Amsterdam AES 2008

[Riccardo]

Guys and Gals. Mastering Engineers and Jedi Knights please make sure you have a look at the thread at the top of the page about the AES GS get together on Saturday 16th.

Jules, George, Tobias, Geert and myself will be around so please come and say hi if you happen to be there.


I'll keep an eye on new toys....errr..... equipment on a mastering perspective as well as old and not so old ones. I'll try and post a few pictures as well.

[hanuman]

Here under one of the new generation genies. Andreas Eschenwecker from hestudiotechnik.com with his brand Vertigo VERTIGO SOUND (The other guy is distributor of API for France and Benelux. No pica of the creator of the 'best ADC in the world' Eelco Grimm of Grimm Audio (10k Euro) but sonicstate stated he'd taped him.

[just.sounds]

here's one ;-)

Van de auteur

[hanuman]

It was not big but very enjoyable and very meaningfull. I really liked the shinybox.com guy who made extreme well though trough ribbon mic and lunchbox mic-pre with a lot of features fo the guy who works alone. Chapeau!

[Riccardo]

Andy was showing both the Vertigo VSC-2 compressor as well as a prototype of the VSM-2 "Mix Satellite (and no it is not only for mixing as it can do much, much more)

Both units are very interesting. The compressor is well built with top components on 4 boards that permit easy and fast swapping in case of malfunction thus reducing downtime to a minimum. Dynamic control is precise. it sounds clean, in control and at the same time it has got "soul". Controls are all de tented with the exception of the make up gain (which is available on request as an option). There is a side chain with two settings and an interesting "soft" ratio position where the audio signal becomes the "knee".

Even though show floor auditions are far from being the perfect environment for an evaluation I liked the VSC-2 very much.

[Darius van H]

I was at the show for an hour today and one thing that caught my eye was a new compressor from Charter Oak:

http://www.charteroakacoustics.com/p...Alert_SCL1.pdf

[Tommylicious]

Originally Posted by hanuman

It was not big but very enjoyable and very meaningfull. I really liked the shinybox.com guy who made extreme well though trough ribbon mic and lunchbox mic-pre with a lot of features fo the guy who works alone. Chapeau!

Same impression here!

I really missed some of the important big manufacters, but I thought it was very cool to see guys like Jon from Shinybox, Brad from Avenson and the guys from Roll music there!

I actually planned to stop by again today real quick, but had too much work going on down here.

[Riccardo]

Daniel Weiss, The Digital Tonmeister was at the show with his team of wizard engineers Uli Franke and Rolf Anderegg.

They were showing new software for the DS1-MK3 as well as the AFI1 AES to ADAT interface and a very cute Firewire converter, the DAC2.

[Tommylicious]

Did any of you mastering guys check out the Anammod stuff there? Interesting right?

[Riccardo]

Originally Posted by Tommylicious

Did any of you mastering guys check out the Anammod stuff there? Interesting right?

I wanted to but got into talking to people and every time I stopped at the booth there was someone else trying it and eventually forgot about it

Anybody tried it?

[Riccardo]

Both Joystick and Unity Audio were proudly showing the Thermionic Culture units.

Kevin was happy to provide some program material via his Powerbook for me to have a listen to the Pullet EQ via Adam speakers and a Prism Orpheus interface.

I liked it a lot. I thought the layout wasn't super-intuitive at first but that's just me I guess. The Eq is passive and you need a preamp to compensate for the gain loss (about 40 dB) and sounds really nice.

It is a bit limited but I do have an idea on what to partner it with

They were also showing the mastering version of the Phoenix compressor. Well done!
It wasn't my first encounter with the beast and I am happy to finally see a stepped controls mastering version available!

[Tommylicious]

Originally Posted by Riccardo

Anybody tried it?

Quick with headphones on a busy floor but I thought it was really interesting, both the tape and the little fairchild modules.

You can't realy judge a piece of gear on it's fidelity there but you could hear it was not giving a subtle effect at all. And while compressing or enhancing it kept the program material intact. So I could see them both work in a mastering setup, something i didn't expect.

I'm no mastering guy but I am curious if you guys could see it usefull in your setups. I would have to try them out a lot better in a real situation but can see them work in a mixing setup, especally the fairchild modules.

[Riccardo]

Originally Posted by Tommylicious

Quick with headphones on a busy floor but I thought it was really interesting, both the tape and the little fairchild modules.

You can't realy judge a piece of gear on it's fidelity there but you could hear it was not giving a subtle effect at all. And while compressing or enhancing it kept the program material intact. So I could see them both work in a mastering setup, something i didn't expect.

I'm no mastering guy but I am curious if you guys could see it usefull in your setups. I would have to try them out a lot better in a real situation but can see them work in a mixing setup, especally the fairchild modules.

I guess as a "tape lay back" alternative it could work. Ah what about those limiters?
(I guess you are talking about the lunch box format ones)

[Reptil]

Originally Posted by Riccardo

I wanted to but got into talking to people and every time I stopped at the booth there was someone else trying it and eventually forgot about it

Anybody tried it?

yes, I did (prolly was the guy holding up the cue )
the little 660 sound HUGE. that's the word to describe it. (I'm lost for more words, I guess my Id wants it, badly.)

and what surprised me as well, after reading the whole trainwreck tape sim thread in the highend forum, is that the tape machine is capable of not so subtle treatment too.

both units had a very "natural" sound, and I've been looking if there wasn't some huge box with bakelite knobs and spinning tape hidden under there. (there wasn't )

I listened to the Vertigo compressor for a short while, and it has a very stable character, and very elegant tone, it felt like it was very much in control of the sound, but not strangling it or pushing it somewhere it didn't want to go. (tonecolor: whitegold with flashes of white) Overlooked will be the Mix Satellite, but this is one hell of a secret weapon. I've been looking for the specific components (MS, 2nd order distortion, 3rd order distortion) by collecting different pieces together, for a master bus mix treatment, but this baby got it all together. Awesome for mastering too. Clear as glass if need be.

The Thermionic mixer and compressor also rocked my boat. I've been putting off a descision on tubish gears, they are both on the list now. (with DW Fearn, some other stuff and Gyratec) The mixer is more versitile sonically than the rudimentary controls would suggest (rudimentary as in only one eq, and distortion on the whole). The idea I got from these was "tone first, gimmicks later". It is on par with the excellent Cranesong stuff, in the same format, but where the green knobbed stuff is a silvery blueish green, the Thermionic is a descisive deep red (in tone). Very nice.

There was more but I won't bore you any further. Small and good show.

[Tommylicious]

Originally Posted by Riccardo

Ah what about those limiters?
(I guess you are talking about the lunch box format ones)

Yes, the 500 series 660 fairchild clones. Their sound really surprised me, I mean on headphones you can hear how much compressing you are doing and I was really trying pretty harmfull things on mixed program material, and the sound was just nice overall.

Maybe it's just the big sound out of the small module what impressed me, but I thought they rocked.

[Jules]

Ditto..

[Reptil]

lol

[chester]

really nice tools! i liked the compression a lot!

but i prefer a studer over the Anamod Tape...but it is nice in what it do.

anyone now when the Anamod Fairchild Clones are shipping in Europe? No one at AES had a real date.

bye

[futur2]

Originally Posted by Reptil

Overlooked will be the Mix Satellite, but this is one hell of a secret weapon. I've been looking for the specific components (MS, 2nd order distortion, 3rd order distortion) by collecting different pieces together, for a master bus mix treatment, but this baby got it all together. Awesome for mastering too. Clear as glass if need be.

anyone got pictures of it? i wanna know what it does exactly?

[futur2]

Originally Posted by Tommylicious

Yes, the 500 series 660 fairchild clones. Their sound really surprised me, I mean on headphones you can hear how much compressing you are doing and I was really trying pretty harmfull things on mixed program material, and the sound was just nice overall.

Maybe it's just the big sound out of the small module what impressed me, but I thought they rocked.

are they available NOW or not? when?

[Riccardo]

Billy Stull was showing the new Masterpiece 2.

The outboard power supply allows for fan less operation and less module shielding inside the unit. The price is also been lowered.

Very interesting and surely competitive considering that the whole package includes eq, dynamics, filters, stereo image manipulation, insert points for other gear and selectable band splitting classic transformer colouring.

Talking to Billy I also found out he runs a Mastering School in Texas (more info available on his website)

[Riccardo]

The Lavry family was at the AES showing the new MP10 microphone pre amplifier.

I apology as the pictures are far from being perfect. The flash must have been tricked by the light emanating from the Golds mirror-like front panels!

[Reptil]

Originally Posted by futur2

anyone got pictures of it? i wanna know what it does exactly?

I started taking pictures, but got completely immersed in the whole thing so I forgot.

The Anamod is a vari-µ type compressor, reacts fast, but feels really laid back, and at the same time makes things bigger. for a person that never played with Fairchild machines this is a revelation.
think "wall of sound" big but not in your face.
amazing all those tubes fit in a little box like that

Originally Posted by Riccardo

Billy Stull was showing the new Masterpiece 2.

The outboard power supply allows for fan less operation and less module shielding inside the unit. The price is also been lowered.

Very interesting and surely competitive considering that the whole package includes eq, dynamics, filters, stereo image manipulation, insert points for other gear and selectable band splitting classic transformer colouring.

Talking to Billy I also found out he runs a Mastering School in Texas (more info available on his website)

I don't understand why, but I missed him, and the masterpiece completely. (*slaps forehead*) I like the concept and from what I heard - the sound a lot.

[Riccardo]

Here's a picture of the new AFI1 from the Weiss team.
It is a 24 channel Firewire Interface with 8 channels of bidirectional AES/EBU interfaces and 16 channels of bidirectional ADAT interfaces.

You can also spot the top of the line DAC-1 MKII and the ADC-2 . The ADC also has microphone preamps on board and can take very hot levels without a glitch (I didn't say that, did I?)

[Riccardo]

Our Geekslutz Moderator EveAnna Manley was at the show too.

I spent some time with the first piece of the Mastering Backbone and was seriously impressed. I liked the layout, features and build quality. 3 selectable ins into the processing chain, eight inserts (2 can be swapped around) M/S and parallel capabilities!

I saw the Mini Massive at the AES in Paris and had a chat with Hutch at the time. I liked it then and I still like it very much now.
Apparently the transformers that were previously an option now are a stock feature (can be bypassed of course)

[Riccardo]

Ah! And here we have Dr Delta at the Joystick booth surrounded by some very high quality gear. Horch, Brauner, Tubetech, AEA, Little Labs, Anamod, Josephson, SSL .... lucky guy!

Cranesong in the background, the shirt to the left of the picture is Dave Hill's. He is as unique as the gear he designs

[Michiel H]

Hello guys,

it was an interesting show, thanks for dropping by all of you. Our booth was packed a lot of the time.

Not surprising seeing the kind of people we had there to demonstrate gear (Dave Hill from Crane Song, Dave Amels from AnaMod, Kelly Kay & David Josephson from Josephson, Damien Egan and Tim Harrison from SSL and Wolf Buchleitner from Quantec)

Reptil and Tommy (and anyone else in NL),
if you want to check ATS-1 or any other gear out send me an email and we can arrange it. At the AES I became aware that a lot of people in Holland don't know this is possible so that's why I'm posting.. please contact me directly.
I'm located right in the middle of the Netherlands (there's a stone nearby indicating the very center) so getting some gear out to you for demo can't be too hard.

regards Michiel

Michiel Hollanders
Product Support
joystick audio

[leaper]

Michiel is THE MAN! Great guy and undercover Balkan beat musician.

Most interesting thing for me was the prototype "Mix Satellite" from HE Studioteknik.
It's a scary box that gets you thinking about sound manipulation in new ways. For example.. introducing 2nd order harmonic distortion to a compressor side chain addressing the sides in a MS split...GULP!!
Brief headphone explorations showed that you could use this feature to bring up individual instruments within a stereo mix.
Andy will kindly let me fool around with the thing when he has a physically more stable version and has tweaked the design a bit more.

Also a pleasure to sit with the magnetic Wolf Buchleitner. The story is that he disappeared from the audio scene for 6 years while he worked obsessively on renovating the Quantec Room Simulator algorithms.
His new Yardstick is a killer! It seems to me that he could do with some more human contact, so give him a hug if you see him.

I was too shy to talk to Dave Hill standing there in cowboy hat, legs encased in leather... Looking like a rock star of audio design!