intuitive to use.  I loved it.  I'm not sure if I could afford the hardware but I will definitely get the plug.  I worry that one of the best things about it is the instant access via the knobs though.  Apparently George is a fan of this box too.

Brauner VMA - I repeat myself.  The show floor is no place to demo a mic of this quality but this is a serous piece.  The VM1 is an amazing mic anyhow but the new "vintage" mode is super sweet.  I listened on Sony cans which I know well and I can honestly say I have never ever liked the sound of my own voice as much .  Got to hang with Dirk Brauner at the Gearslutz party and his passion for mics just comes through in every word he says.


Digidesign D Control - this appears to be everything that was promised.  As a hardcore PT user this unit would do so much for my workflow.  It will have its critics (many of whom will never use one in real life) but for me and the way I work it would be an absolute dream come true.  Unfortunately it is outside my price range, I could stretch to maybe 30k but 60k is just too much (for now at least).


GML 2032 - I had a great chat with Geoffrey from GML about this unit.  It is definitely on my shopping list for later this year.  GML pre and 4 Band EQ for 3k, sign me up.


As for people, highlights included

Surround workshops with Nathaniel Kunkel - I found his can do attitude very inspiring.

John Le Grou - had 2 glasses of very fine Californian wine and a great chat with John.  A great guy.


Rod from Sony Oxford - I have forgotten his surname but Rod heads up the Oxford division.  He demoed the Transient Modulator for me and we chatted about the other plugs which I own, he was very interested in real user feedback.

Jeffrey from GML - I met him last year in Amsterdam and he is just great fun to chat with regardless of subject matter.  He also knows a thing or two about circuit design.

George - it was great to meet George again this year, however briefly.  He definitely wins the prize for busiest AES attendee.  I particularly enjoyed his participation in the Mic Pre discussion.

Dave, Klaus, Kerstin and Katrin from ADAM - these have got to be the coolest people in pro audio right now.  Dave's enthusiasm is just infectious, Klaus is about as layed back as they get and Kerstin is just super sweet.

The Gearslutz crew - we had a dinner and drinks session for the Gearslutz crew on Monday night and attendees included Fletcher, Eve Anna, Hutch, Dave Derr, Jonathan Little, Dirk Brauner, Jules Standen, Ruphus, Alan Tomlinson, Klaus and Dave from ADAM, Shamen and a big bunch of others.  I ended up leaving very late after one too many with Mick from Thermionic Labs (known as Thermionic around here) - top bloke.  I had great conversations with most present especially Hutch, Jonathan Little and the ADAM dudes.



Just like last year I came home from the AES charged with ideas and full of enthusiasm for my work.  I will be making the trip to San Francisco in October for my first U.S A.E.S.  See you there I guess,

cheers,
Ruairi
 

[hollywood_steve]

I will be making the trip to San Francisco in October for my first U.S A.E.S. See you there I guess,  

Sort of off-topic, but I was wondering how much the shift from LA to SF hurts the attendance of both exhibitors and attendees?  I've been to countless LA and NYC shows, but never made it to one of the occasional SF shows; are they on the same general scale as the normal west coast shows in LA?

I know that SF is a very desirable destination for travel, but LA has such a huge base of local audio pros that I'd guess attendance at LA shows is well over 50% local.  If the number of exhibitors isn't affected, but the aisles are just less crowded in SF, I guess thats a good thing.  But do all of the little mom & pop companies that exhibit in LA also make the trip to SF?

Back to the gear.....

Did anyone notice if any of the "under development" little line mixers / summing units were on display in Berlin?  (units that are typically described at "coming soon" on the company's websites)

(Innertube Audio's "Summthang",  Purple Audio's "Super 8", the "Commander" from Nautilus, the revised "Mixer" from Dangerous Music, the un-named device from Chandler, or any other new little mixers?)

[Ruairi O'Flaherty]

Steve,

I have no idea how the SF location will affect the AES but the general buzz at the Gearslutz gathering was positive.  Most people seemed to be thinking along your lines, i.e. San Francisco is a great destination for a trip.

The only new summing unit I saw on display was from Tubetech.  There was no option to demo it, not that a showfloor demo of such a product would be worth anything.  The dangerous stuff was also on display.  Gotta say that I have little interest in these products myself but they do seem to be the latest "gotta have" in our industry (at the lower middle level anyhow),

cheers,
Ruairi

[Fred Rogers]

Ruairi O'Flaherty wrote on Sat, 15 May 2004 09:05

Steve, I have no idea how the SF location will affect the AES but the general buzz at the Gearslutz gathering was positive.  Most people seemed to be thinking along your lines, i.e. San Francisco is a great destination for a trip. cheers, Ruairi

Hey all,

Great thanks for the AES updates.  Ruairi, I liked your rundown and probably the products you mentioned are, for the most part, the products I would have gravitated towards.  Dave Hill makes great products and it appears as though the Avocet might be another.  I was interested to hear your D-Control/Icon comments.  I'm really thinking about buying one.

As far as SF goes, it is a GREAT city.  One of the greatest in the world, IMHO.  For me, the AES's there were less audio-centric and more city-centric.  I spend more time out and about than I usually would at an AES show because the city is so much fun.  Of course, I think I spent all of one afternoon at AES NY last year because NYC is so much fun, too.  The restaurants in SF are killer, and of course, you really should make plans to spend a day in the wine country (1.5 hours away by car).  You also would be doing yourself a big favor to see some of the Cali coastline.  Big Sur is spectacular (2.0 hours away by car, if memory serves).  If you're planning to walk the show over two days or so, plan on having at least three more days to sightsee.  You won't regret it!

Thanks again for the AES posts...

[Jules]

I got to sit in on a ICON D private demo (they had one upstairs for VIP demos as well as the one on the show floor) That was cool - MAN... that desk is a little confusing! It can be configured to do SO many things...

AMS Neve have a new 1073 remake (PRE ONLY) that is soon to have a DSD output option.

Sony Oxford have a reverb plug in in the works

Er....

The Advocet WAS a nice unit...

Wade IS a super cool guy.. And has spent the week following the AES in Londons Abbey Road studios working on 'stuff' with them to do with EMI gear...

er.. yes! .... What Ruairi said!

[Ruairi O'Flaherty]

Fred,

I didn't get up close and personal with the D-Control the way Jules did but I was very, very impressed.  The impression I was left with was that it more than delivered on its promises.  If you mix in the box all the time (as I do) and have the budget (which I don't) you should probably arrange a demo for your self. Chris Lambrechts made the point that although this unit has "no sound" it has the posibility to dramaticaly improve workflow and to introduce feel back into the mixing process.

I will probably use the D-Controls introduction to avail of some cut price Pro Controls (24ch?) to get some faders under my fingers again,

cheers,
Ruairi

BTW I have been to SF and also spent 3 days in Napa tasting last year, this year I'll check out Sonoma

[hollywood_steve]

The only new summing unit I saw on display was from Tubetech. There was no option to demo it, not that a showfloor demo of such a product would be worth anything. The dangerous stuff was also on display. Gotta say that I have little interest in these products myself but they do seem to be the latest "gotta have" in our industry (at the lower middle level anyhow),

I want to take this opportunity to distance myself from the whole "summing in the box, summing outta the box" hub-bub.  I'm a location recording guy who uses an 8ch recorder, so I need an 8x2 high quality mixer, complete with level and pan controls, but not much more. (I've had a one year reprieve due to the onboard mixer on the Genex.)  All of them "summing" boxes that are missing either the pan pot or level fader seem like a strange idea to me, but then I don't use a computer for audio, either, so what the fuck do I know?

It just seems like several of the little high end shops that might have gotten around to offering a high quality little 4x2 or 8x2 line mixer got caught up in the "in the box, outta the box" conflict and now we'll never see mixers from those guys.

new summing unit I saw on display was from Tubetech

was this a real mixer or a "no-knobs" summing device?

[Duardo]

Dangerous has a 2-space 8x2 mixer with level and pan control.  API just announced a single-space 8x2 as well...

-Duardo

[Ruairi O'Flaherty]

hollywood_steve wrote on Sun, 16 May 2004 00:22

I want to take this opportunity to distance myself from the whole "summing in the box, summing outta the box" hub-bub.   new summing unit I saw on display was from Tubetech was this a real mixer or a "no-knobs" summing device?

Hey Steve,

I don't think there is any shame in having an interest in summing units

The Tubetech unit was a no knobs device.  Have you investigated the Millennia Media mixing suite?  I have never used it but I have several other Millennia pieces and I'm guessing it would be well built and pretty clean.  Probably high dollar though, I'm pretty sure some of the movie scoring guys use them,

cheers,
Ruairi