Conference napalm::commusic_v1

1877.0. "1989 Winter NAMM News (from USENET)" by HJUXB::LEGA (Bug Busters Incorporated) Wed Jan 25 1989 11:35

Path: hjuxa!rutgers!apple!oxford
From: [email protected] (Wil Oxford)
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth
Subject: NAMM gear review (long)
Keywords: NAMM, new stuff
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 25 Jan 89 01:42:45 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 284


 I just got back from the Anaheim NAMM show and thought you netlanders out there
would like to know about a couple of the neater things I saw there as well as an
answer to your requests for MIDI support from our end....

 This was the "Year of the Single Space Rack Mount Multi Effects Boxes". There 
were at least five manufacturers showing new models all of which are capable of 
four or more simultaneous effects with 20-20k bandwidth and with 16-bit A/D/A. 

   --- EFFECTS BOXES ---

Alesis showed their Quadraverb. It is a great sounding box which does (as many 
of you already know) four different effects, all of the parameters of which can 
be modulated to some extent via MIDI in real time. Retail is set for ~US$479. 

Yamaha showed two new models (at least since last NAMM), the SPX-900 and 
SPX-1000. The 1000 is capable of 6(six) simultaneous effects, has digital audio 
I/O capability (Yamaha's format, not AES/EBU), and lists for ~US$1795. The 
interface on both the 1000 and the 900 is not as good as that on the old SPX-90,
but that isn't surprising, given that they have many more parameters but the 
same 16x2 LCD display. The 900 also sports an optional remote control, but I
didn't see one for the 1000. I didn't get a chance to play much with the 900, 
but it seemed that it supports multiple effects in the same manner as the 1000, 
just not as many at once (e.g., just chorus & reverb or echo & reverb, etc.). 
Price was ~US$995.
 
ART has cleaned up their Multiverb considerably and called it the Multiverb II,
although it still sounded pretty "hissy" to me. (At least it wasn't hissy AND
grungy, though, like it was at the Atlanta show last summer.) They get the award
for the best improved box and the one inexpensive (under $700) box which did 
REAL pitch-shifting in addition to its other functions. The Quadraverb, for 
example, advertises "pitch-shifting" capabilities, but the range is only 
sufficient for chorusing and flanging effects, not for harmonizing. ART showed 
three versions of the Multiverb in addition to the original (which they were 
still making, by the way)- the Mutilverb II, the Multiverb EXT (which is a MV II
with up to 2 seconds of delay memory) and the SGE Studio [Guitar] Effector. The
"guitar" got dropped out of the name shortly before the show, but it remains a
guitar-type effects box, with all the features of the MVII and more (distortion,
Noise Gate, Expander, Exciter, etc.). The bandwidth is still 20-20k, but it is capable of 9(nine) simultaneous effects (although some of those effewcts are 
pretty simple- like the noise gate, for example). Still, at ~US$649, this box
does a lot for the price. The prices on the MV II and the MV EXT were ~US$600 
and ~US$675 respectively.

Korg has come out with the A3, which is a six-effects at once box priced around
US$1000. I didn't get to play with it much either- there were always hordes of 
guitarists crowding around the one operational display unit, which was set up in
a cramped area of their booth in any case. Rumor has it that they took the same
effects processors out of the M1 and put them in a one-space rack.

Digitech showed their DSP128+, which sounded, in my opinion, just as good or 
better than the Quadraverb for about the same money. They had a neat twist on
the typical stereo delay unit where you can have three separate delays - one in
each of the right, center(mono) and left channels. All kinds of parameters were
real-time controllable via MIDI. They also showed their intelligent harmonizer,
which is another neat piece of work for ~US$700 or $800, I can't remember which.
They also were showing a guitar-player version of the DSP, called the GSP5. The
main difference was the addition of distortion effects, the instrument-level (as
opposed to line-level) inputs and the lesser amount of controllability (I'm not 
sure about the price, but it was close to that of the 128+, which was ~US$479).

   --- OTHER HARDWARE ---

Alesis showed their long-awaited 1622 16-channel mixer. The rumors from last 
NAMM (that it was MIDI-controlled) turned out to be untrue, but it seemd like a 
pretty nice package - 6(six) effects sends and some other nice features, but 
they weren't doing any demos or telling how soon it was going to ship (at least 
to non-dealers, anyway). They also had a different version of their HR-16 drum
machine, with a new set of samples (reverbed and layered samples, etc.), but 
with the same hardware otherwise. They also showed a single-space rack mounted
stereo 1/3 octave eq. (non-MIDI). and some other simple stuff. Prices on the 
mixer and the EQ were supposedly "cheap", but I didn't get any quotes from any 
of the booth staff, who were uncharacteristically unfriendly to non-dealers. 
Maybe they were still pissed-off that their supposedly secret showing of the 
prototype 1622 mixer at the last NAMM was one of the worst-kept secrets in 
Atlanta.

Ensoniq showed a rack-mount version of their sampler box, but didn't show the 
box that everybody wanted to see to the general public (maybe next NAMM). ;-) 
They also showed off their new "acoustic waveguide piano", which is basically
the same machine as their old Sampled Piano, but with an 88-key keyboard and a
built-in amp and speakers of the Bose acoustic waveguide variety (hence the 
name). The keyboard was the same one used in the older machine (i.e., mushy), 
but the sound was much improved.

Oberheim announced a new box, which was an eight-voice version of the Matrix-
1000 (with a 61-key keyboard).

Roland had a new pair of drum machines (the R-8 and the R-5) with some really 
incredible sounds and features for doing "human-feel" in your drum patterns. In 
addition, they had about the neatest-looking and feeling textured cases that 
I've seen in any equipment. The outside shell is an exteremely dark grey with 
the same texture as granite or some other rough-hewn stone. No finger-prints
here, boss! It didn't hurt that they sounded really "rock" solid, too. The R-8
has 68 sounds, all sampled at 44.1kHz and 16 bits. It has ten outputs (L,R and 
eight individuals) and can accept two plug-in cards for additional sounds (which
they were also showing). They also had a new guitar synthesizer, two new (since
last show) keyboard controllers, the A-80 and the A-50. The A-80 has 88 weighted
keys which feel pretty good, whereas the A-50 is a 76-plastic key version. Both
of these have polyphonic aftertouch, 64x240 pixel LCD screens and 4 MIDI outs. 
Roland was also showing their version of the ubiquitous guitar multi-effects
unit, although I didn't get to play with it. Roland's new keyboard (which has 
already been shown in Europe) is the W-30 "workstation", which is basically a
combination of the D-10 and the S-330. It will read S-330 or 550 disks and has
a SCSI port on the back (it's about time somebody wised up and did this).

Korg was showing a non-funtioning prototype of the T1 (under glass, no less). It
is everything that our friend from the east coast had posted about earlier (the
same keyboard action as their SG1DX piano, the same guts as their M1, but with 
4 megabytes of ROM sounds and 512k of sampling memory. According to their 
engineers, it will ship "sometime before the next NAMM show" and I have heard
two very different rumors about what the projected cost was. The official Korg
response to that question is, of course, "I have no idea". They were also 
showing their previously announced M1R (twice as much ROM as the M1), same 
functions and an "overflow" mode for daisy-chaining multiple units. Again, no 
prices from the Korg folk. Korg also had their S1 and Q1 boxes out, although I 
can't remember what they had and had not announced previously.

Yamaha announced their answer to the competition's 16-bit drum machines with the
RX8. Among its features are 43 16-bit samples, four outputs, the capability to 
accept RAM cartridges for sequence (but not samples) storage and another grey /
black non-scuff outer shell (but nowhere near as cool as Roland's). They also 
showed off a new FM tone-generator module (isn't that a contradiction in terms?)
called the TQ5, which is a combination of the DX11 and the RX120 in a single box
(not rack-mounted). They also showed a new version of the PF-85, called the 
PF1500, which includes on-board reverb and better built-in speakers. Also there
was a new wind controller and an associated DX11-type tone generator for it, the
WX11 and the WT11 respectively. Another Yamaha intro at the show were the V50
and V80FD synth/sequencer combination systems. The V50 is a four-operator 
keyboard with built-in drum sounds, an 8-track 15,000 note sequencer and a built
-in floppy drive. The V80FD is a 32-note polyphonic/16-voice multitimbral 
6-operator synth with a built-in 32-track sequencer with an expansion port for 
"adding new tone systems". They also showed yet another four-operator keyboard
(in addition to their previously announced YS100, YS200 and B200) called the 
DS5(5). The parens are mine- they showed the system as the DS5 at the show, but
their literature called it the DS55. Prices were ~US$695 for the TQ5, ~US$495 
for the RX8, ~US$2395 for the PF1500, ~US$540 for the WT11, ~US$505 for the WX11
(~US$995 for the pair), ~US$1895 for the V50, ~US$2995 for the V80FD and ~US$795
for the DS5(5)..

In the alternate controllers camp, there was a new entry in the form of a 24 or
25-stringed chromatically-tuned "guitar-board", which you play by tapping on the
strings like you play on a piano keyboard. The frets are similar to a standard 
guitar, and a MIDI option is provided (fret-wired, not pitch-tracked). This 
beast is called the "StarBoard" or something like that, and looks like a guitar 
which was invented by a pianist. It sells for something around ~US$3500.


******** Now, for those of you with the patience to read this far, I've saved 
******** the best for last

E-mu showed off their show-stopper, the Proteus. This is single-space rack-mount
16-bit sample player complete with 4(four) Megabytes of Emulator III samples in
ROM (internally expandable up to 8 (eight) Megabytes. The box has over 150 MIDI-
sysex and front-panel editable patches and six (6) outputs to choose from (as
three stereo mixes in which voices can be panned between left and right in real-
time or via an LFO). FOLKS, WE ARE TALKING 32-NOTE POLYPHONY AND SIXTEEN 
DYNAMICALLY-ASSIGNED TIMBRES HERE! And the best thing about this wonder box is 
that the price is not at all what you would expect from E-mu. List is set at
$US1000 (one thousand)! The samples are incredible (no noise anywhere, and the 
full 16-bits of dynamic range were definitely there, not some compressed 
facsimile of the real thing.) The acoustic guitar sound is incredible and the 
drums are wonderful. Opcode already had an editor/librarian working for it as 
well. Some of the things you could save as part of the patch included starting 
and ending points for the indvidual sample files (why doesn't anybody else do 
this?) and the ability to add together different sample wavetables in a single 
oscillator (ditto). The only drawbacks were a] the piano samples were not good 
enough to be used for a solo piano patch (although, they worked extremely well 
in a layered situatuation) and b] the box will not available for a month or two.


   --- SOFTWARE ---

This was the show for all of the Mac software houses (I didn't see anything much
worth talking about on the other machines other than the Atari, which I will get
to later) to show new sequencer packages. There were new sequencers from at 
least three different companies which were up and running (very impressively) in
Anaheim. But perhaps of most interest to the rec.music.synth crowd was our 
(Apple's) first music software product. The net will have to forgive me for 
blowing our own horn, but I think we blew away the software side of the show
with our announcement of the MIDI management tools for the Macintosh. Several
(I'm not sure if legality will allow me to say who) prominent performers spent
a large amount of time hanging around our booth raving wildly about how great it
was to have Apple finally interested in the musical applications of their 
machines, which was a great encouragement for those of us musicians in the 
company who have been working for the last six months on musical things. You
can't imagine how difficult it has been to read the postings from people like 
Mr. Lisper and not to be able to reply with something like "...just hang in 
there for a few more months, we've been working on the very thing you are 
asking about for four months now..." Well Bjorn (and I hope I spelled it 
correctly), we have answered your requests with a set of tools which not only
will allow you to send MIDI data streams from one application to another under
MultiFinder transparently to the application, BUT in addition, allows you to run
the separate applications simultaneously under MultiFinder AND also takes care 
of the really hairy problem of how to make sure that the different applications
all share a common timing environment. And best of all, it's free.

 The Macintosh MIDI tools are distributed as a set of files which include an
INIT and a serial port MIDI driver which go into your system folder and a stand-
alone application called "PatchBay" which can be anywhere on your disk. The way
it works is simple: A boot time, the MIDI manager INIT gets loaded into memory. 
Any MIDI application which starts up registers itself with the MIDI manger and
lets it know how many data input ports, data output ports, and whether it has 
timing input and/or output ports. When you start up the application "Patchbay",
you are presented with a window in which you see the icons of all of the MIDI
apps which are currently "signed in" and small icon representations of their 
input, output and timing ports. Connecting the output of one MIDI application
to the input of another is as simple as clicking on the desired output icon and
dragging a virtual wire (rubber-banded, of course) to the desired input port. 
You can have as many output wires coming out of a port as you want and if more 
than one MIDI output data streams is connected to a single input, the data 
streams are correctly merged. Connecting to the outside world (ie., the serial 
port) is exactly the same as connecting to any MIDI application. In addition, 
all non-standard MIDI messages (such as non-terminated system exclusives and 
running status) are correctly expanded and terminated to give you good, clean 
MIDI  everywhere. MIDI timecodes (all versions) are supported as well. "But," 
you say, "Suppose I want to run two sequencers at once, with one that does tempo
mapping feeding into another that doesn't understand the concept; which then 
feeds into a module which thins out continuous controller information." The 
answer to that is "So connect them together and watch it work." If you take the
time port output of one module and wire it (just like the data port) to the time
input ports of all of the other modules, it will guarantee that all of the 
connected applications remain in perfect sync. As a small added bonus, we also
make sure that nobody needs to worry about how their application gets 
time-stamped data, since all data packets are time-stamped and everybody gets 
timing information from the master clock. So now you don't have to worry about 
MIDI applications stomping on the Sound Manager or vice-versa. As of two days
ago, most Mac developers had either started porting their application over
to the environment or was in the process of getting on our beta release 
distribution list. We will be shipping the final version of the tools in less 
than a month, so it's up to the software consumers out there to hound the 
software houses to send out their updates when they finish the port. Opcode and 
Resonate took one or two days to port over beta versions of their latest patch-
editor/librarian and sequencer respectively. Oh well, end of story on the MIDI
Manager. I'm sorry if it got long, it's just that so many of you had posted 
about this and it's been really tough to stay quiet about it for so long. Oh
yeah, we support everything from the Mac Plus on up to the SE/30.

As far as other software news out there, it should be noted that someone 
(Steinberg, I believe) had a package out there with similar functionality for
both the Mac and the Atari, for those of you with leanings in that direction, 
but I believe that they were asking for a small amount of compensation for their
product (I really didn't look into it very carefully, though). I invite those
of you who are interested to please fully investigate their system, though.

On the sequencer front, Opcode and Resonate (and others) were showing really 
neat new sequencing packages called Vision and Portrait respectively. Both of 
these new sequencers are really dynamite! Vision will let you read in and edit 
(in Hex) system exclusive messages and let you edit things like note-on 
velocities graphically. For example, you can draw in a crescendo and the note-on
velocities are changed accordingly in one of several manners. It also has 
graphic support for things like MIDI-controlled mixers and algorithmic 
composition, to name a very few of the other features. Portrait is just plain 
neat, although I only got to play with it for a few minutes, so I'm not as 
familiar with its capabilities as I am with Vision. What I did see, though was 
really interesting.

Also showing in the MIDI ghetto were updates to Performer, Finale and the 
Dyaxis hardware and software, to name a very few. The only reason that I don't 
mention any others (like, for example, Intelligent Music's "Ovaltunes") is 
because I didn't have the time to check them out. Digidesign was showing their 
new version of Sound Designer (II) (which is much improved) and I was really 
impressed to see a neat little package by Crown (as in amplifiers), which would 
let you monitor and control up to 2000 of their amps simultaneously so that, for
example, if one of them starts clipping or overheating, you can cut in a limiter
on the input or back off on the gain etc... until it cools back down or things 
get back under control.

Other software products were less interesting to me, (but not necessarily to the
rest of you) but unfortunately, I only spent a limited amount of time examining
the software for platforms other than the Mac. Personal Composer had a big 
station right across from our booth, but I didn't check it out to see if there
was anything new there...

Well, that's about all I can remember. I apologize if I've left out anybody's 
product, buth these are the ones that stuck in my memory. As always, THESE 
RAMBLINGS REPRESENT MY PERSONAL OPINIONS ONLY AND DO NOT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR 
FORM REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF APPLE COMPUTER, INC. Please do not deluge me with 
mail requesting more detailed coverage of the show. Ask your local M.I. dealer.

regards,

 William V. Oxford, Ph.D.,
 System Extension Sound Group,
 Apple Computer, Inc.

    Damn!
    
    ...another tax return mailed direct to Alesis.
    
    I'll bet I want their board.
    
    Edd

When to buy?  ...the eternal MIDI question.

The Emu and the Ensoniq samplers sound very attractive, but how long can
     I wait????

sigh

/Mitch

    6 EFX sends!!! Gads, they musta been reading my mind.  Hopefully
    some of them are pre- or post-.
    
    And of course, there should be a rackmounted version ala M-160.
    
    	db

    This does sound like something I been waiting for, anyone have any
    more info???
    
    mc

    Emu sample player w/big rom sounds mighty
    tasty..pant......drool....gasp
    now where to get one?
    

    Hmm, is the new Alesis mixer a Roland M-160 at half the price that
    breaks twice as fast?
    
    len.
    

    Cheap shot, len.  >8-}  I'll stick with my M160 ... I still have 3 FX
    sends left. 

    I will be calling a few dealers today about the Proteus.  If the hype
    is all true, I've just spent my tax refund.  Great minds think alike -
    eh, Uncle Edd? 

-b

RE: len

So, if the M160 never breaks ( = 0 ) then 2*0 = 0 and the
Alesis never breaks ?  :-)

Chad

    
    
    How about an EPS rackmount?
    

RE: .9

    Uhm, it's been announced (read .0 again).

RE: Proteus (Emu)

    I talked to Terry at Emu yesterday, and should be getting a spec sheet
    sometime in the next few days. 

    This thing isn't so much a sample player as it is a super-wavetable
    synth (like a mega M1 or super-duper D50).  Yes, it's 16 bit, yes, it
    "uses E-III samples" (to the extent that they're roughly the same
    format), yes, it has 192 presets, yes, it's only $995 list. 

    There are no plans to make the memory volatile (would increase the cost
    too much) ... in other words, we're stuck with ROM unless someone
    decides to provide alternate chip sets or some kind of external
    interface (like a card or cartridge - all 8 Mbytes are internal).

    Shipment will begin in April, and will consists of only 600-800
    nationwide.  Full scale supplies should be available sometime in
    September.

    Will post more info as I get it in (probably under a new topic). 

-b

    RE: .10   Uhm,thanks

>Ensoniq showed a rack-mount version of their sampler box, but didn't show the 
>box that everybody wanted to see to the general public (maybe next NAMM). ;-) 

What is "the box that everybody wanted to see" ????????????????????

Hello  ??

Is there an answer for .-1 ?

>>< Note 1877.12 by GIBSON::DICKENS "What are you pretending not to know ?" >
>>
>>
>>>Ensoniq showed a rack-mount version of their sampler box, but didn't show the 
>>>box that everybody wanted to see to the general public (maybe next NAMM). ;-) 
>>>
>>>What is "the box that everybody wanted to see" ????????????????????

The new EPSm rackmount is _the_box_. It is available now. List price is $3295.
Most places sell it for $2700-$2795. It has 4x memory, 10 outputs, SCSI port
built in. See the EPS notes for further info.

dave

RE < Note 1877.14 by SUBSYS::ORIN "lo pro, MIDI mo, gotta go" >

	I dunno...  The statement said they showed the "rack-mount version of 
their sampler box", which can only be the ESP-M, and then it goes on to say they
didn't show the one everone wanted to see.  I'd say the writer was not referring
to the ESPm.

	Dan

    The "box" is the VFX (DIR/TITL=VFX).  Custom VLSI chip, poly pressure
    keyboard, ostensibly no sequencer (!), sampled waveforms, 21 assignable
    oscillators, cut/copy/paste parameter editing, built-in FX processor.
    (This hodge-podge of info is from rumors on the USENET and from the
    latest Keyboard, page 84, top of column 1.) 

    As far as I can tell, it's similar in concept to the Prophet VS. Other
    than that, there's not a great deal of info out yet.  Should be
    released sometime this spring. 

    Around $2500.

-b