Monday, January 19, 2004
NAMM: Edirol - 25 Key Controller with Audio Recording
Edirol announced the PCR-1 keyboard - the ideal audio-interface & keyboard controller for the traveling musician, the mobile DJ, and the home recording musician working with limited space. With 25 keys and RCA in/out for audio recording, the PCR-1 will be a competitor to the Oxygen 8 from M-Audio.
Posted at 9:43 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Sunday, January 18, 2004
NAMM: Affordable DVD-Audio Mastering!
Minnetonka Audio Software has announced discWelder BRONZE, a basic DVD-Audio authoring program that allows consumers and prosumers to deliver surround and high-resolution audio on DVD-Recordable media, at under $100.
This means that there is finally an affordable option for DVD-A mastering. Minnetonka's professional DiscWelder Chrome and DiscWelder Steel are much more expensive, pricing them out of reach for the average consumer (although they also offer some great features for professionals.)
Check back on our site sometime during March for pricing, on-line ordering and more detailed specs.
Posted at 4:11 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Thursday, January 15, 2004
NAMM: (Affordable) 10x10 Firewire Audio
Edirol announced the FA-101 FireWire Audio Capture Interface today at NAMM. A half rack, metallic red Firewire soundcard, it appears to have similar specs to the UA-1000, their very popular USB 2.0 audio capture card.
The FA-101 will offer 10x10 24-bit/96kHz Audio performance (8 x 8 analogue, 2 x2 digital of course), with playback support up to 24-bit/192kHz Audio Performance. The cool feature is that it can be FireWire Bus-Powered - too bad there aren't many laptops with 6 pin Firewire ports to take advantage of this.
Of course, as you would expect there is direct monitoring and low-latency driver support. There are some very cool routing and configuration options, allowing you to use it as a mixer/router as well as an audio capture device.
Rumour is that it will be more affordable than most other Firewire audio cards. No firm ETA yet.
Posted at 10:29 AM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
First of many NAMM new products... Keystation 49e
Stay tuned to our blog for the latest product announcements from NAMM this week.
I'll start things off with M-Audio's Keystation 49e. Not much exciting about it - a 49 key USB MIDI Controller - until you check the price tag - it will be selling for less than $100 US! The other exciting feature is that it is "Class Compliant" meaning it will install on both Windows and Mac OSX machines without needing drivers.
This is very cool - under $100 and no drivers required. Very cool. Hopefully this will be the first of many "Class Compliant" products.
Check our site soon for on-line ordering.
- Kelly
Posted at 8:08 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Monday, January 12, 2004
2004 Music Technology Industry Resolutions
The beginning of a new year is always a good time to make resolutions on how to improve your life. However, that would be too much work, so instead, we've compile some resolutions for other people! Here are our tongue in check resolutions for the Music Technology Industry:
- Everyone - We resolve to go back to the days of printed, helpful, illustrated user guides and manuals and searchable on-line help (enough with the PDF files!). Kudos to Sibelius for continuing to release a well-written (and even humorous) printed manual.
- PG Music - we resolve to update the Band in a Box Interface so that it doesn't have so many buttons with the letter "S" on them
- Sibelius - we resolve to release Kontakt Player Gold sometime before then end of the year, and from now on we won't advertise a product until it is available
- ESI (Ego Sys)- we resolve to stop releasing vapourware. The next time we announce a product release we will have more than just an artists rendering!
- M-Audio - we resolve to release stable drivers when we release a new product - we won't make everyone wait for two weeks while we finish quashing the last few bugs
- Sony - we resolve to stop putting "Screen" or "Movie" in the title of every single product we release, and we further resolve to stop changing our products and pricing every week
- Microsoft - we will will get together with all of the soundcard manufacturers and brainstorm a truly "plug in and play" solution that automatically optimizes your drivers and audio application for latency. No more fiddling with stuff. This would end all of those tedious tasks such as installing drivers, setting buffers, selecting ins/out, latency setting etc.
Posted at 5:37 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
2004 Music Technology Industry Resolutions
The beginning of a new year is always a good time to make resolutions on how to improve your life. However, that would be too much work, so instead, we've compile some resolutions for other people! Here are our tongue in check resolutions for the Music Technology Industry:
- Everyone - We resolve to go back to the days of printed, helpful, illustrated user guides and manuals and searchable on-line help (enough with the PDF files!). Kudos to Sibelius for continuing to release a well-written (and even humorous) printed manual.
- PG Music - we resolve to update the Band in a Box Interface so that it doesn't have so many buttons with the letter "S" on them
- Sibelius - we resolve to release Kontakt Player Gold sometime before then end of the year, and from now on we won't advertise a product until it is available
- ESI (Ego Sys)- we resolve to stop releasing vapourware. The next time we announce a product release we will have more than just an artists rendering!
- M-Audio - we resolve to release stable drivers when we release a new product - we won't make everyone wait for two weeks while we finish quashing the last few bugs
- Sony - we resolve to stop putting "Screen" or "Movie" in the title of every single product we release, and we further resolve to stop changing our products and pricing every week
- Microsoft - we will will get together with all of the soundcard manufacturers and brainstorm a truly "plug in and play" solution that automatically optimizes your drivers and audio application for latency. No more fiddling with stuff. This would end all of those tedious tasks such as installing drivers, setting buffers, selecting ins/out, latency setting etc.
Posted at 5:37 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Sunday, January 11, 2004
Music Technology Predictions for 2004
Well, I guess we are a bit late, but the other day some of us at Kelly's Music got together to share our predictions (and hopes!) for what will happen in the world of Music Technology in 2004. It is likely that some of them are safe predictions, but others are just wild guesses and wishful thinking!
So, as long as you don't hold us to them, here are our Music Technology Predictions for 2004:
- Coda will release Finale 2004 for Mac OS X sometime before the end of 2004 (just in time to release a 2005 version a month later!)
- A notation program will be released that supports either DXi or VST soft synths
- A major company will start work on intelligent software for pitch to MIDI conversion that actually works well
- Edirol will launch a low cost USB MIDI synth maybe coupled with audio capabilities for an all in one solution
- At least one new audio or MIDI standard will be launched, confusing things even further! (As if VST, ASIO, WDM, MME, GSIF, GM2, and TDM weren't enough.)
- A few more companies will announce M-LAN products, but it still won't take off
- There will be a lot more Firewire audio devices by the end of the year, but not much for MIDI
- Due to success of the Edirol UA-1000, USB 2.0 audio will catch on and we will see some new USB 2.0 audio interfaces.
- By the end of the year, USB 1.0 audio devices will be few and far between, replaced by USB 2.0 versions
- A soundcard company will start work on a dual USB/Firewire soundcard
Posted at 9:59 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::