New Products
Here are some selected products recently announced.
If you would like information on any new products launched recently, please get in touch and we'll update you with price and availability as soon as we can.
Earthworks launch PM40T
Piano mic for the road
Earthworks have announced a new version of their innovative PM40 stereo piano microphone, called the PM40T. The new 'T' model is based on the same design as the original PM40, but where the original was intended for use in fixed installations and recording studios, the PM40T has been tweaked to make it more suitable for touring musicians and engineers.
Probably the most practical alteration Earthworks have made to the design is to allow the PM40T to be disassembled and collapsed. This makes it easier to set up and remove, and also allows it to fit into a much more conventional case than the somewhat unwieldy one of the original. Indeed, Earthworks say that the new case has been “authorised for airline carry-on luggage”, which will be welcome news to live-sound engineers on tour.
Apogee One
(Computer Recording System)
25/06/2009
Their most affordable interface yet!
Apogee are best known for their range of high-end A-D/D-A converters and audio interfaces that are used in some of the world’s top recording studios. But recently they’ve been launching products at the ‘keen amateur’ end of the market, offering products such as the Duet, which offers the Apogee sound in a small, affordable package.
The latest product in the Apogee range, the One, is an audio interface that retails at £179/$249, making it even cheaper than the Duet. It’s got a single audio input and a stereo output, making it perfect for guitarists or vocalists who only ever record single, mono audio sources.
Usefully for the musician on the move, it has a quarter-inch jack socket for instruments and an integral condenser microphone for spontaneous recordings, although conventional studio mics (including those requiring phantom power) can be plugged in via an XLR socket on a breakout cable. The stereo output is on a mini-jack socket that provides an unbalanced line-level feed suitable for monitors or headphones.
On-board A-D and D-A converters in the One operate at 24-bit at sample rates of either 44.1kHz or 48kHz, and LEDs on the front face provide basic metering and show information about which mode the large encoder is working. This feature is switched using included control software.
The Apogee One works only on Apple computers running Mac OS v10.5.7 or higher. Power is supplied by USB.
Focusrite Saffire Pro 24
(Computer Recording System) 17/06/2009
Joining Focusrite’s Saffire range of Firewire audio interfaces is the Pro 24, a half-rack device designed with mobile musicians and home studio users in mind. It has a total of 14 inputs, including two Focusrite mic preamps that can also accept instrument signals, and a single ADAT optical input, which can carry up to eight channels of digital audio. There are eight outputs (six analogue and two digital), a headphones feed with its own dedicated volume knob, plus five-step metering for four of the inputs.
As with the other models in the Saffire range, the Pro 24 ships with a virtual mixer software that enables custom mixes to be set up and signals to be routed between the computer and the different inputs and outputs of the hardware. It also features what Focusrite call a ‘loopback’ input, which can source audio from computer applications such as Firefox, to be routed into DAW software, for example. The unit comes with the Lite version of Ableton Live, as well as numerous sample sets.
Metric Halo ULN8
(Computer Recording System)
23/06/2009
Rock-steady & road-ready
The ULN8 is the latest addition to Metric Halo’s range of audio interfaces. Building on the success of the ULN2 and Mobile I/O — considered some of the most stable and highly specified audio interfaces for use in the studio and on the road — the new model looks like it should live up to the high expectations.
It's got 16 inputs and 16 outputs in total (eight analogue and eight digital in each direction) and all 16 channels can be sent to and from the host computer at sample rates up to 192kHz. Mic- and line-level signals can both be connected to the analogue inputs, and separate multi-channel D-Sub connections enable both kinds of signal to be simultaneously wired to the unit. Inputs 1+2 also have DI inputs on the front panel, for hooking up instruments quickly and easily.
Generous 15-step meters give high-resolution visual feedback for the eight analogue inputs and outputs, with ‘channel present’ LEDs for the four pairs of digital ins and outs. What’s more, “meter on knob” LEDs show signal levels in a ring around the trim pots.
The device can be run in stand-alone mode, acting as an A-D/D-A converter, where on-board DSP takes care of routing and monitoring, and the unit can be controlled remotely, using the MIDI bus to send control data (apparently, you can even plug a MIDI-enabled Mackie Control straight into it!).
Other features include “archival-grade” converters, “boutique-quality” mic preamps, and a variable Character setting on each channel that Metric Halo say gives the user the choice to alter the sound of the preamp “from ultra clean to nice and gooey”.
Power for the ULN8 can be provided by one of two sources: a mains adaptor terminating in a special four-pin XLR, or from a 12V supply such as a car battery or similar, for location work. Connection to computer is via Firewire, and there are two six-pin Firewire 400 sockets for daisy-chaining additional ULN8s, or linking a hard drive to the same Firewire bus as the interface.
The UL8 can be synchronised to a master clock by jack sockets that send and receive SMPTE time code, or by conventional BNC word clock connectors. For more information (there’s too much to mention in the news pages), head to Metric Halo’s web site.
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