And Another Peaceful Member Comes Into The Mac Fold
Stu Veneable of AngryFolk.com (and the Project Studio Network listener who had an original song picked up for a Super Bowl commercial this year) commented on his aversion to the whole “PC versus Mac” debate.
If I remember correctly, he found all the hoopla annoying and was a happy PC user.
That’s why my heart warmed when I received this note from Stu yesterday…
“You might remember the audio comment I sent about the PC vs Mac thing.
“I upgraded my recording system in December (Quad-core PC w/ Windows 7 and a Digi 003r). I spent six months — that’s right, six months — trying to get PTLE 8 to run stably on my PC.
“Finally I broke down and bought an iMac. Within one hour of unboxing the computer, Pro Tools was installed, updated and I was recording.
“I finally followed your advice (“get a Mac”) albeit a few years too late.”
Welcome Stu, it’s never too late! We’re so glad to have you with us.
Now, slowly back away from the lava lamp…
Apple Mac Pro – Now Up to 12 Cores Of Processing Power!
It’s ridiculously, over-the-top, stupid power time!
Apple today announced (among other things) that the new Mac Pro coming in August will offer 12-core CPU option (twin six-core processors) that can also been seen as 24 virtual cores in the system.
Is it expensive. Yep.
Is it worth it? Yep. 
Do you need it? Depends.
If budget is not an issue, then by all means dive in no matter what.
If you’re the typical home or project studio on a budget, this is probably overkill. However, if you do a lot of intense video rendering, the decision gets a little tougher to call.
I think the main thing this demonstrates is the ever-decreasing need for hardware dependent DAWs, e.g. Pro Tools HD.
How will this ever-progressing march of technology and speed be reflected in our industry, and how soon?
From Apple’s Site – Features include:
Up to 24 Virtual Cores
The Intel Xeon processors support Hyper-Threading, which allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core. So, for example, a 12-core Mac Pro presents 24 virtual cores that are recognized by Mac OS X. Performance is enhanced because Hyper-Threading enables the processor to take better advantage of the execution resources available in each core.
Easy Access for Easy Expansion
The easy-access interior of the Mac Pro feels like the well-organized workstation it is. No rat’s nest of components here. You don’t need to turn the system on its side or struggle to reach into awkward spaces to make changes. Just remove the side panel for instant access to everything. Slide out the processor tray to add memory. Slide out drive bays to add storage. Slide a simple bar to change up to four expansion cards at once. And with plenty of I/O ports both front and back, you’ll have room for all your external devices.
Tool-less PCI
When it’s time to upgrade, a quick slide of the retention bar frees up the four expansion card slots for easy access. Thanks to a thumbscrew PCI bracket, you can swap out cards without any tools. All four slots are PCI Express 2.0 for incredible performance. And since the graphics slot in the Mac Pro is double-wide, your graphics card won’t cover an adjacent slot.
Up to 8 Terabytes of Slide-in, Mechanical Hard Drive Storage
The Mac Pro comes with four 3.5-inch drive bays for an enormous amount of internal storage — up to 8TB.* For faster access to your data, you can also configure your Mac Pro with up to four solid-state drives. The bays are direct-attach and cable free, so it’s easy to add or remove drives. Just attach the drive carrier to a drive and slide the drive into place. There are no connectors or cables to contend with. Lock the drives with the side door latch, and you’re done.
Optional Solid State Storage
New to the Mac Pro is the option to add up to four 512GB solid-state drives — or any combination of solid-state and hard drives. Solid-state drives have no moving parts and are capable of accessing data at speeds up to 230MB per second, which is up to twice the speed of hard drives. The result? Incredible performance on a range of data-intensive tasks, including up to 2x faster ProRes video encoding using solid-state drives compared with hard drives.
Up to 32 BG of Snap-in DDR3 ECC SDRAM
Install more memory in your Mac Pro in a snap. Literally. The easy-access interior lets you slide out the processor tray in one smooth motion, then simply snap new memory into place. You don’t have to dig around inside the computer or wrestle with wires or cables. The single-processor Mac Pro offers four slots that support up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM, while the dual-processor Mac Pro offers eight slots that support up to 32GB.
Front and Back I/O
There are plenty of places to connect external devices to your Mac Pro. You’ll find two FireWire 800 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and a headphone minijack right up front — where it’s more convenient to connect storage, multimedia devices, and high-speed peripherals. And there are even more ports on the back: three USB 2.0, two FireWire 800, optical audio in and out, analog audio in and out, and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports.
How Do You Widen A Stereo Mix?
Here are two great quotes from the upcoming book by Mixerman, Zen and the Art of Mixing (coming this Fall on Hal Leonard), which offer some sage guidance on mixing and the stereo image…
“It’s also not uncommon to have tracks delivered with stereo guitars, pianos, keyboards, etc. You are not committed to any stereo recording treatment. Filling the mix with stereo parts only serves to create a mess of instruments coming from no particular place.
“Mixes with multiple mono sources split across the stereo field are far more focused and interesting than mixes that combine many stereo sources. This may seem like a personal preference, but it’s not. This is about framing a strong track, and your track can be weakened considerably by the excessive use of overly symmetrical faux stereo instrumentation.”
FREEEeee Reverb Effect For Mac and Windows!
Found this over at Synthtopia:
DUY has released Z-Room, a free reverb effect for RTAS, MAS, VST and Audiosuite.
An e-mail address required for the free download. A list of features is below the picture.
Features:
- High quality density and diffusion provide an unparalleled sound quality.
- Total control over parameters which had never been available to the user before, with a friendly and intuitive user interface.
- Three modes: Deluxe, Economy and Earlies. The second allows to free processing time, and the third focuses the strength of the algorithm on the processing of Early Reflections.
- An exclusive Rehearsal Mode allows you to set the parameters while hearing the real impulse response of the reverb. This is one of the finest tools to evaluate the quality of the reverb.
- You can choose between several room responses (reverse, gate, hall, room, stage…). All these values can be modified with the Stretch and Pre-delay parameters.
- Processing time is freed when you choose not to include Early Reflections.
- Internal 64-bit processing.
- Independent mixing controls for each of the three selectable bands, as well as for the Direct, Early Reflections and Reverb signals.
- Total control over the iteration depth, with six levels of calculation.
- Over 50 presets are included.
- Z-Room is the only reverb that allows you to control the time base of the reverb’s algorithm.
- Visualization of the Direct, Early Reflections and Reverb signals in the time domain.
Aligning Tracks Recorded With Multiple Microphones? Try Auto-Align by SoundRadix!
Any time you record a source with more than one microphone, several challenges pop up, e.g. phase, time alignment, etc.
Here’s an interesting tool that could solve these common challenges very quickly and accurately. It’s a new plugin called “Auto-Align” by SoundRadix.
Check it out in action on an electric guitar:
Using a screen reader? Click here for the video.
There’s a FREEeeee trial available.
Here’s more from the SoundRadix web site…
Time-aligning a multi-microphone setup is crucial to achieve coherent and punchier sound. When recording an instrument with more then one mic, sound tends to reach each microphone at a slightly different time and thus cause some frequencies to cancel each-other while other frequencies can build-up unnaturally.
Until now, compensating for the delay between the microphones had to be done manually – an extremely time consuming and inaccurate process.
Enter Auto-Align.
Auto-Align will “listen” to your multi-mic recording and will automatically measure and compensate for the delay between the microphones – sample accurate.
When distant microphones are used and a delay is desired to preserve a sense of space, Auto-Align can time-place the microphones to better match the close-mic’ed source.
Auto-Align can also automatically detect a reversed polarity mic and compensate for it.
Q&A
Q: What is Auto-Align?
A: Auto-Align is a Audio Unit plug-in (VST & RTAS coming soon), designed to automatically and sample-accurately, time-align audio tracks that were recorded using multiple microphones or with two or more separate sources such as a DI and a microphone.
Auto-Align does not alter the sound of the recorded tracks in any way, but rather shifts them in time, compensating for the delay caused by the speed of sound.
Q: How Does It Work?
A: Auto-Align works by “listening” to two audio tracks at a time, sample-accurately time-shifting the track it’s engaged on, in order best match the track it is listening to via side-chain. Auto-Align can also detect if the track is reversed in polarity to its mate and compensate for it.
Q: What are the requirements for Auto-Align?
A: Pretty much any Mac will do, PPC or Intel running Leopard OS or higher. You’ll need your DAW to support Side-Chaining. It is currently available as Audio Unit plug-in. VST and RTAS coming soon. During the installation you’ll need to have an internet connection in order to authorize your copy of Auto-Align.
Q: Is it possible to use Auto-Align to align different takes of the instrument?
A: No. Since Auto-Align doesn’t manipulate your sound but rather moves it in time, trying to align different takes isn’t going to be beneficial.
