Digidesign Eleven Rack

Series of videos about Digidesign's standalone guitar effects processor Eleven Rack.

Digidesign Digi 003 Control Surface & Audio/MIDI Interface [Mac/PC] review

Digidesign's LE range has received a comprehensive overhaul in the last year, and the new flagship 003 and 003 Rack incorporate many improvements over their predecessors.

After many rumors, Digidesign recently announced the replacements for their popular 002 and 002R interfaces. The new models are called, perhaps unsurprisingly, the 003 and 003R. As with the M Box 2, it's clear that these are not intended to provide anything radically different from their predecessors. There are some new features and many improvements, but the basic functionality or philosophy behind the products hasn't changed, and of course they still come with the highly respected Pro Tools LE DAW software. Like the 002, the 003 combines a multi-channel audio and MIDI interface with an eight-fader control surface, while its rackmount sibling includes the interface without the control surface. Most of the enhancements that have been made thus relate to the 003, as the 002 had more features than the 002R to start with! However, there are some improvements that apply to both models.

Pro Tools videos

A few days ago, I uploaded some tutorials, presentations and demonstration on Pro Tools to YouTube. Below you can watch those videos in the playlist I've created for you.

M-Audio Torq review

Reviewed using Torq Version 1.0.3

TORQ's Browser

The Xponent is what you touch- it's the tactile interface. What's under the hood is the Torq software. It's a beautiful thing, how well the Xponent is configured to work with Torq- the excellent match keeps you playing, and spending less time pecking a computer. Still, one way or the other, you are going to have to get to know Torq, the software. And you are definitely going to have to deal with Torq's browser.
Bluntly stated- Torq's browser is a pain. If you have a big song library and have spent the hours required to properly tag it, you'll find that Torq's browser will not see the key information. It is also commonplace to have the browser hang for several seconds while you search it. Not a huge deal at home, but on the job it will make you extremely nervous. All I can say is don't wait until the last second to choose your next track. Also, the browser isn't able to be customized. Say you don't care what album a song comes from, and don't need to see that info- well, you can't tell that column to hide. Torq is innovative in so many ways, offering features that even the most expensive units haven't implemented yet- it's a shame to see it fall short in an area as fundamental as a browser. Even with the headaches, Torq/Xponent does so many things well that I can put up with its bad browser. If they don't make the effort to improve it with software updates I will be extremely disappointed.

Technics SL-1210 M5G

Summary:

It's my opinion that 1210MV5MG and its predecessors may be favored by DJ's around the world, but this particular version is a serious piece of audiophile gear. There's plenty of information on the web and specs, so I'm not going to focus on that, but I do have quite a few impressions of this refined beast.

I dare say it appears to me to one of the most technologically advanced turntables in the world that is within the reach of the average consumer. The motor and platter assembly are absolutely incredible. I don't know if this is accurate, but it looks to me that the motor and the platter are magnetically coupled, meaning the motor has no physical connection that I could see to the platter. If that's the case, that would put this table in same league as air drive systems. Hopefully other reviewers can shed some more light on how the drive system works.

It's also a very ergonomic and user friendly machine. Now I know lots of people love to fuss with their TT's, make adjustments, make it a somewhat of a ceremony to play a record, that's cool with me. I have no issues with people deriving enjoyment from spending their money and playing with their gear. But I have to say, this turntable is blast to use.

You're up in under 1 second and the speed is dead on. I'm even having fun playing with the slider and reviewing some passages at slower speeds. Back to perfect speed at the touch of the reset button and you don't have to account for stylus drag. Hell, you can brush the record while it's playing. The rubber mat is outstanding with a slight depression for the underside of the record label. I'm using a lighter stainless steel Clear audio clamp and set-up was also achieved with a Clear audio aluminum protractor jobber thingy.

The integrated lighting is a welcome feature. A red LED hitting the strobe mirrors is neat, but the blue pop-up LED that lights up the stylus is straight out of James Bond! Impeccably cool!

There's a lot of great tables out there, but I just couldn't pass this one up given it's most critical attribute: THE SOUND! Forget about price for a moment and ponder that to these old ears, the presentation in terms of sound stage, speed, decay, ambiance, and the void of space where sounds emerge from this machine provides is anything but entry level. I hope you'll agree and get one before folks here in the USA realize what they've been missing.