The ART Pro Channel is a tube-based mic preamp, compressor / limiter, and four-band parametric EQ. It combines the essentials from ART's tube preamp, optical compressor, and EQ into a single, 2U package. Features The preamp section is a hybrid tube / solid-state preamp, incorporating a solid-state variable front end feeding a fixed-gain tube circuit. A variable (15 Hz - 150 Hz) low-cut control is provided. The preamp is controlled by two gain knobs and a +20 dB gain switch. The first gain knob and the switch control the solid-state amplification that feeds the tube circuit. The other gain knob is post-tube. The layout allows the user to control the amount of signal hitting the tube circuit. ART Pro Channel

A calibrated LED VU meter (labeled "Tube Character") monitors the signal coming off the tube circuit. The Tube Character indicates whether the tube is being run clean, warm, or heavily distorted. The...

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If 1998 was the year of the large-diaphragm condenser mic, then 1999 was the year of the multi-function mic preamp. Companies are bundling tons of features into these new units, vying for the premium position in your gear rack. But do these units perform? Is there really any benefit to be gained by these units, often costing as much as a small studio mixing console with 8 or more mic preamps? How important is it to have tons of features in a unit designed to facilitate tracking? And, more importantly, is it really possible to pack all those features into a $600 unit? I set out to answer these questions and arrived at some interesting conclusions. I reviewed five mic preamps in the under-$1000 price range. To be considered for this review, the units had to have at least a mic preamp, a compressor, and some kind of EQ circuit. Three of ths units I reviewed were solid-state units: the Focusrite VoiceMaster Platinum, the PreSonus VXP, and the Joemeek VC6Q. The other two units, the Bellari RP533 and...

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The Bellari RP533 is a tube-based mic preamp featuring compression and exciter circuits. Like other units in Bellari's line of tube products, the RP533 is built into a two rack space enclosure with an "antiqued" gold front panel, utilitarian black knobs, and lighted analog meter. The unit has a very utilitarian vintage look - appealing if you like the look, which I do. Bellari RP533

Features The preamp is controlled with a simple gain knob that offers about 30 dB of gain. A phantom power switch is provided on the front panel. Inconveniently, the preamp's 30 dB pad and phase reverse switches are located on the back of the unit. The location of these switches left me scratching my head, wondering, "what were they thinking?" The RP533 does not offer a low-cut switch. The preamp feeds an optocompressor with variable threshold, attack, release, ratio, and makeup gain. The front panel meter can be switched to show either the unit' output or the gain reduction applied by the compressor....

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The Joemeek VC6Q is a one rack space unit that includes a mic preamplifier, optical compressor, and three-band EQ.

The Voicemaster Platinum from Focusrite is a multifunctional mic preamp featuring a discrete mic preamp, noise-reducing downward expander, vocal saturator, optocompressor, EQ, and de-esser in a single-space rack unit.

PreSonus has been the surprise of the audio industry since the company first popped up on the radar screen a few years ago. The company's 2 and 8 channel mic preamps have received excellent press, and their unique (if slightly simplistic) Blue Max compressor is both innovative and good-sounding. I was therefore excited to review the VXP voice processor. The VXP is a feature-packed preamp offering a mic preamp, harmonic saturator, noise-reducing downward expander, de-esser, four-band parametric EQ, and peak limiter in a single unit. There's a lot to describe about this unit so let's do a quick run-down of the features. PreSonus VXP

Features The mic preamp is simple and straightforward. If you're familiar with PreSonus' other preamps then you're already familiar with the preamp in the VXP. The preamp offers a gain knob, phantom power, and -20 dB pad. A harmonic saturator "IDSS" control adds harmonics into...

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"What a waste" and "what a shame" are two phrases I've heard a lot lately. My father, John Lichty, after 20 clean and sober years, decided to fall off the wagon a few years back. Despite the best efforts of a family who has, quite frankly, seen enough alcohol related problems to fill an entire season of "The Young and the Restless", he has been unrelenting in his pursuit of distilled spirits. A few brief stays in detox did little to quench his thirst and a month ago he was finally arrested while driving under the influence of alcohol. This was his second time and he had no insurance and an expired license. The State of Michigan is not very tolerant toward these things (thankfully), so he is currently spending his days in a correctional facility located in the middle of the state. Okay, so what does any of this have to do with audio? Well, to me, almost everything. I have very few memories of the days when my parents were together and my dad was drinking. They divorced when I was just five, and the reality...

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Sound design for theater was once very clean cut. Either you were working on a musical, which had songs, or a play which had only sound effects. Now, directors want a sonic experience on par with modern film scores. Audiences are accustomed to a full-bore listening experience, and the day of the mostly-bare soundscape in theater is long gone. It's a huge job. Before computers, you went in with your sound cues, and worked with the stage manager and board operator to coordinate them with the play. When something didn't work, you went back to the studio and tried again. A play usually had 50 or less cues. It was not possible to do many more than that. There was just not enough time. Enter DAW The computer-based DAW has certainly helped along this revolution in theater composing and sound design. A Christmas Carol weighed in at a healthy 84 music cues, mostly components of scene-length sections. A play is a living object that changes and grows from night to night. So the music must be broken down...

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The Big Experiment Something I really made a point of doing for this edition was using GigaSampler's S-Converter utility. It converts Akai S1000 and S3000 libraries to GigaSampler format. I was curious about it, and I knew the only way I'd ever make myself get into it would be to force my own hand. This came in the form of the Denny Jaeger Master Violin Library, from Reflective Arts International (http://www.quparts.com). This is an extensive sample set of a studio violin section, with an overwhelming variety of detail. There are samples covering numerous intensities of section playing, with variations in volume and intensity of vibrato. Also covered are attacks from hard to soft and a complete array of effects, trems, trills, presses. You name it, if it can be done on a violin, there is some of it here. My job: To get it out of the Akai format and into GigaSampler, while maintaining the mappings. All in less than an hour, with no reading beforehand. I wanted...

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The Peter Ewers Symphonic Organ Samples are yet another example of the incredible toolset GigaSampler brings to orchestral composers. The Peter Ewers Symphonic Organ Samples library serves up three different perspectives on one of the most significant pipe organs in the world, the Grand Cavaille-Coll Organ at the Eglise de la Sainte Madeleine in Paris. This organ was at the forefront of the transition to the modern pipe organ. But it is no dinosaur. To this day, it is widely recognized as one of the finest instruments ever constructed. Grand Cavaille-Coll Organ at the Eglise de la Sainte Madeleine

Folks, take a moment and really consider this. We can have the authentic sound of a 150 year-old pipe organ come alive in our studios and in our performances. And if that weren't enough, we get the sound of its build and decay into the cathedral itself. This is realism with more than sonic significance. If you...

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Here's a library that got extraordinary amounts of airplay on A Christmas Carol. The GigaHarp and Christmas go together like cabernet sauvignon, chocolate, and naughty supermodels. Classic winning combos. This is a first-class library. Starting with KM-84s and Neve preamps through top shelf 24-bit converters, the path has never been shorter to a well recorded harp that's ready for serious programming. Each string has been sampled at four pluck levels, two harmonics, and a damping / muffling release trigger by a world-renowned, innovative harpist. You can easily control these sounds in realtime, and produce an absolutely genuine harp track in a single pass. The mapping is excellent, on par with the quality of the sounds themselves. Gary Garritan

For instance, the melodic harp comes in two levels of sensitivity to velocity. You take your pick as to which has the better mapping for your touch or your mix. Once you've loaded your choice, you'll notice that each key is mapped nicely to the four levels of "pluck." Playing melodies with these samples alone gives you detailed control of your virtual harp. But now reach over and try the mod wheel. Halfway up, you'll find the first of the harmonic plucks, which still contains some fundamental, but gives you a sharper, thinner sound. Push the wheel to its wide open position for a more extreme, guitar-like harmonic. You can roll the wheel up to pop one of these babies out, then roll it back down to continue with the plucks. This is all very seamless sounding, thanks to a fine job of mapping. In moments, you can play lines that are stunning in realism and sheer sonic quality. ...

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There are a couple of orchestral libraries, both by EastWest, that don't really fit the mold of the traditional sample library. Scoring Tools and Symphonic Adventures provide users with a set of fully orchestrated phrase components that can be used in loops, or cobbled together into larger structures. Once these basic structures have been built, one only needs to fill in with some melodic content, and presto, instant score. In many ways these libraries are more akin to loop collections than to the more common "note per key" GigaSampler libraries. As such, if you used them long enough you could easily construct pieces that would sound similar to those another user might build. Maybe exactly like it. So, do they actually have value? Is there real work to be achieved with these collections? Of course. You could just string together combinations of what's on the discs themselves, and make several hours of marketable music. But the less you manipulate what's...

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Peter Siedlaczek's Advanced Orchestra for GigaSampler (distributed in the US by EastWest) may well be the most-used set of orchestral samples on the planet. Thanks to its wide-ranging palette and reasonable asking price, this is a product that easily qualifies for ProRec's more-for-less club. Burned onto a five-CD collection, you'll find an extensive set of samples (5455 to be exact) covering the instrumentation of the modern large orchestra. Particularly valuable are the orchestral mallet instruments, including a well-recorded vibraphone. You also get a good collection of woodwind esoterica such as contrabassoon and alto flute. One won't lack for variety. The Siedlaczek collection, like the Vitous, was originally released for hardware sampler formats, and similarly has received a complete refurbishing to take advantage of GigaSampler's strengths. You'll find an extensive key-switching scheme that allows instant access to standard articulations and playing...

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There are a couple of orchestral libraries, both by EastWest, that don't really fit the mold of the traditional sample library. Scoring Tools and Symphonic Adventures provide users with a set of fully orchestrated phrase components that can be used in loops, or cobbled together into larger structures. Once these basic structures have been built, one only needs to fill in with some melodic content, and presto, instant score. In many ways these libraries are more akin to loop collections than to the more common "note per key" GigaSampler libraries. As such, if you used them long enough you could easily construct pieces that would sound similar to those another user might build. Maybe exactly like it. So, do they actually have value? Is there real work to be achieved with these collections? Of course. You could just string together combinations of what's on the discs themselves,...

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Advanced samplers have facilitated the creation of advanced orchestral sample libraries. In my opinion, these new libraries are extremely important to anyone producing music today. Before and during this review, I read user forums across the internet, attempting to do two things. First, I needed a context in which to judge my own impressions of the orchestral sample libraries I would be using for A Christmas Carol, since this is subjective stuff. Second, I wanted to get feel for how users were incorporating these collections into their work. Part of my exploration included listening to some of the work that's been distributed online. Obvious patterns emerged. 1. People making amazing music with these tools are generally satisfied and complimentary of them. 2. People that are making less than amazing music with these tools are generally critical of the tools themselves. This is completely understandable. The fact is, if you're not a good orchestrator, you will be hard pressed to make very good sounds...

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I've got to admit, there's a couple of things that made this particular review meaningful to me. One was testing these samples in a real-world situation, rather than just casually playing through them. Most reviews, frankly, are written as a result of a couple days' tinkering on the workbench. That's just the way it is. If I have an article due on 12/20, and I get the material on 12/6 - and between that time I must write and the webmeisters must edit and publish... well, you can imagine how much time there is to actually explore possibilities. It makes a huge difference when you're actually on the front line, rather than just imagining how this or that sample MIGHT work out. When you've got to end up with a world class product, there's no gray area. Things either work or they don't. Anyone who has even dabbled in orchestral samples knows about the Miroslav Vitous collection (available at http://www.marcati.com). From Hollywood to New York, and everywhere in between,...

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One of the biggest gifts that GigaSampler has given the production world is the availability (at long last) of a realistic MIDI-driven piano. Until now, the available options were rated more in terms of irritation factor. They ranged from no good to pathetic to please kill me. It's little wonder that Nemesys includes the GigaPiano with the fully-licensed GigaSampler application. Since the piano is a percussive instrument, and it does eventually decay into full silence, that makes it an instrument that can be almost completely captured and mapped, given GigaSampler's capability to provide unlimited sample length. It shows off the paradigm quickly and effectively. With GigaSampler you can have a hyper-realistic piano sample. That's been proven. But the exciting thing is to be able to compare the hyper-real qualities of different source pianos. This is where the fun really begins. For this review, I had an opportunity to evaluate three of the top-rated GigaSampler piano libraries - the GigaPiano (a Yamaha...

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Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity freeware music player for Windows 95/98/NT. Winamp supports MP3, CD, WMA, Audiosoft, Mjuice, MOD, WAV and other audio formats, custom appearances called skins and audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins.

The Power Mac G4 is quite simply the fastest machine ever designed to run audio applications.

Sound Forge 4.5 is professional sound editing software for Windows that includes an extensive set of audio processes, tools, and effects for manipulating audio. Combine Sound Forge 4.5 with any Windows-compatible sound card to create, record, edit, and refine audio files. The clean interface and familiar Windows environment make editing fast and easy.