SADiE News From AES Amsterdam
SADiE, U.K. manufacturer of professional digital audio and video equipment for the broadcast, film and CD mastering industries, announced two new products at AES Europe.
The company’s new DSD Mastering Workstation, available later this year, is capable of editing and mastering stereo DSD material and producing finished masters for the Super Audio CD (SACD) format. The new product is expected to form the first of a series of new workstations that supports all existing and new delivery formats, offering total system solutions to mastering facilities.
In addition to the recording and editing functions, full SACD authoring facilities to the Scarlet Book standard are incorporated. Using a similar interface to the SADiE Red Book PQ editor, a dialog window allows all SACD text and ancillary data to be entered and edited. An image file can then be automatically created to AITT tape to transfer to factory for pressing.
SADiE also announced its Windows-based DVD-A Direct authoring package for DVD-A, available in June 2001.
DVD-A Direct offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that allows for easy and rapid ordering of tracks on the disk to create an album playlist. All functions are accessible from standard Windows menus, toolbars or context-sensitive mouse clicks.
Support for all audio formats in the DVD-A spec are included. The system is NTSC- and PAL-compatible with support for both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio formats. DVD-A Direct supports a range of DVD-R recording operations, including Record, Copy Disc, Verify, Create and Write Image, and Read Image.
For more information on these products, visit www.sadie.com.
David Cassidy Files Complaint Against Arista/BMG
In a complaint filed on May 10 in the Los Angeles Superior Court, David Cassidy seeks material damages in excess of $1 million (amount to be determined at trial), as well as exemplary and punitive damages against Bell Records, Arista Records and Bertelsmann Music Group for breach of contract.
Cassidy claims that Arista/BMG, subsequent to merging and acquiring Bell Records, materially breached Cassidy’s recording agreement. Additionally, Cassidy claims that Arista/BMG has breached their fiduciary duty to him as a recording artist and have improperly misappropriated his name and likeness in using his albums.
He claims that Bell’s Best of releases exceeds those permitted contractually and asks that the defendants be enjoined and restrained from manufacturing, selling or licensing any more Best of releases without his consent.
Cassidy is also seeking an order from the Court to terminate his recording agreement and that Arista/BMG no longer have the right to use any of Cassidy’s recordings as a solo artist or as a member of the Partridge Family.
Cassidy is represented by Marty Singer of Lavely & Singer.
Numark Acquires Alesis
After months of rampant rumors and speculation, Alesis announced that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 27, 2001. The filing was made in conjnction with an agreement to be acquired by Jack O’Connell, president of Numark Corporation. Numark manufactures professional DJ equipment, including mixers, turntables, CD players, headphones and microphones. An auction for the company will be held on May 23 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles.
Alesis said it will continue normal operations during its protection period; there is no word yet on what the acquisistion means for new product development, but the company said it plans to follow through on technology announcements made at AES and NAMM.
In an earlier announcement, Groove Tubes announced that the company’s three-year partnership with Alesis has come to an end. Under the agreement, Groove Tubes retains all original product designs, intellectual property for its studio mics and processors that were invented before the partnership, and retains exclusive rights to the Groove Tubes trademark and GT logo.
For more, visit www.alesis.com.
Crown Audio Names Touring Sound Company of the Year
Crown Audio (Elkhart, Ind.) named Baltimore-based Maryland Sound Industries its touring sound company of the year.
Deb Frantom, Crown Audio director of U.S. sales, said, “In addition to doing a tremendous amount of business with us last year, MSI has been extremely innovative in its use of Crown technology to provide solutions for touring sound. We feel that Bob [Goldstein, MSI owner] and his crew are truly exploiting the potential of our products on some high-profile applications, and are very pleased to offer them this token of appreciation for their input and support.”
A few of MSI’s projects used with Crown products over the past few months have included New Year’s Eve in Times Square, the Presidential Inauguration and the XFL.
For more, visit www.crownaudio.com or www.mdsound.com.
Tascam, TimeLine Vista Receive Award
Tascam (Montebello, Calif.) and TimeLine Vista Inc. (Costa Mesa, Calif.) each received a Scientific and Technical Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for the MMR-8 Digital Dubber. The digital dubber has also received an Emmy Award Plaque from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the 2000 Primetime Emmy Awards last fall.
“We are extremely elated to be honored with such an award,” said Jim Lucas, Tascam production products group manager. “The engineers and staff at TimeLine have done an incredible job in designing the MMR-8, and an Academy Plaque is a well-deserved honor.”
“I am very proud of everyone involved in the design, production and support of the MMR-8 digital dubber,” said Bob McDonald, president of TimeLine Vista Inc. “This award is a testament to the long hours and hard work they have demonstrated in making sure we deliver the best audio digital dubber available.”
For more information, visit www.tascam.com or www.timelinevista.com.
Management Changes At Celestion
Richard Wear, former director and general manager at Celestion International Limited (Ipswich, England), announced his departure from the company to pursue other professional and personal interests.
In other company news, Frank DiGirolamo takes over executive responsibility for the professional systems division. He is currently deputy CEO of KH Industries Limited and has extensive experience of both the consumer and professional audio business as a senior executive at Harman International and also as COO of Intellisys Inc. DiGirolamo first became involved with Celestion as managing director of its sister company KEF.
DiGirolamo said, “The company would like to thank Richard for his valuable service in driving Celestion forward to become a force to be reckoned with in the pro audio sector, and we wish him every success in his future endeavors.”
For more information, visit www.celestion.com.
TEF Sound Lab Training Class Offered
Gold Line Inc. (West Redding, Conn.), parent company of TEF, is holding its quarterly TEF Sound Lab Training Class on June 8-10, 2001, just prior to INFOCOMM in Las Vegas.
The classes will be taught by veteran sound engineer Blair McNair at the Holiday Casino Boardwalk Hotel in Las Vegas, and will provide information on how to quantify and illustrate acoustical problems and then provide workable solutions.
A sample of key topics covered in this class include how to take TEF measurements, time delay, time resolution, acoustic fundamentals, time response of speakers, energy-time curve basics, speech intelligibility, measuring impedance, RT60 and early time delay, RTA and precision equalization.
For more information or to register, call 800/635-4581, or visit www.gold-line.com.
E-Mu Paris Pro DAW Announces Version 3.0 Software
E-mu (Scotts Valley, Calif.) has unveiled its Version 3.0 software for its PARIS Pro Digital Audio Workstation, which adds new features such as 24-bit OMF File import/export, integrated MIDI support, a dedicated waveform editor and an even more intuitive user interface.
“PARIS Pro has earned a reputation as an incredibly warm, analog-sounding professional audio workstation,” said Max Mobley, product manager for PARIS Pro. “With the new 3.0 features, PARIS Pro is now an even greater complement to other existing platforms, offering unrivaled sound quality, project compatibility, ease of use and true ‘penalty-free’ expansion. Instead of engineers being faced with ‘either/or’ decisions when it comes to a pro audio workstation, they can now get the best of both possible worlds with PARIS Pro Version 3.0.”
The base PARIS Pro System offers users a complete hardware-based digital audio workstation solution that includes a 16-channel control surface, modular expansion chassis, PCI card and true cross-platform Mac/PC software. With the addition of 3.0 software, users can now also take advantage of MIDI integration, giving the system greater connectivity in the studio. The new dedicated waveform editor provides powerful editing tools that allow users to manipulate audio at the sample level without leaving the PARIS application. PARIS Pro also supports the vast assortment of VST and DirectX plug-ins, in addition to its host of studio-grade, hardware-based effects. With the ability to support the import and export of OMF files, PARIS users can now work seamlessly alongside other pro audio DAWs.
For more on Version 3.0, visit www.emu.com.
Korg Received Multiple Awards at Musikmesse 2001
At the 2nd Annual Musikmesse International Press Award (MIPA) Ceremony held in Frankfurt, Germany, Korg received three press awards for its Triton/Triton Rack (best keyboard workstation), ELECTRIBE Series (best dance/groove gear) and CX-3 Combo Organ (best organ).
Mike Kovins, president of Korg USA, exclusive U.S. distributor of Korg products, said, “We are always pleased to have our products and efforts recognized, especially by leading journalists from around the world.”
For more information on these products, visit Korg’s Website at www.korg.com.
New Hip Hop Library Launched
Created through a joint venture between MPCsounds.com and Syntaur Productions, and produced by Kyle Kee (aka, “KeeMaster”) of MPCsounds.com, a new hip hop library features radio-ready drum sounds geared toward serious hip hop producers and those who work on this type of records in the industry.
“Our KeeMaster Series of Ensoniq EPS/ASR samples have become a staple in the hip hop world,” said Sam Mims, president of Syntaur Productions. “This MPC library is a natural extension from that. We’re entering the Akai market with lots of credibility from having served the hip hop market for years, and with Kyle’s credentials as a producer/engineer for artists like Juvenile, Ideal, Scarface, Hot Boys, Lil’ Troy, South Park Mexican, Yungstar, Lil’ Keke, and tons of others.”
The MPCsounds library combines Kee’s creative sound design techniques with Syntaur’s programming standards, resulting in 45 floppy disks of cutting-edge drum sounds. Each three-disk set contains 72 kick drums, 60 snares, and 60 hi-hat and percussion sounds. Selling for $29.95, the disks work on the Akai MPC-3000 and MPC-2000 drum machines, and will also be available soon in Ensoniq EPS/ASR format.
For more information or ordering a free catalog, visit www.mpcsounds.com or call 800/334-1288.
