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Native Instruments Announces That TRAKTOR DJ STUDIO 2.0 is Now Shipping

November 10, 2002 by

With the introduction of version 2.0, Native Instruments professional DJ software TRAKTOR DJ STUDIO receives a major update and is now also available for Mac OS 9.2 and OS X.

TRAKTOR DJ STUDIO’s redesigned interface optimizes the user’s interaction and workflow. The functional layout inspired by classic DJ hardware guarantees a short learning curve for the experienced DJ. Advanced visualizations of essential mixing parameters such as the Offset Meter, the Spectral Waveform and the Graphical Filter Preview open new dimensions for mastering the mix.

Traktor DJ Studio’s excellent sound quality has been improved even more by integrating the advanced interpolation and filters known from the Native Instruments acclaimed Reaktor software and by licensing original Fraunhofer Institute MP3 decoding algorithms. Furthermore Traktor DJ Studio comes with a professional de-emphasis correction to emulate the characteristics of analog vinyl scratching. Combined with the generous pitch range of +/-100% the decks can be continuously brought down to full stop without noticeable digital aliasing.

Controlling Traktor DJ Studio has become as versatile as modern music software can be, using any kind of MIDI compatible controller, MIDI keyboard, computer keyboard, mouse, joystick or other input device. Traktor DJ Studio supports a large variety of input options that can be mapped to each of over 400 individual functions and actions of the software. The mixing process can be outsourced on stage to a classical DJ mixer and a professional soundcard or made internally via keyboard and mouse using the onboard sound, when on the move.

Traktor DJ Studio offers a powerful database with ultra fast Quick Search, scanning your track collection at a rate of more than 2.000 tracks per second. MP3 tags are automatically imported into the database and a versatile Tree View lets you navigate within your collection with unparalleled ease. Before loading a track it can be cued over headphones directly from the database. A variety of automatically generated icons identify enqueued, cued and played tracks in the collection, playlists and search results.

The cueing and looping features of the previous version have been considerably extended. Traktor DJ Studio now offers 10 saveable cue points plus 10 saveable loops. Cue points can be assigned to special actions such as triggering the opposite deck’s playback or defining a measure grid over the whole track. Loops of quantized lengths are set with one click and can be resized or moved in tempo accurate steps – even backwards and during playback – creating astonishing tempo synchronous effects.

Traktor DJ Studio 2.0 brings the most innovative tempo recognition on the market (patent pending). Automatic detected precise tempo estimations are guided by user-provided tapping events in cases of doubt. These precise tempo values and the revolutionary Snap-To-Beat function build the base of Traktor DJ Studio’s unique automatic beat synchronization (Syncro Start). A combination of well set cue points and stored BPM values allows you to mix a track into another with a few mouse clicks.

Traktor DJ Studio’s recording function offers a completely new approach to mix production. The arrangement takes place by creating a playlist and by mixing in realtime and not in sequencer-like views. To edit a recorded mix, parts of it can be overdubbed in single or in all parameters. The created Mixfile can be rendered to Wav or AIFF at high speed. The small size of a compressed Mixfile makes it the ideal tool for fast exchange via email between labels, artists and listeners. Traktor DJ Studio’s Automix function lets you listen to your music without the need for interaction, and can play your mix in the background while you work with other applications.

Traktor DJ Studio is powerful software for software-based DJ mixing of MP3, Wav, AIFF files and Audio CDs.

Traktor DJ Studio stretches the limits beyond limitations of conventional tools by opening completely new ways to visually control the mix, by offering powerful synching functions and unseen tempo accurate real time remixing features. Spot on instant beat matching , instant looping and instant track cueing by single mouse clicks and composing playlists from tracks and sub-playlists by drag and drop.

Traktor DJ Studio is the first DJ player ever to display a dual band representation of the track’s waveform, even directly from two tracks on the same Audio CD – in real time! The user can perceive beats, breaks and instrumentation ahead of time. Saved loops and cue points as well as the beat grid covering the entire track are graphically displayed. The waveform can be stopped and accurately cued like a record thanks to a authentic scratching emulation.

Traktor DJ Studio’s innovative tempo detection (patent pending) uses a powerful combination of reliable tempo recognition algorithms combined with optional additional user tapping for extremely fast and precise results in almost any musical genre.

Over 400 functions and actions of Traktor DJ Studio can be operated via MIDI controllers, MIDI keyboards, via mouse or via keyboard shortcuts. These possibilities combines the power of this software solution with the tactile control options of DJ hardware equipment. A mix can be recorded as automation file and subsequently individual parameters edited by simply overdubbing the action during mix playback. The finished mix can be exported into a single or into a set of separate Wav or AIFF-files.

Traktor DJ Studio fuses live mixing, remixing and mix production into a new entity.

Traktor DJ Studio 2.0 is now available at music retailers at recommended retail of $199 and Euro 199.

Registered users can now download the update for free, CLICK HERE

For more information please go to http://www.ni-traktor.com

Filed Under: Home Recording

Clive Davis Gives $5 Million to Tisch School of the Arts to Create a New Department of Recorded Music

November 10, 2002 by

NYU Alumnus Funds The First BFA Program Of Its Kind In The U.S.

New Department, To Be Named For The Legendary Music Executive, Will Focus On Record Producing As An Artistic Discipline And The Music Producer As Artist

Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and NYU alumnus Clive Davis, who is founder, Chairman and CEO of J Records, jointly announced today the record executive’s $5 million gift to the School for the creation of a new Department of Recorded Music. The formal announcement will take place on Friday, November 8, 2002, at an evening event held for high school juniors, seniors and their parents at the Equitable Center Auditorium in Manhattan. The program will include performances by both Monica and Mario, two major young artists who are signed with J Records.

The Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music is the first of its kind to offer a four-year, degree-granting undergraduate program that recognizes the creative producer as an artist in his own right and musical recording itself as a creative medium. In preparing young people, the Department will educate them in all aspects of contemporary recorded music.

“Clive Davis has acquired a legendary reputation for spotting and developing new musical talent in the course of his 35 years in the recording industry,” said Dr. Campbell. “His inspired leadership and golden ear have changed the business of contemporary music forever. We are grateful to have him as a partner in this initiative, which will cultivate in young minds Mr. Davis’s tradition of creative management, and in doing so, shape the music industry’s next generation of leading executives.”

“I am enormously proud to play a part in the creation of this new program, which will give ambitious and hard working young men and women the fundamentals and skills to serve as the foundation for success in the industry that I love,” commented Mr. Davis. I can think of no better place for such a program to reside than at the Tisch School of the Arts, the country’s greatest performing arts school, located in the performing arts capitol of the world.”

Clive Davis graduated Phi Beta Kappa from NYU with a B.A. magna cum laude in 1953 and from Harvard Law School in 1956. Successively head of Columbia Records, Arista, and most recently, J Records, Davis has signed and nurtured such performers as Janis Joplin; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Santana; Billy Joel; Bruce Springsteen; Aerosmith; Whitney Houston; Patti Smith; and Alicia Keys. He won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Trustee Award in 2000 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

“The creation of the Department of Recorded Music signifies that contemporary recorded music will be a new domain of knowledge, which will have a lasting impact on the consideration of sound recording itself as an art form,” added Dr. Campbell. “It will provide opportunities for students to master the range of disciplines and mediums that support recorded music in the culture and, using the example of the creative record producer, to have a career in the recorded music industry.”

Graduating students of the new Department will earn a B.F.A. The curriculum includes practicums in the recording studio where students are expected to become proficient in a range of recording studio practices. Students will be expected to construct a viable and coherent performance image for a selected creative artist within a number of promotional distribution mediums, including radio, film, music videos, and interactive technologies. In addition to practical work, students will study the cultural impact of recorded music and the history of a number of musical genres, including, but not limited to, Rock, Pop, Hip Hop, Jazz, Latin and World Music.

The installation of the Department of Recorded Music at the Tisch School follows in the tradition and history of the School for mapping new areas of study that integrate both the practical and critical approaches to the arts. For example, the School established the first Department of Cinema Studies at a university in the U.S. It founded the first Department of Performance Studies, and the School’s Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program is still the only department of its kind in the country. Moreover, the Interactive Telecommunications Program, the Tisch School’s pioneering graduate center of the study and design of new communication media forms and applications, was the first such department of its kind at an art school.

The Tisch School of the Arts, comprising the Performing Arts Institute, the Jack H. Skirball Center for New Media and Film and the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, is one of the nation’s preeminent centers for professional training, scholarship, and research in the performing and cinematic arts. It offers both graduate and undergraduate degrees and draws students from around the world. Nearly 3,000 students pursue degrees in acting, dance, design, drama, musical theatre, performance studies, film and television, cinema studies, dramatic writing, photography and interactive telecommunications.

Filed Under: Production

The New York Audio Production Show Premieres in January 2003 at Madison Square Garden

November 5, 2002 by

The first inaugural New York Audio Production Show will premiere at Madison Square Garden on January 30 – February 1, 2003, 3 weeks prior to the Grammys. The 3-day event is comprised of a cornucopia of several educational activities including a technical Pro Tools International Users Conference, industry leader panels and discussions, vendor workshops, user group meetings and an exhibition. The purpose of the show is to provide “how-to” technical info, creative insights, the latest trends in audio production and provide audiophiles the spectrum of current buying options. The event is designed for East Coast-based sound designers, technicians, audio engineers, producers, performers, sound contractors and these professionals working in sound post-production reinforcement, broadcast stations, film and video productions.

Says Rick Friedman, President of Mindshare Ventures, the producer of the event, “There hasn’t been an event for audio pros in NYC for over a year so we expect 3,000+ to attend and we believe it’s a great opportunity for audiophiles to get distilled advice, objective opinions and demo the latest products at a great location – Madison Square Garden.”

Chaired by Mix’s journalist, Paul Verna, the 12 Keynote sessions are open, free to all attendees. Topics discussed include:

  • A Case Study of Super Audio CD Technology
  • Music in Commercials: Licensing vs. Original
  • How Commercial Studios are Dealing with the Home Recording Boom
  • The Effects of Smaller, Lighter, Better and Cheaper, Digital Broadcast
  • Audio
  • Sound for Pictures
  • Sound for Live Events
  • The Rise of Internet Studios
  • Careers in Music Production: Advice from Grammy Winners
  • Deconstructing a Hit, Fixing It in the (Re)mix

The Pro Tools Conference, chaired by Ben Kozuch, President of Future Media Concepts, a Digidesign certified instructor, offers 13 tech sessions for those using Pro Tools 5.5 and the new 6.0 for music and for post-production. The music track includes advanced music editing, MIDI tools and techniques, advanced mixing, control surfaces and surround for music. The Post-Production track discusses advanced file formats, advanced post editing, advanced mixing, synchronization, machine control, digital picture integration with AVoptionXL, control surfaces and surround for post.

Delegates can pre-register for 1 ($350) or 2 ($650) or all 3 days with a VIP pass ($825). A 15% early bird discount is given to all who register prior to Dec. 13, 2002.

The NY Audio Production Show is co-located with The NY Digital Video Show -expo and special events/Keynotes. Attendees can attend all the planned events over the 3 days for digital video and visual effects. In total, over 10,000 attendees are expected to register for all the events.

About the Organizers

Mindshare Ventures
Mindshare Ventures is a NYC based producer of vendor-specific user conferences in the digital video, special effects/animation and audio production sectors. Past events include The NY DV Show 2002, The LA DV Show 2002, Avid World and The Pro Tools Conference.

Future Media Concepts, Inc.
Future Media Concepts, based in NYC, Boston, Washington DC, Miami, Orlando and Philadelphia is the East Coast region’s premier digital media training center. FMC is an Adobe, Apple, Avid, Macromedia, Sony, Newtek, Discreet, Sonic, Digidesign, SoftImage and Pinnacle Certified Training Provider.

Filed Under: Pro Audio

Harrison Debuts ST2 – Post Production Mixing Console

November 4, 2002 by

The new Harrison ST2 digital film / post-production console is designed for feature film and other post production applications requiring a large scale digital console solution. Its wide variety of control surface options featuring PCI based IKIS Automation, touch sensitive control knobs, efficient 2 toned color scheme, multi-operator platform options, input/output format options, and digital signal processing capacity, allows the user to customize the system for any specific application.

The feature set on this Harrison console includes innovations for the audio mixing professional with excellence as the ultimate goal:

  • “Touch Sensitive” knobs on all shaft encoders for advanced automatic touch write / drop automation functions
  • Dynamic “Profiling” – Any strip can control any channel at any time – console “Profiles” can be set up in addition to the static layer controls
  • Plug-Ins – software Plug-Ins will allow the user to choose features and functions according to need – Future plug-ins include De-esser, Camera Noise Cleaner & Buss Limiter
  • IKIS™ Automation platform, a PCI-based, multi-operator automation system offering 10 EQ shapes, 30 dB gain/cut, expanded dynamics controls and increased control resolution
  • Multiple TFT’s offer vivid graphics controllable via standard pointing devices or optional “TouchPen™” Interface
  • Expanded TFT graphics for control and monitoring of digital signals
  • Expanded EQ control per strip (8 bands) with Notch, Hi/lo-pass and “Find” selection per band
  • New Backlit parameter displays providing a smooth, clean and readable surface
  • Backlit input meters diffuse harsh LED’s to provide a smooth surface appearance
  • Two-toned color scheme by section provides a sharper overview when looking across the surface custom colors available

The system is underwritten by Harrison’s digital.engine™, unequalled in its power. The system possesses full, 40-bit digital signal processing AND digital interconnects exclusive Harrison technology. The digital routing switcher with up to 2240 X 2240 I/O – can function as a stand alone router.

The system allows up to 768 channels per digital core, with dedicated full processing on all busses on every channel – processing allocation is not necessary.

Other features include:

  • 24 bit A/D and D/A converters (48K or 96K) Bypassable SRC on both AES Inputs AND AES OUTPUTS in groups of 8 – SRC on the AES outputs is another Harrison exclusive feature
  • Up to 384 X 16 Summing/Monitor Matrix with Level, Mute and Solo 56 (112 optional) virtual PEC/Direct matrix
  • Motorized, automated, joystick panners – developed by Harrison, they will soon be a Harrison exclusive as US Patent # 6264355 has just been issued covering the use of motorized joysticks for panning in audio consoles
  • Upgrade the digital.engine to 96K or 192K via software
  • Multi-operator control surface configurations with fully integrated automation accessible on a both sectional (per operator) and console wide basis
  • High-resolution digital meters with user-selectable colors, threshold and scaling – a Harrison exclusive feature
  • Complete surface control linking functions
  • Multi-station intercom system (optional)

This new ST2 post-production console continues the Harrison legacy spanning back to 1975 when the first Harrison console was shipped. Harrison continues to innovate in the field of digital audio console technology.

Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Harrison is a world leader in the design, manufacture and support of advance technology digital film dubbing consoles as well as professional audio mixing consoles for television broadcast, video post-production, and live sound applications. Harrison continues to expand the capabilities of contemporary digital console architecture and design. Owner of primary patents for audio console technology, Harrison is committed to engineering innovation and excellence.

Filed Under: Pro Audio

Dave Rice is New President of Cerwin Vega, KRK

November 2, 2002 by

Dave Rice has been appointed President of Cerwin Vega and KRK Systems.

The appointment follows the Stanton Group’s successful bid for Cerwin Vega last month, and Mr. Rice will report directly to Gerard Cohen, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Stanton Group.

Immediate priorities will be to review the current business operations, establish the overall direction of the organizations and implement business programs and procedures to obtain maximum profits.

Commented Mr. Rice, “Cerwin Vega has been a household name for many years, synonymous with value and bass. It has broad brand recognition in just about every speaker category (mobile/car, hi-fi, multi-media and pro) but has limited market share.

“This is because during the last few years the company has not reverse engineered products that consumers were asking for, nor at the prices they were willing to pay.”

He is confident that the company has the skilled workforce capable of turning its fortunes around. “Our biggest priorities are to staff up, develop new products and rapidly bring them to market, cut costs through better procurement and out-hustle our competition,” he continued.

“There is huge upside, especially at a time when the speaker markets are expected to grow.”

To expedite this, the Stanton Group will shortly be integrating KRK Systems into the Cerwin Vega operation in Simi Valley. “The engineering and marketing integration will bring new technology to CV, while KRK will enjoy CV’s experienced high-volume manufacturing resources.”

Before joining Cerwin Vega and KRK, Dave Rice had developed a successful career in MI retail (most recently as General Merchandising Manager for Musician’s Friend); he was also Pro Audio, Recording and DJ Buyer for Guitar Center and President of California-based Pro Sound & Stage Lighting.

Welcoming him aboard, Gerard Cohen said, “We are very fortunate to have Dave at the helm of Cerwin Vega and KRK. His extensive industry experience will be a significant asset to the organization and a significant force in poising the companies for future growth.”

About Stanton Magnetics

Stanton Magnetics was founded in 1946, with its roots in the cartridge and styli industry. Since the beginning, Stanton has been at the cutting edge of technology and development. Stanton is a worldwide leader in supplying quality products in the broadcast studio and recording industry, as well as the club and professional DJ markets. For information on Stanton Magnetics, visit the website or contact the company directly at 3000 SW 42nd St, Hollywood, FL 33312.

Filed Under: Pro Audio
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