Photos -- and captions! -- from AES - updated 10/13/07

[Jon Chappell]

Here are some preliminary photos I took at the first day AES.

Approaching Mecca ...

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[Jon Chappell]

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[Jon Chappell]

Inside the "giant Erector Set" a.k.a. New York City's Javits Center.


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[Jon Chappell]

Clapton in Surround at the Genelec demo room.

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[Jon Chappell]

Adamson had this mondo array of loudspeakers.

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[Jon Chappell]

The Toontrack booth.


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[Jon Chappell]

A closeup of Toontrack's EZ Drummer. Drag 'n' drop drum loops converted to MIDI tracks. What could be simpler? Great sound, too!

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[Jon Chappell]

First one to guess what this piece of gear is will be the winner. (Though what you will win is the question.)


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[Jon Chappell]

Alan Chaput demo's the Eventide ModFactor -- a very cool mod device that should be shipping soon (their TimeFactor is already out).

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[Jon Chappell]

This is West 8th Street in New York City, across the street from a very famous studio ...

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[Jon Chappell]

Getting closer ... yes, it's Electric Lady Studios. Lexicon held their first-night reception here.


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[Jon Chappell]

In the reception room where many important people (including JBL's Peter Chaikin, pictured here on the phone) have hung out.


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[Jon Chappell]

Down the hallway toward Studio A ...


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[Jon Chappell]

Inside Studio A. The control room is on the left.

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[Jon Chappell]

Gotta love that logo font!

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[Jon Chappell]

At the back wall looking at the control room.

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[Jon Chappell]

A groovy mural adorns the back wall.

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[Jon Chappell]

Inside the control room looking at the SSL board.

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[Jon Chappell]

A shot from behind the board.

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[Jon Chappell]

Lexicon was demoing gear here.

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[Jon Chappell]

A profile shot of the board.

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[Jon Chappell]

Marshall amps. What else would you have at Electric Lady studios?

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[Jon Chappell]

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[Anderton]

Cool beans, Jon! See you tomorrow. Got footage for 10 videos today...

[Jon Chappell]

10 vids! Cool! I got some vids too, of the afore-pictured Eventide ModFactor, the ToonTrack EZ Drummer demo, and some others.

Line 6 is not exhibiting at the show, but they were walking the floor, and they held a party on Thursday where they showcased the new Bogner collaboration, in the form of their SpiderValve series. It's available in three versions: 1) a 1x12 ($969.99 list); 2) a 2x12 combo (both are 40w, with two 6L6's, two 12AX7's, and one or two 12" Celestion Vintage 30's); or 3) a 100-watt head & cab (with four 6L6's and a 4x12 cab, also w/V 30's). Pictured here is the 212 and the HD-100 ($1,099.99 list).

There's a SpiderValve on display at the FreeScale booth (#528), too.

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[ChromaLord]

I wasnt aware that Electric Lady was still open?
I worked in that SSL room many years ago.
Do they still have the purple Focusrite console?

Was the "guess the gear" piece made by Roland- the fonts and finish look like that. Or maybe a Mackie mixer.

[Jon Chappell]

I wasnt aware that Electric Lady was still open? I worked in that SSL room many years ago. Do they still have the purple Focusrite console? Was the "guess the gear" piece made by Roland- the fonts and finish look like that. Or maybe a Mackie mixer.

Yes, EL is still open (they just recorded an Alicia Keys record there). I didn't see the purple Focusrite, but they should keep anything purple in plain view to honor Jimi. :)

The gear is not Mackie or Roland, but you're in the right area. ;)

[Jon Chappell]

SSL showcased the “Shed of your dreams,” a structure they will sell you along with amenities (a wine rack with wine, a tea set, etc.). It was a neat structure to visit, as it was a) quiet and free of the ambient din of the show floor; b) climate controlled (it was hot in the aisles, and the air conditioned space was like an oasis) and c) had Peter Gabriel inside at the board (at least on the first day -- I don't think that's included in the purchase price).

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Once inside, you notice there's a lot of nice wood -- the smell of cedar was pleasantly pungent.

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At last we make our way to the SSL board. The wallpaper on the monitor on the left shows Peter Gabriel in his own shed -- somewhere in a lovely English garden, no doubt.

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[Jon Chappell]

Digidesign came out with a whole host of announcements. This was the booth during the ICON D-control ES demo. It was hard to see, and most people agree that Digi should have had a larger booth and seating for demos — especially because they released their announcements only days before AES, virtually assuring a mob surge at their booth!

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[Jon Chappell]

The Fairlight Xynergi has an awesome feature in an unlikely place — the keyboard. Note how the keyboard keys are illuminated and change icons and characters depending on the task at hand. You can even have the keyboard emulate a different, non-Fairlight piece of gear (lower left). Now that’s agnostic!

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[Jon Chappell]

If you were a guitarist, one of the biggest items of interest was Waves’ GTR 3, shown here with the stompbox module. This sounded amazing, and the demo guys really showed it off well.

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[ChromaLord]

While the Fairlight keyboard seems cool- I cant imagine a keyboard that changes its characters, most people- including me have not mastered QWERTY yet.

[Jon Chappell]

While the Fairlight keyboard seems cool- I cant imagine a keyboard that changes its characters, most people- including me have not mastered QWERTY yet.

There was an alternative to QWERTY released awhile back, called Dvorak, which had the alphanumeric keys more logically laid out (according to the frequency of letters in English being placed under "strong" fingers). If you practiced, you could get up to your present typing speed with a little effort (so the consensus of reviewers said). And that was for touch typing. But it didn't catch on, because of practical considerations (e.g., you'd have to travel with your keyboard-mapping software everywhere you went).

But the Xynergi isn't so much for touch typing as it is for bringing commands onto the keyboard. In other words, it allows you to automate tasks and reduce mouse-driven commands. And the functions change depending on the environment (including emulating another DAW entirely). So I'm thinking it's more akin to changing instruments: When I pick up my mandolin, it's tuned differently than my guitar. Yet I'm not confused (okay, once in a while I am) by it, because it's a whole different environment. The interface is similar (a fretboard with strings) but the context helps me avoid playing it like a guitar.

I think a "context sensitive keyboard layout" makes sense. Besides, you don't HAVE to change it -- or you can change as many or as few keys as you like. What's definitely cool, though, is that the keys are not only illuminated, but change their icons.

[Jon Chappell]

Allen Sides at the GCPro booth. Sides is a Multi-Grammy-winning engineer who recently recorded Mary J. Blige performing with a full orchestra. For this session, he recorded 48 tracks simultaneously at 24-bit/192 kHz using an Intel-based PC running SONAR. He gave a presentation of this session on Sunday, and says now that he’s worked in 192k, he’ll find it difficult to deal with anything less.

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[Jon Chappell]

iZotope released iZotope RX, its standalone audio-restoration app. It removes hiss and buzz, and eliminates vinyl crackles and clicks, as well as repairs clipping and fills in gaps. In this shot, the blue waveform exhibits the clicks and pops from vinyl damage, and the orange and yellow show frequency content. The transparency of each waveform display is adjustable, and the visual editing is quite intuitive. The results of the restoration processing were amazing. Included are modules called Denoiser, Spectral Repair, Declipper, Hum Removal, Declicker, Spectrogram, Selective Processing, and Batch Processing.


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[Jon Chappell]

A shot of Bart Walsh demo-ing the Gibson digital guitar. Gibson is to be commended for their commitment to the digital guitar, and for their support of AES. They even brought their bus!



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[towerofbabel]

The Fairlight Xynergi has an awesome feature in an unlikely place — the keyboard. Note how the keyboard keys are illuminated and change icons and characters depending on the task at hand. You can even have the keyboard emulate a different, non-Fairlight piece of gear (lower left). Now that’s agnostic!

http://jonchappell.com/hc/aes07/fairlight_xynergi_keyboardsmall.jpg

:eek:lovely design!

[Monkey Mouse]

iZotope released iZotope RX, its standalone audio-restoration app. It removes hiss and buzz, and eliminates vinyl crackles and clicks, as well as repairs clipping and fills in gaps. In this shot, the blue waveform exhibits the clicks and pops from vinyl damage, and the orange and yellow show frequency content. The transparency of each waveform display is adjustable, and the visual editing is quite intuitive. The results of the restoration processing were amazing. Included are modules called Denoiser, Spectral Repair, Declipper, Hum Removal, Declicker, Spectrogram, Selective Processing, and Batch Processing.


http://jonchappell.com/hc/aes07/18.Izotope_AudioRestoration_0752.jpg

This is the one thing that really caught my eye at AES - definitely going to get this for vinyl restoration.....

[Jon Chappell]

This is the one thing that really caught my eye at AES - definitely going to get this for vinyl restoration.....

Yeah, it was amazing. And what I was especially impressed with was how quickly you got to see its magic in action. The product specialist steps through the vinyl restoration process in about two keystrokes. You can hear the clicks and pops cleaned up (and see it visually rectified as well), and the "gap fill" feature is equally speedy and intuitive, and just as impressive.

[Jon Chappell]

IK Multimedia released their floor-pedal controller for their AmpliTube series of software guitar processors (including the Hendrix version). It's big and expensive, but if you love Amplitube and want it on stage with you and foot-controllable, here's your chance.


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