– BARRY RUDOLPH barry@barryrudolph.com
KALI AUDIO LP-8 STUDIO MONITORS Another big winner from SoCal-based Kali Audio is a full-featured two-way, powered studio monitor that has an 8-inch woofer and 1-inch soft dome tweeter. Like its baby brother the LP-6, both models feature their advanced 3-D Imaging waveguide, largest in-class magnets and voice coils, and a unique front firing, low noise port. The LP-8 uses a 40-watt Class-D power amp with a built-in protective limiter with fast attack and release timings for the tweeter and a 60-watt amp for the woofer. The LP-8 measures 16.5 H x 10 W x 11.25 D inches and weighs about 20-pounds. To customize them to the room they are operating within, Kali Audio monitors have a dip switch on the rear panel for adjusting them to match their exact positioning (console top, stands, wall mounting) along with switches for the nearby walls, floors and ceilings. There are also switches for your own preferred EQ settings and rear panel XLR, TRS and RCA input jacks. I replaced my multi-thousand dollar German monitors with the LP-8s as my main monitors—the LP-8s have made my subwoofer obsolete! I especially like that ALL the sound from the left and right mix is coming from the left and right LP-8 monitors only. So big thumbs up from me on these LP-8s—I'm mixing music on them right now and bass-heavy genres like Hip-hop and EDM translate better than ever. The artists and producers I mix for are all very satisfied with the results. An awesome choice for surround sound (ATMOS) setups, the LP-8s make for wonderful monitoring for film and video production. The LP-8s are $249 each and are available for pre-order now. kaliaudio.com
OVERLOUD GEM ECHOSON Overloud's GEM ECHOSON is an awesome recreation of the Italian-made Binson Echorec; an echo/delay unit that first came out in the ‘60s. Instead of a tape loop that required replacement often, the Echorec used a spinning magnetic disk that would record and playback audio using several tape recorder-like heads surrounding the disk. It offered sounds from subtle and charmingly ethereal to weird and spacey. Nowadays, original working units can sell for thousands of dollars. Overloud’s GEM ECHOSON models the great sound of the Echorec sans the electronic limitations and problems of the 1960s hardware and adds many modern features that broaden its use. ECHOSON runs as a mono, dual mono or a stereo processor DAW plug-in. In stereo, you have the option to cross-feedback audio between the L/R channels. By individually switching any of the four heads on/off on the left/right channels and adjusting other controls, you can achieve effects ranging from crazy and wide soundscapes to big tonality changes. I liked the onboard parametric equalizer and changing the disk speed to change delay time and there is also a BPM sync option. I liked the precise way I could control the number of slap-back echo repeats and the unique Wow control; it randomizes the “blurring” effect of the repeating echoes and is one of the keys to the Echorec's quirky sound. I like using ECHOSON on electric guitars, vocals and as a general send effect to add a certain mysterious “cloud” around stereo pads and sustaining keyboards. Echoson is easy on CPU usage and it's a great and unique new color now on my mixing palette! GEM ECHOSON is available as VST, AU and AAX Native plug-ins as well as a stand-alone application. It runs in 32 or 64-bit DAWS for MACs and Windows PCs. ECHOSON sells as a download for $139 MSRP. overloud.com/products/echoson
ELEVATE BUNDLE 1.5 BY NEWFANGLED AUDIO Newfangled Audio’s Elevate is an all-in-one mastering plug-in that has a multi-band limiter, human-ear EQ and powerful audio maximizer to increase loudness or improve its dynamic perception. In using it myself, I found its intelligent adaptive technology did most of the work in real-time for creating the best sounding master. The Elevate mastering plug-in is comprised of four sub-modules: Filter Bank, Multiband Limiter/EQ, Transient and a Spectral Clipper. The Elevate Bundle includes these as separate plug-ins called: EQuivocate Graphic EQ, Punctuate Adaptive Transient Processor and Saturate Spectral Clipper plug-ins. These sub-modules work the same as their separate plug-in versions; no need to re-learn them if you make Elevate your “one-stop” mastering processor. I found the separate plug-ins very useful for specific problem solving on individual tracks in my mixes. For mastering, I found myself mostly in the Filter Bank section of Elevate where each band automatically adapts the attack, release and look-ahead parameters so as to greatly reduce the negative artifacts and distortion usually encountered with deep compression. In the Transient section, you can keep the same or boost fast transients so that your mix will sound less squashed. I started using Transient processing by boosting the critical frequency bands containing the transient's power—the percussive edges of snares, kicks, and vocal consonants. Those sources now sounded clear and not muddy even though heavily compressed! Spectral Clipper will overdrive the final output without altering the overall musicality too much and the loss of low frequencies. Newfangled Audio's Elevate Bundle 1.5 sells for $199 and Equivocate sells for $99 MSRP. Highly recommended! newfangledaudio.com 10
March 2019
musicconnection.com