Gary Noble Show

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Slate Digital's_TRIGGER Upgrade Special_only $50 till 8/8/11

Slate Digital's Trigger is an excellent drum replacement tool. The upgrade to the Platinum version is currently on sale at their online store for $50. To get the upgrade you must already own the EX version which sells for $129. The usual price for the Platinum is $299. So if you take advantage of the sale you will get the Trigger Platinum for $179 (a savings of $120). Sale ends on Monday Aug. 8th.

TRIGGER Ex to Platinum Upgrade Pack Only $49

Train, Taylor Swift, Shinedown, Reba McEntire, Black Eyed Peas, Megadeth, and Avenged Sevenfold are just some of the bands that have had their drums pushed to the max with the help of Steven Slate's Platinum drum sample pack. Now, until Monday August 8th, you can upgrade TRIGGER EX to PLATINUM to get the remainder of Slate's monstrous sounding samples, including all of his famous models such as the Steely Dan, Chili Peppers, and Metallica kits!

To purchase, go here:

http://www.slatedigital.com/shop/home.php?cat=249

YOU MUST OWN TRIGGER EX FIRST!

In order to use the TRIGGER EX to PLATINUM Expansion Pack, you MUST HAVE TRIGGER EX already installed. If you don't own TRIGGER EX, you can purchase it at our store first and then buy the upgrade special.

Check out Slate Digital's Youtube clip and see how versatile and easy it is to use Trigger:

Dangerous Music D-Box Summing and Monitoring System

Dangerous music has a knack for making great products to integrate the analog world with your DAW. The Dangerous Music D-Box is perfect for the modern workflow and compact environment of the Mobile and Small-Footprint DAW Studio Setup.

"More and more records are being tracked and mixed in remote or temporary locations with mobile DAW rigs. Control room setups can be tight. A reliable and flexible audio environment is a must. No need to sacrifice mix quality or struggle with monitor control! For integrated monitoring, mixing, and input selection for the computer musician on the go, the Dangerous D-Box is the uncompromising and affordable solution for all DAW-based musicians and engineers who need to trust what they hear."

SUMMING SECTION:
8 input dedicated fixed-gain analog summing buss
Master output trim with 10 dB range
Inputs 7-8 with pan control
Signal present indicators for all inputs

MONITOR SECTION:
Analog and digital capable input selector designed specifically to facilitate the analog summing workflow
Programmable exclusive/additive function- listen to selected inputs individually or combined
High-quality onboard D/A conversion 2 digital inputs - AES or PDIF 32kHZ - 100kHz sample rate
Auxiliary stereo analog input- +4 dBU or - 10 dBV programmable
2 sets of speaker outputs
Mono function

CUE/TALKBACK SECTION:
Built-in talkback microphone with "momentoggle" switching
2 headphone outputs with independent level controls
Auxiliary talkback switch input

FEATURES:

• Analog Summing
• Monitor Control
• On-board D/A conversion
• Talkback
• Headphone Cue
• Simultaneous Input Monitoring

• Unmatched Analog Summing Section
• Superb Onboard D/A Converter
• 2 Speaker Outputs
• Affordable for most DAW studio owners

Here's two examples of D-box setups to give you an idea of how best to integrate it into your own rig:

SPECIFICATIONS:

Summing Section:
Frequency Response: 1Hz-100kHz within 0.1dB
THD+N: < 0.003%
IMD: < 0.004%
Crosstalk: < -97dB
Noise: < -89dBu total energy in audio band
Maximum Input: +27dBu

Monitor Section:
Frequency Response: 1Hz-100kHz within 0.1dB
THD+N: < 0.003%
IMD: < 0.0035%
Crosstalk: < -100dB
Noise: < -91dBu total energy in audio band
Maximum Input: +26dBu

D/A Converter:
Locks to standard AES or SPDIF signals 32kHz-100kHz
Crosstalk: < -101dB
Noise:< -92dBu
THD+N: 0.005%

Nominal operating level: +4 dBu

Input impedance:
25 kohms balanced

Output impedance:
50 ohms balanced

Power consumption: 25 Watt

Warranty: 2 years parts and labor, subject to inspection. Does not include damage incurred through abusive operation or modifications/attempted repair by unauthorized technicians.

$1399 at Sweetwater Sound

Monday, August 1, 2011

Pre-Order NI's KOMPLETE 8 from AudioMidi.com & get up to $100 in Gift certificates

Pre-order your version of Komplete 8 prior to August 30, 2011 and we will do our best to get it to your door on September 1st! Now is the time to insure you'll get Komplete 8 as soon as we do!

Prices start at $199 for the Komplete 8 Update, $369 for the Komplete 8 Crossgrade, and $499 for the full version.

New for this year is Komplete 8 ULTIMATE. This version ships to you on a dedicated USB 2.0 drive, saving you hours of installation time, and offering additional storage for more content. You get everything in Komplete 8, plus 23 additional instruments and effects including Kontakt, Guitar Rig, and Reaktor.
Prices start at $499 for the Komplete 8 Ultimate Upgrade and $999 for Komplete 8 Ultimate.

As an added bonus, all versions include a gift certificate, exclusively with audioMIDI.com!

Komplete 8 is the quintessential collection of tools and sounds for musicians, producers

and sound designers. Packed full of cutting edge and award-winning samplers, synths

and creative effects, there’s more than ever to explore. Latest versions of the flagship

Kontakt 5, Guitar Rig 5 Pro, and Reaktor 5.6 are included, as well as over 1,300 additional

sounds for the renowned Massive, Absynth, and FM8. Plus, great new products like

Transient Master and Studio Drummer round off the arsenal. What’s more, Komplete 8’s

presets are now optimized for browsing in Maschine.

What's NEW in Komplete 8:

Brand new versions of industry standards Kontakt and Guitar Rig
New: STUDIO DRUMMER – Ultimate software drummer, with premium kits, high-end effects, and over 3,500 grooves
New: TRANSIENT MASTER – A powerful studio effect for placing instruments in the mix
New: WEST AFRICA – Compelling, cutting-edge rhythms, percussion and melodic instruments
New: RETRO MACHINES MK2 – A collection of legendary analog synths and keyboards
Over 1,300 additional sounds for Massive , FM8 and Absynth 5
All sounds optimized for seamless integration with Maschine
Ready to run in Pro Tools®, Logic®, and all other major DAWs

Komplete 8 Ultimate is the all-inclusive premium bundle for music production, live performance, and sound design. Own the last word in NI excellence – 50 products from flagships such as Kontakt 5, Guitar Rig Pro 5, and Reaktor 5.6, to brand new stars like Session Strings Pro, Studio Drummer, the high-grade studio effects of Solid Mix Series and Vintage Compressors– each boasting intuitive user interfaces and fast and efficient workflows. Komplete 8 Ultimate includes literally every Komplete Instrument and Effect currently available– 50 products in total. It’s so big it comes on a sturdy, dedicated USB 2.0 drive. Install everything in one sitting, by simply copying over Komplete 8 Ultimate to your chosen drive.

Key Features of Komplete 8 Ultimate:

The all-inclusive premium bundle for music professionals
50 products in total, with 240 GB of samples
Fast, convenient, one-step installation from
a dedicated USB 2.0 hard drive
Includes latest versions of Kontakt, Guitar Rig, and Reaktor
Comprehensive range of Komplete Instruments, featuring Studio Drummer, Razor and Sessions Strings Pro
Premium collection of Komplete Effects, including the Solid Mix Series, Vintage Compressors, and The Mouth.
Ready for Pro Tools®, Logic®, Cubase®, & Live™.
Seamless integration with Maschine

THERMIONIC CULTURE_NIGHTINGALE - DUAL MIC PRE & MONO COMPRESSOR

Thermionic Culture is a company well known for making unique products that oozes tons of character and attitude. Their newest product "The Nightingale" is no exception. It's a 4 RU unit consisting of a two-channel microphone/line preamp combined with a single channel compressor, D.I. inputs, Phase switches and 2 band equalizer with HPF and LPF filters. Take a look at the pic above and you will see that Thermionic Culture has packed a lot of features into this unit. I like the fact that the compressor can be fed from either mic pre or both which makes it a great choice for recording stereo sources and also as a buss compressor while mixing.

From their website:

"The Nightingale has 2 x Mic amps with useful valve eq. Both have their own outputs (XLR unbalanced), which can give 20+dBu. These can be combined or taken individually into 1 x vari-mu compressor-based on The Phoenix but with a little more "attitude". The compressor section has its own input ("balanced" XLR) which can be selected instead of a feed from the mic amps, also an XLR "balanced" output capable of +25 dBu.

Uses:
Apart from the obvious 3 separate parts of 2 hi quality mic amps with eq + superb compressor additional uses are As 2 mic inputs into the compressor for live or studio vocals.
Using the Phase switch on 1 channel, combine 2 snare drum mics thru the compressor for really fat results.
You can take individual outputs and do parallel compression easily by feeding a signal thru 1 mic amp straight to mixing desk/DAW/tape then select the same mic amp output to the compressor, drive it and feed the compressor output to another channel on the mixing desk/DAW/tape & combine them..."

MSRP £2125/$3458.65 USD

http://www.thermionicculture.com/products/nightingale.html

J-LAB JLA3 Optical 500 Compressor

"The JLA-3 is a 500-series compressor/limiter designed for use in demanding professional audio applications such as recording, broadcast and touring sound systems.
It has the compression characteristics of widely accepted vintage optical compressors using a long-life interchangeable JT-5 optical gain reduction block for high performance, low power consumption and low heat generation.
"Fast" and "Aggressive" models of plug-in optical blocks are available to custom-tailor the compression curve and timing for a wide variety of applications."

Here's a Youtube clip by ZenPro Audio showing the JLA-3:

J-LAB JLA3 Specifications

Module format: API 500 style plug-in dynamic range compressor
Meter: Sifam AL-15 Retro VU meter A-scale with amber dial light
Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20Khz +/- 0.6 dB / -3 dB points at 6 Hz and 180 KHz
Maximum Amplifier Gain:
Low gain mode: 16 dB
High gain mode: 40 dB
Maximum Output Level (with 600 ohm load):
+24 dBm at 2 Khz, THD+N < 0.3%
+22 dBm at 20 Hz, THD+N = 1%
+24 dBm at 20 Khz, THD+N < 1%
THD + Noise (At gain reduction of 0 dB and 10 dB): < 0.3% at 2Khz, low gain, input level +4 dBu, output level +4 dBm
Output noise level:
-55 dBm with gain knob set to 0
-45 dBm with gain knob set to 100
77 dB below maximum output level at 2 KHz, gain knob set to 50
Gain Reduction: 30 dB maximum gain reduction
Attack time < 10 milliSeconds from 0 to 20 dB gain reduction
JT-5 Optical Attenuator plug-in module determines release time based on photocell response
Release time 1 second +/- 250 milliSeconds for 60% recovery (with JT5 Classic attenuator)
On-board connector for stereo link to a second JLA-3
Power Supply: Supply current < 100 mA at maximum output level and/or maximum gain reduction
On-board regulation at +/- 12 VDC with for audio amplifier supply

$849 at ZenPro Audio

Sunday, July 31, 2011

The 30 Best Music Videos Of The Last 3 Decades

The music video plays a large role in the success of many artists and with sites such as YouTube and Vimeo almost anyone with talent has the opportunity to be an internet sensation.
Time.com has put together a list of 30 Music Videos from the '80s to the present that they feel are the best. Are any of your favorite videos on the list?

"Thirty years ago, on Aug. 1, 1981, MTV began to beam a budding art form — the music video — into homes across the U.S. TIME takes a look back at the most memorable clips from three decades' worth of music television"

Read more here:

Synchro Arts Vocalign Project

Synchro Arts Vocalign Project is a plugin that was originally made for the film / TV industry so that the voiceovers would match perfectly to the audio on the film / video. It was quickly adapted to music editing as it allowed not just vocals but almost any sound to be perfectly matched after the fact.
"Pro studio power users and post-production masters have been using the magic of Synchro Arts' VocALign for years. With it, you can almost instantly match the timing of one audio signal to the timing of another audio signal. VocALign Project 3 uses sophisticated techniques, so that it can work with any source — be it a speaker, a singer, an instrument, or just a sound"

It only does timing not pitch. Have you ever wondered how certain vocals sound larger than life ? That's because its actually multiple tracks vocal aligned to sound as one. You place the main vocal dead center then pan the doubles on either side. How far you pan the doubles will depend on the song and how dramatic an effect you desire. The key to it is to pan them and adjust their levels so that they sound like a bigger wider version of one voice and not 3 separate voices. This can also be done with instrument parts such as double tracked guitars.

Vocalign is pretty simple to use. Click on GUIDE then select the track you want to be the guide. Click on capture then select DUB and choose the track you want to align and click capture. Click ALIGN (see pic) and then process. It's that simple.
You can fine tune the settings by choosing the flexibility parameter in the middle of the interface but normal usually works fine.

FEATURES:

VocALign Project takes just seconds to automatically align two audio signals so that the timing of one matches the other
Simple, intuitive operation
Sophisticated pattern matching techniques that reject guide track noise and work with different speakers, singers, words, instruments and sounds
Works with 16- and 24-bit audio
The aligned audio can be auditioned within VocALign Project
User interface allows adjustment of selected audio regions for processing, and the scrolling, scalable display allows visual confirmation of sync
User-adjustable processing presets ensure optimal performance
Pitch of aligned audio is unchanged

Here's a quick demo showing Vocalign being used for ADR on a film clip:

Synchro Arts Vocalign Project can be found online at Sweetwater Sound for $289

There is also a Vocalign Pro ($585) which is basically a more powerful version with additional features such as multitrack alignment, sync points and five minute signal lengths to name a few.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Pro Tools 9 Hardware Checker

Some people have been having issues with Protools 9 and various interfaces.
Air Users Blog which is dedicated to Protools users has a list of interfaces that work with PT9.

http://www.airusersblog.com/pro-tools-9-hardware-checker/

Thanks to Russ Hughes for posting this on the Air Users Blog Group on LinkedIn.

WAVES V-COMP 50% 0FF!

To most people, 2254 is just a number.

To audio pros, the 2254 is a legend.

Using time constants and a fixed nominal output gain, the V-Comp recreates the rich lush buss sound of the vintage 2254 hardware compressor. This super-responsive dynamics processor packs a recognizable musical punch heard on countless hit records. Its controlled, gentle compression can really glue a mix together.