proaudio review 2011 08 downmagaz

AU GUST 2011 | VOLU M E 17 | IS S U E 8

ProAudioReview

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ADAM A8X • Lexicon LXP Native Reverb Bundle • Midas VeniceF • Pelonis Signature Series Model 42 • Roland Systems M-480 • Waves Aphex Vintage Aural Exciter

New Products, P. 10, 40

INSIDE:• Technically Speaking:

Extreme Makeovers• Geared Up: Manifold’s

API Vision & Harrison Trion Consoles

STUDIO | L IVE | BROADCAST | CONTRACTING | P O S T

ProAudioReview

www.proaudioreview.com

The Review Resource for Sound Professionals

MIXER MODSFeaturing the Soundcraft Ghost at Creation Audio Labs

ALSO PAR PICKS 6: UNIQUE PLUG-INS

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4 ProAudioReview | August 2011

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in this issueSound ReinforcementCovering Live Sound,

Contracting, and Installed Sound

New Studio Products

Cover Story

Mixer Mods featuring the Soundcraft Ghost Analog Console

by Rob Tavaglione, Michael Wagener and Frank Wells

Review

PAR Picks 6: Unique Plug-Insby Rich Tozzoli

Review

Lexicon LXP Native Reverb Bundleby Rich Tozzoli

Mini Review

Waves Aphex Vintage Aural Exciter Plug-In

by Russ Long

Review

ADAM A8X Powered Studio Monitorby Sterling Winfield

Review

Pelonis Signature Series Model 42 Studio Monitor Loudspeakers

by Frank Wells

Technically Speaking

Extreme Makeoversby Frank Wells

Geared Up

Manifold Recording’s API Vision & Harrison Trion Consoles

by Steve Harvey

PRO AUDIO REVIEW (ISSN 1083-6241) is published monthly by NewBay Media LLC, 28 E 28th Street, 12th floor, New York, NY 10016. Subscription information can be found at www.MyPARmag.com, by calling 212-378-0400, or writing to the above address. Letters to the editor are welcomed at the above address or [email protected].

Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY 10016 and additional mailing offices.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Pro Audio Review, P.O. Box 282, Lowell, MA 01853. © Copyright 2011 by NewBay Media, L.L.C. PRINTED IN U.S.A.

StudioCovering Recording, Broadcast

Production, and Post Production

Departments

ProAudioReviewAUGUST 2011 | VOLUME 17 | ISSUE 8

26

Cover: Nicole CobbanCover Photo: Rob Tavaglione

46

46

16

New Live Products

Review

Roland Systems M-480 48-Channel Live Digital Mixing Console

by Ben Burns

Review

Midas VeniceF Live Analog Mixer with FireWire

by Ben Burns

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ProAudioReviewProAudioReviewThe Review Resource for Sound Professionals


A U G U S T 2 0 1 1 V O L U M E 17 I S S U E 8

EDITORIALFrank Wells, Editorial Director212-378-0400 x535, [email protected]

Strother Bullins, Editor336-703-9932, [email protected]

Fred Goodman, Managing Editor212-378-0423, [email protected]

Lynn Fuston, Technical Editor

Rich Tozzoli, Software Editor

Russ Long, Senior Contributor

Ty Ford, Steve Harvey, Will James, Tom Jung, Alex Oana, Randy Poole, Alan Silverman, Rob Tavaglione, Ben Williams, Sterling Winfi eld, Dan Wothke, Tom Young, Contributors

Paul Haggard, Photographer

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technically speaking Frank Wells

A few weeks back, I spent most of an afternoon with PAR contributor Rob Tavaglione and the staff at Creation Audio Labs as they dug into Rob’s Soundcraft Ghost (page 20), disassembling the chassis and de-soldering and replacing components. The process was organized and efficient, and reminded me of some of

my own similar experiences. Before I became a full-time recording studio tech,

part of my “audition” with Masterfonics Studio’s Glenn Meadows and Milan Bogdan was an afternoon that encompassed changing out driver diaphragms in the horns of the mains in the Masterfonics Mix Room, then upgrading capacitors in the input circuits of a pair of channels on the room’s SSL 4000E console and evaluating the results. Shortly after diving in full time at Masterfonics, Glenn brought in his former chief engineer, David LaBarre (who also had been a chief engineer at VCA originators, Valley People), to see if it was feasible to upgrade the 4000’s VCAs.

After a lot of experimentation, David reported that the VCA could indeed be improved, but it was his opinion that the changes would be inaudible through the relatively long pathways through the console. No specifications were published for the 4000E, but our measurements found a path from Channel Line In through to the main mix bus had a frequency response down better than -2 dB at 20 kHz. The distortion num-bers weren’t bad, but also could be improved upon.

The eventual ambitious plan had us shutting the room down for a couple of weeks of intensive rebuild. We modified the gain structure of the console, hitting all the FET switches less hard and allowing us to operate the ubiquitous 5534 op-amps at other than unity gain so we could eliminate stabilization caps. We dropped in other high-speed op-amps in stages that had to remain at unity, and generally took the nominal 20 kHz band-width of each circuit and opened them up to 50 kHz. We beefed up caps in the circuit path and replaced the VCAs with Valley modules. We beefed up the caps on the power supply rails, and lowered the series R in the path, to stiffen the low end. THD+N distortion numbers dropped from the .01x percent range to a nominal .006X percent, the noise floor was lowered, and the long-path frequency response was now only down -0.2 dB at 20 kHz. The result was a 4000E with not only improved specifications, but also improved sonics, which was the whole point of the exercise.

In today’s world of surface-mount components and large-scale integration, such mods are no longer “easy,” but for consoles like Rob’s Ghost, the mods developed by Creation produce similarly desirable results. I think you’ll enjoy reading about his experiences.

Extreme Makeovers


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new studio products

10 ProAudioReview | August 2011 www.proaudioreview.com

JZ Microphones Michael Wagener Signature Microphone Kit

JZ Microphones has introduced a special Michael Wagener signature microphone kit consisting of two microphones: a BT-201 small-diaphragm, cardioid con-denser; and a limited edition BT-301 medium-diaphragm condenser. The combination can be heard on all recent Michael Wagener productions.

The BT series was the second range to be released by JZ, following the Black Hole series microphones. The BT range is unique in many respects, including interchangeable, magnetically attached capsules, offering cardioid, open cardi-oid, padded open cardioid (-20 dB) and omni capsules. The distinctively shaped BT-301 is a limited edition medium-sized cardioid condenser, which boasts a low self-noise spec (5.5 dBA). Both microphones are built to excel on instru-ments that benefit from a high-frequen-cy presence boost, making them ideal for string and percussion sections as well as acoustic guitar. Price: $1,899 Contact: JZ Microphones | jzmic.com

PreSonus AudioBox VSL Interfaces

PreSonus has released its AudioBox VSL-series interfaces — the 22VSL (pictured), 44VSL and 1818VSL. All three interfaces offer Class-A XMAX preamps with 48V phantom power; 24-bit, 96 kHz converters with 114 dB dynamic range; 150 mW headphone output; MIDI I/O and zero-latency monitor mixing.

The three interfaces offer bundled native reverb and delay effects with dedi-cated effects busses and the same Fat Channel compression, limiting, 3-band semi-parametric EQ, and high-pass filter found in the new StudioLive 16.0.2.Price: 22VSL, $249; 44VSL, $379; 1818VSL, $629Contact: PreSonus Audio Electronics | presonus.com

Native Instruments Solid Mix Series and Transient Master

Native Instruments is expanding its recently established range of Guitar Rig-based studio effects. The new Solid Mix Series emulates “the distinctive EQ and dynamics sections of one of the most revered mixing consoles of all time” (i.e., SSL 4000 E/G Series desks) while Transient Master “re-creates a popular hard-ware processor that provides highly efficient transient processing” (i.e., SPL’s Transient Designer). These products can used be used with the free Guitar Rig Player software, or expand the arsenal of the upcoming new Guitar Rig 5. Prices: $229, $119 and $119 (Solid Mix Series, individual Solid Mix components, and Transient Master, respectively) Contact: Native Instruments | native-instruments.com

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new studio productsNuForce uDAC-2 Signature Gold Edition USB Digital Audio Converter

NuForce’s swanky and self-powered uDAC-2 combines a USB DAC and a headphone amp into one portable device. Retaining the look of the company’s uDAC-2, the SGE is encapsulated in a stainless steel and 24K gold-plated chassis.

I/O includes the USB 1.1 (2.0-compatible) input and analog stereo RCA, digital coaxial RCA, and a 3.5mm headphone output. Price: $399 Contact: NuForce | signature.nuforce.com

Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer IILine 6 has unveiled its MIDI Mobilizer II, a portable MIDI interface that connects MIDI gear to Apple iOS devices for iPad and other CoreMIDI music apps. MIDI Mobilizer II plus MIDI Memo Recorder is a free app created by Line 6 that allows users to record, play and back up any MID data.

MIDI Memo Recorder features an interface for storage and recall of MIDI record-ings, patches and more. MIDI recordings can also be opened in any software that supports the SMF (Standard MIDI File) format.Price: $69Contact: Line 6 | line6.com

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new studio products

Boss Micro BR-80 Multitrack Recorder

Boss is now shipping its Micro BR BR-80 digi-tal recorder, an updated version of its Micro BR multitrack recorder.

With an 8-track upgrade, Boss guitar and vocal effects, built-in rhythms, onboard ste-reo mics, jamming and practice features directly inherited from Boss’ eBand JS-8, and a Live Record mode that turns the BR-80 into a stereo handheld field recorder, the BR-80 has been targeted for guitarists, songwriters and other musicians.

Stereo condenser mics are built in for capturing song ideas and rehearsals. Also included are dedicated inputs for connecting a guitar, a microphone or any stereo line-level device, and a USB port.Price: $299Contact: Boss | bossUS.com

Radial Engineering JCR Reamp

Radial Engineering has unveiled the latest generation Reamp, a passive “Reamper” that follows the traditional design set out by inventor and patent holder John Cuniberti. According to Radial president Peter Janis, “The new JCR Reamp has been equipped with some fun extras that we think will set the Reamping bar another step higher! This includes a handy mute switch that enables the engi-neer to turn off the signal coming from the control room and allow him to move mics around the studio without the amp blasting away. We also added a switch-able high-cut filter to help tame overly bright amps and a low-cut filter to reduce

unwanted resonance.” The Reamp JCR features Radial’s “book-end”

design, 14-gauge, I-beam steel construction for added protection, and a full bottom no-slip pad.Price: TBAContact: Radial Engineering | radialeng.com


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“The naïve vision was that the acous-tics alone could do all the work,” explains Tiemann, the general manager and co-owner — with his wife, Amy, an author, educator and multimedia producer — of the new recording studio and media production facility. “If you had sufficiently fantastic acoustics, that the music would basically mix itself.”

Located in Pittsboro, North Carolina (equidistant from Chapel Hill and Raleigh), Manifold Recording was four years in the planning and two years in construction. Wes Lachot designed the carbon-neutral complex, which comprises two buildings — a music recording facility and an adja-cent studio annex — set in over 16 acres of countryside, taking inspiration from renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The main control room features an automat-ed 64-channel API Vision discrete analog console, while the studio annex houses a Harrison Trion digital desk and DAW control surface.

API Vision

“In the original construct, to me, the con-sole was just a necessary evil that would bring a lot of signals together and provide monitoring and so forth,” Tiemann elabo-rates. But Lachot soon disabused him of that notion, he says; following a tour of stu-dios in Nashville, he realized “what it came down to was that in a big tracking facility like the one that we were building, there is

nothing like an analog console to match the capabilities of the room. That was lesson number one.”

Lesson number two came down to per-sonal taste. “Wes and I have similar tastes in quality of sound, and Wes has an API console in his own studio. We were really drawn to the API sound.”

A visit to John McBride’s famed Blackbird Studios in Nashville, which houses a variety of API models, allowed Tiemann and Lachot to evaluate the options. “The API Vision gave us everything we wanted, which is full capabilities on both faders of the dual-input modules, the fantastic API sound, and a rock-solid foundation for building monitor-ing and mixing into the studio.”

He chuckles. “I had rejected the Vision as an option early in the studio design process, but Wes kept a vision of the Vision in mind as he laid out the control room and ensured that there would always be room for it. When I evaluated all the other options, it just came down to that one!”

As it turned out, the Vision was the per-fect Goldilocks-like solution: “Not too much console and definitely not too little,” offers Tiemann. “The Vision perfectly scaled to the control room.”

The 12-foot-long Vision console is laid out so that the engineer is ideally within the equilateral triangle of monitor cover-age in Manifold’s 475-square-foot control room (where the ceiling rises to a peak of 16 feet). “We really wanted to have the

patchbay be part of the console, and we really wanted the center section to be in the middle,” he explains.

The left-hand, double-wide patchbay includes provision for 96 lines to, and 96 lines from, outboard processing gear,

Manifold Recording’s API Vision & Harrison Trion Consoles

geared up by Steve Harvey

Steve Harvey is the West Coast editor for PAR’s sister publication, Pro Sound News.

When initially planning Manifold Recording — a newly constructed music production facility in North Carolina’s Triangle high-tech busi-ness and education region — Michael Tiemann envisioned rooms with acoustics so good that the mixing consoles would be needed for little more than routing signals where they were needed.

API Vision console at Manifold Recording

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August 2011 | ProAudioReviewwww.proaudioreview.com 17

housed in two three-rack credenzas. Both credenzas are mounted on wheels and can be moved out of the way or out of the room as required. Both 100mm faders on each dual-input module are automated and each has full surround capabilities. “If you really want to mix with 128 moving faders, you can do it,” observes Tiemann.

Custom 12-position bays above the double patchbay house a selection of 500 Series modules. “We didn’t want any space to go to waste,” says Tiemann. “I have a 200 Series and a 500 Series lunchbox sitting in the credenza of the digital room, so we can bring an analog front end to the digital room if we want.”

Harrison Trion

With such an emphasis on acoustics and high-quality analog, why install a digital desk in the annex? “First of all, nobody does instant recall like digital,” Tiemann points out. “Every person who has come to us so far is starting in Pro Tools, although we have had inquiries about supporting Nuendo and Digital Performer. The second reason is that I discovered that Harrison was building consoles using open-source software infrastructure as opposed to pro-prietary software.”

Tiemann, a singing prodigy with four album releases by age 14, was the founder of the world’s first open-source software

company. He went on to an executive posi-tion at Red Hat, the world’s leading open-source provider, based in nearby Raleigh. “Because of my history, I thought, ‘If these guys know anything at all about making mixers, I’ve got to go with it just to support the cause.’ Lo and behold, Harrison knows a lot!”

Tiemann is thrilled with the Trion’s capa-bilities. “I’ve spent the last week playing around with the Harrison, and it’s just a real delight. It has a lot of functionality. It’s an 88-channel, dual-input, digital console; there’s 96k processing on all channels, there’s a massive matrix of 48 mix busses, four stereo program busses, and every

ED FREEMAN

type of surround monitoring configuration known to man because of Harrison’s film heritage.”

That film heritage led to a control sur-face modification, as Tiemann relates, after Manifold chief engineer Ian Schreier visited Harrison’s Nashville factory for training. “He observed that the volume knob was at the very top of the center section. In the film world, that makes perfect sense — you get it dialed in to 85 dB, and you don’t touch it.” But in music recording, the engineer is constantly listening at different volume levels, he notes. “So they remade the center section panel so we have the volume knob where a music mixer wants it, and we have more esoteric console functions higher up on the section.”

Manifold ordered a variety of Harrison peripherals to integrate the Trion console into the studio’s digital audio network, which ties the rooms together and also includes a fiber link directly into the local internet provider’s office. Three Harrison open-source Xdubber hard-disk recorders,

originally developed for the film industry, are available for recording and playback and are each capable of running 64 tracks at 96 kHz. Four Xrouters provide the software-driven hardware to move audio, video and word clock between consoles and rooms.

“We have many more Xrouters than I ever thought I would own,” admits Tiemann, noting that the three Xdubbers potentially require a lot of bandwidth. “We needed more Xrouters than we thought because we have more channels at 96k to pass between them.”

Harrison also customized the I/O boxes that offer access to the Xrange DSP units associated with the Trion. “Harrison cus-tom-made for us I/O cards that do 32 analog in and 32 out on each card. You can put two cards in a single I/O unit, so there are 64 channels in a 3U space. We have several of those to feed the console. Harrison also custom-made AES cards that will do 64 AES in and 64 out. That handles all of the video ins and outs, effects units and other bits of digital infrastructure.”


MICHAEL TIEM

ANN

Harrison Trion console

(continued on page 50)

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As a result of an analog console mod by Creation Audio Labs, what is old is new again — or actually, better than ever.

By Rob Tavaglione


Mixer ModsFeaturing the Soundcraft Ghost Analog Console

Rob Tavaglione has owned and operated Catalyst Recording in Charlotte, NC since 1995. catalystrecording.com

ALL PICTURES BY ROB TAVAGLIONE

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I’d heard of companies that prided them-selves in the refurb’ing and modification of mid-level analog mixers such as mine; by upgrading certain key components of these consoles, one could achieve increased per-formance at a fraction of the typical costs attributed to products with such perfor-mance. After some basic research, I found Nashville-based Creation Audio Labs — makers of some very clever, unique audio products such as the MW1 Studio Tool — which devotes an entire section of its web-site to servicing of Soundcraft Ghost desks.

Further research revealed many testimo-nials lauding the improved performance as well as increased durability and stability of a “modded” Ghost. I then had enough encour-

agement to take the plunge, realizing that this process could reveal valuable informa-tion to not only Pro Audio Review readers who own Ghosts, but also to those who own similar analog mixers and are considering further investment into them, plus those who have seen the attractive low prices and abundance of used analog desks these days and are considering getting “out of the box.”

The Soundcraft Ghost

First marketed in 1994, the Ghost is a comparatively old and resilient product, one that it is still available new today through Soundcraft dealers, although the console has recently been officially discontinued. New 24- and 32-channel Ghosts retail for


In 1999, I purchased a 24-channel Soundcraft Ghost analog mixing desk. It has turned out to be the only true fixture in my busy little mid-level studio. Although I’ve been very satisfied with its perfor-mance, that performance has slowly slipped over time, despite a well-controlled environment, plenty of maintenance and periodic repair. I knew that it was time for another round of such repair, and I prepared myself for long nights with bloodshot eyes, a soldering iron, a mag-nifying glass and handfuls of pan pots, input trims and jacks to coax into this affordable (approximately $6k) modular console’s innards.

My Soundcraft

Ghost Mod

Shootout

By Michael Wagener

When I started building the new

WireWorld studio, I did a detailed

shootout to find the best sum-

ming box for the new setup. With

the exception of the Soundcraft

Ghost, there were no other con-

soles involved at the time, just

dedicated summing boxes. I had

eight summing boxes from differ-

ent manufacturers plus a couple

of digital summing setups.

All analog summing solu-

tions beat the digital summing

solutions in depth of the overall

picture. The Ghost sounded the

best of all analog solutions by

a big margin, but I don’t know

if it was because it was add-

ing something to the sound that

wasn’t really there, or if it was

the most natural sound of all of

them. My personal feeling is that

it added just a touch of high end

to the overall sound and there-

fore stuck out from all the other

analog boxes.

In the end, I decided to go with

the Solid State Logic’s AWS 900

analog console/DAW controller

based on the sound of the SSL

X-Rack, which was in the test (the

AWS 900 was not in the actual

test, but it does sound the same

as the X-Rack, which I compared

at a later point). SSL just has

that “neutral” tone without add-

ing its own color but still creates

that space around the separate

instruments in the mix, which is

so hard to get in the digital world.

There were other summing boxes

that created an actual sound/color

— which might be good for some

digital mixing situations or even

tracking to digital — but that was

not what I was looking for.

An underside view of Tavaglione’s Ghost, open and on the bench.

about $6,700 and $7,600, respectively, and used models are typically available with widely variable pricing based on condition, location, etc.

Although the desk is modular — with one large and one small PCB for each channel — these channel strips are only accessible by removing the Ghost’s bottom panel. Such modularity was the crucial feature consid-ered in my original purchase of the Ghost, but the console also offers the full feature set I required: an inline design (with mic/line input and tape return on the same channel strip), full meter bridge, four mute groups, a HPF and a direct out on each channel, defeatable EQ with two shelves and two fully parametric bands, eight auxes total (two of them stereo), four stereo returns, eight subgroups, an oscil-lator and facilities for multiple 2-tracks, moni-tors and cue mixes.

My Ghost has a small onboard computer for SMPTE sync, mute automation, MIDI con-trollers and machine control, but the Ghosts still available today are generally the LE models (the “lite edition,” if you will), with-out such computer and features. Frankly, I only use the mute groups for convenience now that I’m all DAW-ed up.

My Ghost was still largely functional, but diminished in its sound quality from years of heavy use. Over the years, a number of noisy pan pots, scratchy tape return

input trims and failed quarter-inch channel insert jacks had been replaced. The replace-ment insert jacks provided by Soundcraft were now Neutrik gold-plated contact mod-els, but their important significance was unknown to me. My stereo imaging was now a bit mushy, noise floor was higher than ever, I had a few channels with low lev-els and subgroup 8 was out ... so I needed some repair as well as modification.

Modding the Channels

After a six-plus hour drive from Charlotte, I arrived in Nashville to meet Brandon Arora of Creation Audio Labs with my Ghost and its power supply crammed in the back of my car. That trip saw a “whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on,” if you will, but was certainly less

traumatic than a bumpy trip through the multiple hands, trucks and conveyors of UPS or Fed Ex.

Upon getting the patient up on the bench, I told Brandon of my problems and the trou-blesome channels. He explained that these were almost always the product of failing insert jacks. It seems the older, non-Neu-trik/non-gold connectors slowly corroded over time and that even burnishing/clean-ing was rarely enough to get proper contact and not slightly increase resistance, level loss, adding noise and affecting frequency response. A quick cleaning with Brandon’s favorite Techspray Contact Cleaner II (quite expensive, but quite excellent) revealed he was right: My channels and groups were OK, and my insert jacks were not.


Clockwise from above: socket closeup; cleaning pots; CPS275 power supply.

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We started the process by running a bat-tery of bench tests to show the Ghost’s con-dition before any medical attention. Under PAR editorial director Frank Wells’ supervi-sion, we ran tests measuring THD, noise, frequency response, output level, crosstalk and phase accuracy. As you can see in the accompanying bench test section, my Ghost’s performance was acceptable, but neither stellar nor up to original spec.

Brandon explained that possibly the most

important aspect of the Ghost mod process was getting the power supply up to snuff; many mid-level consoles can sound consider-ably better simply with beefed up power sup-plies that can deliver the needed headroom and amperage at moments of peak power demand. The Ghost originally came with the PSM290 (and later the PSM300), which were Switch-Mode power supplies: transformer-less and lightweight, but inherently noisy.

Then came the first linear mode CPS250

power supply, which only had 160-volt amps available between the four power rails (+ 17.5 V, -17.5 V, 5V and 48 V) and was inadequate. Mine came with the CPS275, which offers 205-volt amps and is also still used with the K2 series of Soundcraft live desks. My power supply has failed twice previously, and Soundcraft techs were kind enough to advise me on the easy replace-ment of a bridging rectifier. Brandon recom-mended we replace that 25 A model with a 50 A one that can also handle more heat. We found that my bridging rectifier was unable to tighten up snugly to the heat sink and that a lack of heat dissipation may have been prompting the failures. We remedied this with some bonding cement for better heat transfer.

Next up was removal of four channel strips that were to be souped-up with some better components. I had previously struggled with removing the 11mm nuts that retained each pot and was relieved to see Brandon had modified a socket wrench to grip the tricky little suckers, I’d soon be doing the same to a wrench myself. Brandon showed me about a dozen op amp (operational amplifier) chips that were to be replaced with high performance counterparts — parts that would hope-fully lower distortion and increase phase accuracy with better THD specs and faster slew rates. The Ghost’s Texas Instrument chips had a THD figure of 0.003 percent and slew rate of 13 V/us typical, while the new National Semiconductor LM4562, Burr-Brown OPA134 and Analog Devices OP275 were more like 0.00008 percent and 20 V/us: cleaner by two decimal places and faster by a good margin.

THD & Slew Rate

Capacitors were also up for improvement with Panasonic FM caps going in, offering higher capacitance values and lower ESR values. This lower ESR value (a measure of resis-tance) makes for better performance, espe-cially with 19 per channel. A pair of small caps was also added to the mic preamp section, improving noise performance. These new caps and the aforementioned op amps would improve performance but draw more power — another reason for power supply attention.


Top: Brandon Arora removing channels; bottom: Jon VanDoran depopulating the PCB.

Brandon and his team of Phil Gayfield and Jon VanDoran promptly de-populated, cleaned and re-populated the PCBs in fine fashion, making quick work of the de-soldering and component removal (work that personally wears me out). The new chips were seated in sockets that allow future quick removal and replacement, without any soldering. Brandon further explained that many of the old compo-nents had pins exiting out the backside of the PCB that were bent downward, and this can make removal particularly time consuming and difficult, but these guys made it look pretty easy with their experi-ence, custom tools and high performance de-soldering guns.

All pots were cleaned and lubricated, and all switches received a treatment of Teflon-based cleaner that lubricates. All critical points in the channel path were quickly re-soldered. The 100mm faders were lubricated, but not replaced: they

hold up quite well and physically shield out contamination from the fader path. Last but not least, the all-important insert jacks were replaced with Neutrik gold-plated versions.

Modding the Master

The center section of the Ghost contains large PCBs that handle multiple functions. Each board handles a pair of subgroups and either aux returns, aux send mas-ters, talkback, oscillator, B-mix master or control room source selections. There are also a number of smaller PCBs that house the master jack field with nearly 20 TRS outputs: control room outs, mix out and inserts, group outs and inserts, aux sends and returns, etc. All of these jacks and the headphones jack (which normals for control room monitoring) were quickly replaced with Neutrik gold-plated ones.

Chips and caps were replaced as in the channel strips, with the requisite clean-

ing, lubricating and re-soldering. I consid-ered removing the computer and possibly reduce noise, but Brandon assured me the computer was adequately isolated, not a noise problem and I didn’t want to give up my convenient mute groups.

Testing and Re-testing

After re-installing all the PCBs, blowing out dust, exercising the jacks and replac-ing the bottom cover (essential for proper grounding and improved noise perfor-mance), Brandon reran the bench tests to try and quantify the before/after differenc-es. I’ll leave the finer points of analysis up to Mr. Wells but, suffice it to say, improvement was seen in all areas — some more than others.

With improvements seen in crosstalk, phase accuracy, frequency response and THD, the question was whether or not I could hear such changes. Ready to get back to my production work, I headed back across


On the Bench:

Tavaglione’s Soundcraft Ghost — Before & After Mods

Before and after measurements of

the modifications on Rob Tavaglione’s

Ghost reveal easily demonstrable

improvements resulting from the

Creation Audio Labs modifications

and refurb. Modest gains were

measured in phase performance.

Interchannel crosstalk between mod-

ules was markedly improved, nomi-

nally 9 dB or better across the audio

spectrum below 10 kHz.

Significant improvements were

made in noise performance.

Measuring the residual noise within

narrow frequencies through a swept

bandpass filter, noise components

(particularly in the 50 Hz to 1 kHz

range) were reduced as much as -20

dB, with at least a couple of dB of

improvement across the audio range.

[Fig. 1 Noise performance-residual

signal levels with no input measured

through a swept bandpass filter and

plotted against frequency-was sig-

nificantly improved by the Creation

Audio Labs modifications (Top,

green trace, before mods. Bottom,

red trace, after)]

THD+N (Total Harmonic

Distortion plus Noise) measurements

were also markedly improved by the

modifications. The clipping point

moved a dB higher and THD+N

was lower, likely a combination

of lower harmonic distortion and

improved noise performance.

[Fig. 2 THD+N plotted against

output level, while the input level

was swept upward. As is typical, the

performance improves with higher

input levels (more signal in relation

to the residual noise) until the signal

clips, making square waves with

high levels of harmonic content. The

top, green trace is before modifica-

tion. The bottom, red trace is after

modification.]

You can view additional before

and after plots on the Creation web-

site (creationaudiolabs.com/ghost)

that mirror the confirmation of the

improvements measured on Rob’s

Ghost.

—Frank Wells

30

-100

-110

-120

20k 50 100 200 500 1k 2k 5k 10k

Hz

d

B

u

-5

0.02

0.015

% 0.01

0.005

0 +10 +0 +5

dBuFigure 1 Figure 2

www.downmagaz.com


I-40’s mountainous curves to Charlotte for some critical listening and mixing.

Back in the Studio

I had planned some exacting before/after mix tests, but dropped the ball and had mistakenly used some colorful compres-sors that were no longer in my possession for my “before” mix. Unable to use proper methodology, I luckily stumbled across a far more meaningful test: A client of mine had recorded a fine, 10-song, full-length release, but ran out of funding before final

mixing. I mixed all the songs for my own pleasure prior to the Ghost’s mod then, upon my return home, my client was ready to finally do the “real” final mixes. I submit-ted my 10 mixes, and they liked the sound of all 10, but required some content edits on five of those songs.

With the now hot-rodded Ghost, we remixed those five songs as closely to the original mixes as we could. I could hear specific and significant positive differ-ences: much improved stereo separation and imaging, more depth of field, greater

punch (especially heard on snare drum), extended frequency response (both high and low) and just more liveliness in gen-eral. Respectful of my client’s slim budget, I convinced myself that the five old mixes were good enough for use. Within hours after remixing, my client called to schedule the remixing of the previous five songs! He explained that he would gladly spend the additional money because the new mixes were “so much more punchy, clear and exciting-sounding” when directly compared


From left: Power supply bridging rectifiers; Channel PCB with the original ICs; Small PCB with a Neutrik gold TRS connector.

1Brainworx Bx_digital

V2 digital mastering

processor

The bx_digital V2 is a mastering processor that packs a wallop. In it, you have an 11-band EQ, M/S De-Esser, Intelligent Bass and Presence Shifter, Mono-Maker, Pan for M & S and Stereo Width Control. It also works in three modes: M/S mastering, M/S recording and L/R Stereo.

The M/S capabilities split your mix into two components: mid sum or mono (M) and side/difference (S). You can solo the S and M signals: very useful in tweaking. Of course, you can link any feature for full stereo EQing.

My favorite feature is the Auto Listen Mode — clicking a knob automatically solos the selected band for tweak-ing. Letting go of the knob immediately brings the full mix back. It has a few other useful functions such as sep-arate Pre, Post and Output meters, Stereo Width, built-in M/S De-Esser, Mono Maker (sets a frequency below where the mix becomes mono) and a Panorama adjustment for both M and S signals. There’s an EQ graph for both the Mono and Stereo

section, and Pan M, Pan S and Bal L/R knobs for mix balancing.

V2 clearly uses unique algorithms because the audio has this almost “indefin-able” quality to it. Use that Bypass button frequently because you’ll do so and say, “Oh, yeah — that’s pretty obvious!” Price: $359 (TDM, Venue, RTAS, AS, VST and AU, Mac or PC)Contact: Brainworx | brainworx-music.de

2Crane Song Phoenix

analog tape compression

modeling

Talk about one-knobbed goodness. Phoenix

is another one of those “Yup, it sounds good!” plug-ins. Officially, it is designed to emulate the properties of magnetic tape machines and their record/reproduce char-acteristics, but I actually don’t think of it that way. It simply adds subtle sonic character to my mixes that EQ/compres-sion cannot.

Phoenix is a suite of five separate plug-ins: luminescent (neutral), Iridescent (more bottom/mid), Radiant (additional compres-

sion), Dark Essence (even more aggressive) and Luster (gentle at first/aggressive when pushed). Each also has three “color change” buttons for more sonic flavor. Typically, I will place them (especially Luster) on the Master bus and turn it up until I like what I hear. Because they are very DSP efficient though, they can easily be used on individual tracks. It’s kind of a bummer that Phoenix is TDM only, as I’d like to use it on all of my rigs.Price: $450 (TDM)Contact: Crane Song | cranesong.com


Unique Plug-InsOur software editor shares a half-dozen of his favorite plug-ins that simply defy categorization. 6PAR

PICKS

by Rich Tozzoli

Sometimes plug-ins don’t fit into any particular class — maybe they serve a unique role or combine multiple functions into a single inter-face. In this installment of “PAR Picks 6,” we’ll take a look at six useful plug-ins that defy categorization.

Rich Tozzoli is a Grammy-nominated engineer, mixer and composer as well as PAR’s software editor. richtozzoli.com

Brainworks bx_digital V2

Crane Song Phoenix

www.downmagaz.com


3iZotope Vinyl lo-fi/vinyl-

simulation plug-in

OK, so not all of us may need to call up a lo-fi plug-in that simulates vinyl. But when you do, this is the one! Vinyl uses 64-bit processing, modeling and re-sampling to make your audio sound like it’s been run through a record player.

The simple controls include faders for Mechanical Noise, Wear, Electrical Noise, Dust, Scratch, Warp Depth and I/O Levels and Meters. But my favorite is the Year knob, which offers up 1930, ‘50, ‘60, ‘70, ‘80 and the ‘aughts (2000s). Next to that sits an RPM (revolutions per min-ute) selection knob with 33, 45 and 78 options. I tend to use it on drum loops, as it can add a cool, “midrangy” punch that cuts right through a mix (especially when layering drums). Just put up your loop and crank through the Year(s) to instantly change sonic character. Throw in a little Dust and Mechanical Noise, and you’ve gone lo-fi — but in a hi-fi way.Price: Free download (RTAS/AU/HTDM, VST, MAS, AU DirectX)Contact: iZotope | izotope.com

4Pro Audio DSP Dynamic

Spectrum Mapper (DSM)

This one is a little hard to explain: It’s a

dynamic audio chameleon for making your tracks sound better. It can do loudness enhancement, multi-band compression, limiting, de-essing and/or sound modifica-tion. While you can simply call up a preset, put it on a track and start tweaking, the DSM has a cool trick up its sleeve. Using the Capture button, it can map the sonic char-acteristics of a mono or stereo track (single

parts or entire mixes), and then reapply them to another track.

The DSM splits the signal into multiple bands using an FFT based process and uses “adaptive techniques to capture both the frequency-domain and dynam-ic characteristics of audio program.” You can then “map” the copied audio char-acteristics to your own track and tweak further from there.

It also features such functions as Threshold, a Limit button for limiting overloads, 16-bit Dither button, Gain (up to +24 dB), Ratio, Attack, Knee, Decay, and Low Frequency Attack and High Frequency Release. What looks like a three-band EQ is actually a Parametric Threshold section, which lets you blend the chosen frequencies into the active-threshold curve. It’s a very cool and effective product indeed ... but watch out, it can easily be overdone.

Price: $325 (RTAS, VST & AU)Contact: Pro Audio DSP | proaudiodsp.com

5Soundtoys Crystallizer

reverse echo effects

Did you ever want to use a plug-in that just messed with your audio in ways you can’t really understand? Well, that’s what the

“Did you ever want to use a plug-in that just messed with your audio in ways you can’t really understand?”


Left: iZotope Vinyl lo-fiBelow: Soundtoys Crystallizer

Pro Audio DSP Dynamic Spectrum Mapper

www.downmagaz.com


Crystallizer does. This little gem combines granular reverse echo slicing and pitch pro-cessing to maul your audio. But unlike other processors of this nature, it does so in a very musical way.

It’s simple to use, too — you’ve got such controls as Pitch, Splice, Delay, Recycle, Gate/Duck, Reverse/Forward and Threshold. It can be tempo/MIDI synced, and by plac-ing a plain old keyboard pad into it (or gui-tar/vocal/drums, etc.) a whole new pulsing, dynamic sound can be had in just a few minutes. It’s loaded with killer presets that can help get you started, and that’s where I usually begin. You just playback your pad and start pushing through the presets until you find a cool one. I also turn to it as a sound design tool, as you’re never quite sure what you’ll get out of it. Price: $349 & $179 (TDM and RTAS/AU/VST, respectively)Contact: Soundtoys | soundtoys.com

6Waves Dorrough Meter

Collection

We all know how important metering is:

It’s the level lifeline between what’s in our DAW and the outside world. Without fail, a Dorrough loud-ness meter is the last thing on my Master bus. The Stereo Edition fea-tures its mono/stereo 280D/240D (Horizontal), 380D/340D (Vertical) and 40 AES/EBU meters (Arc).

What makes these virtual meters so valuable is that I trust them. You can select three sizes: Small, Large and Extra Large. When it comes to mix time, I’ll stick a vertical 380/340D on the side of my screen, make it XL (which is quite big!), and lock it there. They feature very fast peak response, as well as L/R Phase Correlation, Sum and Difference Energies, Peak and Average Level Relations, and displays for number of overs. You can also quickly switch between display sizes and styles, and I use the Dorrough Surround Edition on every 5.1 ses-sion I do as well. Visually, they are clearly the best meters currently available.

Price: $240 (TDM or Native)Contact: Waves | waves.com

Waves Dorrough Meter Collection

www.downmagaz.com


studio review By Rich Tozzoli


Over the years, I’ve used just about every piece of Lexicon hardware there is. From the warm Lex 200, through the LXP-1/5, to the 300, 480L and 960L, they’ve always worked well. I also loved the Lexiverb software for Pro Tools TDM, which appeared and regrettably disappeared, orphaned by Lexicon during the transition from Nubus to PCI. Since then, I simply lost track of what’s current from Lexicon.

After recently installing the LXP Native Reverb Bundle in my rig, I’m glad to be back.

Features

The LXP Native Reverb Bundle features four plug-ins: Chamber (LXPChamber), Hall (LXPHall), Plate (LXPPlate) and Room (LXPRoom). Authorization is via iLok License for both Mac and PC.

The LXP interface is clean, elegant and very simple to use. It provides I/O metering for visual feedback; a Realtime Display that shows either frequency content, impulse response or multiband; Store/Compare/Reload control buttons; a soft row of Parameter knobs; a customizable soft row of Assignment buttons; and a Soft Row of Navigation buttons at the bottom. The soft-ware itself is loaded via your DAW either as Plate, Chamber, Hall or Room.

A Category Selector offers up categories for the selected algorithm (such as Small,

Medium and Large Plates) and the Preset Selector reflects that chosen category. For example, in the Category of Short Plates, one of my favorite presets is Dessert Plate, with a nice 0.86 RT, roll-off and RT HiCut just around 3 kHz. Small Slapback is also very nice, adding in some nice clean echoes. Put that on a clean electric or acoustic guitar, and you’re good to go: nothing else needed.

I appreciate the thoughtful design that makes it easy to dial up great sounds, and the included presets are also quite good (it’s nice that there are not that many of them!). All you have to do is poke around at controls that should be familiar to most of us in order to start tweaking. For example, selecting Reverb in the Soft Row Navigation buttons bring up the relevant parameters in the Soft Row parameter area. The param-eters are Size (2.0 meters to 80 meters); Reverb Time (0.4054 sec to 210.399 sec ... yes, that’s not a typo!); BassRT; Bass Xov (crossover) and RT HiCut.

One of the great things about this plug-in is you can either go shallow or deep with it. I like that it includes an Echoes page, where you can choose from Eko Time Master (percentage); Eko Feedback Master (percentage); L Eko Dly (0.00 to 2.00 sec-onds); L Eko Feedback; then R Eko Dly and R Eko Feedback. Also, you can invert the

Eko feedback. I do wish it included a tempo map/BPM sync in this section. If I could tap tempo directly on the L EKO dly button, that would be cool (note to Lexicon).

Summary

LXP Native sounds seriously good, and I’m a reverb snob. The Halls are gorgeous (as I would expect), and Large Deep Hall will satisfy a long, slow vocal. The Rooms I like (but don’t love), and the Chambers are top-notch (especially the Drum Chambers). And while I have a lot of excellent Plates in my collection, none are this tweakable: cer-tainly a strength of this software.

Since these plug-ins are native, the efficiency will be related to the power of your computer. But I even tested them on an old G5, and running all four at once kicked the processor up just over 1/5th, so they seem quite efficient. My Intel didn’t even blink at them. However, you can also choose to turn off the active displays and close the plug-in editor after tweaking. With the Lexicon Native Reverb Bundle, it’s like having a modern version of an old, trusted friend. I truly am glad to be back in the Lexicon camp.

Price: $399Contact: Lexicon | lexiconpro.com

Lexicon LXP Native Reverb BundleOur software editor falls (once again) for the legendary lushness of Lexicon reverbs, this time in an efficient and ideally priced software bundle.

Rich Tozzoli is a Grammy-nominated engineer, mixer and composer as well as PAR’s software editor. richtozzoli.com

www.downmagaz.com


studio review By Russ Long

Aphex released the original hard-ware version of the Aural Exciter in the mid-1970s. The box used a unique process to increase and enhance presence, bright-ness, intelligibility and clarity by adding phase shift and musically related synthesized harmonics to an audio signal.

The original units couldn’t be purchased, but rather were exclusively available (along with an operator) at the price of $30 per

minute per track of finished recording time.

This meant that applying the processing to a pair of acoustic guitar tracks that ran through a five-minute song would cost $300. Thirty-five years later, the plug-in can be purchased, surprisingly, for less than that, and it includes unlim-ited instantiations dictated only by the power of the host computer.

In much the same way that Antares’ Auto-Tune plug-in took the recording world by storm in the late 1990s, the Aural Exciter

was one of the buzz processors of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, finding its way onto hun-dreds of albums. Some artists, including Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Jackson

Waves Aphex Vintage Aural Exciter Plug-In


studio review By Sterling Winfield


For about two months now, I’ve been using a pair of ADAM A8X monitors for all my recording and mixing work — as well as for gen-eral listening — in my little home studio. During that time, one thought kept repeating over and over again in my mind: “How can I make it look like an accident, faking that something happened to the speakers so that I can just keep them? I don’t want to give them back!”

But in all seriousness, one of the many great things about these unbelievable-sounding mid-field monitors is that they are very affordably priced; I won’t be tempted to lie or break the law to keep them.

Berlin-based ADAM Professional Audio went from a “pro audio insiders” secret in the late 1990s to arguably the hottest company in higher-end studio monitoring. First, it was all about ADAM’s premium-priced flagship S Series, then later the acclaimed A5 and A7 models in 2009 — which incorporated the company’s proprietary Accelerating Ribbon Technology (ART) tweeters — extended its reach into the studio monitor market.

Now, the AX Series, the most affordably priced ADAM monitors ever, offers newly improved features, such as the X-ART tweeters, to an even broader range of potential users.

Features

The self-powered A8X monitor ships with an IEC power cord and concise manual to get you powered up and running ASAP. Out

of the box, each A8X weighs 29 lbs. (not exactly lightweight, so lift with your legs, please). Its sleek black and gray finished cabinet measures 15.5 inches (400mm)

ADAM A8X Powered Studio MonitorInnovative ribbon tweeter technology, measurably flat frequency response and an affordable price point make the A8X an incredible value.

Sterling Winfield is a producer/engineer and mixer with multiple Grammy-nominated, platinum and gold album credits.

www.downmagaz.com


by 10 inches (255mm) by 12.5 inches (320mm), which should complement or simply blend into just about any studio aesthetic.

On the monitor’s face, its two top cor-ners are tapered in a scalene triangular shape to minimize sound reflections (see product image); this is just one visible example of unique and innovative atten-tion to detail, many of which exist on the inside of the cabinets. Although the AX Series does not come magnetically shield-ed, it is an option you can select at an additional cost.

On its front panel, the A8X provides the two variables you deal with in a “set it and forget it” capacity: the on/off switch and an input sensitivity knob (∞ to +14 dB), along with a green LED power indicator light. The rear panel boasts a few more bells and whistles, but not so many that you feel you need to attend the local junior college for a refresher course in algebra: three attenuators that raise or lower high- and low-frequency shelves (±6 dB) and tweeter gain adjustment (±4 dB). Rear-panel analog input connectors include a standard three-pin balanced XLR (+4 dBu) and an unbalanced RCA (-10 dBV).

The X-ART tweeter is a technical improvement upon the already impres-sive ART ribbon design as it provides 4-dB higher efficiency over its predecessor and is capable of frequency reproduction up to 50 kHz. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Up to 50 kHz? Why?” ADAM proposes that such a frequency response provides an absolutely flat (thus more natural) per-formance past what is discernible by the human ear — normally at the very best, around 20 kHz — rather than the slight top-end roll off that often happens with conventional tweeters.

ADAM claims significant strides in employing new tweeter materials: tradi-

tional aluminum coupled with DuPont’s Kapton (a flexible, insulating and mois-ture-resistant polyimide film) folded into an accordion shape to maximize surface area within the AX’s nearfield design. ADAM explains that this allows the X-ART ribbon to cover almost four times the real estate as a conventional dome tweeter. It is also in constant contact with air outside of the monitor’s structure, thus instantly cooling and maintaining a strict temperature, for optimal performance.

The AX’s 8.5-inch mid-woofer and driver assembly is built of carbon, Rohacell and glass fiber materials; though differing from

the materials originally found in ADAM’s upper-end models, it delivers bass and mid-range frequencies with notably impressive flatness.

The woofer and tweeter are powered by separate power amps. The tweeter uses a 50W RMS, A/B type amp that was designed in-house at ADAM. The woofer is driven by another ADAM-designed amp, a 150W RMS Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) design. Combine all these A8X compo-nents and they deliver an overall fre-quency response of 38 Hz to 50 kHz (±3 dB), producing a clean 112 dB without breaking a sweat.

“I was hearing back exactly what was recorded and/or mixed, not an interpretation or the colored characteristics of the monitor itself.”


www.downmagaz.com


In Use

When reviewing studio monitors straight out of the box, I prefer to go for the most “low budget” — far from critical listening — application, to first test their resolve in a “worst-case scenario” sort of way. So, I hooked my iPod straight into the RCA inputs of the AX8 in about a minute flat. As you might expect, the results sounded great. But let’s face it, that’s kind of like putting a monkey in a tuxedo.

So, next I wanted to see how quickly and easily I could integrate them into my stu-dio monitor setup, one in which I am very comfortable. I took down my mid-fields, swapped in the A8X pair via the XLR thru-puts of my powered sub (a KRK 10s). With very little adjustment to the input sensitiv-ity knob on the front panel and absolutely no adjustments to the rear-panel trim pots (leaving them flat), I was in business and comfortable within 10-15 minutes, tops.

Over the next two months I used them exclusively on several projects with spec-tacular results. Even on their own, with-out the subwoofer’s support, low-end

response was surprisingly full, wide, clear/clean and accurate; I expect the low end gets significant help from the A8X’s twin tuned bass reflex ports on the front panel. Midrange response was also uncompromis-ingly clear to my ears, even biting when working on things like highly distorted gui-tars or vocals; as such, A8X performance translated flawlessly to the other outside listening environments/setups I regularly depend on to tell me if I am headed in the right direction.

As for the high-end accuracy, it is literal-ly off of the charts, due to the X-ART tweet-er and driver components design. It is so unlike anything else in the market I’ve heard before that I honestly don’t think I have anything to compare it to (other than saying it’s the aural equivalent of cold fusion, faster-than-light space travel, or even the myth of perpetual motion). Yet in all seriousness, ADAM’s ribbon tweet-er technology is a truly groundbreaking innovation that continues to evolve and improve the tools we audio engineers have to work with.

Pack all of the power described above into a speaker box that streets for $999 (each), and we have a winner all the way around in a world where similarly perform-ing monitors have much bigger price tags. Living with this A8X pair, I truly felt that I was hearing back exactly what was record-ed and/or mixed, not an interpretation or the colored characteristics of the monitor itself. That is how transparent and flat I found these speakers.

Summary

I contend that A8X mid-field monitors are just what the studio professional on a budget needs — or even aspiring ones, considering the price point. They are designed, handmade and tested all in-house, under one roof, by a known manufacturer with high-quality compo-nents. And if it sounds right played back on these monitors, it will translate that well everywhere else.

Price: $999 eachContact: ADAM Audio USA | adam-audio.com

studio review By Frank Wells


Features

The Pelonis Signature Model 42 studio monitor loudspeakers have a distinctive “function-defining-form” appearance. The sloped rhomboid shape (patent pending) is smaller than most two-way systems with similar frequency-response specifications, the move from the common rectangular shape made possible by the use of con-centric drivers (the tweeter mounted in the center of the woofer, the woofer cone

becoming the HF waveguide).Further, using concentric drivers means

that the cabinet can be rotated with top, bottom and sides being interchangeable designations without affecting imaging. That allowed Pelonis to implement an addi-tional innovation in the housing design — the face and rear of the cabinet are sloped allowing the monitors to be placed in one of three positions: face sloped down, for positioning such as where a meter bridge

or high speaker stands are above the engi-neers nominal head position; face sloped up, for positioning on a desktop surface below the engineer’s head: face vertical, for positioning even with the engineer’s head (in this position, with the rear of the monitors perpendicular to the front studio wall and the monitor position in the apex of an equilateral triangle, the components are perfectly aimed). The ported front baffle board measures 6 x 7 inches, the slope making the overall width or height 8 inches, depending on orientation. The depth is 6 inches plus the offset of the rear banana plug/binding post connectors.

The Model 42s are a system that includes an external, 1RU amplifier and processor. The rear-panel input Neutrik combo TRS/XLR

Pelonis Signature Series Model 42 Studio Monitor LoudspeakersThese portable Pelonis studio monitors offer superb clarity, detail and balance with stellar imaging.

Frank Wells is the editorial director for PAR.

Building upon the heritage of his large speaker systems, acousti-cian, room and monitor designer, Chris Pelonis, of Pelonis Sound & Acoustics, undertook a quest to bring that same character and experi-ence to a system that is both portable and affordable.

www.downmagaz.com


jacks feed an A/D converter, DSP process-ing and Class-D amplification. The speakers are bi-wired, with separate input terminals for the woofer and tweeter. The amplifier is 4-channel, with 100 watts available for each component of a stereo pair. The ampli-fier unit has only I/O and two physical con-trols: the front-panel power switch and the rear-panel +4/-10 sensitivity switch.

The custom DSP comes fixed, tweaked by Pelonis and his design team for a remark-ably flat frequency response, though a 5-band parametric EQ can be accessed via a front panel USB connection on the amp/DSP unit (Windows and Mac Control soft-ware versions). Asked about the crossover frequency within the DSP, Chris Pelonis replies, “Part of the magic is the crossover...It’s a multipoint cascading crossover, and the slopes are nontraditional. It all hap-pens between 1k and 4k. That’s all I really want to give up.” (You can read more about the painstaking, multi-year development of the Model 42s in Pelonis’ own words in the Sound Innovations column of the July 2011 issue of Pro Sound News, or online at prosoundnetwork/August 2011). The cross-over was certainly inaudible to my ears, and invisible on the published frequency response plots.

The speaker components themselves are from coaxial speaker experts, Tannoy. The LF driver is a 4-inch cone; the HF driver

is a ¾-inch titanium dome design, using neodymium magnets. The rated frequency response is 75 Hz to 35 kHz (+/- 3 dB) and 63 Hz to 37 kHz (-10 dB). Visit the Pelonis Sound website for anechoic plots of the frequency and phase performance — truly impressive.

In Use

While impressive measurement doesn’t guarantee impressive performance, in this case, they coincide quite nicely. My first substantial exposure to the Model 42s was in a hotel demo during this year’s Frankfurt Musikmesse/ProLight & Sound. This demo included a prototype of a soon-to-be-avail-able companion subwoofer. Using my own compilation CD as source material, I spent an illuminating hour listening to the system and discussing the design concepts with Chris Pelonis and David Bryce (of distribu-tor Wave Distribution).

I’ve had the core system (sans sub) on my desk for some time now (sitting atop Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizers, oriented for up-angle dispersion), and my first impres-sions were reinforced. I left the monitors set flat in the factory position for most of my listening with no objections, but did experiment with the custom EQ Control software, which accesses the DSP for five fully parametric EQ bands (switchable to shelving for the end bands), mute, level and delay control, if desired. The interface

is simplistic but functional, and user setups can be stored on the host computer.

Wanting to avoid the Christmas-morning-with-no-batteries-for-the-presents syn-drome, the Model 42s are provided with four 3-meter lengths of zip cable to make the system plug and play. My only (minor) quibble is that the spacing of the jacks on the speaker cabinets is a touch wider than standard dual banana-plug spacing. When moving the speakers between locations, I’d have liked to have mounted dual-banana plugs on the cable ends for a setup taking a few seconds rather than a couple of minutes.

Summary

The Model 42s are honest monitors providing clarity, detail and balance. The imaging is stellar, and I experienced no listener fatigue in long listening sessions. The monitors perform well across a sat-isfyingly broad range of volume levels. I’d asked Pelonis about the crossover because it’s inaudible; so often cross-overs interfere with clarity in the criti-cal vocal frequencies, and that’s an area where the Model 42s shine.

The Model 42s run rings around much of the competition and stand well above most comparably spec’d sys-tems, perhaps above all similarly priced competitors. Many small systems are compromised when housing an internal power amplifier, the amplifiers reined in by available space. The outboard amp insures that the acoustic cabinet is not compromised and allows space for the DSP and amplifier capacity that insures ample headroom. While I missed the deep bottom end provided by the sub on cuts with low end I know well, I mostly found the monitor system a substantial per-former providing a gratifying experience on its own — the LF drivers move a lot of air belying their size.

Hearing is believing, and you need to hear the Model 42s. In a word: Sweet!

Price: $999 (speaker pair, including amplification, processing and speaker wire)Contact: Pelonis Sound & Acoustics | pelonissound.com


new live products


HK Audio “Configurator” iOS App

HK Audio is now offering a “Configurator” iPad/iPhone/iPod touch App for its Elements line of modular sound rein-forcement, to help audio professionals put together the ideal HK Elements sys-tem based on application. Systems range from 150-Watt configurations for speak-ing engagements up to a full 3,600-Watt stereo system for live performance.

Users are able to input certain infor-mation into the App, including type of performance, crowd and venue size, and the App will generate a suggested HK Elements system solution. The App also has an educational component that explains the advantages of the Elements line, shows users how the six compo-nents in the series can be combined, and provides an authorized dealer locator for anywhere in the world.Price: Free (from Apple’s App Store)Contact: HK Audio | hkaudio.com/us

Yamaha StageMix 2.0 iPad App for Yamaha M7CL & LS9 Digital ConsolesAfter over 45,000 downloads of the initial StageMix iPad App for Yamaha M7CL and LS9 digital consoles, Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems has announced availability of StageMix 2.0 via free download from the Apple iTunes store. StageMix 2.0 will provide end-users with greater console management and include significant upgrades including control of Head Amp gain for each Input Channel and Scene Memory Management (Store, Recall, Scene Titles, and Comments). Version 2.0 is for use with M7CL firmware v3.5 or higher. StageMix 2.0 for the Yamaha LS9 includes control of Head Amp gain for each Input Channel and Scene Memory

Management (Store, Recall, Scene Titles, and Comments). Version 1.18 LS9 firmware or later is recommended. A number of additional functions complement the existing array of controls, including On/Off, Parametric EQs and Channel Cue; Sends

on Faders, Mix Master Faders; Mix Bus On/Off, Last Cue/Mix Cue Mode, Clear All Cues and graphic EQs. Mix parameters that can be viewed include Input Channel Names and Meters; Mix/Matrix Bus Names; Mix Bus Meters and EQ Input and Output Meters.Price: Free downloadContact: Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems | yamahaca.com

Community MX8, MX10 Stage Monitors

Community Professional Loudspeakers has added two monitors to its M-Class Series — the MX8 and MX10. Applications for the new models include houses of worship, corporate presentations, musical theater, education facilities, television, studio and live music performance. Handling 300 watts and 500 watts, respec-tively, the 8-inch MX8 and 10-inch MX10 use Community’s proprietary coaxial driver units.

Their coaxial design means that all of the sound emanates from the same point source, and the Tru-Phase conical high-frequency waveguide reportedly eliminates the transition anomalies that occur in most square and rectangu-lar horns.

The MX8 and MX10 also incorporate two further Community innovations. Carbon Ring Cone Technology is said to increase the effective cone area for greater performance and reliability, while DYNA-TECH multi-stage limiter circuits protect against damage from over-driving.Price: POAContact: Community Professional Loudspeakers | communitypro.com

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new live products

Behringer “Summer Savings Event” — Up to 60 Percent Off

Behringer’s “Summer Savings Event,” offers savings of up to 60 percent on products including the EUROLIVE B212D and B215D powered speakers; XENYX 502, 802 and 1222FX mixers; and all three models of EUROPORT portable PA systems. Stay tuned to PAR for our upcoming EPA900 review.Prices: Up to 60 percent off U.S. and Canadian list prices Contact: Behringer | behringer.com

DPA Microphones d|FINE Headset Range

DPA Microphones will launch its d|FINE headset range at IBC 2011 in early September. The d|FINE headsets update the design of DPA’s 4066 and 4088 mod-els. “Named to reflect the headsets’ accurate audio definition and natural sonic characteristics,” offers

DPA, d|FINE also “sets a new standard in single-earpiece headsets.”

DPA will also be showing its Reference Standard 4000 Series, which builds and improves on DPA’s Standard and Compact 4006, 4011, 4015 and 4017 mics, and the new Twin Diaphragm Capsules which form the 2000 Series. Price: TBAContact: DPA Microphones | dpamicrophones.com


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live review By Ben Burns


Roland has been producing the V-Mixing system for some time, incorporating unique features that let you do things like link audio and video systems (via Roland’s V-Link) for flawless synchronized audio and video fades. The heart of the system is REAC (Roland Ethernet Audio Communication), which can carry 40 channels of uncom-pressed 24-bit audio both ways down a standard Cat-5 cable.

In turn, the Roland M-480 console is at the heart of a number of components that can make up an extensive REAC system. This console features a newly designed mix engine, which can handle up to 60 audio channels with a fixed bus architec-ture including main (LCR), 16 aux bus-ses, and eight matrices. If you want more inputs, why not take advantage of the new cascade function? Then you can mix up to 96 inputs and up to 90 outputs using two consoles and one simple Cat-5e/-6 cable.

Features

The main features of the console are 48 mixing chan-nels plus six stereo returns for a total of 60 channels; main (LCR) outputs, 16 aux busses, eight matri-ces; four-band advanced parametric EQ, and

delays on all inputs and outputs; compres-sors and gates on all mixing channels; six built-in stereo (dual-mono) multi-effects and 12 graphic EQs (switchable to eight-band PEQs).

The review model arrived in a flight case with wheels; if you were feeling like it you could get the desk into a smaller lighter case and carry it about. The M-480 reminds me of a PM5D in a few ways: the user inter-face is basically cursor keys and a data wheel; when you call up one of the graphic EQ modules for editing, an RTA pops up showing the frequency plot for the adjusted signal. Like the PM5D, the M-480 has a central display and buttons, but where it differs are the function keys, which are more like an ATM screen with buttons. This

is the part of the interface that speeds up the whole process of working with chan-nels, as each button changes its function depending on the selection.

The desk boots up quickly and (with-out even referencing the manual) I was listening to audio in minutes. Patching an input to a fader strip is super easy and quite intuitive, thanks to some ergonomic design ideas utilizing the function buttons. Memory slots for desk settings are stored the usual way, on a USB stick; Roland rec-ommends that a dedicated USB device be used exclusively for the M-480 mixer. As far as snapshots go, there is an extensive 300-scene memory with global scope, recall filter and lock functions. Almost everything on the desk is recallable — exclusions being

the talkback section, USB recorder playback state and user settings.

In Use

Bronzehead is an 11-piece Afro-beat band, and I thought

I could try out the desk to mix a small gig for them, at

the terrible mercy of the house PA system, acous-

tics and monitors. I set the desk up for dual FOH and monitors, using the same channel for FOH

Roland Systems M-480The ease of use, footprint, price point and much more makes this V-Mixing system a package worth considering.

Ben Burns, contributor to PAR sister publication, Audio Media, is a London-based live/studio engineer for artists such as Blur and Dido.

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and monitors. Usually, I would run a sec-ond “layer of channels” with different EQ and compression settings for monitors. This technique gives you more to do however, and as I didn’t know the desk at all, I went for the simple option this time. Running two layers is perfectly possible with this board; in fact, the first two user layers default to mirror the input layers, making this a default desk state — very handy, as this setup can take a long time on other consoles.

Setting up the desk was easy enough, running the thin Cat-5 cable over doorways is easy thanks to its light weight. I don’t like more power on stage than absolutely neces-sary — self-powered wedges and rock ’n’ roll antics really don’t mix well. The REAC stage boxes each require power via a standard IEC connector, and there is a convenient cable clasp for the power cable to be anchored to the unit to ensure a reliable connection. The whole Roland system works in a true plug-and-play fashion, so as long as you get green lights for each REAC device connected, it would seem you are in business. I didn’t get any red lights, but I did get an intermittent connection and thus audio dropouts during the prep. This turned out to be the supplied Cat-5 cable drums with mutilated Neutrik connectors. Happily, I figured the problem out before the gig, and Mr. PVC whopped it.

Usually when mixing a show, DCAs (digi-tally controlled amplifiers) or the old analog equivalent VCAs (voltage-controlled ampli-fiers) are a useful way to control a whole group of inputs and get a general balance from eight faders. The DCA function on the desk works as expected. The DCAs are avail-able via the screen interface; the DCAs are not by default on any surface, but I found it quicker to set up a user layer with my DCA masters, which can then be navigated to with one button push.

Using graphic EQs on the output busses is easy, you can insert external devices if you prefer to use other processing equip-ment, although this will use up physical I/O on your REAC system and increase the latency of the signal path. Patching the con-sole is quite quick, once you realize there are a couple of ways to do it — one of the tricks this board does very well.

Within two button pushes, you can

view the current REAC input patched to any channel. Select a channel and choose “patch” from the onscreen menu, you are then taken to the patch editor with the crosshairs targeting the selected channel. This can save a lot of time when re-patching the console.

Adjusting the head amp channel gain, phantom power and polarity settings are via a dedicated section and are very clear and easy to use. I found it hard to get confused while using the desk, which is surprising, given the complex capabilities of the console and operator errors. The flow of operation is quite smooth, you never have to go into complex menu structures to do anything, and it seems to operate in a predictable, intuitive way.

The onboard dynamics processors all work quite well and are fast to access. Once I figured out how to make the display button enable or bypass the processor, it became easy to insert gates and comps on any chan-nel. Each gate has a key input (complete with filter), which can be soloed to fine-tune the response of the gate. The dynamics proces-sors worked well, and it’s easy to adjust the thresholds via a dedicated encoder. EQ-wise, the four-band parametric results can be very dramatic. The digital processing yields results that sounded OK, though it wasn’t an entirely smooth experience.

Summary

For the price point, this is a serious-ly useful piece of kit, although building a large REAC setup would cost a fair amount. If it proved to be reliable, it could be a cost-effective way of building an integrated mixing, recording and audio distribution system. If you need to work with video, then there are many boxes being ticked by this console, even more so if you use Roland’s V-link enabled vision mixers. Taking into account the capability, footprint, ease of use, appar-ent stability and price point, this desk is probably quite hard to beat.

Price: $11,795 (console only, snake configuration is an additional cost)Contact: Roland Systems Group | rolandsystemsgroup.com


What Roland’s REAC

Technology Can Do for

M-480 Users

Roland has opted for a fairly exten-

sive modular signal distribution solu-

tion based on its proven REAC tech-

nology. Squeezing 40 channels of

audio each way down a little Cat-5

cable is a interesting approach,

with most manufacturers using two

cables (one for each direction).

For these purposes, Roland

has successfully created products

like the S-0816 Stagebox: a small,

remote, mic preamp A/D converter

with eight XLR inputs and 16 XLR

outputs. By using an optional

REAC splitter, multiple copies of

the same audio can be easily mir-

rored to remote locations; it’s quite

an elegant digital press distribution

system as large numbers of cam-

eras can be served by one Cat-5

cable and a small remote box. The

S-1608 does the opposite, with 16

inputs and eight outputs.

The REAC modules can be

configured with various elements

including conversion to MADI,

optical REAC and other formats,

as well as a laptop computer

connection and 48-track REAC

hard-disk recorder. M-48 personal

monitor mixers use a REAC data

stream (usually made up of sub-

groups). Each musician can con-

trol his/her own monitoring mix.

Each M-48 personal mixer

includes ambient inputs, as well

as a reverb effect and a pro-

cessed headphone output. The

line output even has a low-pass

filter for using kickers or subs in

addition to in-ears.

The R-1000 48-track recorder

is available to use with any REAC

system. It can connect to any

MADI-equipped system via the

use of the optional REAC-MADI

bridge, although it would still have

only 48 inputs.

By linking up two M-480 con-

soles, it is possible to have a

96 mixing channel system, with

shared output busses.

live review By Ben Burns


The VeniceF series is the upgrade to the original Venice console, adding more of the professional features found on higher-end consoles. The first Midas Venice console was adopted quickly in the live industry, the quality preamps and nice-sounding EQ always a favorite. This new console will delight anyone who thought the original console lacked some important features.

Features

Compared to the original Venice range, the F series is a different beast altogether. There are smooth 100mm faders on every input channel and output bus. The ergonom-ics of the desk and the flat fader tray make everything visible and accessible. The updat-ed mic pre section now includes a -20 dB pad, Polarity invert, phantom power and 80 Hz HPF switch at the top of each input strip.

The stereo channels have dual concentric gain controls, and while the phantom and pad switches affect both sides, the polarity switch inverts only the left channel. The four stereo channels can be used with phantom-powered sources via the dual XLR inputs, or line-level sources via the quarter-inch jack inputs. Another great feature lets you use the stereo mic inputs and the stereo line inputs at the same time: for example, connecting external effects while not diminishing the channel count.

Each channel has a direct out (both analog and digital) which can be switched either pre or post EQ. There is also a switch to enable the analog insert point. Possibly the greatest feature of the console is the XL3 EQ section, with four-band swept

EQ and two fully parametric mid range sec-tions as well as an EQ bypass switch.

The compact nature of this console has really not omitted any features, with the dual-concentric EQ controls tightly packed onto the mixing surface. There are a total of six aux sends: two can be pre or post EQ, while all six may be switched pre or post fade, essential for flexible applica-tions. There are routing switches for each of the four group busses, as well as a pan to groups switch and switches for the LR and mono bus. There are two matrices (with seven inputs), which are great for feeding other zones or for record outputs. In addition, a two-track send and return with RCA connectors for your music player is included. Other professional features are a 1 kHz oscillator and talkback input, which can be routed as required.

It would seem that Midas has been lis-tening to its customers, intently it would seem, as the most demanded features have been firmly integrated into the desk. Things that the original Venice was lacking are now included, such as a pad switch and a phan-tom-power switch you can reach without having to stretch behind the console. The

100mm faders are also a welcome upgrade to the original 60mm faders. By integrating everything including the power supply into the same box, even the 32-channel version is still a very compact tool for something with this feature set.

On top of this fully functional analog Midas console is a built-in 32x32-channel FireWire interface with its own ASIO or Core Audio drivers for easy routing to any DAW software on a Mac or PC. The power here lies in the

ability to use the FireWire interface and your favorite software to run inserts

on each channel, effects plug-ins and record high-quality multitrack audio all at the same time. A converter in

the VeniceF operate at 44.1 or 48 kHz rather than the default 96

kHZ in the digital consoles. The desk comes with

Propellerheads Record soft-ware, which is an extensive

Midas VeniceF Live Analog Mixer with FireWireMidas strives to close the gap between analog and digital with its Venice update, the VeniceF.

Ben Burns, contributor to PAR sister publication, Audio Media, is a London-based live/studio engineer for artists such as Blur and Dido.

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(if somewhat initially unintuitive) package. It seems to work very well, but having lim-ited time to learn this Reason-like software, I chose to stick to my Logic audio setup. Theoretically, you can use any software you like, as long as it supports core audio or ASIO.

In Use

I started out using the desk as an analog mixer, plain and simple. PVC tape fits per-fectly above the faders so you can still see the channel numbers. As usual, no lights came with the desk, but (on the 32-chan-nel version) there are two 4-pin XLR 12V lamp sockets. Plugging everything in is easy, “fat” jack plugs go in next to each other with no problem, unlike some densely populated products. The FireWire and power connectors have no way of locking into place, so care is required with both these critical connections. Setting up an input channel is quick and easy, everything is right next to the gain pot.

Getting at the densely populated EQ con-trols requires a little care, so as not to make any unintended adjustments. As predicted, the mic pre and EQ sound very sweet: a fantastic Midas console with the quality you would expect. The high-shelf filter really sparkles; it adds a lovely air to vocals, instru-ments and cymbals. The fully parametric mids are excellent and can have a very sharp Q to really hone in on something, at least between 100 Hz - 2 kHz and 400 Hz - 8 kHz. The wider Q settings can give very subtle results and really shape a signal smoothly. I would have liked the lo-mid filter to drop to a lower frequency than 100 Hz, as using a sharp Q at low frequencies is a handy tool. The bass-shelf filter is very responsive and adds a lovely warmth and fatness. When used in conjunction with the HPF (fixed at

80 Hz) you can limit the boost to the 100 Hz area without adding too much in the 50-60 Hz area. The EQ is very musical sounding, with a very smooth action and a nearly silent bypass switch.

Connecting the desk to speaker systems is a breeze, thanks to the high-quality XLR connectors for every bus output. Although there are only insert points for the main L-C-R, the four groups, and the two “moni-tor” aux busses. The other four auxes do not have analog insert points; unless you “flip” the group and aux faders allowing the group insert points to be used for auxes instead. This would make sense if the board were to be used as a dedicated monitor console.

I started using the board as a FOH and monitor desk in a small venue. Sending vocals to the monitor system, without any EQ I apply to the FOH signal, traditionally requires the use of either another channel or a group output. For the two “monitor” auxes on the VeniceF, you can simply select the pre-EQ option, so your EQ won’t affect the monitors.

Getting a mix up on the VeniceF is easy: Everything just does what it says on the tin. Any adjustment you make is instantly audi-ble, and you can feel that every component is of a high quality and individually secured to the main surface. I had no problem get-ting four monitor mixes and an FOH mix together. In fact, using inserts via the digital

interface worked rather well, although using a mouse is possibly not the most efficient way to control the software.

Summary

The desk sounds great. We like to think that summing audio signals in the analog domain has a certain advantage when com-pared to the digital alternative; certainly a high-quality analog product such as this console produces a wonderful representa-tion of whatever you feed into it.

There is nothing of this quality available with this feature set at this price point. Midas has struck a genius blow in the current cli-mate of small (and usually far lesser quality) digital products that promise large capabil-ity in a small package. The VeniceF promises absolute Midas quality with all the traditional analog features, plus the digital interface. As a console, it is extremely quick and easy to use; couple this with whatever software you fancy and you have a very powerful mixing/recording system.

If there is anything I don’t like about the console, it would be the lack of mute groups — not such a big deal if you can move fast or are able to route channels through the groups.

Price: 16-, 24- and 32-channel versions, $2500, $4000 and $6000Contact: Midas | midasconsoles.com

Example SetupsThe possibilities of setups for the VeniceF are pretty endless, but here are

some examples of the type of setups the desk could be used for.

1. Small Venue FOH and monitor console with four monitor sends, L-C-R

PA, under-balcony delays from a matrix, stereo record out from a matrix,

digital dynamics inserts via the FireWire interface, plus multitrack recording

and effects.

2. Playback Mixer Sub mixer for a large multitrack replay system — 32

inputs from playback software (Pro Tools, Logic, Live, etc), three stereo

monitor mix outputs, L-C-R mix, and four group outputs to the main sys-

tem.

3. Theater System Combining radio microphone signals, simple monitor

setup and multitrack surround-sound triggered audio cues.

4. Small Studio I/O Perfect if you want to interface a collection of analog

gear with a DAW and also mix out of the box, summing analog signals.

This desk is equally at home in the studio. In fact, it is pretty much the

main hub of a very high-quality studio setup, amazing for live tracking of

up to 32 channels.

5. Mobile Recording A small mobile studio could use the VeniceF as a

tracking console, using the analog direct outputs for recording to existing

equipment, while also running a FireWire recording system for redundancy.

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ProAudioReview

to the old ones. Money talks—and so does sound quality.

Summary

Now that I’ve experienced the benefits of my modded Ghost, I feel compelled to mod the remaining 20 channels, even though the master section mods appear to be significant in their own right. I’m confident that my clients do hear the difference, and that can justify the additional expense. This whole endeavor has made me second-guess my ears and their judgments, so please read the sidebar testimonial on this topic from legendary producer/engineer Michael Wagener, who did his own summing/mixing tests with interesting conclusions.

I’m sure that many of you are wondering how your own analog console would fare from such treatment. Let me first recommend looking into power supply improvement, as any improvements to components will result in more current draw and some head-room here is pivotal. You will find an abun-

dance of modern components (op amps, caps, etc.) that can improve performance, but the selection of those components should be left up to the “experts” — those well aware of longevity and performance expectations — to maximize your benefits and value in investment.

Technicians such as Brandon and the team at Creation Audio Labs have the experience and insight to evaluate your particular console and make specific rec-

ommendations. Who knows? You may be only a few thousand dollars away from having a powerhouse of an analog mixer that’s already in your control room — or storage closet.


“Harrison has fantastic customer service,” Tiemann notes. “Everybody in the company is supportive of the project, looking for ways to improve their console, get feedback, make improvements. It’s a very innovative com-pany. I’m really excited to be working with a group of people who seem to be as inter-ested in my project as I am. One of the frus-trations that many people express is how difficult it is to work with some proprietors of software who basically tell you how it’s going to be ... or worse, who don’t tell you how it’s going to be! So I’m really looking forward to the ongoing relationship with them.”

As the facility ramps up to full operation, Tiemann is enthusiastic about the interoper-ability of its component parts. “We have the ability to link these two consoles within the infrastructure, or split them completely.” For example, he offers, “We can be running a big tracking session in the main room and simultaneously monitor in surround sound in the annex. And we have video feeds, so we can be watching monitor multiplexers, mixing surround and giving directions to the camera guys. We’ve tested it, and I’m dying to put it to use.”Contact: Manifold Recording | manifoldrecording.com

Manifold(continued from page 18)

Ghost(continued from page 25)

Center and channel PCBs for the Soundcraft Ghost.

Browne, went so far as listing it in the credits: “This album was recorded using the Aphex Aural Exciter.”

The Waves Aphex vintage Aural Exciter plug-in is a software model of one of the original, tube-powered Aural Exciters. It delivers the unique character of the original within a Native ($250) or TDM ($500) plug-in shell. The original device had two modes, the MIX mode (called MIX 2 on the plug-in) that allowed the unit to be used as an insert, or the AX mode that allowed the unit to be used in an aux send/return configura-tion. Because of the way the box processes audio, both modes sound entirely different.

Since DAW mixing is often radically differ-ent than traditional analog mixing, Waves provided a third mode called the MIX 1 mode. This mode allows the plug-in to be used as an insert with the same sonic results as using the AX mode in an aux send/return configuration. I should also mention that, as with the original hardware Exciter, the BP (bypass) mode does slightly affect the sound.

The original hardware exciter was fairly noisy and, while the plug-in provides the option of being completely silent, the mod-eled noise characteristics of the original can be dialed in at up to the original’s level.

I’ve been using the Aural Exciter plug-in for several months now, and I think it’s truly fantastic. I’ve found many uses, including inserting the plug (set to the AX mode) on

an aux return adds a wonderful presence to backing vocals. It adds a beautiful sparkle and sheen to acoustic guitars when inserted on the channel and set to MIX 1. I’ve suc-cessfully inserted the plug-in (again with the MIX 1 mode) on a drum sub-group to breathe new life into a dead, lifeless drum track. I’ve even had good results on few rare occasions of strapping the plug across my entire mix (although traditional EQ is still the better tool for this task in most situations).

The good news is that virtually every vocal and acoustic instrument and fre-quently even an entire mix sounds better with the Aural Exciter. The bad news is that its cumulative effect can negatively affect a mix. My advice? Use it often, yet sparingly. Contact: Waves | waves.com

Aphex(continued from page 33)

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