Mix reviews the Omega Studio Recording System from Lexicon. The Omega actually came out last year, but the Mix review only appeared recently. Besides, I like this product because it looks like R2-D2. Actually, the R2-D2-alike box is just part of the system. The Omega studio recording system consists of three pieces: the Omega USB audio interface, Steinberg’s Cubase LE DAW software, and Lexicon’s Pantheon VST reverb plugin.

A brief description paraphrased from the review: The Omega — an 8-input, 4-bus, 2-output USB I/O mixer — represents the core of the system. A closer look at the uncluttered front panel reveals a surprising amount of features and functionality. Flip the Omega around and cute turns to brute: The rear panel is a no-nonsense array of connectivity. “As a frequent headphone mixer, I immediately heard a major improvement over my soundcard in Omega’s headphone amp, which sports a very open sound and plenty of power. Subsequently, the unit shined in a variety of recording and mixing applications.”

Cubase LE is a decent, if stripped-down, version of Steinberg’s music production system. There are limits on the number of tracks, plugins, etc. that you can use, but the interface is still the same as the high-end versions. As for the reverb plugin, “While the choicest algorithms remain reserved for the company’s higher-end systems, there’s still no question that Pantheon is a killer reverb with the creamy goodness for which Lexicon is famous.”

Overall, they rate this system very highly as a cost-effective way to get sound into your computer. “For overall ease of use, Omega and its mixer-based architecture (as opposed to a patchbay structure) is an absolute pleasure. Between its assignable buses and well-thought-out interface, it just goes where you point it for highly intuitive portable or desktop recording/mixing. … When you take into account the fact that VST reverb plug-ins of Pantheon’s quality can easily sell for $200 or more, the addition of the extremely flexible and handy I/O box — not to mention Cubase LE — makes the Lexicon Omega an outstanding value.”

Computer Music reviews Cakewalk Project5 Version 2 in their May issue (old, but good). They gave it a very good review, rating it nine out of ten. They’re impressed by the many changes in this new version, and they think all of the changes have improved an already useful program. Actually, the only change they didn’t like about version 2 is that the box it comes in doesn’t look as nice!

They say the most striking alteration is the total abolition of the SYN.OPS window., which was used to display the interface of the select instrument of effect. The entire window has been replaced with a “stylish” left-hand oriented “inspector”. This leaves the bottom half of the main screen free. “This is a major workflow alteration from version 1, and after just a few hours with the program, you begin to see the logic behind this change. Everything you need is now available from just the one screen.”

The new Groove Matrix feature has attracted a lot of comment. It’s a grid of cells into which you can drag and drop any pattern, sample or groove. You can then trigger them either by hitting the Groove header at the top of each column or by triggering via MIDI remote control. This is similar to Ableton Live’s Session View and they say its “a fantastic tool for live performance or fast, experimental on-the-fly song arrangement.”

The new instrument, the Dimension sampling synth, gets an ecstatic thumbs-up. They call it an “incredible addition to Cakewalk’s studio” and say, “The presets are excellent, and with its innovative synthesis options, Dimension brings a new twist to the soft-sampling scene. It’s so good that we almost gave it a review of its own.”

Overall, the reviewers note that the Project5 engine looks and feels much slicker, and uses much less CPU than previously. The audio engine is also much smoother. The whole thing is a huge improvement over version 1: “P5 2 raises the bar significantly in comparison to its predecessor, yet still has an incredibly low price tag.” Their final recommendation speaks for itself: “This is one hell of an update. Improved workflow, a glitch-free and ultimately more reliable audio engine, better instruments, stacks of new features … and a fresh new look make it an essential purchase for users of version 1.” And for people who weren’t happy with version 1: “It’s time to re-try the demo.”

Line 6 (“believe”) have launched the TonePort range of USB audio interfaces. Well, there are two — does that make a range? Anyway, The TonePort is an interface between your guitar, bass and microphone on one hand, and your computer on the other. The included software works with the hardware to emulate a half-dozen different mic preamps, more than 20 guitar and bass preamps and more than 20 guitar and bass effects. Great for those who can actually play real instruments instead of just program computers.

Full details are on the website. Here is the high-level blurb: TonePort is like a rack full of premium tube recording equipment, plus a perfectly engineered recording room for guitar and bass, thanks to our acclaimed guitar/bass direct tone with mic and cab modeling.

TonePort hardware features studio-grade microphone preamps that make getting a truly professional-grade vocal tone easy. The exclusive GearBox tone software gives you models of the most sought after preamps in the recording world. GearBox even lets you run a completely different signal path for your microphone input with models of vintage preamps, compressors, and reverbs while still giving you the ultimate direct recording sound for your guitar or bass. In minutes, you’ll be creating sounds that typically take an entire studio, an expert engineer, and a huge hourly rate to pull off!

The included GearBox software controls TonePort and gives you a premium tone front end for all your recordings. Includes meticulously crafted models of premium tube studio preamps, vintage guitar and bass rigs, and sought after, personality-rich effects. This is the tone that pros rely on and only Line 6 provides. Now it comes to your desktop with TonePort.

GearBox’s meticulously crafted recreations of a dream collection of 16 classic and modern guitar amplifiers, 5 must-have bass amp models, and 24 stompbox and studio effects capture the range of tone found on the best tracks ever recorded. You can mix and match PODXT-based amp and cab models based on Marshall, Fender, Mesa/Boogie, Vox, Roland, Soldano and more, with realistic looking controls that make any guitarist feel right at home

TonePort also comes with a “lite” edition of Ableton Live so you can start playing straight away.

Wave Editor is a new audio editor for Mac OS X. It’s the second product from Audiofile Engineering, makers of the Sample Manager batch audio processor. The main special feature seems to be its handling of fades — they are non-destructive and can be applied as various bezier curves rather than simple linear or sine curves. You can try it out for yourself — their website offers a free 15-day trial version.

There’s more information on the website and in their press release. They say: Wave Editor is the essential audio editor for Mac OS X. Designed in Cocoa from the ground up, Wave Editor proudly takes advantage of CoreAudio, Quartz Extreme, and other core features within Mac OS X. Wave Editor takes over where Peak and Spark left off, incorporating the standard audio editing features you’re used to while bringing you up-to-date with the latest advances in interface design, speed and stability.

Wave Editor introduces the concept of “layered audio”. It allows audio professionals to layer audio of any rate, bit depth, and number of channels, add Audio Units and fades on top of each other, edit them, then flatten the resulting file, a process that takes much longer with legacy editors.

Wave Editor’s application of fades is new to audio editors: fades as “overlays” on top of the audio that can be adjusted in real-time before they are applied. And, for the first time in any audio editor, you can use quadratic or cubic bezier curves to shape the fades to obtain the smoothest natural effect.

Wave Editor also includes an advanced inspector, statistical analyzer, standard audio processing features, three advanced meters, full support for Audio Units, support for MP3 and AAC, and much more.

Mix magazine reviews the Tascam GigaStudio 3 software sampler. “GigaStudio 3 addresses previous versions’ shortcomings while adding some great new features” such as the GigaPulse convolution reverb. This feature adds a lot of processor overhead, but “even with Giga 2, you could get a lot of mileage out of a single computer loaded with 1.5 to 2 GB of RAM. … Giga 3’s memory access has improved considerably.” A good thing too, because the convolution impulse processor is used extensively: “for example, the new GigaPiano 2 uses impulses instead of piano samples to create the pedal-down and release/staccato resonance effects.”

In fact, the reviewer is very impressed with the way the convolution processor is used in GigaStudio. Tascam cleverly wring the maximum out of the CPU to get the best-sounding effect — “these programs are just terrific”.

“The original GigaSampler revolutionized sampling, and Giga 3’s integrated convolution processor, GigaPulse, has opened up a whole new set of creative possibilities. In addition to being an efficient engine for running multiple path surround reverb programs, it can simulate anything that produces an impulse response — effects, spaces, instrument bodies, mics, amps and more — and those impulses can be integrated right into the sample programs.” Clearly, it’s the GigaPulse core that makes GigaStudio what it is.

They also go through all the incremental improvements over the previous version — basically, GigaStudio 3 has more of everything. The review concludes with a resounding recommendation: “In short, it’s the current state-of-the-art in sampling. GigaStudio 3 took a long time coming, but it was well-worth waiting for.”

Studio Reviews gave a top rating to the Tranzport wireless DAW remote controller — in fact, they gave it their 2005 Product of the Year award. They applaud everything about it — the functionality, responsiveness, build quality, even the customer support on the website forums. They love the way it simplifies everything about the recording process: “All the main controls needed to operate a DAW are at your fingertips, and the kicker is that you can walk around and work with the remote anywhere within about a 10-meter range. Even a simple task like listening back to tracks can now be done from sitting in the back of the room on the studio couch, instead of having to run up and tap on the computer keyboard.”

Even setting up this studio Nirvana was apparently painless: “Everything worked right off the bat without a hitch.” Good to see that the reviewers can mix their metaphors as well as their music.

They close on an even higher note, with their enthusiasm running to fever pitch: “Believe the hype. This is the shizzle. If you have a DAW, you should run, not walk, and order a TranzPort. The TranzPort is too cool for school. This is a no-brainer, must-have for anyone with a DAW, and an indispensable tool for the 21st-century studio.”

How portable can you get? A full-size three-octave keyboard that fits in your pocket. The iSmart “Soft USB MIDI Keyboard Controller” from Taiwanese manufacturer Ta Horng is flexible enough to roll up into a tube, and weighs less than a kilogram. It connects to a computer with USB, which also supplies power.

The iSmart has a minimal but complete set of controls: 37 keys, octave shift, program change, MIDI channel and bank switches. There’s also a velocity switch — presumably the keyboard is not itself velocity sensitive. But who cares when it looks so bizarre?

Computer Music reviews Cubase SL 3, the “lite” version of Steinberg’s sequencer and music production package. The standout new feature is the Audio Warp, which they say enables powerful timestretching and pitch shifting capabilities. Just like Acid. And it now supports the Acid file format. Interesting.

Another whizbang new feature, they say, is the Play Order track. “This allows you to divide your tune up into sections and arrange it using a pattern-based layout system.” There’s also the Audio prerecord, feature — this is great. It’s close to the Holy Grail of recording software — recording everything you do all the time, so that great, spontaneous take won’t be lost.

Now, this is the reduced version of the full Cubase SX package, so there are limitations. “If you rely heavily on virtual instruments, you may find that 32 slots (as opposed to SX’s 64) is too few. Cubase SL also lacks SX’s expandable mixer, which “gives easy access to EQ, inserts and sends.”

In the end, they give Cubase SL 3 a rating of 8 out of 10 — solid, but not outstanding, especially by comparison to the big SX. Still, they say, “Cubase SL 3 offers most of the key functionality of its bigger brother, and as such should be more than enough for many musicians.”

The August issue of Computer Music reviews the TranzPort, the wireless DAW controller from the Frontier Design Group. They give a good review, starting right at the beginning: “It’s an attractive piece of kit and looks worth the asking price.” They note that it’s a sturdy device, too.

They say that installing the TranzPort is “a breeze,” but this is true only if you are using one of the supported DAWs. Most of the big names are supported, but the obvious omission for me is Ableton Live. For these ones, you have to dig into MIDI to get the appropriate messages to the box. The TranzPort documentation does provide instructions on how to do this.

Other than this, they are full of praise for this nifty box. They think the LCD screen is a bit small bit well-laid out, and the choice of function buttons is logical and useful. Overall they rate it as 9 out of 10 and say: “TranzPort is compact, well built, easy to to configure and works a treat. It’s incredibly useful when you’r recording yourself playing, and as such is an ideal companion for the solo engineer or musician.”

PC Plus reviews Nuendo 3, Steinberg’s high-end music media production application. I was never really clear on the difference between Nuendo and Cubase, but now I know the main difference: price. Nuendo is very expensive. In fact, it’s out of the Laptop Studio league. Nonetheless, it’s interesting to find out what all that extra cash buys you.

First of all, “Steinberg has at last tidied up all of the dangling loose ends that afflicted earlier versions.” Sounds good so far. Nuendo 3 apparently has broader functionality in general. For example, it supports every sound format you’ve heard of and many you haven’t, and it has excellent support for a networked environment. These are the sorts of thing that a professional user would need, rather than the typical Laptop Studio user.

The conclusion agrees with this: “Unless you’re a home studio buff, Nuendo will almost certainly be too much for you, if only because of the inflated price. But if you’re serious about music, or you work with it professionally, it’s a more plausible option, especially in a sound-to-video context.”