In Summary
With January bringing promise of new beginnings and new gear, the start of 2024 had more than its fair share of choice pieces for engineers to mull over. Read on for the roundup of our favourites from NAMM ‘24 and more…
1 - Cranborne Audio Carnaby HE2 Equaliser
Who doesn’t love a shiny nice new piece of gear? Despite the dominance of audio plugin processors in the DAW (and the DAW itself for that matter), there are many advantages that come from using real kit. For some, the plugin’s advantages can be blunted by the user experience; lets face it, before they came along the only person pushing a mouse around was your accountant. Real gear is arguably more future-proof, more fun, and more carefully curated by the user.
For those at the back shouting “RECALL”, Cranborne Audio have an answer for you as well with their brand new Carnaby HE2 Equaliser. Derived from the 500 series module, the company’s latest 2U offering brings control from the DAW including precious recall and more besides. It uses harmonics generated from analogue saturation to create equalisation that brings “euphonic analogue colour and character”, so if you’re looking for an EQ that is different and very nicely made, this one could be the new toy you never outgrow.
2 - SSL Link 360
As any control surface user will tell you, nothing beats the hands-on experience of getting physical with faders, knobs, and audio plugins. With many control surfaces developed to talk directly to the DAW mixer, a smaller number can instead talk to their accompanying channel style plugins, or in the case of SSL’s control surface family, a whole ‘layer’ ecosystem that lives inside the DAW’s inserts. This mixer-within-a-mixer architecture can have advantages such as letting third party manufacturers side-step pesky closed protocols or other obstacles to haptic heaven. More often than not, the trade off here is the need for engineers to stick to one system or risk brain-melt trying to juggle layers, GUIs, or other duplication.
SSL’s UC1 is the console veteran’s hardware controller previously reserved for their own channel-shaped audio plugins. Owners can now let out a collective sigh of relief following the release of Link 360. This is a mappable audio plugin wrapper that is controllable from UC1. Why is this good? Because it means that any third party VST3 plugin can be perfectly mapped to UC1 inside 360 Link itself. It is AAX, VST, or AU compatible, ensuring that anything can be used inside anything. Best of all 360 link is free…
3 - Radial Engineering Nuance Select Studio Monitor Controller
As hard as it is to believe, there was a time when doing things was as simple as pointing a finger at a button and pressing it. This way of making things happen rather fell out of favour with the arrival of the DAW’s awesome power, and frankly a number of engineers of a certain twentieth-century vintage want their buttons back.
For those working in the DAW mixer (ie, nearly everyone) we have control surfaces, but that can still fall short when a little immediacy is needed in-between the DAW and the monitoring. Step forward the dedicated monitor controller. Want to switch speakers? Press a button. Do a Mono check? Press a button. Switch sources, Dim, Cut, or talk to the talent? You get the idea.
While some high-end controllers take the ‘rack-and-remote’ form factor, Radial Engineering’s Nuance Select Studio Monitor Controller arrives as one box for both throughput and control. Although this brings all the cabling up to your desktop, the advantages of this form are reduced cost and less complexity. Radial Engineering are renowned for their squeaky-clean technical performance as well, meaning that a trip through this thing will leave your signals none-the-wiser. So much so that Radial Engineering claim a distortion profile low enough to be beyond the measurement capabilities of most audio testing equipment. But never mind that; it looks like the console-less studio just got its buttons back…
4 - Audient Oria
As the needs of music, TV, film, game and other audio content continue to converge, multichannel mixes are no longer the preserve of big budget productions set for the big screen. With surround sound coming a long way since 5.1, immersive formats such as Dolby Atmos are here. With 7.1.4 currently the format of choice, mixers now have height information to enhance the listening experience as well as extra channels around head height. Although this work is increasingly being done in smaller-scale rooms, the gear needed to bring these mixes to life has until now largely come from Atmos’ blockbuster roots with prices to match.
Audient are well established as the name behind a range of analogue consoles, more recently adding class-leading audio interface technology to their inventory as well. Oria has been designed to meet the demands of professional audio production with 9.1.6 support via 2 x 16 channel surround outputs in both analogue and AES formats. As an added bonus, the Oria software supports SoundID Reference speaker correction, and the package includes Sonarworks’ Measurement Microphone to get up and running. For expanded connectivity, an optional AoIP card (Dante) is available, providing an additional 16 input channels over an ethernet connection.
Setting out to further democratise immersive mixing, Audient’s Oria promises immersive treats that used to be the preserve of those with especially deep pockets.
5 - API TCS-II
Whether it happens before hitting record or later on in the mix, inevitably time needs to be spent processing sounds to some degree. Often combining a mic amp into compression and equalisation, the hardware channel strip is another gift for console-less recordists who like to shoot first and ask questions later with their processing. The DAW paradigm can encourage us to Record Now, and Think Later, but the standalone channel brings back the easy days of just dialling in sounds first and recording them.
The TCS-II is the second coming of API’s well–regarded TCS (The Channel Strip) that brings the API console input channel in a single rack space. Beginning with the 512c Mic Preamplifier, inputs then hit the punchy 527A Compressor that features API’s THRUST circuit. Downstream, 550A three band equalisation rounds up a trio of recording refinements before hitting the API console 325 Line Driver. For a final touch of large-format finesse, the compressor and EQ sections are flippable for pre and post treatments, increasing the flexibility of TCS-II. Far from being a total refresh, the TCS-II is more a gentle refinement seeing the arrival of the 527A stage as well as improved metering and control.
6 - oeksound Bloom
You may have noticed a recent trend towards audio tools that do it for you. For some they can do the heavy lifting as that deadline looms, or simply make it sound better for people with their heads planted in pure artistry. These tools are far from compulsory; traditional tools are going absolutely nowhere for now, but equally automation is here to stay. For a task like equalising signals for art or for more humdrum correction, the smart adaptive EQ is here.
oeksound will be known to many reading this as the people behind perennial problem solvers Spiff and Soothe 2, that take on adaptive transient and resonant processing respectively. With corrective therapies already under their belt, oeksound recently announced Bloom, billed as “an adaptive tone shaper”. This goes all artistic by offering the chance to increase warmth, clarity, or brightness, as well as controlling and evening out “irregularities in a rough sound”. We’re intrigued, and if the Finnish maestros’ other tools are anything to go by, Bloom could play a good Picasso to Spiff and Soothe 2’s Einstein.
7 - Kii SEVEN
With the sheer amount of enthusiasm shown by engineers for creating sounds, it’s sometimes surprising how the art of listening can sometimes be overshadowed. When the subject of monitoring does fight its way to the fore, many designs are appreciated for their faithful reproduction, but even then there is still an elephant in the room and that elephant is the room. Many clever designs rely on the right acoustic conditions as brought about by the person putting them in there, whereas other loudspeakers strive to help just that little bit more…
We know how our industry is obsessed with specs, but Kii’s point-source cardioid loudspeakers are so much more than Hi-Fi exotica. These ingenious monitors are designed to keep the sound off the walls even at LF thanks to clever DSP and multiple drivers. The result is to create full range cardioid sound dispersion into the room for a purer monitoring experience. Following on from the German company’s Three monitor, the Kii Seven is smaller with lower power handling that will be more than adequate for smaller facilities. If you want a slice of Kii’s advanced tech that you can point just like a mic in reverse, the Seven might be just the tonic for rooms with modest requirements. They might not be cheap, but remember the Hi-Fi accessories such as the Eames chair and white carpet are optional…
How About You?
What were the things in January 2024 that rocked your studio world? It could be one of our favourites here, or maybe there’s an entirely different hidden gem that we’ve missed pitching-up for your studio’s budget. Let us know in the comments.