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NAMM Show Report - Summer 2003
Thanks for your hard work Mike.
Garth~ "I think the fact that music can come up a wire is a miracle." Ed Cherney |
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NAMM Show Report - Summer 2003
Littlite Those cool gooseneck lights that we have on our mixing consoles have gone high tech and low power with LED arrays. Reduced current, cooler running, and longer bulb life are the main features. The lamphead is equipped with both red and white LEDs, which provides a less washed out illumination than what you usually get from a white (actually a doped blue) LED. In addition, these lights can be switched to red-only light for less obtrusive illumination and less effect on your night vision. http://www.littlite.com/products.php?category=10 Sorry I am not technical enough to figure this out for myself, but I have often dreamed of a desk lite that would run off phantom power of a unused channel would this be able to do that? I did a thread on it a few years ago and was told that a LED array would be the only possibility due to its low current draw Thanks George |
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NAMM Show Report - Summer 2003
Mike Rivers wrote:
NAMM Summer Session - July 18-20, Nashville, Tennessee In an attempt to get my desk cleared off, and since there's been almost nothing else written about the show yet (reports based mostly on press releases will hit the magazines in another issue or two) I thought I'd write up some impressions and sightings. It wasn't a very exciting show for me and I don't have my usual show report enthusiasm, but here's a feeble attempt at renewing my interest and giving you a little insight. The usual disclaimer: If I didn't write about something you've heard about, either it wasn't represented at the show, I didn't see it, I wasn't interested enough in it to stop and take a look, or it just didn't seem interesting enough to mention. We're all into different things, so here's my take, in the order that the literature and notes are stacked. Samson C-Control This is the gadget for everyone with a DAW who has ever needed a monitor volume control, a way to listen to playback of other sources such as CDs, listen to playback on alternate monitors, or talk back to talent in the studio. It's a neat $100 package with multiple monitor inputs and outputs with a master volume control, and an independent headphone amplifier. It can be handy, too, for just playing your keyboard into your powered speakers without turning on the computer (unless of course your keyboard is controlling a soft synth), or for just playing a CD through your monitors for enjoyment or education. There's an assortment of input jacks and operating levels and the literature is pretty sketchy about just how many of what flavor it contains, so if you're obsessive about keeping everything balanced or at "professional" levels, you'll need to spend more than a hundred bucks. But for a load of convenience for the simple desktop studio, it's hard to beat. http://www.samsontech.com/products/p...1650&brandID=2 Benchmark Media ADC1 A/D Converter Benchmark has been making studio accessories from mic preamps to routers to converters for years. There gear has always been clean, quiet, and often with innovative packaging that's often more suited for the large studio or industrial production facility, which probably explains why they're not a household word in the world of project studios. Their DAC1 D/A converter introduced earlier was Benchmark's first product targeted to the smaller studio and it's made a lot of believers in the value of having a really good D/A converter through which to monitor everything that's coming from a digital source. The ADC1, to be shipping in a couple more months, is the companion unit. It's a half-rack sized unit with line, instrument, and microphone inputs with phantom power, 24-bit, with sample rates of 44.1 to 192 kHz. Bless their hearts for providing an input level calibration control (a 10-turn pot) to allow you to set 0 dBFS recording level to correspond to any input level you choose from +8 to +27.5 dBu, making it easy to reach the proper record level from any reasonable analog source. A cool feature is a secondary digital output at 44.1 or 48 kHz independent of the sample rate of the main outputs, so you can mix to a 96 kHz DAW setup and simultaneously make a backup to DAT or CD-R. Outputs are AES/EBU, S/PDIF, and ADAT Lightpipe. Benchmark uses a unique circuit to isolate the converter from jitter when locking to external word clock or an external digital connection. http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/digita...04/default.asp Alesis Alesis showed a wide range of new products including three instrument amplifiers, a new series of powered studio monitor speakers, and a dual zone rack mount mixer hinting that Alesis might be poking its corporate nose into the installed sound market. Also new, and a more traditional Alesis product, is the ion, a digital, analog modeling synth with real knobs for filter, envelope and oscillator controls. Craig Anderton was at the booth when I walked by, showing people how we used to play analog synths. http://www.alesis.com BlackBall BlackBall is a new (to me) software company showing two very diverse products. One is the BB-Tuner, a chromatic tuner that runs under Windows, featuring both note, frequency, and cents offset with a graphic display mode that emulates either a strobe with flashing indicators or sliding lights that move toward the center as you reach the correct note. A planned update will allow you to store offsets for those instruments such as pedal steel that work better when not tuned exactly to equal temperament. The BB-Tuner also provides a tone generator for tuning by ear, a metronome with accents that accommodate some "off brand" time signatures as well as the straight ones. It's $40, and you can download a time-bombed two day demo version from their web site. Something completely different from BlackBall is their Rich Media File System, a data base management system for organizing a wide range of media files – audio of various formats, video, or photos. Indexing options allow you to easily locate related files from different sources and in different formats to integrate them into a single production. It also includes advanced features such as version control to keep collaborations from running away, and encryption for security when sharing files over a network. This isn't cheapware, but it's less expensive than hiring an experienced data base programmer for your corporate Oracle system, and BB says it installs faster, runs faster, and works better for its dedicated applications. http://www.blackball.us Littlite Those cool gooseneck lights that we have on our mixing consoles have gone high tech and low power with LED arrays. Reduced current, cooler running, and longer bulb life are the main features. The lamphead is equipped with both red and white LEDs, which provides a less washed out illumination than what you usually get from a white (actually a doped blue) LED. In addition, these lights can be switched to red-only light for less obtrusive illumination and less effect on your night vision. http://www.littlite.com/products.php?category=10 TASCAM TASCAM was showing their new FW-1884 Firewire audio/MIDI interface and DAW control surface. The 1884 features 8 mic/line inputs (all XLR, all with phantom power available) and 8 analog outputs as well as 4 MIDI IN/OUT ports. The familiar channel strip layout has 100 mm motorized faders and rotary knobs quickly assignable to auxiliary sends and pans, with other specialized applications dictated by the DAW to which the device is connected. It's a desktop console arrangement with a full set of transport controls, track arming, and jog/shuttle wheel as well as a plethora of assignable buttons for things like editing shortcuts. http://www.tascam.com/products/compu...1884/index.php CM Labs A special tip of the hat to software and hardware developer Carl Malone for actually coming through with the "your product will never go out of date because it's based on software" promise. CM's Motormix, which has been around for a few years now, was the first DAW hardware control surface, something that' clearly a hot item these days. After a rocky start and some corporate reorganization, the Dashboard, a control surface dedicated to DAW editing functions is now available. The CM SixtyFour, a 32x32 analog routing matrix (that's a patchbay without patch cords) with level control is another product that's been around for a while. It's now integrated with the MotorMix, the Dashboard, and an upcoming 8-channel mic preamp allowing you to set up custom console input and output configurations for multitrack recording and monitoring, as well as full control of a surround monitor setup, keeping it right up to date. http://www.cmlabs.net/ Lynx Studio Technology Lynx introduced the AES16 16-channel (8 pairs) AES/EBU PCI bus I/O card. Supporting sample rates up to 192 kHz in both the single wire and dual wire (obviously only 8 channels) modes, the AES-16 also includes a software controlled 32-channel digital mixer for full control of routing and monitoring when used to interface outboard A/D and D/A converters as well as interfacing a DAW with a digital console. "Scenes" can be saved and recalled along with the project workflow. While the AES16 will of course sync to an external word clock, sometimes when you have diverse sources, a master clock isn't always available. The Lynx SynchroLock circuit can assure a stable and low jitter clock from any AES source. An LStream expansion port allows you to add an optional 16-channel ADAT interface, or to connect a second AES-16 card for seamless 32 channel AES/EBU I/O. Connections are on two DB-25 connectors, and Lynx sells the card either with two six-foot breakout cables for $795, or barefoot for $100 less for those who want or need to roll your own. By the way, someone recently commented in rec.audio.pro that Lynx products were hard to find and even harder to demo. Lynx has now taken distribution and marketing into their own hands, so this should improve shortly if not by now. http://www.lynxstudio.com/pr200307.html Moog Last year, Don Buchla, the king of the alternate MIDI controller, showed Bob Moog a new MIDI piano interface that he had developed. He didn't really know how to market it, and asked Moog for some help. The result of this collaboration was the Moog PianoBar, an accessory that turns any piano into a MIDI controller. Unlike some retrofit kits that have been sold in the past, the PianoBar can be installed on a piano in about half a minute, and leveled and calibrated in about another minute. Removal is just as simple, so a performer can take it with him on gigs. The system also includes a pedal sensor and a polyphonic control and sound module with 300 or so sounds included. While you can never get rid of the acoustic piano sound, you can blend it with any of the synth sounds for a pretty effective lounge or church sound, as well as record the player using any MIDI sequencer, and use outboard MIDI synths or samplers for additional sounds. Moog has always been interested in musical education, so one added benefit to training is that you can play a MIDI file into the controller, and each note will illuminate a light above the appropriate key on the bar. http://www.moogmusic.com/ Miscellaneous Cool Stuff Leave it to a non-drummer like me to find cool stuff in the drum department. The Yamaha Subkick is the commercial realization of an old time engineer's trick, using a loudspeaker as a microphone for limited range pickup on a kick drum. This is a dressed-up version with the speaker mounted in a small drum shell and supplied with a stand made from standard drum hardware. Put it a couple of inches from the kick drum's front head and combine it with your favorite "inside, near the beater" mic for a some extra low end. Evans Drumheads showed a drum key with a built-in LED flashlight, just what you need to tighten up a flabby head backstage when they turn out the lights, or finding a dropped wing-nut when attaching your cymbals. Or lend it to another drummer so he can find his drums. The Atomic Reactor 112 is the back end of a tube guitar amplifier, 18 watts RMS from a pair of EL84's and a 12AX7 as a buffer and phase inverter. Pretty simple, but the hitch is that there's no guitar input. Instead, there's a drop-in panel that's precut for a Line 6 POD, PODxt, and I believe I saw a Behringer V-Amp 2 waiting in the wings. This lets you have the flexibility of a guitar modeler with the sound of a tube amplifier, but without the added coloration of a standard instrument amplifier's front end. http://www.atomicamps.com/ Les Paul was a big deal at this show. It's the first time he's been to Nashville in 25 years, since he recorded the Lester and Chester album with Chet Atkins. He played a fun set as part of the All Star Guitar Night concert, a regular event at NAMM shows, and the following afternoon, appeared for an interview and Q&A session at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Though I didn't have the opportunity to get in my question about the Les Paulverizer, I enjoyed hearing his stories (one more time). He was also at a party at the Gibson shop that I didn't attend, where he was presented with a model of "The Log", the solid body electric guitar design that he brought to Gibson in 1952 and asked them to produce. As you may know, Gibson now owns the Baldwin piano company, and in honor of hizhonor, they showed the Les Paul piano, a Baldwin studio upright finished in cherry sunburst, with legs shaped like a guitar neck, feet like a guitar headstock and the old Gibson script trademark inlaid in the front. Les signed all 100 of the limited edition pianos. Editorials It's hard to write one of these reports without some snide remarks about the industry, so here they come. There seem to be lots of bundles these days. Presonus is bundling a Studio Projects B1 mic, cable, shock mount, and gig bag along with their TubePRE for $179. BLUE and Focusrite have a mic-and-channel strip bundle at a pretty good saving. If you want that combination. I wonder how these temporary marriages come about. I'd like to think that both companies think that the mates are an ideal combination for the price. I'd hate to think that it's because one or the other is a low moving product and needs some incentive to move. In the new products section of the last issue of Mix that I saw before the show, a writeup of a new linear fader pack from Trident caught my eye, not so much for the product (it's a clean looking set of add-on linear faders for their S100 rack mount mixer), but for one of its specifications – "500 dB of headroom." At first I thought it was a typo and an extra zero crept in there, but even 50 dB of headroom is unreasonable and I posted a comment about it in rec.audio.pro. You can look it up if you're interested. I vowed to give John Oram (Mr. Trident) a hard time about it when I ran into him at the show, and I did. Now John's a bit of a quirky guy who's always glad to have people talking about him and his products. He told me that what Mix didn't publish was that the date on the press release was April 1, and that he really did write 500 dB, intending to catch people's attention. He knows that it's impossible. The same text (with the same bogus specification) showed up the next day in the NAMM Daily publication. I ran into the publicist for Trident (who also works with Moog and BLUE) at a reception introducing the Moog PianoBar and featuring a pianist singing into a BLUE Ball mic), and harassed her in what I thought was a friendly way about the error that she had let be published. I suggested that perhaps when sending a press release with technical information to technical trade publications, that it be proofread for accuracy as well as intent. If it's a joke, fine – make it clear to the reader. But don't make the manufacturer look like he doesn't know what he's writing. I think she was a little miffed at my comment, saying that she gets technical information direct from the manufacturers and only edits it for grammar and length, not technical content. So manufacturers, now that you know how it's done, take care with your jokes. They might get misinterpreted. http://www.google.com/groups?q=500+d...udio.pro+autho r:mrivers%40d-and-d.com&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF- 8&selm=znr1057969237k%40trad&rnum=1 That's enough for one morning. I'm looking forward to some exciting new products and ideas at the upcoming AES show. -- I'm really Mike Rivers - ) Thanks Mike! I always look forward to your insights....stay safe. wrkit |
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NAMM Show Report - Summer 2003
Garthrr wrote:
Thanks for your hard work Mike. What?? He wlaks around the show, gets bored quickly and leaves early, skipping coffee with friends? You call that _work_? (Thanks, Mike.) -- ha |
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NAMM Show Report - Summer 2003
George Gleason wrote:
Sorry I am not technical enough to figure this out for myself, but I have often dreamed of a desk lite that would run off phantom power of a unused channel would this be able to do that? You can get 48 = I * 6.8k or .007 amps from a phantom output, dead short. I did a thread on it a few years ago and was told that a LED array would be the only possibility due to its low current draw The brighter the LED, the more current it will draw. Since most normal brightness LEDs want to see 25 or 30 mA for full brightness, expect the high brighness ones to want a lot more. And you only have 7 mA, which pretty much kills that. T-Power is another story. You might have a chance with T-power. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
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Phantom Powered Console Light (was: NAMM Show Report - Summer 2003)
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Phantom Powered Console Light
Mike Rivers wrote:
In article writes: Littlite Those cool gooseneck lights that we have on our mixing consoles have gone high tech and low power with LED arrays. Sorry I am not technical enough to figure this out for myself, but I have often dreamed of a desk lite that would run off phantom power of a unused channel would this be able to do that? Not from a standard phantom power source. Most LEDs that are useful as light sources draw 20 mA or so, and phantom power is limited to about 7.5 mA by the standard 6.8K resistor in series between the 48V power supply and the mic connector. So even if you wired them in series, the array, or even one LED, would still draw more current than the console could provide. Unless it used one of the constant-current switchmode LED driver chips to step down the voltage (34-36 V at maximum power point as I recall) to the appropriate voltage for the LED string (~10V for 3 LEDs in series.) |
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Phantom Powered Console Light
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Phantom Powered Console Light
On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 14:14:12 -0700, Kurt Albershardt
wrote: Unless it used one of the constant-current switchmode LED driver chips to step down the voltage (34-36 V at maximum power point as I recall) to the appropriate voltage for the LED string (~10V for 3 LEDs in series.) What a cool idea. Max power is at impedance matching, so with phantom's 3.405K ohm, 48V source, max output is 24V and 7.05mA. About 170 milliwatts; should be enough for a couple LED's. Chris Hornbeck, guyville{at}aristotle{dot}net |
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Phantom Powered Console Light
Mike Rivers wrote:
... and phantom power is limited to about 7.5 mA by the standard 6.8K resistor in series between the 48V power supply and the mic connector. But aren't there two 6.8K resisters, one for pin 2 and one for pin 3? In parallel they'd supply supply 15 mA, which explains how my Earthworks SROs and SR71 can pull 10 mA of phantom. |
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Phantom Powered Console Light
Mike Rivers wrote:
In article writes: Unless it used one of the constant-current switchmode LED driver chips to step down the voltage (34-36 V at maximum power point as I recall) to the appropriate voltage for the LED string (~10V for 3 LEDs in series.) There's always a more complicated way to make a flashlight. OK, but this is a little less price sensitive than the usual flashlight. Still, you can get about half a watt (48 V @ 10 mA) out of a phantom powered hole. A No. 47 incandesent bulb (6V @ 150 mA) typically used in a gooseneck console light draws roughly twice the power, so is an LED twice as efficient? Easily--in the right application. For the full skinny, I highly recommend Don Klipstein's excellent writing on the subject http://members.misty.com/don/lede.html |
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NAMM Show Report - Summer 2003
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Phantom Powered Console Light
Gidney and Cloyd wrote:
[A]ren't there two 6.8K resisters, one for pin 2 and one for pin 3? In parallel they'd supply supply 15 mA, which explains how my Earthworks SROs and SR71 can pull 10 mA of phantom. Yes (well, actually it's closer to 14 mA). But by the time you pull 7 mA through a 6.8 kOhm resistor, the voltage drop across that resistor comes to 0.007 x 6800 = 47.6 Volts. So with a 48 Volt supply you'll have wasted 99% of the power in the supply resistors, and it will never get to light your light bulb, or motivate your microphone to new heights of thrilling sonic accomplishment, or whatever. What Chris Hornbeck said is exactly right. Any microphone (or light) that draws more than 7 mA will actually get _less_ power from the phantom supply than it would have available at 7 mA. Up to 10 mA is "legal" by the IEC standard, but it's kinda goofy by Ohm's Law. The other thing is, you should never assume that any preamp or mixer really has that much current available. This has to be tested case-by-case. Some mixers and preamps even today are designed to work with first-generation phantom powered mikes (KM 84, U 87), which often drew less than 1 mA apiece. Sometimes the overall 48 Volt supply is too weak; sometimes there's excess series resistance in the 48 Volt supply's smoothing circuit. I literally had one preamp's phantom supply circuit burn out and emit smoke when I tested it with a modern transformerless condenser microphone. (Since the manufacturer repeatedly refused to discuss this problem seriously, I'll mention here that it was a MindPrint "DI-Port".) And then you get your obstinate individualists who don't know/don't care that there's a standard, who build things such as 30 Volt "phantom" powering into their equipment. That mostly happens right here in the good old USA. |
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Phantom Powered Console Light
In article znr1060124771k@trad, Mike Rivers
wrote: Still, you can get about half a watt (48 V @ 10 mA) out of a phantom powered hole. A No. 47 incandesent bulb (6V @ 150 mA) typically used in a gooseneck console light draws roughly twice the power, so is an LED twice as efficient? It had better be. An LED doesn't produce nearly as much heat as an incandescent, so if it's not producing more light per watt, then energy must be disappearing into thin air. Which means you need to isolate the area and identify it as a separate universe from the one we're all living in. ulysses |
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NAMM Show Report - Summer 2003
Oh yeah? Your feet tired? g
-- Roger W. Norman SirMusic Studio 301-585-4681 "georgeh" wrote in message ... Thanks Mike. After reading your notes, I feel like I was there myself. |
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