Need to Know: Blockchain: What It Means for Pro Audio
Blockchain as a concept has been making noise (perhaps a low rumble) across the music industry for a few years now, but hasn’t made significant inroads into the pro audio world—yet.
News
View from the Top: Jack Kelly, Group One Ltd.
By Clive Young. One could argue that Kelly’s exposure to pro audio distribution early in his career inspired his eventual path, but there’s more to it than that.
People: Hires and Promotions in the Audio Industry
Industry moves include promotions at ADAM Audio and Genelec, and promotions at Community Professional Loudspeakers, Full Compass Systems, JoeCo, Group One Ltd., Point Source Audio, Martin Audio and Flare Audio.
Studio Burglar Bites Employee’s Face, Say Police
By Clive Young. Attack reportedly the culmination of numerous days of harassment by the suspect, who is now in police custody.
Producer/Label Founder Matt Dike, Dead at 55
By Katie Makal. Matt Dike, co-founder of influential hip-hop music label Delicious Vinyl and producer, has died at the age of 55.
Louisville, KY's Goldsmith Studios: “Getting Back to Normal”
By Katie Makal. Studio owner Brian Cronin is able to return to work following a late-December robbery.
Sennheiser Expands AMBEO Platform with New Partnership and Technologies
Sennheiser has invested in Dear Reality and acquiring intellectual property from Sonic Emotion.
People: Hires and Promotions in the Audio Industry
Industry moves include promotions at Audix and hires at Adamson Systems Engineering, GIK Acoustics, Pro Audio Design, Powersoft, Astro Spatial Audio, Focusrite, Auralex Acoustics and AlltecPro.
View from the Top: Stephen Siegel, Fulcrum Acoustic
By Clive Young. “As a technology-driven company, we are always experimenting with better ways to solve sound reinforcement challenges," says Siegel.
Shure To Open Downtown Chicago Office
By Clive Young. New Chicago Loop Location to house 150 employees, Consumer Experience Center.
Review: Avid CEO Louis Hernandez Jr.'s Book, "The Storyteller's Dilemma"
By Steve Harvey. Avid CEO Louis Hernandez Jr. discusses storytelling, creativity in new book.
View from the Top: Peter Thomas, PMC
By Clive Young. While U.K.-based PMC (Professional Monitor Company) has been in business for more than a quarter century, its profile in the U.S. has grown considerably in recent years.
View from the Top: James Lamb, Point Source Audio
Like many people in the pro audio business, James Lamb started out as a musician.
60 Seconds: Craig Johnson
Craig Johnson speaks to Pro Sound News about his new role as CEO of Full Compass Systems. He joined the company as CEO in December 2017.
Rick Hall, Father of "Muscle Shoals sound," Dies at 85
By Katie Makal. Legendary music producer and recording engineer Rick Hall, owner of FAME Recording Studios and father of the “Muscle Shoals sound,” died at his Alabama home on Jan. 2 after a long illness.
QSC Marks 50 Years of Pro Audio
QSC founders Pat Quilter, Barry Andrews and John Andrews reflect on 50 years of pro AV advances for live sound, cinema and corporate installations worldwide.
RØDE Debuts AI-1 Audio Interface
RØDE Microphones has released the AI-1, marking its first foray into the realm of USB audio interfaces, available on its own or as part of a new bundle, The Complete Studio Kit.
UK Vinyl to See Xmas Boost
By Steve Harvey. The BPI, which represents the UK’s recorded music industry, is predicting that the holiday season will add over one million vinyl albums to the year’s total, which is expected to top four million in Britain.
FabFilter Bows Pro-L 2 Limiter Plug-in
FabFilter is now shipping the Pro-L 2 update to its Pro-L limiter plug-in. This update offers new limiting algorithms, a true peak limiting mode, and other new features including compliant loudness metering, and surround support.
DPA Mics Acquires Sound Network
DPA Microphones has acquired UK pro audio distributor Sound Network [no relation to our site, prosoundnetwork.com]. The company has distributed DPA for the last two decades, making inroads for the manufacturer’s products into the UK broadcast, live sound and theater markets.
Samson Launches AirLine ATX Wireless
Samson has launched its full line of AirLine ATX Series Micro Transmitter UHF Wireless Systems featuring what is reported to be the world’s smallest beltpack/clip-on transmitter.
Highlander Partners Acquires Biamp
Biamp Systems has been acquired by private investment firm Dallas-based Highlander Partners from previous owner Lomar Corporation. Financial details were not released other than that Lomar will retain a minority investment in Biamp.
Fohhn Debuts Focus Venue Line Array
Fohhn Audio has introduced its new Focus Venue Beam Steering line array.
ACT Lighting Acquires RapcoHorizon
ACT Lighting, Inc., an importer and distributor of entertainment technology, has acquired RHC Holdings Corp., better known as RapcoHorizon, a vertically-integrated manufacturer of interconnect assemblies, audio, data and interface products, and specialty industrial wire. RapcoHorizon brands include ProCo, RAT, RoadHog and StageMASTER.
ClearOne Updates Dialog 20 Wireless Mics
ClearOne’s recently introduced Dialog 20 wireless microphone system are natively compatible with its own Converge Pro 2 line of mixers.
2018 Production Grammy Noms Announced
The Recording Academy has announced the nominations for its 60th Annual Grammy Awards, including engineering, mixing, remixing, mastering and production acknowledgements.
Waves Unveils VU Meter Plug-In
Waves Audio is now shipping its latest plug-in, the Waves VU Meter, intended to help users maintain proper gain staging for a clean mix.
Community Launches IV6 Array
Community has expanded its I SERIES family with the new IV6 Modular Vertical Array 600 system. Designed for installed indoor or outdoor applications, IV6 is a scalable, adaptive sound reinforcement system featuring wide-dispersion IV6-1122 array elements (12-inch, 2-way) available in two complementary vertical coverage angle versions (5-degree and 15-degree).
AES@NAMM Online Registration Opens
While the annual NAMM Convention in Anaheim, CA has stepped up its pro-audio education offerings in recent years, it will take a dive into the deep end this January 25-28 with the help of the Audio Engineering Society, as both organizations team up to present the inaugural AES@NAMM Pro Sound Symposium: Live & Studio. Now online registration for the four-day, multi-language event has opened online.
Carl Tatz Discounts for Cyber Monday
For today only, Carl Tatz Design (CTD) has discounted its Carl Tatz Edition Argosy Dual 15-800 line of workstations by $300, and its PhantomFocus eChair by $25. These discounts will show up in the shopping cart upon purchase at shop.carltatzdesign.com.
Cakewalk Shuttered by Gibson Brands
By Clive Young. After 30 years, music/DAW software company Cakewalk has been shut down. The announcement came Friday, November 17, from parent company Gibson Brands, which said Cakewalk was ceasing new product development, stating the move was made to “better align with [Gibson Brands’] acquisition strategy that is heavily focused on growth in the global consumer electronics audio business under the Philips brand.” Gibson Brands acquired Cakewalk in late 2013.
Waves, Steinberg Bow Cubasis Plug-Ins
Waves Audio and Steinberg have joined forces in offering Cubasis and Cubasis LE users three in-app purchasable plugins by Waves. Cubasis is Steinberg’s sequencer app for iPad, similar to its Cubase music production system, “providing the same look and feel as well as project compatibility for easy import to Cubase,” explains Waves promotional materials.
JBL Pro Debuts VTX A12W Loudspeaker
JBL Professional has introduced its new VTX A12W line array loudspeaker. Part of it VTX A Series family, the new loudspeaker sports a 120-degree dispersion pattern for wide horizontal coverage, and is intended for tour sound companies, theaters, houses of worship and live performance venues.
Tegeler Ships Crème In North America
Tegeler Audio Manufaktur is now shipping its Crème—a passive EQ based on the legendary Pultec plus a bus compressor—in North America.
60 Seconds: David Webster, Coda Audio
David “Webby” Webster director of Global Marketing, which, of course, entails more than just marketing.
RCF Debuts HDL30-A Line Array
RCF has introduced its new HDL30-A line array, the latest addition to the RCF HDL line array family. A compact, bi-amped, two-way active system, it is intended for medium to large events and tours.
Spotify Acquires Soundtrap
By Clive Young. Spotify has acquired fellow Stockholm-based company, Soundtrap, a web-based collaborative recording and production studio. Acquisition terms were not disclosed other than that Soundtrap will continue to operate as before, though some tech sites have estimated the deal at $30 million.
Apogee Debuts MiC Plus USB Microphone
Apogee’s new MiC Plus updates the original Mic with a new design that includes built-in headphone output for latency-free monitoring while recording, and reportedly increased dynamic range.
UA Bows Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor Plug-In
Universal Audio has introduced its new Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor Compressor plug-in. Created in collaboration with Empirical Labs, the plug-in emulation is designed for UAD hardware and Apollo interfaces as part of UAD Software v9.4.
Warm Audio Unveils WA-47 Tube Mic
Warm Audio has announced its new WA-47 tube condenser microphone, due to ship in December. Inspired by the vintage U 47 mic, the all-vacuum tube, large diaphragm WA-47 offers nine patterns and is intended for studio, live and broadcast applications.
Calrec Unveils Brio 12 Mixer
Calrec Audio has launched Brio 12, a compact, 12-fader audio mixer, at Inter BEE 2017 in Japan.
View From The Top: Powersoft's Lastrucci
By Silas Lynch. Claudio Lastrucci began his journey into pro audio as a multi-instrumentalist, playing piano, drums and saxophone “a bit,” he admits of the latter. But it was while attending the University of Electronic Engineering in Florence, Italy, that his appetite was whetted for his future. “I actually did a PhD. in power electronics,” he offers.
Steinberg Unveils Cubase 9.5
Steinberg has announced the immediate availability of the 9.5 updates to the Pro, Artist and Elements editions of Cubase. Reportedly “earlier than anticipated,” Steinberg is releasing this year’s update this month, “seizing the opportunity to introduce the additions to customers as soon as possible,” notes the company.
John Stiernberg, Dead at 66
Industry mainstay John Stiernberg died Saturday, November 11, 2017, after a battle with cancer. He was 66. As the president and co-founder of Stiernberg Consulting, his business development consultancy, he helped guide many audio industry companies to success, and made his influence felt by authoring hundreds of articles and white papers along the way.
Heritage Audio Debuts Elite Series
Heritage Audio has introduced its new Elite Series, a more affordable Heritage Audio line of “zero compromise” yet “very affordable” analog processors, confirms the company. Built in in the same Spanish facilities as Heritage’s other premium products, the Elite Series also features Carnhill transformers, hand-wound in St. Ives, England.
Audionamix Bows Free Stems Separator Beta
Audionamix has announced the opportunity to beta test its XTRAX STEMS, an automatic stem separator, allowing early access to the tool. XTRAX STEMS can separate any audio content, or songs, into separate Drum, Vocal and Music stems. These individual stems can be used to accompany live performances, to create remixes, samples and a cappella takes with reported ease.