I didn't see anything that completely blew me away. This is coming from a guy who's so easily impressed... oooh, a blue car...

Korg did have their WAVEDRUM out. A watched a gentleman play that obviously knew how to play percussion, and it sounded pretty darn good.

Radial was showing their WORKHORSE 5000. That looks fairly cool. It's like all the other 500 series racks out there... but not. Seems cost effective. To me at least.

The API party was pretty rocking, too ;)

I didn't get a chance to go to any presentations.

Anyone see anything that was just plain awesome?

Sure! I'll give my .02 worth here.

First of all, I ran into Remy at the Melodyne booth, neither of us had our badges showing (we don't need no steenkeen badges!!!), so it took me a moment, I finally figured out from her questions and comments to the product rep. Great to finally meet in person; we're not that far apart location wise anyway, so it was funny to go all the way to NYC to run into each other.

I had a blast yakking with all of my favorite vendors, including Wes Dooley, Bruce Meyers at DPA, and Mr. Andrew Lipsinki himself. (Whew! some rare air there! He's still making some SERIOUS recordings in Europe, and I intend to get his new Blu-Ray HD audio recording.)

It was great to see the "Survivors" of this past horrible year, and from the looks of it, everyone seems to be hanging tough.

I have a wish-list of stuff I plan to buy/review, etc. and it's probably no surprise to most:

Mackie Onyx i Series - spoke with the Mackie rep for about 20 minutes on all the new features, including the A/D card specs (not an ad-on card anymore; it's built-in). Lots more features on it as well; mainly a good solid way to outsource to analog gear via all the firewire ins and outs while still working with a DAW. Brilliant option for the home-studio crowd.

Audio Technica microphones; they're real, they're available now, and I want a couple! The new Stereo Ribbon is top on my list, and - surprise - they have created a stereo AT4050 (My FAVORITE LD all-round microphone for live use). I want an AT4050ST, too.

Izotope RA (the full version). Looks like they've taken the cleanup/mastering suite to a new level. At least it SEEMED ultra cool at the show. ($1100 for the full version!)

AEA's new "Active" versions of the 44 and R84 mics. (you can tell they're special by the "Gold" appointments!) I'd also like to get my hands on the newer/updated version of the TRP. (The blue one that's full-rack width; can't recall it's model number right now..)

JoeCo's 24 track stand-alone recorder. (Just add your own USB 2.0 drive, and you're ready to record "live" up to 24 tracks for $2500. Absolutely BRILLIANT; just what i've been looking for to replace my clunky Fostex 2424LV. (And it will save me investing in an Alesis 24 track machine and jumping through hoops to read from the Hard drive to my Computer.) I can't believe no one else has come out with this sort of thing yet. It's a no-brainer; one jog wheel to rule them all, with an easy front view screen; ONE rack space tall, with 24 ins and outs. Lots of factory options, too, but right out of the box, this thing is VERY hip. This guy should sell a ton of 'em for live use, and "Virtual" sound check situations.

I chatted with the Lundahl transformer rep as well, and learned a LOT about their product, and what i'll need to upgrade some of my old classics currently in my little shop for upgrading. Great stuff, indeed.

Lots more goodies, but that's just off the top of my head for now.

For me, it was a great re-visit to an old standby show, even though it was MUCH smaller than in years gone by. I usually only go every-other year now, since it's split between NYC and the West Coast (LA or SF). I only had six hours to see it all on Friday afternoon, and for the first time in a long time, I really wished I had more time.

Hope to read more from a few others who went...

I had a good friend go to the show and he reported it looked smaller than previous years and there seemed to be a lot of the BIG names missing most notably Digidesign. Anyone else notice this???

OK, here goes.

I have been attending the AES shows for the past 37 years. I almost didn't go to this one. I thought, "why bother"? But I am so glad I did attend. I really miss the Waldorf-Astoria & even the Hilton. I hate convention centers. I went more out of morbid curiosity to see who would still be there? Well, the best part was bumping into Joe Hannigan at the Melodyne booth. And I kept my eyes open to see if I could find any other Recording.org members at the show. But no I didn't see any of 'yall there on Friday or Saturday. Where the heck where you?

I was pretty blown away by the absence of Digi-design. A no-show. What's with that? But it's true. They had an Avid opportunity but let it go. So, either business is too good or it's not? I think this was a first since their inception? Plenty of consoles being shown but none of theirs. It's OK, we don't need 'em.

Finally, for the first time, I decided to say hello and kibitz with Rupert Neve, whose booth was right next to my friend Paul Wolff from Tone-Lux. API party? I didn't hear about any party? Damn it! It was pretty funny since he and Paul, about 10 years ago said, they would never build an analog console again. And what are they building today? Analog consoles. You've got to love that kind of consistency.

Yup, the show was at least 1/3rd smaller, lighter, lower in calories, great taste, less filling, great taste, less filling.

I was also blown away by the proliferation of Ribbon Microphones. Finally, people are realizing that the oldest technology is still the best technology. Although the Phantom powered active ribbons sound great, they sound too much like condenser microphones to me. So perhaps I'm a bottom since I like passive um....ribbon microphones? In a popular musical genre of recording, preamp noise is not that big an issue. In an orchestral sense, if I was flying my microphones, I might want an active version? I just don't understand the logic of trying to make a ribbon microphone sound like a condenser microphone? But it sure did appear that every microphone manufacturer was now showing off their new ribbon offerings. Yeah baby! Now I feel like a little kid in a candy store again. That Michael Joly Cascades microphone with the Lundahl transformer sounded mighty sweet at a great price point. Their Chinese transformers sound like crap. And, there were others. But a convention floor is a mighty tough place to audition any equipment, with headphones or loudspeakers. The ambient noise level was fatiguing. That's why the hotels where the bomb. You had the convention floor. You had intimate, quiet demonstration rooms that coul rock the walls down, without your neighbors complaining.

I found George Massenburg to be particularly elusive and for the first two days of the show, you'd never see him at his booth. I've known George since I was 15 and I'm going to be 54 on Thursday. Both George and I got our start at the same studio in Baltimore, Recordings Inc./Flight Three.

David Schwartz's new digital microphone was all smoke and no mirrors. It sounded exactly what I thought it would sound like, bad. But it's a prototype of a new technology way of doing things. I think he's barking up the wrong tree quite frankly? It's like the flame loudspeaker. Hot sounding but 100% impractical. His microphone wasn't so hot sounding but I guess, since it actually works it just proves the point that all that glitters from lasers, is not actually gold. Not yet. Not anytime soon. I discussed my concepts for a digital microphone with him. But he is adamant about not having another diaphragm to "cause distortion" before it gets to the speaker. But in the land of artificial imitation sound reproduction, diaphragms are a fact of life. Just my editorial opinions.

Yup, that JoeCo 24 track live recorder was exactly what I was talking about designing on the HD 24 Yahoo group. And at only $2500 and at only a 1U rack size, it's incredible. It's not designed for any kind of studio use. It's only designed to be 24 track single pass recording designed for live acquisition. Perfect for me. I want two. They weren't indicating who makes their converters. They indicated that they were the same as everybody else is using. And although we have lots of folks here that want to capture the ultimate decibel, I agree, what ever they're using, it's 100% adequate.

It takes a lot to impress me these days from a technical standpoint. But I was quite delighted by the State of the Art. Not sure why I find digital consoles more intimidating than their larger, older, analog counterparts? There's just not enough knobs to do the job. Where did they put them? In a drawer someplace? If, I'm going to pay the same thing for a digital console that I paid for an analog console, I want more knobs. Give me knobs or give me death. But then my Neve console has about one fourth the amount of knobs that my Sphere Eclipse C had. It's OK, I still love it anyhow. And although Rupert would like to sell me one of his new boards, he was quick to point out that it was all discrete. Better sound, lower noise. Big deal. So I'm not getting rid of my 1974 version anytime soon. But it is sad to see him in a wheelchair. But that's because he fell off of his horse, in Texas. I told not to do that anymore. I said he had to stay on the horse.

Jack is not in the box.
Mx. Remy Ann David

Thomas W. Bethel wrote: I had a good friend go to the show and he reported it looked smaller than previous years and there seemed to be a lot of the BIG names missing most notably Digidesign. Anyone else notice this???

I spoke with Digi marketing two days ago. Here's the skinny.

Digi is going to no longer be called Digidesign. They are making changes. They are going to be called Pro Tools. It makes sense since Pro Tools is what everyone is buying from Digidesign. They are Pro Tools of Avid. Something like that.

Cool things planned that will be announced soon.