Signal Processors

One would expect the first product offering from a company called Square State Solid State, based in the square state of Colorado, to be square. Luckily for us, the makers were more practical than that and housed the Equalizer model one b in a rackmount-friendly shape.  

The FEA Labs 2-Channel Mixer pedal combines signal paths from the dual output of the sister pedal, the FEA dual-band optical compressor, and offers variable phase control too.  

Dynamics compression is presented in a little blue box, with four simple knobs for level, threshold, attack, and slope. Hit the Engage button and tweak away.  

We chat with EveAnna Manley of Manley Labs about the Manley Backbone Mastering Instert Switcher. The Backbone was the recent winner of the TEC award for "best ancillary equipment," which reminds me of a joke:

Q: What do you call a 2RU signal processor that hangs out with recording gear?

A: Ancillary.

I didn't say it was a good joke.  

Abstract Data has unleashed three new little analog synth and effects units under the Hex Series -- the Synthex, Morphex, and Graphex -- all of which feature simple design and effects.  

Chris Muth is the founder of Dangerous Music, a once-studio that became one of the most celebrated designers of analog routing solutions for digital audio systems. We caught up with Cris Muth at the most recent AES show, where we found him to be a much more affable fellow than his company's moniker would have you believe.  

Here's a good deal: buy a Universal Audio 6176 Vintage Channel Strip and get $200 back. All you have to do is make your purchase by the end of this year and fill out a rebate coupon. Easy!  

Create the best Halloween-themed video with theremin-featured music for the chance to win Moog Music gear. Two lucky winners will get a Moog Music MF-104Z Analog Delay or Moog Music MF-102 Ring Modulator, while all other notable entries will be awarded T-shirts.  

Some a y'all like to read specs. Other a y'all like to have the particular usefulness of those specs read to y'all by an informed individual. That's we're presenting y'all with this video of the new Lexicon PCM92, introduced at this past AES in New York City.  

When two companies meld brains and produce a collaborative EQ, how much of each company is represented in the design? The 32EQ, the lovechild of both Great River and Harrison Consoles, appears to be mostly Harrison. Sorry, Great River.  

Lexicon builds upon its stock of similarly named reverb and effects processors with the PCM92, which touts 28 brand new effects and 700 factory presets. Now you can add that spatial / spacey presence to all your tracks all over again.  

The 527 single-channel module debuted at AES with a modest mention of its coolest asset, the Thrust circuit. Its other, more mundane but necessary features, like controls for variable attack, release, ratio, and output gain, figured more prominently in the announcement.  

What's better than racking one tube-based module? Racking two, of course! The Tube-Tech RM 2 does just that, making room for not one but two totally tubular modules, namely the company's only two modules.  

The silky smooth texture-laden features of Rupert Neve's new rackmount module will knock your plain white cotton socks off.  

Reinvented and better than ever, the "Nevana" plugin collections add to your work the big sound and big dreams associated with Neve analog audio equipment. Powered by the UAD-2 DSP platform, the Neve-Powered plugs won't suck CPU power.  

Here's a cool little gadget: made especially for Line 6's ToneCore line of modular effects pedals and docks, the Muzemazer Chromavoder is a boutique, analog-modeling, polyphonic harmonizer effect. The pedal was built by A. D. Levine, who in the past has designed effects for Tod Rundgren and Luke Skywalker (seriously).  

Your MIDI MuRF just got even MuRFier. The free-to-download Moog Music MIDI MuRF Pattern Editor give you access to many MIDI CC only parameters, and gives you even more control over this out-of-control filter effect.  

Perhaps you're not satisfied with the latest virtual drum instruments out there so you still resort to recording acoustic drums. The trouble with them is that they require a lot of mics. An instant upgrade option to accommodate that is the Focusrite OctoPre MkII.  

Owen O'Malley's long and checkered past includes a stint as a teacher, and you can see ample evidence of that fact in this informative video on the Radial Phazer. Don't quite understand phase cancellation? Check out Owen's handy diagram. And also, listen to the sweet sounds of this quality product by Radial Engineering!  

Versatile pieces of hardware are trendy these days, with microphone preamps being no exception. Following that trend is Empirical Labs Mike-E, and these units are now shipping.  

Another summer freebie has sprouted out of the blue; this time it's in the 141st issue of Computer Music magazine. Blue Cat FreqAnalyst CM 1.1 has been released with that issue.  

Mr. Jimmy Shaw of Metric, ever talented and respectably gear-nerdy, was simply delighted to talk to Gearwire about the sweet challenge of finding vintage gear online. One of Shaw's most important studio fixtures came from our fair city of Chicago. It's a Neve 5432, and if you've listened to Metric, you better believe you've heard it already.  

It is not surprising that even highly praised equipment have some bugs that need to be sorted out, such as settings that are not preserved after powering down. TC Electronic solves those problems in addition to new powerful features with software version 4.0.  

For any musician, one of the biggest challenges of playing live is simply making sure everything works. When you specialize in experimental music, and half of your rig is secondhand anyway, you can multiply all that anxiety by at least a factor of two. Hear how Skincage manages when his Electrix Repeater, or anything else, gets stubborn.  

Digital broadcastings two greatest enemies lie slain at the chips of the TC Electronic DB2 Loudness Correction Processor. This single rack unit unit also unites units in a literary sense while correcting audio-to-video sync problems in a more important sense.  

Held by many as the main competition for the Akai MPC-3000, the Ensoniq ASR-X Pro is definitely a worthy opponent, even if they don't make 'em anymore. Plus, well, it's red. Jon Ray, also known as Skincage, is a Tucson-based experimental sound artist who uses the ASR-X Pro for recording, and he wouldn't have it any other way.  

It takes a lot of sauce to call your pro-audio company "Benchmark," especially when you specialize in analog-digital and digital-analog converters. When said such company announces its new "flagship" -- like they've done with the new Benchmark DAC1 HDR -- you're well-advised to pay it some mind.  

MusikMesse 2009 will see the introduction of not one, not two, not even three or four but five products from Sound Performance Labs. The SPL FRONTLINER is their new high-end Channel Strip.  

The self-contained, desktop TC Electronic BMC-2 is both a monitor control and a dedicated stereo master digital-to-analog converter. Even if you have no need for it's jitter-elimination, monitor switching and iCheck data reduction analyzer, you'll still want to wrap your arms around and lay your head upon its ergonomically tilted surface. Night-night.  

Skincage, aka Jon Ray, has chosen as his audio-medium the sort of clanging, stereophonic noise-scapes that the Electrix Repeater was born to create. Ray loved it so much that he got together with a group of like-minded noisemakers and purchased a "community" Repeater when they first came out. Noise for the people!