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NEW TOYS
Sony DWZ Series Wireless
The Sony DWZ Series of wireless microphone systems all use 24-bit
linear PCM digital audio transmitted over the 2.4GHz band and come in
four different paired, transmitter and receiver packages: the DWZ-B30GB
Guitar Set, DWZ-M50 Vocal Set, the DWZ-M70 Vocal/Speech Set, and
the DWZ-B70HL Headset and Lavaliere Set. Especially notable for a wireless
system at this price point is that both the DWZ-M70 and DWZ-B70HL
packages have advanced digital signal processing to minimize audio feedback
and 128-bit AES data encryption for secure audio transmission.
Ideal and totally flexible for modest installed sound applications, houses
of worship, corporate board rooms or night club stages, the DWZ systems
have two methods for 2.4GHz frequency selection and the rack-mountable
receivers (shown) have an integrated color LCD plus a built-in digital
program EQ. The receivers connect easily using either balanced and
unbalanced audio outputs and the handheld mics support both Sony’s or
any third-party’s interchangeable mic capsule.
The DWZ-M50 Vocal Set includes an interchangeable cardioid dynamic
microphone capsule for its handheld transmitter and a half-rack size
receiver while the DWZ-GB30 Guitar Set goes with a body pack transmitter
with guitar cable tone control and compact size receiver powered by
an AC adapter, 9V battery or external DC.
The DWZ-M70 Vocal/Speech Set includes an interchangeable cardioid
dynamic microphone capsule for its handheld transmitter and half-rack
size receiver and the DWZ-B70HL Headset and Lavaliere Set uses either
a cardioid condenser headset microphone or uni-directional condenser
lavaliere mic, body pack transmitter and receiver with advanced DSP
functions. Check out http://sony.com/proaudio.
PMC twotwo Series Powered
Reference Monitors
Professional Monitor Company (PMC) has
two new handcrafted, 2-way powered
reference studio monitors called the
twotwo.5 and the scaled-up model,
the twotwo.6 with the twotwo.8 version
coming soon.
The set of pre-production
twotwo.6s sent to me for evaluation
have a 6.5-inch LF driver, measure
(H 406 X W 194 X D 364mm), and a
useable frequency range of 40Hz to 25kHz.
PMC’s Advanced Transmission Line, an
internal labyrinth within the cabinet, is used to load
the bass driver and extend the low frequency response
of this compact monitor.
Both the twotwo.5’s and .6’s use the same 27-mm soft-dome
HF driver, the same pair of Class-D power amps—150-watt LF and
50-watt HF, and both accept either balanced or unbalanced analog audio
input by way of the rear panel XLR and RCA jacks.
These monitors also accept digital audio input via a rear panel AES3
XLR connector and use their own onboard DSP for automatic sample rate
conversion of all incoming digital audio to 24-bit/96kHz, internal A/D-D/A,
user-equalization, crossover options and driver protection. With digital
audio operation, two RJ45 connectors on the rear panel convey volume
data and digital audio over standard CAT-5 cables to any number of PMC
monitors daisy chained together.
I’m very impressed but still experimenting with their setup in my small
room. The built-in DSP works well to shape the monitors’ frequency balance
to sound their best considering my small room’s inherent room mode
issues along with my own monitoring preferences. They are an honest
pair of monitors that make me work harder at perfecting the sound of my
mixes. I like their look and styling; their deep cabinets and narrow width
give them a diminutive look but sonically, they are far from unnoticed; they
sound huge. The PMC twotwo.6s are big winners here at my Tones 4 $
Studios.
Visit http://pmc-speakers.com for more technical details and information on
both the twotwo.5 and twotwo.6 monitors as well as the entire Professional
Monitor Company line of active and passive monitoring systems.
—BARRY RUDOLPH barry@barryrudolph.com
CAD Audio Sessions MH510 Headphones
CAD Audio offers a pair of headphones with specs that rival or exceed
that of the most expensive professional studio headphones you’d find in a
world-class recording studio. The result of a decade-long collaboration of
experience and professional audio expertise, the Sessions MH510 headphones
come with features and accessories found with studio phones starting
at $300.
You get an extra pair of velveteen ear cushions in addition to the included
leatherette set. I like that you get both straight and curly cords and both
have locking connectors to change/replace cords. Each pair comes with a
leatherette carry pouch, a screw-on 1/4-inch stereo gold-plated adapter and,
just for fun, there is a choice of black, white/red, black/chrome and black/
orange colors.
I received a pair of all black MH510 headphones and immediately
plugged them into my Aphex Systems Model 454 HeadPod studio headphone
box. The MH510s have 26-ohm impedance, 50-mm neodymium
drivers and a maximum power rating of 3-watts. You’ll distort the Aphex amp
before overdriving them.
Being able to handle up to
3-watts of power is the best headphone
feature in the recording
studio world. The voice coils in
the drivers of studio phones will
burn out with hours of excessive
and constant volume levels —
even when the headphones lay
on the floor unused. Combine that with the “perfect storm” of physical abuse
and accidental spikes caused by a bad/intermittent connection somewhere
in the signal chain and you’ve got another set of dead soldiers.
In my listening tests, I found that the MH510 headphones are built for
loud playback with a thick overall sound with plenty of bass down to the
subsonic. They are more efficient than my other studio phones—meaning
more volume for the same power from the headphone amp. They are also
slightly lighter weight, very comfortable and seal well over my ears for minimal
headphone spill.
The super-rugged and stylish CAD Audio Sessions MH510 headphones
sell for $159 MSRP. For more about them, go to http://cadaudio.com/
MH510.php.
Steinberg Cubase 7 and Cubase Artist 7
The significant new features for both Cubase 7 and Cubase Artist 7
are the completely redesigned MixConsole mixers. The Channel Settings
window specifies channel/track order for the all-new channel strip.
MixConsole is laid out and looks like a beautiful, easy on the eyes analog
audio console mixer.
The channel strips have high and low-pass filters, a noise gate, fourband
StudioEQ, three different compressors, a spectrum analyzer, tube/
tape saturation section, a brick wall limiter and a maximizer.
You get Voxengo’s studio-grade 64-band spline CurveEQ, a large,
built-in mix bus meter with a choice of various standards including
Europe’s EBU R128 loudness for broadcasters as well as Bob Katz’s
K-System metering. There is also VST Connect SE for Internet recording
sessions and the latest version of MixConvert for high quality down mixing
of multi-channel surround sound mixes.
On the music composing side is Chord Track, a dedicated track within
the Project window that identifies the music’s harmony structure and
generates metadata about chord quality and scale. Changes in Chord
Track can change the harmonic content of both MIDI sequences as well
as audio tracks that have already been analyzed with VariAudio.
Chord Assistant comes with Cubase 7 and provides the ultimate tool
for songwriters looking for just the right chord and/or suggesting harmonically
related chord progressions.
There are many new samples, instruments,
and MIDI loops for HALion Sonic SE, Goove
Agent and Beat Designer products. Steinberg also
announced Nuendo 6, sharing many of the same
great improvements now available in Cubase 7.
Cubase 7 sells for $599.99 and Cubase Artist
7, at $329.99, is cross-platform and runs 32/64-
bit for Windows and Mac OS X Intel. For now,
check out http://steinberg.net/en/products/cubase/
whats_new.html.
Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer with over 30 gold and platinum RIAA
awards to his credit. He has recorded and/or mixed: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates,
Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs and Robbie Nevil.
Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and also teaches recording
engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. http://www.barryrudolph.com
12 January 2013 www.musicconnection.com