APA32
Waves Ltd. has announced two hardware accelerators—the APA 32 and APA 44-M—that let users run multiples of the company’s most CPU-demanding plug-ins.
The APA products use Ethernet connections and switches to enable stacking several APA units together and sharing them among several DAW workstations.
There are two models of APA: The APA32 is a 1U rack-mount unit, while the APA44-M, a half-rack unit that features up to 30 percent more processing power and nearly silent operation, is suitable for mobile use. A kit enables two APA44-M units to be mounted in a 1U rack space. The APA units are connected to the host computer via a standard Ethernet port. Up to eight units can be used together with an Ethernet switch. The units can also be shared among several DAW workstations via a suitable V-LAN configuration, with each workstation accessing up to eight APA units.
The APA system uses Waves‚ new Netshell software, which is included in every new Waves bundle that contains Netshell-compatible plug-ins. No special authorization is required for Netshell or for an APA unit; APA users just update their authorized Waves plug-ins to Netshell supported versions.
An APA32 can run 6 IR-1 Convolution Reverbs, or 9 Linear Phase Equalizers, or 12 C4 Multiband Processors at 44.1 kHz. The use of conventional high-speed Ethernet also means that the APA can be shared in a facility and remotely located.
Initially the APA-compatible Waves plug-ins are the L3 Multimaximizer, L3 Ultramaximizer, IR-360 Surround Parametric Convolution Reverb, IR-1 Parametric Convolution Reverb V2, IR-L Light Convolution Reverb, Linear Phase Equalizer, Linear Phase Multiband, C4 Multiband Parametric Processor, Renaissance Reverb, Renaissance Channel, SoundShifter, Morphoder, TransX and Q-Clone.
Release 1 is compatible with both Mac and PC, and supports most DAW systems. On the Macintosh, these include ProTools 6.9, Cubase SX 3.0.2, Nuendo 3.0.2, Logic Pro 7.1, and Digital Performer 4.52. On PCs, these include ProTools 6.9, Cubase SX 3.0.2 and Nuendo 3.0.2.
For a limited time, APA customers will receive Waves’‚ popular IR-L Light Convolution Reverb and Q-Clone plug-ins free of charge. MSRP: APA32, $1600; APA44-M, $2400.
Visit www.waves.com for more information.
