Spectrasonics’ New Delivery Platforms
USB Drive & Download Editions Now Available for All Customers
Spectrasonics today announced a major change in their delivery platforms and has eliminated all DVD-ROM discs in its virtual instrument product line – replacing them with modern Download and Drive Editions. The company is now using high quality USB drives in their in-store packaging for all three of their award-winning virtual instruments, Omnisphere 2, Trilian and Stylus RMX Xpanded – making physical installation dramatically faster, easier, and more reliable. The company is also announcing that it is now selling full download editions of each of the three instruments, which has been a top customer request. The packaged drive editions are available exclusively through Spectrasonics’ worldwide reseller network, while the download editions are sold exclusively from Spectrasonics’ website: www.spectrasonics.net
Read More »David Kimmell Saved by Dangerous Music
Engineer gets ‘his sound’ and joy of mixing renewed with Dangerous D-Box analog summing and BAX EQ
Mixing bands live, especially through an analog console, can be a great pathway to mixing records. There’s an experience of immediacy in moving the faders and hearing what you expect. In-the-box all-digital mixing has placed some roadblocks in the way of that, but Dangerous Music puts the analog sound and feel back in the mixing equation with their ground breaking summing mixers. One person who got his mixing ‘joy back’ is engineer David Kimmell, who has been mixing audio since 1997, and for many years mixed bands live, among other touring gigs. After several years in his own studio trying to mix ‘in-the-box’ and not enjoying it, feeling that he was “fighting the mix constantly,” Kimmell added the Dangerous D-Box to his rig and everything changed.
Corrado Rustici Chooses Atlantis
Italian producer Corrado Rustici, together with engineer Michael Rosen, auditioned many top mics for recent sessions at Rosen’s ‘East Bay Recorders’, but chose Lauten Audio’s ‘Atlantis’ FC-387 for Italian pop singer Virginio’s vocals.
Rustici has a body of work that surpasses 70-million in album sales, and although he is most well-known in Italy with his work on music from mega-stars such as Zucchero and Andrea Bocelli, he has made California his home-base for many years and has worked with Bristish and US superstars such as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Lee Hooker, and Stewart Copeland, to name a few. Most recently, during his production of new Italian breakout singer and songwriting star Virginio, Rustici booked the East Bay Recorders studio in Oakland and working with owner/engineer Michael Rosen recorded vocals for Virginio’s new album for Universal Music Italy. When evaluating microphones to best bring out Virginio’s pop-star voice, Rosen and Rustici auditioned a series of industry leading microphones as would any seasoned producer or engineer, after many models and trials they realized the best match was the ‘Atlantis’ FC-387— a mic originally designed especially for vocals.
Read More »Engineer Pete Doell Gets Dangerous
Mastering engineer Pate Doell relies on Dangerous gear to work his sonic magic at Universal Mastering Studios, combining the Dangerous MASTER, MQ and MONITOR in his setup
Mastering engineer Pete Doell counts Dangerous Music gear as a key to his success. The Dangerous MONITOR was an eye and ear opener that has made his job easier at Universal Mastering Studios, “I have to admit when I first got the Dangerous Monitor and heard the playback through the DAC, I thought, ‘Oh my god!’ it really made me hear things in a truer way, and I had to do less processing to get the right result,” said Doell. He added the Dangerous MASTER for integrating his outboard gear, and the Dangerous MQ for metering to round out his ‘mastering console’ setup – the centerpiece of his studio. Doell has mastered over 100 albums since joining Universal Mastering Studios, including R.E.M., Marilyn Manson, Toto, Dave Koz, Nat ‘King’ Cole and Sheryl Crow to name only a few. Many top engineers across the studio world revere Dangerous Music for the quality of its D-to-A converters, the company currently offers conversion in the D-BOX, SOURCE, and the recently released CONVERT-2 and CONVERT-8 products.
Read More »Amadeus ‘Philharmonia’ Speakers Shipping
The new Amadeus high-end speakers co-designed by world-renowned architect Jean Nouvel are now shipping for both the Pro Audio and HI-FI Markets
French ‘Pro Audio’ manufacturer Amadeus, renowned for live, installed, and custom studio sound reinforcement systems, announced during the 38th edition of the Paris HI-FI Show on October 17 and 18 that their new ‘Philharmonia’ speakers are shipping. Unveiled as a ‘concept-speaker’ during the last Frankfurt Prolight + Sound and Munich High End Society trade shows, the Philharmonia is a very high definition monitoring system combining innovation and technology, with style, and a pristine sonic character. The new speakers were initially created specifically for the Philharmonie de Paris recording and mastering studios, which were built to capture performances by the world’s most prestigious symphonic orchestras. The new speakers were designed by Michel DELUC, Amadeus’ Director of Research & Development, along with world-renown architect Jean NOUVEL, who designed the new Philharmonie de Paris concert hall.
Athénée Hotel Bar Gets Amadeus Install
World-famous Paris hotel gets Amadeus Hi-Fi sound system for its luxury bar just in time for Paris Fashion Week events
With Paris Fashion week just ending, the historic Plaza Athénée Hotel in Paris debuted its new immersive speaker system install in their luxury Bar du Plaza Athénée featuring Amadeus loudspeakers. The new speaker system is designed to create a 4th dimension in sound for its modern, comfortable and stylish surroundings. Designed by scenographer Etienne BERARD from Atelier A/V, the Amadeus system features 25 specially placed speakers including custom “SLIM” versions of their ML 8 subwoofer under the bar’s seating. The well-known French designer, Patrick JOUIN, designed all the custom furniture for the bar. Some of the Paris Fashion Week festivities were held at the hotel, and the Bar du Plaza Athénée hosted celebrations for fashion luminaries and models with a sound quality to match the hotel’s other gold-standard amenities.
Chris Shepard Gets Dangerous at Lollapalooza
Paul McCartney and Metallica get the Dangerous treatment with the new 2-Bus+ audio processing from Chris Shepard mixing the live web stream for Springboard Productions and Red Bull TV
During the 2015 Lollapalooza festival, mix engineer Chris Shepard test drove one of the first Dangerous Music 2-Bus+ summing amps with Paul McCartney and Metallica in the American Mobile Studio truck. Shepard was anxious to hear the new integrated processing capabilities, especially the unique Paralimit, as well as the custom transformer control called ‘X-Former.’ “The 2-Bus+ is my new secret weapon,” says Shepard, owner of American Mobile, his company for over 20 years specializing in mobile music recording and live mixing for video streaming. Shepard and his American Mobile team mixed the live web stream of Lollapalooza for Springboard Productions and Red Bull TV.
Michael James Hits #1 with Dangerous
Using the Dangerous 2-Bus, BAX EQ, Compressor, Liaison, and Monitor ST, Michael James mixes a resilient #1 Radio Hit for Latin artist Kalimba
Edmeston, NY – August 19, 2015 – Mix engineer Michael James has a double number one hit for his mix of the song “Estrellas Rotas” from recording artist Kalimba’s latest record, Cena Para Desayunar (Sony Music). The record has ruled both Monitor Latino’s ‘Plays” and ‘Audience Reach’ charts for seven consecutive weeks so far. “This is a very special record for Kalimba, so I’m blessed to have been part of it,” says James. He mixed the hit record using a large collection of Dangerous Music gear. James’ mix career spans a host of musical artists including New Radicals, Hole, Far, L7, Robben Ford, Edwin McCain, Maia Sharp, A.J. Croce, Chicago, Jawbreaker, and Mario Guerrero, to name just a few.
Read More »Dangerous “Source” in UK Post
Over the past several months solutions integrator Wire Broadcast has installed 33 Dangerous Music “Source” monitor controllers at two busy UK post production facilities, with 25 units going into THE MILL and 8 more at the new PRODIGIOUS location. Dangerous Music’s European distributor, Masteringworks, was the EU supplier for both the installs. London-based Wire Broadcast is a group of engineers who specialize in designing technical production solutions for the television and media industries. Dangerous Music is one of the industry leaders in dedicated monitor controllers and helped usher in the product category over 10 years ago with the Dangerous Monitor – widely regarded as a benchmark of quality by top engineers in mastering and mixing.
Omnisphere v2.1Released
Spectrasonics’ Power Synth adds simplified user sound sharing and Library Publishing for third-party development
Spectrasonics has released Omnisphere 2.1 with a streamlined ‘Sharing’ feature for sharing user sounds and a new Library Publishing capability. Version 2.1 is an update to the company’s recent v2 upgrade of its flagship software synth. In May, Omnisphere Version 2.0 was released with vastly expanded new synthesis and creative capabilities for sound design, along with significant user interface innovations, and thousands of new sounds. The new v2.1 update, a free download to Omnisphere version 2 users, includes refined patch and project sharing features for easily exchanging custom sounds between end-users directly or over social media, a Library Publishing feature allowing third-party sound developers to create easily installable sound sets for Omnisphere 2 users, as well as a much improved boot time for the plugin itself. Both the Sound Sharing and Publishing features can contain ‘User Audio,’ offering new horizons in patch creation and simplified collaboration.