New Music Gear Monday: Digitech Whammy Ricochet Pedal

Every songs wants a signature sound and as a result, we often spend days at a time in the studio searching for just the right one to put a stamp on a recording. The one cool thing is about some of the latest electronic plugins and pedals is that it's getting easier and easier to dial up something that used to take long effects chains to get. A good example of simplicity, small package and great sound can be found in Digitech's new Whammy Ricochet guitar pedal.

The pedal can be used to provide whammy bar-like effects for those with guitars with stop tailpieces (or keyboards for that matter), or can be used to change the pitch as much as an octave up or down.

The Whammy Ricochet is based around the same technology as Digitech's Whammy Pitch Shifter, only this comes in a mini-pedal package and uses a momentary switch instead of a full pedal.

Seven pitches are available - 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, Octave, Double Octave, and Octave+Dry - up or down, while shift and return knobs control the rate at which the pitch rises and falls. A series of trajectory LEDs provide a visual indication of pitch-shift direction and rate.


A true bypass latching footswitch mode is also available to maintain the selected pitch, and players have a choice of polyphonic Chords mode (from the Whammy DT) and glitchy Classic (from the original Whammy) tracking.

Digitech's Whammy Ricochet is available in May and June for a special introductory price of $187.44. Check out the example video below.

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New Music Gear Monday: SSL System T Console

NAB was pretty cool this year but one of the products that jumped out was the new Solid State Logic System T console. While this isn't of direct interest to most of you in terms of a purchase, it's worth knowing about since it's stunning in both its looks and capabilities.

The SSL System T was designed from the ground up specifically to handle large-scale productions in a fully networked broadcast environment. Up to 3 consoles or control surfaces can be placed on the network to access a fully redundant pair of processor engines so there's never any downtime for the system. The routing and I/O is based on the new Dante HC connectivity, so any Dante-driven I/O stagebox with work with the console.

The Tempest processor engine is capable of real-time, 64-bit CPU-based, floating point mixing and processing. Each processor engine can handle up to 3072 inputs and outputs and provides 800 fully configurable processing paths, up to 192 mix buses, 800 EQs, 800 dynamics and 400 delays!

Paths, processing and routing can be dynamically allocated in real time without interrupting audio, which is a unique feature in a broadcast console.

System T’s also features a control surface that incorporates multi-gesture touch screen technology, which seems to take a page out of the Slate Raven playbook.

The SSL System T is so new that it hasn't been priced yet, but you can be pretty sure that you won't be seeing it in a recording studio near you anytime soon. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see a more music-oriented spinoff of the System T in the near future.

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New Music Gear Monday: Eventide Tverb Room Reverb Plugin

We all love great room sounds and one of the most famous rooms ever recorded was on David Bowie's "Heroes" by Tony Visconti. Visconti set up three microphones in the hall of Berlin’s Hansa Studios; the first for Bowie to sing directly into, a second positioned about 15 feet away and the third further back in the hall. Visconti placed gates on the second and third microphones set to open as Bowie sang louder and louder.

This same sound can now be duplicated with the new Eventide Tverb, which consists of three completely independent reverbs with compression, selectable polar patterns on microphone 1 and adjustable gates on microphones 2 and 3.

What's more, the original effect was mono due to track limitations, but Tverb provides it in true stereo. The use of stereo microphones enhances the effect and DAW automation can be used to program the microphones to wander around the hall as the track plays.

Tverb consists of a variety of parameters, like 2 moveable microphones to adjust reverb size and tone, a custom Eventide reverb algorithm with EQ, diffusion, and decay control, 2 linkable post-reverb gate modules with control of when the gates close, the speed at which they close and the length of time they are forced to stay open. Signal inversion buttons are also available to remove (or create) phase cancellation, and a Mix Lock allows for scrolling through presets or settings while keeping the wet/dry mix constant.

The user interface is based on a "console" that was inspired by the one used in the session and is complete with Visconti’s "grease pencil" labelling, and provides post-reverb channel processing for each individual mic and the master. The room mixer module alters the sound of the room itself with control over decay, diffusion and frequency attenuation.

The Eventide Tverb is normally priced at $249 but currently has an introductory price of $149. A fully functioning 30 day demo version is also available. The plugin is available in AAX, VST and AU versions that work on most DAWs.

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New Music Gear Monday: Radial BT-Pro Bluetooth Direct Box

Radial Engineering makes a grand variety of useful direct boxes, and just about the time you think they've thought of everything, they come up with something new. One of the company's more unique DIs is the new BT-Pro, a unique Bluetooth direct box that converts a wireless audio signal into an analog stereo balanced line.

This allows you to connect your phone or iPad directly to a PA or recording device without having to resort to an assortment of patch cables.

The BT-Pro is built to be bullet-proof just like all other Radial DIs, as it's made from 14 gauge steel with an l-beam frame that hangs over the controls to keep them out of harms way.

It uses the latest Bluetooth wireless A2DP interface over 2.0 EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) for higher speed transmission to deliver optimal audio quality, with reception out to 60 feet. This standard employs a 16-bit wireless compressed format with the actual bit rate determined by the transmission source material.

There are two balanced XLR outputs that feature isolation transformers to eliminate any buzz or hum,  an output control, plus a built-in headphone amp for troubleshooting using a standard 3.5mm mini TRS output connector.

There's also a stereo-to-mono switch that sums the input for dual-mono operation, as well as two side-mounted switches that insert the isolation transformers into the signal path. This is supplemented by a ground lift switch for the XLRs to help further eliminate any ground loops. The unit is powered via a USB connector.

The Radial Engineering BT-Pro sells for a reasonable $229.99, and like most Radial gear, will probably last a lifetime. Find out more on the dedicated BT-Pro web page.

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New Music Gear Monday: Audio Technica ATM230 Tom Microphone

It doesn't matter what microphone you like to use on toms, because chances are that it's going to pick up a lot of the cymbals as well. This is pretty typical because most of the mics that end up on toms have a cardioid pattern. The problem is that there aren't too many true hypercardioid mics available to limit that cymbal bleed, especially in a package that fits conveniently out of the way of both drummer and cymbals. That was before the recent introduction of the Audio Technica's ATM230 purpose-built tom mic though.

The new ATM230 is that elusive hypercardioid mic built into a small package, with a response that's tailored to capture both the stick sound and body of all rack and floor toms. What's even better is the fact that it comes with an integral isolated tom mount, so you don't need an expensive 3rd party mount or mic stand.

It's a dynamic mic so it's inherently rugged, and is made of metal so it can stand up to stick hits (I hate it when my expensive condenser mics take a hit), and it's reasonably priced to boot.

The Audio Technica ATM230 has a street price of $139 and also comes in a three pack for $349.

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New Music Gear Monday: Joey Sturgis Tones Finality Limiter

There are a lot of compressor/limiter plugins available, but after a while they all begin to sound the same. For the most part, most try to emulate an existing hardware unit, which some do better than others. There is still room for another limiter, however, especially if the thinking behind it is different, which is exactly what describes JST's new Finality.

Joey Sturgis Tones Finality takes limiting to the next level with some really well-thought out features, a great sound, and reasonable price. It has all the standard parameter controls like input level, release, threshold, output, meter control and gain, plus a few others that you don't see often, if at all.

One of the cooler things that it has is a Look Ahead control that allows the plug to anticipate loud peaks before they cause a problem. This is something that mastering compressor/limiters have had for what seems like eons, but you don't see often in limiters that you used on individual tracks.

There's an Agro button that changes the release envelope to one specifically for drums (it works great, by the way), and the Color button adds a pleasing saturation sound with the amount determined by the Threshold level. There's also a Hard/Soft switch that again changes the release envelope and determines how agressive the sound will be.

There's also a built-in Sidechain High-Pass Filter with an on-off switch, frequency control and monitor switch, so you can set how the limiter reacts to low end of the track. An Auto-Gain switch automatically controls the amount of make-up gain added (love this), and a Mix control mixes between the uncompressed and compressed signals, which basically adds parallel compression without the need for extra channels and setup (why doesn't every plug have this?).

I loved the sound of Finality on drums, especially the kick, where it gave it some added girth without having to do much tweaking at all. Works great on bass and guitars as well, and I'm sure I'll find more uses for it over time, as I've found it to work in almost any situation so far, unlike many other similar products.

Finality is available direct from Joey Sturgis Tones for $79 for the Advanced version, and just $49 for the simpler yet still effective Lite version. There's also a limited demo version available.

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New Music Gear Monday: Electro Harmonix Mellotron Emulator Pedal

It's been a long time since I've been over-the-top excited by a product, but I have to say that's the case with the new Electro Harmonix MEL9 Tape Replay Machine. Why? It's a pedal that gives you spot-on Mellotron emulations yet doesn't use samples or require special pickups or MIDI mods to your guitar.

The MEL9 provides nine of the most famous Mellotron sounds: orchestra, cello, strings, flute, clarinet, sax, brass, low choir and high choir, and tracks guitar bends, slides and even whammy bar dive bombs. And not only does it work with the guitar, but you can use it with bass and keyboards a well.

The MEL9 provides independent Effect and Dry volume controls, as well as separate outputs so you can feed both to different amps. There's an Attack control that sets the volume swell speed, and a Sustain control that adjusts the release time after the sound has stopped, but you really don't have to mess with it much to get great sounds right out of the box.

The Electro Harmonix MEL9 Tape Replay Machine has a street price of around $220. You can find more info in the great video below as well as hear it first hand.

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New Music Gear Monday: Free Audiofile Calc Conversion Tool

A few years ago I designed an iPhone app called the Delay Genie that determined the delay time for any tempo along with full note, dotted and triplet note subdivisions. Unfortunately, the publisher decided to no longer support the app on later versions of iOS, so it's no longer available.

I've searched for a substitute for a while with no luck, but finely found one that's even better called Audiofile Calc, and the best news is that it's free!

Audiofile Calc figures out delay times with ease but goes way beyond that to allow you to find things like Note Length, Bar Length, Song Length, Beats to Tempo, Time to Samples, and Samples to Time. You can also compare tempos, and add and subtract timings, which is great for determining the running time of an album.

Audiofile Calc doesn't stop there though. It also figures out pitch calculations like Note Name to pitch, MIDI Note to pitch, Frequency to pitch and Wavelength to pitch as well as Timecode calculations like Frames to Timecode, Convert Timecode, and Change Timecode.

There's also electronic calculations like Compare Power and Compare Voltage, acoustics calc like Distance to Time, Time to Distance, Sound Pressure Level (SPL) and Panning, as well as a handy file size calculator too.

I'm not a big one for apps, since we all seem to have so many of them that we don't use, but this is one well worth having on your phone. You'll constantly find it useful for something in your audio life.

Audiofile Calc was developed by Audiofile Engineering, the same people that created the very cool Triumph mastering workstation software. The app requires iOS 7.0 or later. It's compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. And again, it's FREE!

A big thank you to Russ Hughes at Pro Tools Expert as well as everyone at Studio One Expert for this find.

Download Audiofile Calc here.

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New Music Gear Monday: Avid Pro Tools iPad Dock

Avid recently introduced a pretty cool accessory for Pro Tools called the Pro Tools | Dock. It's a unique controller that takes an iPad and marries it with controller hardware to give the user the ability to edit and mix at a faster pace.

The Dock is based on the advanced touchscreen workflows on the Master Touch Module of the S6 (Avid's high-end console controller) and basically shows a super-channel view for fast navigation, metering, and on-screen plug-in control . The hardware of the dock includes dedicated automation switches, transport controls, a weighted aluminum jog wheel, and color-coded Soft Key switches.

The Dock’s eight soft knobs can be used to control parameters like EQ, Dynamics, Panning, and Sends on the Attentioned (focused) channel, just like the S6 Master Touch Module. ‘Attentioning’ a track is done just by touching the track tile on the screen and it brings it to the fader.

The Pro Tools | Dock works with EUCON-enabled DAWs and video editing tools, including Pro Tools, Media Composer, Logic Pro X, Cubase, and Premiere Pro. Retail price is $1,199, not including the cost of the iPad. It won't be available until the end of the year though.

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New Music Gear Monday: AeroDrums Air Drumming Instrument

We've all played air drums at one time or another, but what if those motions in the air actually did play something? Now you can with AeroDrums.

AeroDrums is a MIDI controller that uses a pair of special sticks and foot attachments that allow you to trigger sampled drums from either your own library or from a supplied library with Gretsch and Pearl samples. The only difference is that you're hitting air instead of pads.

It's all based on motion capture technology. A bright light illuminates reflective markers on your sticks and feet and a high speed camera tracks the motion of these markers and determines when sounds should be triggered in response to their movement. On your computer screen there's a diagram of where the drums and cymbals are so that you hit the right spots, but drummers seem to acclimate quickly to it to where they don't need to look after a short time (see the second video below).

It also has a high degree of accuracy so the drummer can play ghost notes or heavily accented notes since it measures the speed of your sticks/feet. As a result, there's a full range of MIDI note velocities and continuous controller data is utilized. In the case of the included samples, 16 levels of openness are provided for the hi-hat with up to 58 different samples for each degree of openness and for each hand. Unlike electronic drums, Aerodrums is able to tell which hand you're hitting with and will trigger different samples for each hand.

Aerodrums has been tested with Reaper 4, Garageband 10, Ableton Live 9, Logic Pro X and Digital Performer 8 so far, but the company doesn't anticipate compatibility issues with other DAWs on the market.

The package comes with sticks, two feet controllers, a high-speed camera, and paper sunglasses (since the measurement light might be too bright for some users). The software and library, which work on both Mac and PC, is then downloaded. It's just $199 directly from their website.

Check out the videos below.

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New Music Gear Monday: IZotope's Free Vinyl Plugin

Did you ever want to get that old vinyl record sound on a recording? It's pretty hard to do manually, since you have to simulate everything from scratchiness to electrical noise to record warping. There is a plugin that will do all of that for you and more, and and the best part is that it's free!

I'm talking about iZotope's excellent Vinyl plugin - the ultimate lo-fi weapon. The plugin will return your tracks to a previous era quickly and with ease, and once again, it's free!

Vinyl provides controls to inject mechanical noise, record wear, electrical noise, dust, scratch, and warp, as well as simulating the era of the recording (1930, '50, '70, '80 and 2000) and the speed of the record (33, 45 and 78 RPM). There's even a unique Spin Down feature that simulates the sound of slowly stopping a record, as well as a stereo to mono switch.

A few years ago I was mixing a song that was a newer version of 1940's blues song, when the artist asked me to "make it more realistic." Vinyl was inserted into the stereo buss, and before you knew it, you'd swear we were back there listening on an old record player.

To get Vinyl, go to iZotope's website. Did I say that it's FREE.

Here's a Soundcloud example of Vinyl getting that old radio sound.

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New Music Gear Monday: Waves NX Virtual Monitoring Plugin

Mixing with headphones has always been an iffy situation. While it can be done, the mixer runs the risk of missing on the low-end component of the mix since the phones are so close to your hears. It's not how much of the world listens to music, so you end up constantly comparing your mix on speakers anyway. All this might change with the introduction of Waves NX however.

Waves NX is a virtual monitoring plugin that lets you hear the acoustics of a high-end mix room over headphones. It tracks your head via your computer camera to optimize the sweet spot, and allows you to monitor either in stereo or in 5.1 surround on your regular stereo headphones.

NX attempts to bridge the gap between monitoring on speakers and monitoring on headphones so that you no longer have to worry that what you’ve mixed on headphones will sound different once you switch to speakers. The plugin lets you hear the same natural depth and stereo spread on headphones that you would hear on external monitors so there's less need for cross-referencing between the two.

Waves NX works on most DAW apps on both Mac or PC. Nx requires a webcam, and will support any webcam that works on your system. It's available at an introductory price of only $49. Check out the Quick Start tutorial below.

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New Music Gear Monday: Sound Radix Drum Leveler

Digital technology has revolutionized limiters, enabling "look-ahead" algorithms to spot transients in the signal before they cause an overload. Now that same technology is being put to use with Sound Radix's totally unique Drum Leveler software.

Drum Leveler does a lot of very cool things very easily. For instance, if you work with drum loops, it will allow you to change the level of a drum hit within the loop. That means that if the snare of the loop is too loud or quiet, Drum Leveler allows you to look inside the loop and bring the snare level up or down.

Another thing that Drum Leveler does well is adjust the level of an individual track without having to use a compressor. That means that you can keep the level of a snare or hat consistent or even exactly the same, or change the volume envelope if you choose. While you're at it, you can also decrease or increase the leakage of a drum track, something that no other plugin can do as easily.

Drum Leveler also works with other instruments, especially when connected via the sidechain, as it provides much more control over dynamics and syncing than most gates.

Sound Radix Drum Leveler is priced at $149 and is available for all computer and plugin platforms.

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New Music Gear Monday: The Marshall Smartphone

If you're a hard-core Marshall guitar amp fan, then you're going to love this one.

Marshall is expanding their product line to include a smartphone, and it concentrates more on music than most other smartphones on the market.

The Marshall "London" is an Android phone that's styled after its famous classic amplifiers, right down to the texture and feel. It has a 4.7 inch 720P display, 2GB of RAM, a removable 2500 mAh battery and a Snapdragon 410 processor like some of the best phones already on the market.

Unlike other phones, there are two headphone jacks at the top and two front-facing speakers, plus a dedicated M button on the top of the handset for instant access to your music, which it takes seriously enough to the point where there's also a separate processor just for audio. The London also supports the Bluetooth APTX connection, so wireless audio transfer will stay hi-quality. The phone also comes with a set of Marshall Mode in-ear headphones.

Oh, and the phone works on 3G, 4G and LTE as well.

The Marshall London smartphone is available for pre-order for $499 in the United States. You can find out more about the Marshall London here.

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New Music Gear Monday: Sonnox Evolution Envelope Shaper

One parameter than many engineers overlook is the envelope of the sound they're processing. Sure, you can change it with a compressor, but sometimes you need more control than a typical analog-style processor can give you, and that's where an envelope shaper comes in.

Sonnox has taken this concept to another level with its new Oxford Evolution frequency dependent envelope shaper plugin, which has separate transient and sustain sections that allow you to radically re-shape the envelope of the sounds you're working on.

Evolution is great for adding extra snap for drums or percussion, boosting sustain to keyboards and guitars, for smoothly controlling leakage in a track. It comes with a attack, release and hold controls for both the transients and sustain, as well as a master control for each, and the ability to alter the main frequency band that it's operating in. A DIFF button (similar to a Listen control on a gate) allows you to hear only the effect, and a Warmth control adds harmonic saturation.

The Sonnox Oxford Evolution plugin is available for AAX, Audio Units and VST formats and costs $270 USD. There's a 15 day free trial period available. Here's a video that lets you hear how it works on various program sources.

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New Music Gear Monday: Slate Raven MTi2 Multi-Touch Controller

When the original Slate Raven MTi hit the scene, the music production world was taken by storm by this new innovative approach to mixing. Just like mixing in-the-box, many engineers initially resisted touch screen mixing since it was so radically different than what they were used to. The initial price of a large touch screen interface was also a barrier.

That's not the case any more, as Slate introduced the Raven MTi2, a 27 inch multi-touch screen display that has a lot of things going for it that should make it much more attractive to mixers everywhere.

Probably the biggest thing about the new MTi2 is the price, which is only $999. If you've ever tried to price a good 27 inch monitor, you know that this is already in the ballpark for the monitor by itself, let along one with multi-touch control.

But the brains behind the MTi2 is the new Raven 3.0 software, which allows control over every major DAW, including Ableton Live, Cubase/Nuendo, Digital Performer, Logic Pro X, Protools 10-12, and Studio One V3 on Mac as well as PC compatibility for Protools 10-12 for the first time.

The Raven 3.0 software also features the new Batch Command System, which is a series of preset and customizable buttons that can execute up to 1,000 key commands and mouse clicks automatically. With just one button, BCS allows you to create instant headphone sends, name tracks, put entire drum tracks on the grid, export stems, and so much more! The BCS comes pre-programmed with 100 preset batch commands in every supported DAW, with layouts for music, mastering, post-production and more.

The Slate Raven MTi2 comes with 1 supported DAW, and requires USB2 and DVI ports on your computer.

Check out the Slate Raven MTi2 on its dedicated web page, and also in the more detail in the following video.

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New Music Gear Monday: Fretlocks Single String Capo

One of the great production tricks with guitars is the use of the capo. Instead of a straight double, playing in a different register with the help of a capo provides a magic sound that seems to work every time.

But the normal capo works on all strings, and there are those moments when it would be cool to capo just one or two, and that's where Fretlocks very cool single string capos come in.

The Fretlock adheres to your guitar's fretboard with adhesive tape, and two small blades grab the string to fret it. It's way easier to watch and listen than read about it to understand, so there's a video below that shows what fretlocks can do.

Fretlocks are available from the company website and cost $22.75 for a packet of 6, or $37.90 for a tin of 12 (they come from the UK, so this is the current conversion from pounds). There are three different sizes to accommodate different string sizes.

The downside is that they're only usable for a few times before the adhesive wears off, but the company says that they're working on a more robust version for future release.

In the meantime, it's a small price to pay for having an extra finger or two when you need it.

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New Music Gear Monday: Acme Audio Motown DI

As we all know, direct boxes are not created equally. Buy a cheap one and you'll get a limited bandwidth with not enough bottom end, or a choked high-frequency response. That said, when you find a great DI, you know it right away.

That's why the new Acme Audio Motown WB-3 DI is so interesting. It was patterned as closely as possible on the original DI used by Motown back in the day that not only captured James Jamerson's bass, but many of the guitar sounds on those records as well.

As far as features, it's a pretty basic passive DI, with 2 parallel inputs, a Direct/Attenuator switch that puts the variable attenuator in the circuit, and an XLR output and ground lift on the side.

You're not buying this box for its features, but for it's sound, and the WB-3 has garnered a lot of praise from top hitmakers in a short period of time thanks to the extra low end that this box provides.

The Acme Audio Motown WB-3 DI isn't cheap at $449, but if there's a lot of people more than will to pay a little extra money for the sound it provides.

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New Music Gear Monday: SSL Beta DIY 500 Series Module

Have an idea for an audio circuit but aren't sure how to get it into a 500 series module? SSL has the solution for you. It's called Beta and it's basically a blank 500 module that enables you to go DIY to your heart's content.

The SSL Beta comes with an illuminated front panel and a collection of basic SSL components, including 5 log, anti-log and linear pots (even with center detents), real SSL knob caps, two and four pole switches, and dual color status function LEDs.

These components mount to the front panel, but you can connect them any way you want to the circuit that you build on the attached breadboard.

Remember, this module doesn't do anything by itself, but if you're handy with a soldering iron and like the look of SSL modules, then it's the perfect place to begin to build.

DIY 500 kits and circuits are available from a variety of websites, including Five Fish Audio, DIY Recording Equipment and JLM Audio, among others.

The SSL Beta is available directly from the SSL online store for $165.

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New Music Gear Monday: Ocean Way Audio HR4 Monitors

Allen Sides has long been noted not only for his excellent engineering and studios, but for his studio monitors as well. I did a lot of recording at the old A&M Studios (now Henson) in Hollywood back in the 80s, and the mix rooms with Allen's original monitors always received rave reviews.

Today, Allen's Ocean Way Audio builds commercial versions of those same monitors, but has now also introduced several smaller versions, including the innovative HR4s, which are available in either a 2 or 3 way version (complete with dual subwoofers).

The HR4 features the excellent transient response that Allen's monitors have long been known for. wide dispersion for a wide sweet spot, and an extended frequency range going from 35Hz to 25kHz.

The system is self-powered at 250 watts, which might seem a bit low by today's standards. Due to the efficiency of the horn-loaded design, that turns out to be plenty of power and headroom for everyday use (see the video for Allen's explanation). The monitors feature both analog and digital inputs, which accept up to 192kHz/24 bit data streams.

The Ocean Way Audio H4s are available for $8,900 a pair. You can go to the HR4 info page or watch the video below for more detail.


  

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