Make Room Make Room

The picture below is of Roland's latest reverb unit, a handy sized device capable of seating up to 100 people. And it really is a reverb. The Sound Laboratory, part of the new £10,000,000 Hosoe facility, in Shizuoka, Hamamatsu, Japan (not to be confused with Hamamatsu, Wigan) is designed primarily for acoustic research, to which end it sports a computer-controlled system of wooden louvres 'capable of simulating a wide variety of rooms and reverb characteristics'. Nice to know that all the pennies you laid out on Roland gear are being put to good use.

ST on CD

All those stories of the Atari ST being the means of obtaining Compact Disc Quality sampling at attainable price levels appear to have come true, with Hybrid Arts' announcement of the 'ADAP SoundRack', which they've developed in conjunction with Nilford Laboratories Inc. The 19" rack mount unit plugs into the ST's cartridge port to enable stereo digital recording, and the software allows for a real-time oscilloscope with mouse-driven cut/copy/paste functions. The resulting system will run in polyphonic or mono modes with full MIDI compatibility; it will also record direct from Compact Disc (that's digital-to-digital) a 20 second sample at the standard sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. Envisaged retail price in the States is $1995 which would suggest a UK price of around two grand: seriously interesting.

The same company have followed up the DX-Droid, the popular DX7 programming package which incorporates AI Techniques, with the CZ-Droid, a similar package for the Casio CZ Series.

Information on Hybrid Arts products may be obtained from their UK Distributors, Syndromic Music, on (Contact Details).

A Dynamic New Budget

AES, makers of the rather wonderful SX303 sampler (Reviewed in April, and now featured on Madonna's new album, True Blue) have been busy again, putting the prototype we looked at into a 19" rack-mounting box at a RRP of £295. They've also been monkeying around with Roland's SDE3000 delay unit, producing both a sampling add on for it (the SX303-R), and a memory upgrade (the MR256) which is a plug-in replacement for Roland's own RAM board capable of taking the SDE to 9 seconds of sampling at 17kHz when used in conjunction with the SX303.

Best of all though, is their latest box of tricks, the SX3000, a 1U high, 19" rackmounting box with can impose the dynamics of a trigger signal onto any un-dynamic samples stored on your system, be it AMS, Bel, or Fairlight.

The SX3000 also allows a sample to be pitch-shifted over a wide range without changing its length, and without resorting to 'harmoniser'-style circuitry. Pretty clever, huh?

If you'd like to know more, call Audio Engineering Services on (Contact Details).

School's Out

News has reached us of yet another school offering training in various aspects of sound recording. The Manchester-based School Of Sound Recording, officially recognised and approved by the Association Of Sound And Communication Engineers, currently hosts two schemes based around its own 16 and 4 track studios, 8-track mixdown suite and 4-track MIDI control room. The first is a 48-week certificate-level course, covering all aspects of Sound Recording from basic principles of physics, tape editing, and familiarity with equipment, up to full multitrack recording of two or more pieces of music. A process of continual assessment is supplemented by regular test exercises, and a final 'graduation piece.'

For people who can't afford the time or the money involved in the full 48 week course there is an alternative, in the form of five, one-day Modular Courses, which can be taken individually, or in one five-day stretch. The modules assume no previous experience, and cover: Basic Multitrack Recording And Microphone Techniques; Effects Technique And Application, MIDI Programming, Sequencing and Drum Machine Programming; Sampling, DX Programming and Editing; and Multitrack Recording, Mixing and Production Techniques.

Each Module costs £30 for the day, or the whole five day stretch can be had for £125 (both prices ex. Vat). The School, can if necessary, offer advice on accommodation in the city. For further information on the courses, phone the school on: (Contact Details).

50 Ways to Lose Your Neighbour

Guitarists who want to make anti-socially loud noises without rupturing themselves every time they try to pick up their amps could do a lot worse than try out HH's new 50 series, previewed at Frankfurt and now available in the shops. Comprising the L50 lead, B50 Bass and K50 (guess what?) keyboard combos, the units echo the cabinet and front panel design of the 100 series 100w combos launched earlier this year. The L50 lead is fitted with a 12" speaker, and features two channels — one is a clean channel with pull bright control, channel two is yer rock number — heavy sounds and distortion with pull heavy, pull smooth, and preset Eq controls. There's also an Accutronics reverb, bass mid and treble controls, headphone and line out sockets.

The L50 Bass unit has hi and lo gain inputs, a similar Eq set up optimised for bass and features a 'pull-bright' control, and a high performance 12" speaker.

The K50 keyboard combo features a special 12" dual cone speaker for extra half response, two independent channels each with two ins, - and individual gain, bass and treble controls, switchable reverb on each channel, headphones and line out sockets. The L5011 set you back a very reasonable £207.70, the B50 £198.40, and the K50 £213.90. (All prices ex Vat.).

For more info on all three, call HH on: (Contact Details)

You're Nicked

Getting your gear stolen from the gig, your van, or your home is always bad news, even if you're insured. And if it ever turns up again, it's likely to be in a shop window at the other end of the country. But all that might change if a new service being offered to musicians can, literally, deliver the goods. Working on the well-founded premise that virtually all stolen gear is sold to honest dealers in this way. Thief Check Uk offers a registration service for your gear which operates rather like the tried and tested Credit Card Stop list. You pay a registration fee to Thief Check — they in turn, will, in the event of your gear being stolen, circulate its description to all the music dealers in the country. When a instrument is presented for sale, the dealer just checks it on the list. If it's there, a quick call to the cop shop gets the villain pinched, and your gear back. Plus, Thief Check UK can also arrange for said gear to be delivered back to the area in which you live. All in all, a dead good idea, and pretty cheap too. There is a once-only initial registration fee of £2, followed by an additional yearly charge of £5 per musical instrument, and £6 per item of sound equipment. Certain discounts and trade prices are available to cut the cost still further. If you fancy cut-price peace of mind, further details can be had from Thiefcheck on: (Contact Details).

Future Fenders

News of no less than four new additions to the Fender range of guitars. Three of them — a Fender Strat, a Squier Strat, and a Tele — are dubbed Contemporary on account of their new fittings. The Fender Contemporary Strat, for instance, features two single coil and one humbucking pickup, the System 1 tremolo, a fine-tune floating bridge, and a conventional 3-vice headstock locking system. The Squier version features one humbucker, and a vintage style trem, whilst the Telecaster features two single coils, one humbucker, and special TBX tone control which increases output and highs without resorting to active electronics. The trem is a System 1, and the guitar is fitted with comprehensive pickup switching, including coil tap for the humbucker, via three mini toggle switches. The fourth release from Fender is an old favourite in new clothes — the Squire Jazz Bass, available in Black and Arctic White, features two Jazz-style pickups, two volume and one tone control, and a 34" Rosewood neck.

Information on all four models from UK distributors Arbiter Musical Instruments, on (Contact Details).

Hands Off Demo

The man with the hi-tech pencil stuck in his ear is UB40's drummer Jimmy Brown, and the hi-tech pencil in question is in fact AKG's new headset mike, the C410. It's a high-quality condenser microphone tailored specifically for vocal use, finished in matt-black shock proof plastic, and weighing only 25.5 grams mounted on its head boom. The sharp-witted amongst you will have noticed that this boom does its thing hooked on your ear, rather than strapped across your head, and thus offers an additional bonus to those musicians sporting designer coiffes a la Tony James.

Further info on the mike but not your hairstyle from AKG on: (Contact Details).