Become an O'Reilly Member
Visit the Digital Media Forums
Digital Media Audio RSS Feed
April 03 2008
Sep. 15, 2013
Search Digital Media
Special Report: Musikmesse 2008
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4
New Heights: BIAS Peak Pro 6
Announced at last year's Musikmesse, BIAS Peak Pro 6 is now shipping. Let's have a look at some of the highlights.
- The playlist now has a true stereo view and can store up to four transition snapshots so you can compare crossfades between tracks.
- To speed up editing and plug-in processing, Peak Pro 6 can cache complete audio files in RAM. (BIAS suggests a minimum of 2GB.).
- Instead of just using plain crossfades, the Perpetual Looper tool smooths the transitions in frequency and amplitude at the beginning and end of a loop for a much smoother sustain phase.
- Thanks to DCAT (Dither Cloning Audio Technology), Peak Pro 6 offers a choice selection of industry-standard dithering algorithms without the price tag.
Peak Pro's refined UI and improved Perpetual Looper tool marked a big step forward for this leading Mac audio editor.
- BIAS enhanced the Vbox plugin matrix, which enables you to chain signal processing plugins graphically. You can now combine the output from two modules with mixer, modulation, convolution, magnitude multiplication, and vocoder algorithms.
- The "Jack" plugin functions as a virtual stereo insert so you can easily incorporate outboard equipment into the signal flow of real-time bounces.
- Peak Pro 6 now integrates with iTunes, and it works both ways: bounce directly into iTunes or drag-and-drop a track from iTunes into Peak's playlist.
- Track metadata is stored independently from the audio file format: all metadata entered is stored in a "hidden chunk" inside the audio file, and whenever the file is converted to another format, all metadata supported by the target format is saved in the proper data fields, so there is no need to re-enter any of these details regardless of which format an audio file is eventually saved in.
For a complete list of all the new features found in Peak Pro 6, head over to BIAS's Peak Pro product page. Peak Pro 6 costs $599 and includes the Peak Pro Production Pack (Peak-only versions of the Reveal audio analysis tool, SoundSoap audio cleaner, Freq-4 EQ, Sqweez-1 compressor/limiter/expander, Vbox 3 plug-in matrix, WireTap pro audio capture, SFX Machine effects plug-in, and a gigabyte of audio samples). The XT Edition, which also ships with SoundSoap Pro, the Master Perfection Suite, and DDP Export, retails for $1,199.
Go Inside the Music: Celemony Melodyne
According to Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." In that sense, the Direct Note Access feature in Celemony's Melodyne software definitely deserves the "magic" moniker.
When it was released in 2001, Melodyne was "just" a pitch-shifting and time-stretching tool with an unusually elegant and intuitive interface, and it worked great with monophonic audio signals. The latest release now allows editing of polyphonic sound material, too: just select the audio track and have Melodyne extract chords into their separate notes, displayed in the software's piano-roll interface.
Don't miss the demo videos on Celemony's website; you'll agree that this is probably the closest any audio editor has ever come to true magic. For more information on the different editions of this software, and related pricing, please consult the Melodyne product page.
Trend Alert: Staying in Control
The sheer number of control-surface-this, master-keyboard-that at Messe this year was overwhelming.
Although it may not be a trend in the usual meaning of the word, it is an ongoing phenomenon that more and more companies, especially some new-to-the-market manufacturers from China, come up with innovative ideas on how, and what, to control via good old MIDI.
Keyboards, knobs, faders, buttons, drum pads, touch-pads, even theremins — you name it, it's available as a controller. But there are also some truly far-out ideas that have been coaxed into functional hardware, like the Percussa AudioCubes and the Eowave Eobody2 interfaces. (See below.)
There is still life in MIDI, and it's inspiring to see what methods we musicians can choose from to perform our tunes.
Control Yourself: Eowave Eobody2 Wireless
If there were an award for most far-out MIDI controller, Eowave's Eobody2 sensor box would definitely be on the short list. The Eobody2 has eight inputs to which you can connect the most diverse range of sensors: ribbon controller, infrared distance sensor (similar to Roland's D-Beam), potentiometer, accelerometer, pressure sensor, switches, luminance sensor, and many more.
An Eobody2 sensor box with a selection of sensors: touch pad in front of the MacBook, tension strip at the upper right corner of the monitor, infrared sensor at the upper left, and more.
Connected to a PC or Mac, the sensor inputs are assigned to MIDI control signals via Eowave's configuration software, providing a resolution of 12 bits via USB and 7 bits via MIDI (internally, the box always uses 12-bit resolution).
The product newly announced at Messe '08 is the Eobody2 Wireless: offering the same functionality as the Eobody2, but without requiring any cables to hook it up to the host computer, this is just the device you need to build that music performance body-suit you always dreamed of.
For the complete list of available sensors, and information on other interesting gadgets like a ribbon controller-based standalone instrument, see Eowave's website.
Hip To Be Square: Percussa AudioCubes
Often, the most inspiring products are the hardest to describe, and the Percussa AudioCubes are no exception: they're a MIDI controller, audio generator, and effects processor built into illuminated plastic cubes that can sense the proximity of your hands and communicate with each other wirelessly.
You can connect up to four "base" cubes to a computer via USB and then configure those to communicate bidirectionally with other cubes. Each cube has 1/4" audio inputs and outputs, and can synthesize or process audio with 32kHz, 9-bit resolution, aptly tagged "lo-fi" by the manufacturer. They can even beam audio between themselves via infrared.
Well, I told you this product is unusual. To get a glimpse of what you can do with the AudioCubes, check out this short video I shot (apologies for the background noise):
The Percussa AudioCubes feature four infrared sensors and four transmitters that allow them to communicate with your computer and each other. (Click to watch video.)
The cubes are sold in packs of two or four, which retail for $399 and $699, respectively.
