I remember sitting at NAMM watching Rodney Orpheus demo the very first version of Reason about 11 years ago or so, when it was still an alpha program, before release. And I was impressed even then. I thought it made sense and looked immediate and fun. I never used Reason as much as I used DAWs because I needed my audio recording and my audio plug-ins, and Reason never supported plug-ins, and while recently Propellerhead created an audio recording program called Record that worked in conjunction with Reason, Reason itself never did audio. Nevertheless, I have used Reason in conjunction with both Ableton Live and Logic Pro, and the Ember After songs Twenty Feet and Grasping At Straws (from the album of the same title) utilize Reason in major ways.

Now, with the newly announced Reason 6, it does. Not only does it have the audio facility and plug-ins that previously were in Record, but it looks like they’ve added some cool new effects and some new power features as well. And it’s a 64-bit application, yeay!

I still wish Reason supported plug-ins. But then, that would defeat one of Reason’s “features,” that it’s a completely enclosed software studio. I put features in quotes because to me, it’s not a feature, it’s a drawback. To me, it’s “killer feature” is the design of it’s instruments and effects. But this is the first version of Reason that I can see really taking over for a DAW for me, not just being another “ancillary application.” I’ve not updated my version of Reason since Reason 3.5; this upgrade, however, is definitely worth the $169.

There has been a new addition to my project studio. In fact, you could call it a heart transplant. My erstwhile first generation 2006 Mac Pro (4-core, 2.66 GHz) has become long-in-tooth. That machine, hands down, has been the best, most trouble free Mac I have ever owned. But the original video card can’t run the latest version of Final Cut Pro X. The CPU can’t run a 64-bit kernel. In addition, the monitors I’ve had for years, two 19″ Dell monitors, were dying—colors were off, one was fading the other flickering, etc. Add to that “new computer envy” for the gorgeous new iMac that I bought for Michelle (and was faster than my Mac Pro) many moons ago. And of course, top it all off with a general sense of gearlust. The result of it all that I bought a new iMac—for which I’ll be selling some more gear to pay off. Ah, the revolving door of gear…

My new iStudio (as I’ve named it, since the the heart of my music studio, as well as my writing workstation) is a 27″ iMac sporting an Intel 3.4 GHz i7 chip, capable of both automatic overclocking and hyperthreading, meaning that with some applications (like my music studio application, Logic Pro) my 4-core processor acts like an 8-core processor. I’ve also loaded it with 8 GB of RAM and it’s system drive is a 256GB SSD drive, which means it uses solid state memory like your camera or smartphone rather than the normal spindle drive. If all that is unbelievably techy nonsense that you don’t care about, just remember that according to macrumors.com, the 27-inch iMac i7 with SSD is the fastest Mac ever. I’m not hung up about having the “fastest Mac” because I know it will only last until the next refresh in a few months, but the point is that it’s going to be state-of-the-art for while, which is nice.

Speaking of state-of-the-art, this is the first all-in-one Mac I’ve bought since my first Mac, a Macintosh SE/30 that I bought in 1988. Since then I’ve always bought the mini-tower Macs. Why? Because the mini-towers were always the ones with the power. When there were all-in-ones, they never had the expandability or power that the desktops did. This iMac obviously has the power; it’s also the first one that has the expandability, thanks to a new Intel port called Thunderbolt (terrible name), which is a combination monitor and PCIe port, and can be daisy chained.

I’ve only had it for four days, so the honeymoon is still in effect. But needless to say, I’m thrilled with it. Thanks to the “instant on” SSD drive, this machine is as responsive as anything; there’s no waiting for programs to launch, it starts up and shuts down in seconds, etc. The iMac 27″ display has the same pixel width as my two 19″ monitors (2560 pixels) so I’ve not lost any horizontal screen real estate; since I have more vertical pixels, in fact it’s an overall gain. And beyond the screen size, the graphics are amazing and fast and it’s just a phenomenally gorgeous display.

Why did I want one monitor instead of two? Well, first of all the new iMac can support up to two additional 2560 x 1600 displays, so I can have a wall of monster monitors if I want. But the audio applications that I use the most (Logic, GarageBand) are optimized for a widescreen single window display, my writing application of choice (Storyist) is also optimized for a single large window, and it just makes sense.

Mostly so far I’ve been installing and hooking stuff up. Thankfully, most of my system configuration was synchronized automatically by MobileMe and nearly all my data is stored on a network drive or cloud drives, so all I really needed to do was install applications. Which is double plus unfun, and still not finished. But it’s been going without a hitch, it’s just time consuming. My studio equipment is almost entirely hooked up to my iMac, and working brilliantly.

Getting a new computer is also when I start assessing what applications, audio plug-ins, and so on I really need, and which I won’t install, and see if I miss them or not. For example, at this point I’m thinking I might try only running the 64-bit version of Logic Pro, and only installing those plug-ins that are 64-bit compatible. We’ll see how long it is until I really miss something, and start installing my 32-bit plug-ins…Inevitably, I always start a new computer with a lean and mean system, but I always manage to fill my drives with crap as the years roll on. But for now, it’s nice to have a pristine system.

It wasn’t too long ago that the iMac was just the consumer Mac, for mom and the kids but for real desktop power you needed a “real” workstation, the mini-tower. But we’ve reached the point where the iMac is not only an impressive powerhouse, but for the moment, the fastest kid on the block. The line between “professional” and “desktop” Mac are gone. And I for one am thrilled.

(eventually, I’ll post a pic, but of my entire project studio setup, not just the iMac)

For those looking for a free plug-in (and who have a USB iLok key), SoundToys is giving away a audio compressor/limiter/destroyer plug-in called Devil-Loc. This began as a South by Southwest promotion, but has now expanded. SoundToys is one of the most acclaimed audio plug-in manufacturers, and considering the price is free, it’s pretty good deal! There are no strings attached (well, there are if you want it and don’t have an iLok, of course). I downloaded mine.

Click here to go to SoundToys.com and get your free plug-in from them.

I already wrote my thoughts on the iPad 2 introduction on my personal blog. And in it, I mentioned how cool GarageBand for iPad looked.

If you’re not familiar with it, Apple has an entire page for GarageBand for iPad—including a very complete video walk-through. I highly recommend you watch the video. There have been many very good iPad music apps before, but they were either single purpose (such as synthesizers) or limited (the Portastudio just does recording, for example). This is the first really “pro” level musical workstation that includes quality instruments, effects, and an audio engine based on Logic Pro, along with an amazing interface and smart instruments, etc. Really, you could create a song on this, send it to yourself, then open it right up in Logic Pro if you wanted to. Amazing.

And for only $5? If you have an iPad 1 or iPad 2, this is a no-brainer, even if you don’t know how to play. I believe it goes live on Friday, if it isn’t by the time you read this.

If you’re not a guitarist, this video probably won’t mean all that much, although you might recognize some of the musicians praising their Tele. One of the first two guitars I ever played live with was my lefty ’62 reissue Telecaster. I’ve sold it a lot of years ago, but I still love the guitars, and I’m sure I’ll end up with another one day.

Happy anniversary, Telecaster!

I’ve not posted to this too much recently, mostly because the Ember After site is undergoing a refresh before our next release. But I thought this looked too interesting to pass up:

Harrison Consoles is a Nashville company that makes high end physical consoles. With plug-ins all the rage, it’s only natural they’d dip their feet in the pool. But rather than making a plug-in to fit inside other complete DAWs, they’ve taken a completely different tack.

Peter Kirn in his article The $79 Virtual Analog Console goes into a lot more depth than I will, but the bottom line is that rather than build a single channels worth of “warming” plug-ins or other virtual analog simulations, they built a whole mix bus worth, to capture the idea that it’s the “glue” of the multitrack console working together that makes up the magic, not just the individual track processors. They built their mixbus into the open source DAW called Ardour, which means that for $79, you get both their mixbus and Ardour. I’ve never used Ardour but I’ve heard very good things about it, so it seems like a pretty solid system to build around. Ardour runs on Mac OS X and Linux, and I’m sure it’s a matter of time before it makes its way to Windows.

Overall, I think this is an interesting idea. I don’t see it unseating any of the “Big four” (Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic, SONAR) any time soon, but for people looking for a very cheap entry into professional recorders—especially for recordists who have no interest in MIDI and instruments and all that—this could be a really cheap way to get “that sound.”

I’ve spent three days at NAMM 2011; some of it was business, some of it was pleasure, and some of it was…well…whatever it is when you walk the floor of NAMM and see lots of things you keep seeing every year and aren’t all that impressed anymore. But as ever, there were things that I saw that impressed me, and this post is my list.

I should note that in general I’m sticking to things that are new to NAMM this year. As ever, I’m not going to attempt to go over everything at the show, or even all the new or buzz-worthy things at the show—I’m sticking to those things I can imagine myself integrating into my workflow, or just things that really stuck out to me.

But first, a few honorable mentions: I continue to be impressed by the Egnater Armaggedon—their flagship metal amp shown at AES, and now finished and getting ready to ship soon. I also continue to be impressed with Pro Tools 9, now compatible with any native system. I talked about that in my AES post. And I’m also really taken with the Apogee Electronics Symphony I/O. It’s a very high end (and pricey) piece of kit, as the British say, but it sounded like it was worth every penny. When it’s a bit less of a beta product, I might just save up my pennies to add it to Ember Studios.

Okay, here we go:

Roland GR-55

I give Roland a lot of credit; they truly are the one company keeping the guitar synthesizer market going. And the Roland GR-55 struck me with everything it offered. It has the guitars, amps, and effects from the VG series, the synths from the GR series, a built-in looper and flash drive storage/audio player, USB audio/MIDI drivers, and more. All in my preferred format for guitar processors, a floorboard. The demo sounded good. I’ve owned VG and GR models in the past, and this looks like another winner—and at $799 it’s even cheaper than the VG-99, which is an added bonus! It sounds like the only package includes the pickup, which I don’t need. I hope there is a “pickup free” package for less as well

Kemper Profiling Amplifier

The Kemper Profiling Amplifier garnered a fair amount of buzz at NAMM, and for good reason: it’s the first digital guitar amplifier in a long time that offers something new. This amp doesn’t simply come loaded with lots of models of amps and effects, it actually lets you take a “profile” of your amplifier. In other words, it can dynamically sample a guitar rig (including mic placement) and then capture that inside the KPA with the same sound and dynamics as the original. I got a full demo (from Mr. Kemper himself, no less) and I was blown away by how close it came.  The amp itself lets you A/B with the original amp (they had a Mesa Boogie Dual Recto at the booth playing through a Randall Isocab) and it was nearly identical. This really is a new breed of boutique digital guitar device, and had me quite interested.

Dave Smith Instruments/Roger Linn Design Tempest

We’ve come a long way since Boomchick, the DSI/RLD drum machine was first teased at NAMM years ago. The Tempest has many differences from that initial concept. For one thing, the Tempest (prototype) was real, and at the show. It’s a 6-voice full analog percussion synthesizer with a fully featured digital step sequencer with lots of amazing special features. It also had a full OLED display, for amazing viewability at any angle. It both looked and sounded incredible. The price tag, however, surprised me—at $1999, it costs the same as a Prophet ’08. Yikes. Roger Linn Digital will be releasing its own version of the Tempest, the all-digital LinnDrum II, and we’ll see if that one is more affordable.

iZotope Stutter Edit

When I first saw a press release that BT was working with iZotope to release Stutter Edit, I was not all that interested. Don’t get me wrong, I adore what BT does with stutter editing, but there’s an armload of beat-slicing effects out there, I didn’t think we needed one more. Then I went to the iZotope booth and got to see it, and I’m a believer. This doesn’t just slice and dice beats, it live samples and gives you tons of processing options, slicing and repeating only being some of them. I was really struck by it’s creative potential, it’s far deeper than I’d imagined. I’ll be giving this a very serious look.

Universal Audio UAD-2 Satelite

I used to use the UAD1, but I ended up pulling it out due to driver issues (I don’t remember why anymore). I’ve always missed the sound of the plug-ins, but I’m loathe to buy into a PCI solution since I have a laptop and may soon get an iMac. So I was very happy to see that with the UAD2 Satellite series there’s a FireWire solution now. And that Studer plug-in really sounded amazing!

The iPad Rules Supreme
The iPad was everywhere. Literally. Exhibitors carried them instead of notepads. NAMM attendees carried them either for business or personal needs. And iPad software controllers and music applications were everywhere. So were iPad accessories. My favorite iPad accessory wasn’t actually for sale. I have and love the Korg iMS-20 iPad emulation of the Korg MS-20. At the Korg booth, they had it set up with one of their limited edition miniature MIDI controller MS-20 replicas that were included as a promotion for their plug-in of the MS-20. And there was an exact 1:1 match to the iPad controls! It was really awesome—way more fun than trying to twist knobs on the touchscreen.

The controller is connected to the iPad via the Apple Camera Kit that includes a USB port. Speaking of USB iPad connectors, however, the StudioDock Pro from Alesis seems like it will be the best way to get audio and MIDI into an iPad.

The iPad slides into a dock with a 30-pin connector, and the StudioDock Pro includes all the I/O that a musician might need: combo jacks for 1/4-inch or XLR, MIDI, USB, etc. No price yet; I’m guessing it won’t be terribly expensive, but not cheap either. Nevertheless, I’m guessing this (or something like it) will become the standard musician interface into the iPad.

Of course, I have to admit, seeing this made me die a little bit inside:

It’s not the best picture, but basically it’s a snapshot of the IK Multimedia “booth,” which really consisted of a counter filled with strats connected to iPads via iRig. When iSaw this, iCried.

Now, I’m certainly not opposed to cutting edge technology. I love it. I’m not opposed to digital guitar processing (see my first two items above). And I’ve reviewed IK Multimedia Amplitube, I’m not opposed to their software either (they have some great emulations). But…maybe this sounds old skool, but there’s just nothing rock and roll about plugging into an iPad. I mean, this is a mainstream mass market consumer device—rock and roll, even top-of-the-pops nonsense, is supposed to be “edgy” right? There’s just nothing even remotely edgy about an iPad; I can’t imagine any guitarist looking cool with one onstage. And no heavy metal kids could scream “I am teh brootalz” with their monster axe plugged into an iPad.

Now, one can argue that an iPad isn’t much more “consumery” than a laptop, and full computers are being used onstage. But full computers are also more powerful, and have longer cables, whereas your iPad needs to be right up next to you. And in the studio? Come on—you can record direct into your computer at 24-bit, and any sample rate you want. The iPad is limited to 16-bit, 44.1kHz.

Maybe it’s the future and I’m just sounding like a bitter old man, but while I see the iPad as a valid device for unique synth and processing effects, I just can’t see it replacing a dedicated guitar processor or guitar amp just yet. Oh, and you kids, get off my lawn!

So that’s basically the list of what caught my eye. I’m sure the Interwebs will be buzzing with these and other interesting things. I’ll be keeping up with these and other products and the year goes on, and hopefully I’ll get to review some of them. Also, I’m looking forward to reading Ember Member Barry Wood’s regular NAMM Oddities feature, when he gets it ready (usually a short while after the show).

I have a new review up at Gearwire.com! I review the PreSonus AudioBox USB audio interface. If you’re looking for a USB audio interface, be sure and see what I have to say about this one.

The iPad is an amazingly cool device, both for browsing/consuming media, gaming, social networking, and even music. Saitara had released one of the first software remote controls for the iPad, AC-7 and AC-7 Pro, and they were pretty good. The apps themselves were very fully featured, but connection was a bit of a bear. On the Mac, you had to use a open source piece of shareware that was designed to capture Wiimote data and translate it to MIDI, and that would allow Saitara’s apps to work with your DAW. A bit of a cludge, but it usually worked, although performance wasn’t as good as TouchOSC or other apps with dedicated server apps for your desktop machine.

With the new iPad iOS 4.2 software update, a real wifi MIDI framework is part of iOS. And Saitara takes full advantage of it with their newest controller, AC-7 Core. This requires no additional software on a Mac—it works natively with CoreMIDI. It does require a “Bonjour” app on Windows, but they licensed it so you can download it right from their site.

I’ve not put it through it’s paces yet, but it looks like the real deal so far. More as I get more into it. This is their short intro video, which shows it multitasking and not crashing (which is nice, since many music programs on the iPad do crash if you try to multitask).

Now that I’m back from the 129th AES Convention, I thought I’d share some of my impressions. First and foremost, Avid was without a doubt the belle of the ball. Pro Tools 9 was without a doubt the major debut, software-wise, at AES. PT9 isn’t simply a feature update, as far as the DAW world is concerned, it many ways it is the feature update: it can run on any Mac or PC without any additional hardware, the first time that Pro Tools of any flavor has been divorced from proprietary hardware (as you’ll recall, my previous entry on PTHD|Native decried that dependency). This is the real deal, folks—Pro Tools for everyone.

I normally don’t sit for demos when I’m working the exhibit floor myself, but this one I did. And I have to say, for all that the industry is moving away from big exhibits at these sorts of events, there is something to be said for a well executed demo. They had three people doing the demo, taking a single project from MacBook Pro alone (complete with singing rough vocals into the built-in mic), to a band recording with live guitar and bass tracking on a more powerful rig, to the Nashville engineer dude using the Avid Media composer satelite linkup support in TDM on an large format mixing desk. They did a great job of showing the scalability of the Pro Tools line from basic system to full studio rig, and capturing the recording/mixing process to boot.

Honestly, at $599 for Pro Tools 9 (and half that or less to upgrade), this is going to fly off shelves, and for industry compatibility this is approaching no-brainer level. I’ve had a PT M-Powered rig for a while and I’m very much looking forward to the upgrade. Now that Pro Tools can be integrated into my setup without additional hardware (although I have to admit, I’ve been eyeing Avid’s Eleven Rack for a while) I’m going to give it a very serious try.

To get the full-HD level experience you’ll need the Complete Production Toolkit 2 which expands Pro Tools 9 to the full HD featureset (without the HEAT plug-in of TDM). That will run you an extra $2000, which honestly doesn’t sound unreasonable, considering Nuendo or Sequoia will run you $2500 as well. What I do think is unfortunate is that to boost the Pro Tools 9 package to the level of virtual instruments that you get with Logic, Cubase, Live, etc. (a full sampler, looping synths, etc) you’ll need to buy the Pro Tools Instrument Expansion Pack. OTOH, there are a lot of upgrade options, and in fact I couldn’t find a price for it on Avid’s site, only the $99 upgrade price. So maybe nearly anyone who owns PT9 get it for only $99; which really isn’t a bad deal for high end instruments. When I get it, I’ll report back.

Okay, there wasn’t just Avid there. SSL was showing of their new Nucleus controller, which looked great with 16-faders, universal compatibility, and SSL build quality. Unfortunately, a $5k price-tag, stereo I/O with “superanalogue” mic preamps (which sound awesome, but I don’t need them/want to pay for them), and no locator window on the controller (WTF?) kept it from being a slam dunk for me. Another company who’s name I forgot was showing a rackmounted guitar controller, but when I took in a demo it was on a very nasal and plastic sounding high gain tone that didn’t win me over. And of course, lots of analog tube gear, mixers, and components.

But really, this was Avid’s AES, from my point of view.