Studio Monitor: Digital Mixers, Disc Recorders Star At Aes

The century's last major gathering of audio professionals-engineers, producers, designers, and manufacturers-offered plenty of hot new gear, a continuing momentum toward the next generation of digital sound, and a chance to reflect on the industry's imminent passage into what promises to be a bold new era of technology and creativity.
From a product perspective, the major developments at the 107th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention-held Sept. 24-27 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York-occurred in the areas of large-scale digital mixing consoles and other high-resolution digital recording solutions. Euphonix debuted its first all-digital board, while Yamaha introduced a model aimed at the live-sound sector-a market that has remained staunchly analog even as the recording industry has migrated toward digital solutions.
Meanwhile, Solid State Logic continues to see healthy sales of its Axiom-MT digital console, and other high-end manufacturers report similar results.
Furthermore, two of the companies that have steered the '90s revolution toward inexpensive, modular, and high-quality equipment have ventured, for the first time, into the world of stand-alone hard-disc recorders. Mackie introduced the HDR24/96 hard-disc recorder, while Tascam debuted the MX-2424.
The latter manufacturer also made headlines by introducing the DA-78HR, a 24-bit version of its popular DA-88 modular digital multitrack recorder (see New Products & Services, this page).
The abundance of high-resolution equipment was tempered by the realization that some of the tools necessary for the creation of DVD Audio and Super Audio CD (SACD) material are either nonexistent or not readily available (see story, page 1).
However, most industry pros agreed that it's only a matter of time before manufacturers respond to market demand by providing the missing links in the DVD Audio and SACD production chains.
In the meantime, studios of all calibers-from large music facilities to post-production houses to project studios-are embracing the surround-sound revolution by installing additional speakers and subwoofers and ensuring that their consoles are able to support the new medium.
This trend has resulted in a windfall for speaker companies-which are selling up to five speakers to clients who used to buy only two at a time-and manufacturers of processors, amplifiers, microphones, and software plug-ins, all of which stand to gain from surround sound.
While some attendees salivated at the opportunity to work at ever-increasing levels of resolution, others took an interest in companies that offer the capability of delivering large amounts of digital audio over the Internet, albeit in compressed form. This coexistence of the high and low ends of the audio spectrum had at least one veteran remarking that the industry has taken on a schizophrenic character, with technology progressing in seemingly opposite directions.
If there was consensus on any topic, it was that digital mixing has finally come of age. Even analog enthusiasts acknowledged the sophistication and maturity of some of the high-end digital boards on display. And, with a digital sound reinforcement mixer in the picture from Yamaha, many attendees predicted that the live sound sector may be next in line.
With so many members of the Music Producers Guild of the Americas (MPGA) already belonging to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), a marriage between the two organizations seemed like a natural fit. Although it's not official yet, the MPGA held a reception at AES to announce its "intention to merge" with NARAS.
Speaking on behalf of the two organizations were Ed Cherney, founder and president of the MPGA; MPGA executive director Chris Stone; Phil Ramone, NARAS chairman emeritus and chairman of the MPGA Advisory Committee; and MPGA ambassador at large Leslie Ann Jones, who is also a NARAS board member.
Cherney said the motion to merge the MPGA into NARAS would be submitted to the MPGA membership, which would need to approve it by a simple majority in order for it to pass.
Jones said, "Engineers and producers who are already members of the academy have seen their visibility grow, with more engineer Grammys and more producer Grammys."
MPGA Advisory Committe member and NARAS board member Hank Neuberger added, "NARAS has incredible resources, with permanent staffing in 12 cities and an infrastructure already in place to take the mission of the MPGA and expand it. I see this as a win-win."
Emtec Pro Media, the North American sales and marketing group for BASF tape, awarded grants to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, and the Louis Armstrong Archive in an effort to help them preserve their archives of recorded music.
The in-kind grants-valued at $10,000 each-consist of BASF blank tape and other recording media, as well as technical advice from Emtec engineers about how to manage the three nonprofit organizations' respective archives.
The grants were presented at a pre-AES ceremony during which Emtec representatives played an excerpt from Mozart's Symphony No. 9 recorded in 1936 and still playable because of proper archiving. Alan Stoker of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Peggy Bulger of the American Folklife Center, and Michael Cogswell of the Louis Armstrong Archives accepted the awards on behalf of their organizations.
Kudos to Emtec for helping save some of our country's most vital-and fragile-tape and disc libraries. Readers of Billboard know that this cause is dear to us, as exemplified by Washington bureau chief Bill Holland's painstaking reporting on the state of tape vaults and the preservation of analog and digital masters.
Sonic Solutions maintained its leadership position as a designer and manufacturer of high-end workstations by collaborating with consumer electronics specialist Panasonic, Sony Music, the Warner Music Group (WMG), Universal Music, and BMG.
Using its SonicStudio HD and DVD Creator AV, the Novato, Calif.-based company produced what it claims are among the first DVD Audio discs.
In a statement released at the AES show, Sonic Solutions president Robert Doris said, "Together we're all getting a crash course in this new format. Prior to these first test discs, no one really knew how DVD Audio titles would be authored. Working with the major labels on the first DVD Audio discs has been invaluable and will help us refine the production version of our system."
WMG VP of technology Al McPherson added, "Preparing DVD Audio titles is much more challenging than traditional CD premastering. In contrast to a CD, which involves just a single stream of stereo audio at a fixed sample rate, our first demonstration DVD Audio disc contains hundreds of different elements-10 tracks with six channels at different sample rates, graphics, menus, slide shows, and video."
The test discs include a sampler created by Hamburg, Germany, DVD production house Syrinx Music and Media to be bundled with Panasonic and Technics DVD Audio players in Germany; a Denon Classic compilation featuring works by Beethoven, Gershwin, and others; a disc of Bernard Herrmann film scores performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen; a recording of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana"; and a recording of Johann Strauss waltzes that used Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) technology to store audio across six channels at 24-bit, 96-kilohertz resolution.
Digital recording pioneer Tom Jung has been retained by Sony Electronics as a technical adviser in the company's DRE-S777 U.S. Sampling tour-a project whereby engineers record the ambiance of various locales, such as the Grand Canyon, for inclusion in the DRE-S777 digital reverb unit.
Already, Sony has captured the acoustics of European halls and churches for its DASK-S701 package-the first optional software package for the DRE-S777 system. That project included the Musikvereinsaal and the Concertgebouw.
Jung says, "When you listen to the S777, it is like nothing you've ever heard before. That is, unless you've attended live concerts of acoustic music in some of the best halls and churches in the world. The S777 brings us a giant step closer to the real thing. The re-creation of the European halls and churches contained within the first software package is uncanny. I eagerly await our travels to capture a whole new set of spaces here in the U.S."