Digital Motion dot net

Novation just announced the ZeRO SL, which is essentially their ReMOTE SL without they KeYBOARD (see, I can play the capital letter game too, Novation). I’ve been lusting after Novation Controllers since the X-Station (which I still think looks awesome), but they have been too expensive for me to kick my Oxygen 8 to the curb. The ReMOTE SL definitely made me think about it again, but it was still kind of expensive and I don’t use a 25-key controller that often. The ZeRO SL is almost perfect in this department. It will fit above my computer keyboard, it will fit on top of my Keystation 88, it is small enough that I can bring it along for a gig, I could maybe even replace my trusty Peavey PC1600x.

EXCEPT

WHERE IS THE X-Y PAD?!? It is one of the coolest things about the Novation controllers and they drop it? That is just plain stupid. Faders, buttons and knobs are great and all, but every controller has them. They are not hard to find. I would rather have a controller with 4 XY pads and 2 D-Beams that spit out midi. That would be worth the 229 pounds they want to charge for this. Honestly, for 229 GBP, you could buy a couple faderfox controllers (excluding VAT) and be happier.

yawn

maybe tomorrow will be better.

The IK Multimedia/Ampeg thing never saw the light of day, unfortunately.

I’m left with 3 choices: IK Multimedia’s Amplitube, Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig and Line6’s TonePort. My take on each of these below…

Amplitube 2.0
Pros: Works as a plug-in, Most powerful emulation (pre-amp, power-amp, speakers, microphones, stomp boxes), Cheap upgrade from any IK product until end of 2005
Cons: IK Multimedia is jerky about authorizations and user support. No bass amp models

Guitar Rig:
Pros: Bass amp and cabs modeled, NI product quality and support, works as a plug-in, hardware controller available, more effects than amplitube
Cons: very Expensive (even software-only as an upgrade for a NI customer), not as powerful as amplitube

TonePort:
Pros: Line 6 has been doing this longer than anyone else, inexpensive (most expensive version same price as Amplitube 2.0 upgrade including audio interface), Pre-amp modeling for vocals, includes audio interface, nice expansion possibilities through inexpensive model packs.
Cons: audio interface works as a dongle, can’t use software without it; software will not function as a plug-in (need to go to back to analog to process existing tracks); no mic modeling; can’t use pre-amp models with amp models

Now when I do comparisons here, I’m doing it on a price and feature basis. I assume that given these companies lineage that they’ll each produce something of comparable quality. I’m also not that concerned with the accuracy of the models. I don’t need to A/B each model with the real thing, because I’m not really that interested in exactly duplicating the sound, I want a sound shaping tool. If I really wanted the exact sound of a particular head, I’ll buy / borrow / rent it. This whole modeling movement in audio software is getting goofy, it doesn’t make that much sense to me. I never had a fetish for old gear, my interests are in new sounds, not old ones.

* Low (22.05 KHz, mono)
* High (44.1 KHz, stereo)

I’m waiting for the OS X version of SampleRobot, but until then at least I can download their free samples of the Oberheim Xpander.

AudioMastermind has a link to Tristan Perich’s CD case glich synth.

GetLoFi has an interesting item on Gameboy Artist-6955