Keep it clean with the new GSXL4070 parametric EQ from G-Sonique.

A VST plugin that is PC-only for now and available for 28 Euro ($36.85 at today’s exchange rates), the GSXL4070 offers modern, solid state analog electronics sound without any unwanted/oversaturated coloring of signal (such as with vacuum tube or vintage EQs). The result is a very intensive, rich and significant sound, according to G-Sonique. df

Ideal for mixing and mastering purpose, GSXL4070 is a fully parametric stereo equalizer with four bands (LF, LMF, HMF, HF) and HP (BASS CUT), Q control, and +-12db attenuation/boosting of every band.

For best possible clarity of sound and minimum artifacts, 2X internal oversampling algorithms were used.

Notable features:

- British mix-console EQ “solid state electronics” style of sound without unwanted over-colored or over saturated sound. With 2X internal oversampling for double precision dsp algorithms calculations and minimum of unwanted artifacts.

- 4 fully parametric EQ bands:

LF – Low frequency, (20-500Hz)
LMF – Low mid frequency, (200 Hz – 3 kHz)
HMF – high mid frequency, (700 Hz – 12 kHz)
HF – high frequency ( 1.5 kHz – 20 kHz)

HP (High pass – Bass cut) filter 15 – 400 Hz bass cut with on/off switch with Q-control (bandwidth), attenuation/boost ( + / -  12db per band),

- Output Volume knob

- Bypass switch

- Preset manager

MANHATTAN

Due out March 26, 2012

Let’s first zoom in on Greenwich Village, where mixing sessions for Madonna’s upcoming album MDNA have been running out of Germano Studios with engineer/mixer Demo Castellon.

Jon Bon Jovi also hit Germano for writing and recording sessions with co-producer John Shanks and Dan Chase engineering. And singer/songwriter Marc Cohn – with producer/songwriter and Dobro master Jerry Douglas – recorded here in sessions produced by Russ Titelman and engineered by Kevin Porter.

Also at Germano…K’naan recorded with Nas and Chuck Harmony producing – Dave Rowland and Ryan West engineered the sessions; The-Dream recorded new material with Brian “B-Luv” Thomas engineering; Keri Hilson was working with The Phat Boiz and Ne-Yo producing, Kenta Yonesaka engineering; and songwriter/producer Sandy Vee was mixing for various projects.

Nearby at The Lodge, mastering engineers Emily Lazar, Joe LaPorta, Sarah Register and Heba Kadry have gotten off to a busy start in 2012. In recent sessions, The Lodge mastered…Garbage’s upcoming full-length Not Your Kind Of People – mixed by Butch Vig and Billy Bush; The Raveonettes’ new EP; Narada Michael Walden‘s new album “Thunder” – engineered and mixed by David Frazer and Jim Reitzel; two new singles by the Cold War Kids – mixed by Richard Swift – and Bear in Heaven’s anticipated new album I Love You, It’s Cool – produced and mixed by David Wrench.

The Lodge also handled remastering Indochine‘s “Paradize” album (Sony Music France) for a 10^th Anniversary re-release, and mastering St. Lucia’s debut EP for Neon Gold; Light Asylum’s new album for Mexican Summer, and Nymph’s new record mixed by David Tolomei for The Social Registry.

Down in the Lower East Side at EastSide Sound, recent sessions engineered by Marc Urselli include: vocals and drum tracking for Martha Wainwright’s new Yuka Honda-produced album; two new John Zorn albums, one a trio featuring Bill Frisell; Sean Lennon recording an album with Kemp & Eden; David Krakauer recording and mixing his new album for Tzadik Records, as well as a recording for a movie soundtrack; and Japanese french horn player Yuko Yamamura with Taiko player Ryota Kataoka for a duo record of Japanese traditional music.

The new Jets Overhead record was mixed over at Flux Studios in the East Village. Producer/mixer Emery Dobyns mixed the album out of Flux’s freshly-appointed Revolution Room. Also at Flux, producer/mixer Fab Dupont recently finished mixing a new album from jazz saxophonist Bob Reynolds – produced by Mat Pierson, and featuring John Mayer.

Singer/songwriter Cris Cab and producers 88 Keys, Wyclef and Sedeck Jean have been working up at StadiumRed in Harlem, making Cab’s debut album for Mercury Records, and the just-released Echo Boom mixtape, presented by Billionaire Boys Club. StadiumRed engineer Joseph Pedulla worked alongside Cab and co. on these two projects – writing and recording in StadiumRed’s A, B and C4 rooms, with assistant engineers Keith Parry, Mike Kuzoian and Phil Consorti. In-house mastering engineer Ricardo Gutierrez also mastered the first single off Echo Boom, “Put In Work”.

Click to watch some studio footage from these sessions…

StadiumRed also hosted Cee Lo Green while he was in town preparing for his Super Bowl performance. The session included vocal tracking and mixing for his upcoming single. Graham Marsh engineered these sessions, with assistance from Keith Parry.

Meanwhile in Midtown, Sesame Street was invading Sear Sound! As part of a video shoot for Pool Worldwide from The Netherlands, produced by Tim Carter, Bert & Ernie got acquainted with Studio C and its custom Avalon/Sear console as well as Sear’s chief engineer Chris Allen. Jazz saxophonist Ravi Coltrane also paid a visit to Studio C, tracking and mixing his new album with Allen engineering, and Joe Lovano producing, and contributing tenor sax and his specially designed double sax.

Lovano also tracked and mixed his own album in Studio A for Blue Note Records, with James Farber engineering, and Ted Tuthill and Owen Mullholland assisting. In other recent Sear Sessions: Imani Wind Ensemble recorded with Silas Brown engineering, and bassoonist Monica Ellis producing; NYC-based producer Andrew Wyatt (of Swedish indie-pop band Miike Snow) has been working on Xander Duell’s new album; and Philip Glass tracked the score for a new documentary, BESA, with Christian Rutledge producing, Dan Bora engineering, and Trevor Gureckis conducting.

Sesame Street also took over KMA Music in the Brill Building, recording “Elmo’s Elf-a bet Challenge” in Studio A, with engineer by Serge Nudel. R&B singer Chrisette Michelle recorded “Get thru the Night” and “Kiss Kiss” at KMA with Serge Nudel engineering. Nudel also engineered tracking sessions with Amanda Cole for the track “More Than I Can Handle”.

Mos Def tracked his remake of the Jay-Z/Kanye track at KMA Music.

In other recent KMA sessions… Yasiin Bey(Mos Def) has been tracking with Colin Norman engineering; Producer/engineer Emily Wright mixed an upcoming Owl City release; Roc Nation’s J. Cole tracked a new album with Mez Davis engineering; Mike Posner also did some tracking with engineer Mez Davis; Carole King cut vocals for her memoirs with Colin Norman engineering; and hit songwriter Claude Kelly and producer Chuck Harmony have working on new material with Ben Chang engineering.

In the midst of planning a large-scale renovation, Daddy’s House Recording Studios in Midtown has been busy tracking and mixing on records for Machine Gun Kelly – “Wild Boy”, mixed by Steve “Rockstar” Dickey; French Montana – “Shot Caller”, mixed by Matt Testa; and Red Café – “Let it Go” among other tracks, recorded and mixed by Steve “Rockstar” Dickey.

In addition Daddy’s House has reportedly hosted quite a bit of independent label work, and choir recording sessions. Once renovated, Daddy’s House will be re-launched as a commercial studio, but in the meantime this facility – with its SSL G-equipped and Neve VR 60-equipped studios, and writing room, is officially already open to the public.

Big film and television projects were underway at Avatar Studios – including songs recorded for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games for Lionsgate. Produced by T. Bone Burnett, and engineered by David Sinko – assisted by Bob Mallory – music for the film was tracked to tape in Studio A. Burnett has also been recording music for a new Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis at Avatar – co-produced by Burnett and the Coen’s, and engineered by Jason Wormer, with Mallory assisting.

Music for NBC's "Smash" has been recorded at Avatar and mastered at Masterdisk.

And music for NBC’s new show Smash was recorded with producer Mark Shaiman and engineer Todd Whitelock, assisted by Charlie Kramsky.

And, in time for Super Bowl XLVI (as we reported yesterday), NYC-based composer Joel Beckerman brought his new theme for NBC’s NFL Show in to record with an orchestra in Avatar’s Studio A, with engineer Dennis Wall.

In pure music sessions at Avatar…Herbie Hancock recorded a piano duet with Lang Lang in with producer David Lai and engineer Kirk Yano, assisted by Tim Marchiafava. Esperanza Spalding also recorded with Hancock for the same project. Placido Domingo recorded duets with Bobby McFerrin and producer / engineer Rafa Sardina, as well as with Harry Connick, Jr.  And Broadway cast albums for Bonnie & Clyde (producer David Lai, engineer Isaiah Abolin) and Once (producer Steven Epstein, engineer Richard King) were also recently recorded at Avatar.

Some of those singles mixed at Daddy’s House were mastered nearby at Masterdisk. Tony Dawsey (assisted by Tim Boyce) mastered Red Café’s “Let It Go” f. P Diddy, French Montana, Machine Gun Kelly’s “Wild Boy”, and French Montana “Shot Caller” f. P Diddy, Rick Ross – all for Bad Boy – as well as the Steve Sola-mixed single by DJ Absolut “Untouchable” f. Ace Hood, French Montana, Pusha T, Nathaniel, on Addicted For Life.

Meanwhile, Vlado Meller was mastering songs for the pilot episode of NBC’s Smash produced by Marc Shaiman and Scott Riesett, and mixed by Lawrence Manchester at Avatar. Meller will reportedly continue mastering songs for upcoming episodes, which will get released on iTunes. Meller also recently mastered Say Anything’s upcoming album, Anarchy, My Dear, produced by Brooklyn-based Tim O’Heir.

And Scott Hull mastered So Brown’s Bryce Goggin-produced album (from tape). Masterdisk also recently installed several Antelope Audio Isochrone Trinity Master Clock and 10M Rubidium Atomic Clock units in its mastering suites – reportedly “to maintain stereo imaging and the overall sonic integrity of projects passing through its studios. Additionally, Masterdisk is installing multiple Antelope Audio Zodiac D/A converters at listening stations throughout the facility for quality control purposes.

BROOKLYN, QUEENS & BEYOND

Let’s get started out at a quintessentially awesome Brooklyn spot – The Motherbrain, in Gowanus, where owner/producer/engineer Brian Bender’s tracked and/or mixed a few noteworthy records in the last couple months. First up in our report is… Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds’ latest, Pound Of Dirt. Bender produced, recorded and mixed this album for NYC’s Modern Vintage Recordings, with assistance from Jon Anderson. Bender also recently finished mixing Langhorne Slim’s upcoming album The Way We Move, which was recorded up at Old Soul Studios in the Catskills by Kenny Siegal.

José James

And particularly notable is the latest by José James – No Beginning, No End. Produced by José James, Brian Bender and legendary bassist Pino Palladino, the album began with tracks recorded at The Magic Shop with Russ Elevado, and in London by songwriter/producer Fink, and continued with tracking at The Motherbrain, where Bender will also mix the record.

“We ended up doing the majority of the basics for the record here and Jose called in an amazing band: Grant Windsor, Richard Spaven, Pino Palladino, Emily King, Solomon Dorsey, Nate Smith, Kris Bowers and Nir Felder,” Bender described. “Pino was in town for D’Angelo rehearsals so he was splitting his days between this session and rehearsals uptown.

“The sessions were effortless. We were nearly two full days ahead of schedule the whole time. Also very exciting, this is the first record that I have been able to use the WSW to track with! Overheads and the suitcase Rhodes went through it. (Best rhodes sound ever!)”

Nearby at Bryce Goggin’s Trout Recording, David Sylvian and Joan As Policewoman’s Joan Wasser began work on a new record. Fred Cash and Parker Kindred were laying down the rhythms, with Bryce Goggin producing and Adam Sachs engineering. And Ches Smith & These Arches (Tim Berne, Tony Malaby, Andrea Parkins and Mary Halvorson) also began cutting a new album at Trout, with Shahzad Ismaily producing and Goggin engineering.

Another cool NYC percussion-based ensemble Loop 2.4.3. – founded by Clogs’ percussionist Thomas Kozumplik (The National, The Books) – has been tracking a new project at GödelString in Park Slope with engineer Joel Hamburger.

According to Hamburger, the Loop 2.4.3. album, called American Dreamland, came together via somewhat experimental sessions in the studio. “It was a bit of an unusual hybrid process for this type of avant-classical music. It allowed me to work with a mixture of in-the-box and outboard gear to sculpt the sound.”

Hamburger, who recorded and mixed the album, also noted: “What was extra exciting was the extremely wide variety of musicians/styles who came together to make an organic whole. This album expanded on territory the duo was exploring through their previous album, which I also mixed.”

The album will feature vocals by Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, and Scott Bearden, Jon Catler, of La Monte Young and Forever Bad Blues Band on electric guitar, and Todd Reynolds, of Bang on a Can All Stars and Ethel, on violin.

Over in DUMBO, Joe Lambert mastered the new Ben Allen-produced Reptar album, Body Faucet for Vagrant Records, due out this Spring. Lambert also mastered Reptar’s EP “Oblangle Fizz Y’all” last year. Frenchkiss artist Young Man also mastered his upcoming album, Volume One, at Joe Lambert Mastering.

Bowerbirds' "The Clearing" will be out on Dead Oceans March 6, 2012

Producer/engineer Nicolas Vernhes (Animal Collective, Deerhunter) will begin production on Young Man’s next LP this month out of his Rare Book Room Studio in Greenpoint.

Other recent sessions at the Rare Book Room include…Matthew Dear’s new EP Headcage and forthcoming LP for Ghostly International which Verhes is mixing; Bowerbirds’ next LP for Dead Oceans The Clearing, mixed by Vernhes (first single out via Pitchfork); Exitmusic’s upcoming LP, This Is Not A Dream for Secretly Canadian on which Vernhes mixed and lent additional production; and Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear’s solo EP Silent Hour/Golden Mile for Warp (first single “Saint Nothing” via Stereogum).

In Williamsburg…indie-pop songstress Ingrid Michaelson recorded a cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” at Grand Street Recording, with bandmate Chris Kuffner producing and mixing, and Bobby Mosier engineering the recording session. Kuffner also produced sessions at Grand Street with singer/songwriter Allison Weiss – recording for her new album with drummer Zach Jones.

In other Grand Street sessions news…Pop singer Charlene Kaye was finishing up her upcoming record, Animal Love, with producer Tomek Miernowski – including tracking a string quartet featuring Dave Eggar on cello, Whitney LaGrange on viola, and Coco Taguchi and Jonathan Dinklage on violin, with arrangements by Andrew Sherman. And indie-folk band The Hollows recorded basics for their upcoming  EP, with Miernowski engineering and Grahm Galatro producing.

Blocks away, Raekwon was at The Brewery putting final touches on some tracks for his mixtape Unexpected Victory, with engineer Andrew Krivonos. The Brewery hosted tracking and mixing sessions for this release in 2011 – Raekwon even named a song after the studio.

And hip-hop artist Rilgood made his debut JFK at The Brewery, with producers Woodro Skillson and RC Bankwell, with Krivonos engineering. The 11-track album, which Krivonos notes “is one of the most exciting hip-hop projects I’ve worked on in a while merging dance and pop elements,” is due out later in February.

Kyp Malone with engineer Alby Cohen at Rough Magic Studios

At the newly opened Greenpoint music complex, The End, Brooklyn-based trio Monogold has been recording a new album with Chris Boosahda. In other recent sessions at The End, Television Personalities tracked a new song, with James Richardson of MGMT, and Ron Johnson from the Warren Haynes Band was also at The End working on new projects.

Kyp Malone, of TV on the Radio, has been tracking a new solo project at Rough Magic Studios in Greenpoint, with engineer Alby Cohen, assisted by Chris Pummill.

Cohen has also been working with Talib Kweli, and recently started using a new mic on the Blacksmith recording artist, for his soon to be released LP, Prisoner of Conscience, on EMI. Two new songs have also been tracked with Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) on the new Blackstar collaboration. Yasiin reportedly brings his own Shure Super 55.

And Joe Moose Demby recorded the new Creative Arson project with Angie Pontani at Rough Magic. The Valentine’s Day released podcast will feature filmaker Suki Hawley, fashion designer Garo Sparo and comedian Murray Hill

Singer/songwriter DM Stith has been working on a new album at The Buddy Project in Astoria, with the new music ensemble Ymusic accompanying, and Kieran Kelly producing/engineering. Kelly has also been working with singer/songwriter Shawn Walsh on an upcoming release.

At Zeitgeist Sound in Long Island City, James Cruz mastered Mary Mary‘s song “Go Get It” to be released by Sony Music. The track was produced by Warryn Campbell and mixed by Bruce Buechner.

American Fangs are recording out at VuDu Studios in Port Jefferson.

Houston-born alt-rock band American Fangs migrated out east to Long Island where they’re recording a full-length album with producers Mike Watts and Steve Haigler at Vudu Studios. Located out in Port Jefferson, Vudu has two seriously equipped studios and a nice big live room, and is home base to Watts (As Tall As Lions, The Dear Hunter, Saliva) and Haigler (The Pixies’ Doolittle, Trompe Le Monde, etc., Brand New).

And not as far out east, there’s Cove City Sound Studios, where Dream Theater recorded their Grammy-nominated album A Dramatic Turn of Events. The album was produced by John Petrucci and engineered by Paul Northfield (assisted by Joe Maniscalero) for Roadrunner Records. Writing, recording, and rough mixing went down at Cove City.

And we know there’s so much more going on out there! If you’d like to be featured in “Session Buzz,” please submit your studio news to submissions@sonicscoop.com.

The Audio Underground Roadshow will take over the SAE facilities in Herald Square on Saturday, February 25 to show off a range of boutique audio equipment including A-Designs, ATC, Bock, Chameleon Labs, Cranesong, Daking, Drawmer, GML, Sonodyne and Tube-Tech.

Mark your calendars, and stay tuned for more details!

Available now as a $99 download.

Produced by Nick Phoenix, Quantum Leap Solo Violin is a virtuoso solo violin recorded at Remote Control Productions, Hans Zimmer’s film score facility in Santa Monica.

Quantum Leap Solo Violin includes 5 passes of true legatos sampled intervals, Legato soft, legato forte, expressive legato, portamento and fast legato/ trill/ run. Solo Violin also enables round robin up and down bowing on most articulations and is (reportedly) the first violin virtual instrument that can handle very fast playing and live trill playing “with ease.”

All of the basic articulations were sampled as well as various expressive articulations, vibrato styles, and non vibrato. (See GUI below.)

According to EastWest, Quantum Leap Solo Violin has a sound and character ideally suited for film and classical work.  This release also includes the latest version of EastWest’s PLAY software featuring 2 new solo violin reverb impulses designed to make Quantum Leap Solo Violin blend well with other EastWest/Quantum Leap collections.

Quantum Leap Solo Violin is now available exclusively as a digital download for $99 from http://www.soundsonline.com/QL-Solo-Violin for USA and the World, excluding Europe, and http://www.soundsonline-europe.com/QL-Solo-Violin for Europe.

Quantum Leap Solo Violin GUI

ManhatPro has expanded far beyond the five boroughs with ManhatPro West in San Francisco.

Dubbed ManhatPro West, it will be based in San Francisco, with operations overseen by GRAMMY-winner Steve Horowitz (Super Size Me, Nickelodeon Digital).

The opening of ManhatPro West evolves the reach of ManhatPro to a national/international organization, with a focus on frequent collaboration in person and online.

This development helps Northern California-based composers, sound designers, and other music professionals to enjoy a direct link with ManhatPro’s dynamic NYC chapter, joining members in locations ranging from Brazil to Michigan, who are staying connected with Webinars, videoconferencing and other online tools.

ManhatPro West stands as the first regional chapter outside of NYC. Its members will be able to participate in national ManhatPro happenings, as well as the many local events created by Horowitz, a prolific TV/film/online composer whose credits include Super Size Me, “Casino Cinema”, “I Bet You Will”, and Nickelodeon Digital.

ManhatPro was founded in 2005 by NYC-based composer Joe Carroll (Jim Henson Company, Nickelodeon, Disney, WGBH). Inspired early on by his creatively enriching experiences in the buzzing NYC studio culture, Carroll started ManhatPro to renew the collaborative benefits of that workflow in today’s personal studio-centric – and often isolating — production environment.

Comprised of both senior level professionals and emerging talent, ManhatPro members meet and communicate regularly to share connections, knowledge, and studio time/space. Preferred access to publishing, licensing, music library, marketing/PR, legal and financial resources represent additional privileges of ManhatPro’s cost-effective membership.

Steve Horowitz explained, “The Bay Area music community is very active and very diverse. My hope with MPA West is to harness some of that energy, and create a link between the East Coast and West Coast media markets. Games, film, TV, the Cloud, and other emerging sectors are blurring together to create a new media distribution landscape — we feel strongly that a vibrant coast-to-coast connection helps all audio and media professionals to stay ahead of the curve.”

The first ManhatPro West event will take place during the Game Developers Conference, March 7th, 5 PM at the Thirsty Bear in San Francisco (RSVP here).The next General Membership meeting for ManhatPro NYC members will take place February 29th at Soundtrack Studios, New York (RSVP here).

ManhatPro membership is cost-effective, with eligibility for both full- and part-time composers, producers, sound designers, audio engineers, programmers and other music industry professionals. Membership can be applied for at www.manhatpro.com, or by emailing membership@manhatpro.com.

Part 2 — Fact Finding

...inscrutable Austrian cable snarl

So, a console. Or rather, a pile.  The first thing I did when I got word about this desk was naturally get online and do as much research as I could. Surprisingly enough, early research proved extremely fruitful and I stumbled upon www.wsw.cz a Czech fansite about a long dead Austrian electronics company. I love nerds.

Not only did wsw.cz have almost all the schematic documentation I needed, scanned legibly, the person who curates this website even has scans of original product sheets from WSW.  We now had factory THD+N specs, pin outs, even graphs of the EQ curves. I can’t even find this shit for most modern gear.

The catch? The site is in Czech and the docs are all in German. Yea.

So after several days of head scratching and a crash course in technical German thanks to Google Translate, Jon and I had enough information to get inside the modules and start figuring out what was what.

I’ve had many experiences dealing with the ol’ pile-of -console and so I wasn’t too put off by the idea of trying to figure out how humpty dumpty went together but, even if we were able to deduce how all the boxes fit together, it wouldn’t make much sense to set up those pop metal boxes in the control room and start making records.

Schematics. Click to enlarge.

Moreover, the sort of overarching ethos of design in the studio here has been based on modularity. After closing so many rooms, I have been more than a little reticent to dig in with a few hundred pounds of metal that can’t go into a wheeled rack case.

However, I cut my teeth on big desks. The SSL E/G that used to live at Looking Glass Studios was a very, very dear friend and I’ve spent many a hundred hour week on the J at Studio C in Electric Lady.  I love working on a well-maintained console.

I will say though (and this is as a tube-loving luddite), that so much of the functionality of large format consoles, while super rad and totally a point of pride for their owners and end users, is horribly redundant at this particular point in history.  Your DAW of choice probably has a better and more flexible automation system than whatever console of your fancy.  Moreover, you never have to clean the busses in Pro Tools with a toothbrush.

The option that ended up making the most sense for me when I went full time freelance a few years back was a summing mixer.  It’s the best of both worlds, really, but that’s a desecrated horse corpse, well-beaten, that I won’t further flagellate here.

I ended up building a 24 ch. Tonelux, which I adore. Paul Wolff, formerly of API, designed and built these modules and I colloquially refer to it as my baby J series. It can be bad-jazz-record clean or will faithfully reproduce the grimiest of overdrives and is slightly Hollywood on top. It’s modular and scalable which is incredibly useful for a freelancer such as myself.

The implementation of their fader automation system is truly genius. (Seriously, check it out if you’ve not already. Genius.) And mine, as configured currently, is 6U. RAD. Recalls are as easy as regularly aligning the thing with tone and pulling up outboard settings. There is no way I would even consider scrapping my Tonelux and so I began to look into interfacing the two.

Detail of the original WSW I/O. (These collectively handle power, audio, buss linking, even sharing the tone generator across the desk.)

One thing that really links the two desks is their modularity: Tonelux has a rack standard à la the 500 series standard, and modules can be added or subtracted easily as bread availability for growth, or tech requirements dictate. Similarly, the WSW modules take all the audio I/O and power simply on three amphenol connectors on the back of the subframe.

These WSW units also have direct outs already so no modifications on a circuit level are required to get 1 in 1 out functionality. We aren’t required to submix to get audio out of the thing.

This obviously makes the entire desk far more useful for anyone’s purposes. The mic pres become a thing. Hardware Inserts for EQ become a thing if you need post fader/post EQ automation, etc. Now, with the addition of some specially purposed Tonelux input modules, we will be summing the entire mix buss through the Tonelux rather than submixing and bringing in the WSW side on a stereo pair.

So then, the real question became how best to do all that. It seemed like trying to rebuild the mess in the racks as delivered was a kind of moot point if the real endgame is to have all the direct outs in the patchbay. This way, the analog routing options begin to approach the flexibility of their digital brethren.

Allen Farmelo's custom API console

In the configuration we’re planning, the Line Inputs will be normalled from Pro Tools outs. Their direct outs will then show in the patchbay, normalled into the inputs for the Tonelux FX 2 modules that get them into the Mix Buss. For tracking, the desk can function easily as spilt console with a simple cross patch to get the WSW outputs into Pro Tools instead.

So we began to look into housing options that could accommodate both the Tonelux half and the WSW half.

My good friend Christian Rutledge then pointed me in the direction of the work Allen Farmelo and Francois Chambard had just done on his custom API. I reached out to Allen and the rabbit hole began to quickly deepen.

Next up:  Wherein Hal 2000 meets Jude Law and they build the Death Star

Brian Bender has enjoyed the pleasure of running sessions at Looking Glass, The Hit Factory, Electric Lady and many more beautiful rooms in New York and beyond. His co-conspirators include names as diverse as Philip Glass, The Counting Crows, Al Green. Borusan Philarmonie and Craig Street. Recent clients include Krystle Warren and the Faculty, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, Jose James and Langhorne Slim.

With the release of The Upright, Bluenoise plans to continue their goal of providing quality plugins, for a fraction of the price of their higher-priced competition.

For $30 the Upright is a downright steal!

The Upright from Bluenoise Plugins is available now for $30 MSRP, in VST format and for Windows only. For those who like a nice test drive, Bluenoise also has a 2 octave demo available. The entire plugin takes up 1GB of space with all samples recorded at 24 bit, 44.1kHz sample rate.

Continue scrolling down for more details from Bluenoise themselves:

“The Upright is a great sounding upright piano recorded in a professional studio. The piano recorded is a great sounding Hellas. It’s not the most expensive thing made but this particular piano is already used for several major artists because of its great sound.

Interface

The interface has a smooth look and you can control several different things like; the different microphone outputs, A cutoff filter, chorus, a leslie, a reverb, a delay, ADSR and main output.

Sound

The piano is recorded with 4 microphones (2 sets of Neumann KM184 and AKG C414 B-XLS) and those microphones are merged into 2 outputs (left and right). The microphones are sent into a Universal Audio 4010 micpres, then through pristine RME converters into Nuendo. The samples are raw 24 bit, 44.1 kHz wavefiles and setup on 4 different velocity layers. Nothing has been done to alter the sound and the piano can go from sweet sounding to low-fi.

Effects

The sound from the microphones has the possibilty to go through several different processes like a cutoff filter with resonance, a built in Leslie with different speeds, a soft chorus,  a great sounding reverb for more room and a delay to make that John Lennon sound we love.

Usage

The Upright is built to be very easy to use. The workflow is logical and though it has many advanced features we believe that the user will quickly become familiar with the different possibilities within the plugin. It comes with 10 presets included from the classic upright sound to really old Lennon sounding stuff like Imagine. We give you a great starting point and you should easily find the sound you are looking for.

MIDI Learn

All Bluenoise Plugins has the MIDI learn feature. It makes super easy to use an external controller to control the plugins. You just right-click, hit MIDI learn and tweak the controller you want assigned to the knob. Voila!

Price

We don’t think you can find a piano plugin that sound better than this for 30 dollars! Please check out our demo and all the other similar plugins out there to decide for yourself.”

NYC's Man Made Music has blown up the classic sound of the Super Bowl for 2012.

The evolved theme will debut on Super Bowl XLVI, airing Sunday, February 5th on NBC. MMM’s Joel Beckerman evolved John Williams‘ original iconic composition, “Wide Receiver,” producing a rock-and electronic-driven rendition of the theme, featuring new sonic and thematic elements.

To create the piece, Beckerman brought a rock band and 45-piece orchestra, tapping a number of players from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for the production.

In addition, Beckerman and the MMM team created 30 new cuts of original compositions to be used throughout the Super Bowl program.

Calling the project “simply the ultimate opportunity for musical storytelling in sports and one of the greatest live events ever conceived,” Beckerman’s goal was to take the Super Bowl’s ubiquitious theme and give it a modern spin that would show the epic scope of the battle between two great teams.

Beckerman was recently recipient of the ASCAP “Most Performed Themes Award” for the sixth year in a row.

Listen to the stirring, original John Williams’ theme “Wide Receiver” here:

It was hard to make ReCycle any better, but Propellerheads found a way.

This update to the essential tool for creating REX files includes:

– A completely overhauled graphical user interface,
– New key commands, workflow enhancements and a new Online Help system, which make Recycle even faster and easier to use.
– Version 2.2 is a 64-bit compatible application with full support for Windows 7 and Mac OS X Lion operating systems.

Propellerhead has this to say about ReCycle 2.2, which is available now at a suggested retail price of USD $249:

“An industry standard, ReCycle is the fastest way to make sampled material your own. ReCycle lets you do with sampled loops what you can do with beats programmed from individual drum sounds—like alter the tempo, or replace sounds and process them individually. Producers use Recycle for making loops tempo-independent, for quick editing of sampled parts, chopping up riffs, remixing and doing mash ups.

Load any loop or musical phrase into ReCycle. The program will look at the file, analyze it, and slice it up into its rhythmic components. The file can then be rearranged, pitched or have its tempo freely adjusted. Artists have full control over the individual slices and can alter the timing or even quantize the groove, keep the feel of the loop and replace the sounds with their own. Or load the file into a software sampler and trigger the individual parts from a MIDI keyboard to turn the sampled material into a completely new performance.

A favorite among sound designers and producers, ReCycle’s REX file format is supported by all major music software titles including applications such as Apple Logic, Avid Pro Tools, Steinberg Cubase, Cakewalk Sonar, Ableton Live, MOTU Digital Performer and Propellerhead Reason, as well as software instruments such as Native Instruments Kontakt and Spectrasonics Stylus RMX.”

Playmysong's US plans originate in NYC.

App developer Playmysong has opened an office in New York City and launched its service here, simultaneous to closing a $350,000 angel round of financing this month. The angel round was led by Lifeline Ventures, a Helsinki, Finalnd-based accelerator focused on disruptive start-ups from the Web and game sectors.

The Helsinki-based Playmysong’s mobile app is available in the iTunes Store App Store, and enables users to take control of the music in their surroundings.

Using Playmysong’s app on iOS or from the Web, users can remotely play their favorite songs and DJ the music around them – provided the locations they are visiting have integrated Playmysong into their music playout signal path — while simultaneously posting a Foursquare-style check-in update on Facebook and Twitter.

The company’s business model is based on selling premium services for participating venues and brands. On the venue side, proprietors connect their iOS device running a Playmysong Pro app to their stereo sound system, via a standard 3.5 mm audio cable. Retailers, restaurants, bars, café owners etc… can learn more about the free basic service here.

Every time a song is played in a Playmysong venue, it generates the equivalent of a free social ad for that location. The result is a social function for music that is played out in bars, hotels, restaurants and other public venues. In theory, it provides a more engaging experience than the traditional jukebox for a venue’s patrons, encouraging longer stays.

The first NYC venue for Playmysong is Idle Hands Bar, on 25 Avenue B, which has taken advantage of the app to introduce Playmysong Mondays. For example, one Monday night 21 different users of the app played 101 total songs – an equivalent of approximatey five hours of crowd-sourced music entertainment.

Users posted info about the song they played in Idle Hands Bar to their Facebook walls for 54 times. According to Playmysong, an average Facebook user has 200 friends, meaning that Idle Hands Bar got over 10,000 free social micro-ads in Facebook during one night.

The latest version of the app, Playmysong 1.1 includes the following features:

•    New home screen – When opening the app, you can instantly open the Remote mode to play songs in nearby Stereos or the Stereo mode to launch your own social jukebox.

•    iTunes Playlists – You can now use your existing iTunes playlists in your Playmysong Stereo. Managing what music you have in your Stereo has never been easier.

•    Multi-Tasking – You can now use Playmysong Stereo and Remote on the background while you browse the web, read emails, do sports, etc.

•    User Images and Shout Outs – Facebook-connected users now have their Facebook profile pictures as their Playmysong profile pictures. You can also add shout outs while playing songs.