What's New at TransAudio Group

What’s New is where you can find what will be shipping in the next 60 days from our manufacturers.
We update this section of the site at the beginning of the month.

A Designs HM-2EQ

Two years in the making, A Designs has introduced a new classic.

The HM2EQ is a dual mono, three band, analog equalizer engineered with an ingenious filtering system that allows the even harmonics to flow through its 12AT Philips tubes filtering out unwanted noise. The resulting sound is warm and 'musical' yet highly transparent with a clean, airy high end.

Housed in a 2U metal chassis with an aluminum faceplate and beefy toroidal power transformer under the hood, the HAMMER is an invaluable tool for any studio. Each channel features identical controls, including switches for bypass, high cut and low cut, as well as six large aluminum rotaries for the EQ section--knobs for the LF (30/50/100/200/300/400), MF (250/500/1.2k/1.6k/2k) and HF (2.5k/3.5k/5k/7.5k/10k/15k) bands, plus accompanying knobs offering +/-13dB of boost/cut for each frequency range.

"Although the digital recording world has certainly come a long way, especially over the last couple of years, it still can't accurately mimic the warm, musical tones that a vacuum tube can best provide," says A-Designs Audio's Peter Montessi. "We've gone through countless tube choices and combinations to find the best possible sonics for the HAMMER and I know that discerning engineers are going to be very pleased with it when they hear it for themselves."

A Designs 500HR dual rack

A-Designs Audio announces the availability of its 500HR, a single-rack-space, dual-slot power supply designed to accommodate two processing modules conforming to the API™ 500 Series format, including
A-Designs Audio’s own popular P-1 and EM-Series microphone preamps and new EM-PEQ equalizer.
“ With more and more engineers tracking and mixing in smaller home and project studios, as well as taking ‘their sound’ from one studio to another, the demand for gear that is compact, easily portable, flexible and economically priced is higher than ever,” says A-Designs Audio’s Peter Montessi. “Our 500HR, which weighs only six pounds when empty and features a street price of less than $300, nicely fits the bill by allowing engineers to create a very portable yet versatile channel strip (mic preamp plus EQ) or stereo mic preamp by simply swapping out modules for different recording situations.”
Sporting a cream-colored faceplate, the 500HR is housed in an all-metal chassis for maximum durability. Both a rocker-style on/off switch and 48V phantom power LED can be found on the right side of the front panel, while the rear panel features two sets of XLR ins and outs in addition to a standard IEC power connector for the unit’s robust power supply.
Montessi further points out that the potential applications for the product are practically limitless. “While the 500HR was under development, all sorts of other uses for it came to mind,” he adds. “For example, when combined with an A/D converter, the device can make an excellent choice for mobile recordings for broadcast. Also, with so many people doing voiceovers for TV and film, plus vocal production work for audio books and radio, the 500HR combined with the right modules and a laptop is again a perfect solution for those markets as well. And, of course, many discerning live sound engineers will be pleased to see that they can now put a pair of studio-grade processing modules into a 1U rack.”

ST350 Portable Soundfield Mic

The new portable ST350 offers SoundField’s unique technology in a miniaturised package which can be powered by either mains or battery.
Dispensing with the compromises associated with portable recording the ST350 system consists of a lightweight multi-capsule microphone and fully featured compact mic-pre/control unit that generates surround and stereo simultaneously at balanced line levels.
The ST350 has been designed from the ground up and is the result of a long R & D programme incorporating feedback from recordists, broadcasters and SoundField users. The new microphone electronics are capable of driving long cable runs enabling the microphone to be positioned hundreds of metres away from its control unit or alternatively hand held on a short boom.
Control features include high performance mic-pre’s with discretely switched 6dB gain steps and composite 5-segment LED bargraph for level monitoring. Continuously variable control is offered over the stereo Polar Patterns from omni through to cardioid to figure-of-eight and a Width control provides everything from mono to wide image stereo. End Fire and Invert controls are provided to correct for three-dimensional microphone positioning whilst still maintaining the correct stereo and surround perspective. Other features include Hi-Pass filtering to reduce rumble/wind noise, switchable M/S output and headphone monitoring.
The ST350 can be used in conjunction with the SoundField Surround Zone software to offer a complete recording and post-production package. Surround Zone is now available on the Digidesign Pro Tools, Steinberg Nuendo and SADiE platforms.
Sales Director, Ken Giles, comments, “We have taken on board the requests from the market for a more compact and portable SoundField system - the new ST350 is less than half the size and weight of the other microphones in our current range."

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ATC SCM16A Pro Monitor

Acoustic Transducer Company (ATC) engineers have made further advances in drive unit technology resulting in a huge increase in performance to their entry level active nearfield monitor - the SCM16A.

Conventional loudspeaker design recognizes that stiff driver cones generate a desirable extended on-axis frequency response. However, it comes at a price: a poor off-axis frequency response and multiple high-Q resonances that color the sound. The conventional "fix" is to add damping materials to the cone structure, but this makes the loudspeaker dramatically less efficient due to their high mass.

ATC's innovation is called Constrained Layer Damping (CLD) - two lightweight driver cones sandwich a constrained damping layer. CLD is dramatically more efficient than conventional damping because of the way it shears adjacent cone sections when the cone flexes. The shearing causes unwanted vibration energy to dissipate as frictional heat, instead of as acoustic distortion. Thus, ATC's CLD design reduces harmonic distortion between 300Hz and 3kHz, creates an extended resonance-free axial frequency response and improves the off-axis frequency response.

As a consequence, the ATC SCM16A is a better sounding loudspeaker with an excellent frequency balance between direct and reverberant sound. In addition to the 150mm CLD mid/bass driver, the SCM16A features a neodymium 25mm soft dome tweeter. The SCM16A's upgraded on-board amplifier pack provides 200 watts to the mid/bass driver and 50 watts to the HF driver. Operating in Class A up to two-thirds of output, this ultra-low distortion design is capable of continuous sound pressure levels up to 108dB. The electronic crossover offers an exceptionally smooth and even frequency response. User controls include input sensitivity and bass boost.

Dimensions (H x W x D): 448 x 270 x 330mm (17.6" x 10.6" x 12.2")
Weight: 17.5 kg / 38.5 lbs.
MSRP: $3,995/pair powered

More info

Bock Audio 151

2006 Tec Award Nominee!

The 251 has been the most used vocal mic for decades and the 151 puts this sound in reach of a greater number of engineers and artists.

Insiders Say: "You could say it's huge sounding."

I NEED IT!

Download the product sheet (pdf)

The higher end BOCK AUDIO 251 is treasured by users for its extraordinary up close cardioid performance on premier voices and its distance performance on piano, ensembles and orchestras. Many of our customers have asked for a vocal mic only version at reduced cost and this drove development of the BOCK 151. The 151 is a microphone designed to sound as close as possible to the flagship BOCK 251 up close but cost 30% less.
The BOCK 151 Microphone uses a proprietary BOCK hand made German capsule, a proprietary BOCK hand wound vintage style audio transformer, a NOS tube in the mic amplifier and a BOCK hand built custom outboard power supply. The BOCK 151 adds a unique "brite/normal" switch which delivers two sounds in one mic. “Bright” allows unfiltered extended high frequency response that defines a modern high end condenser; “normal” offers a less bright, more vintage style high frequency response more forgiving to sibilant singers and or voices that need a darker treatment.
The BOCK 151 offers enduring qualities impossible to fully describe in writing. While Chinese condensers try to impress with lots of top and bottom end on first listen, they lack midrange so critical in defining a great vocal. The BOCK 151 built-in midrange presence curve, so important in “cutting through” a dense mix, is impossible to obtain through EQ. Time has proven this vocal sound must come from the mic itself. The unique BOCK AUDIO "brite/normal" switch adds long term versatility. The high frequency response is extended but never gets harsh or gritty. The BOCK 151 Proximity Effect (bass gets stronger with closeness) is naturally powerful without being too boomy or bottom heavy. Midrange is smooth and does not require post EQ. Best of all, the BOCK 151 has a way of lifting the singer’s vocal to a higher level when they hear themselves for the first time on this great microphone. The BOCK 151 is perhaps the biggest bargain in lead vocal microphones available on the market.

MR ANALOG AND MR SSL CONSPIRE TO DIGITALLY CONTROL ANALOG:
INTRODUCING DAKING PLUS: THE NEXT GENERATION OF ANALOG

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA: Geoff Daking and Dave Thibodeau have created a new joint venture - DakingPlus - that is producing the next generation of high-end recording equipment through the application of digital control and automation to analog tone and circuitry. DakingPlus processing modules allow true analog character to be introduced into the workstation workflow in place of modeled representations.
This new "Plus" concept bridges the gap between the analog of yesterday and the analog of tomorrow by adding digital control to Class A analog signal processing circuits. Essentially, the concept gives engineers the option to combine modular pieces of DakingPlus analog gear into any configuration. DakingPlus Modules can be combined to configure a 96 in/24 out console or can function as a simple two-channel analog in/analog out processing package.
The initial product is the DakingPlus EQ500, an adaptation of the famous four-band "A Range" equalizer for which Daking is famous, that will be available in versions to fit various manufacturers' rack-mount module frames. Next will be a rack-mountable DakingPlus Stereo Compressor, which will offer higher performance than the current Daking FET II mono compressor by providing remote digital control of the analog circuitry. Additional products, including microphone preamplifier and auxiliary buss modules, are planned to follow.
This new venture pairs Geoff Daking, well known for a range of analog modules and consoles that recall some of the industry's revered classics, with Dave Thibodeau, SSL rebuild guru and former VP of technical operations for a major SSL console reseller. After many years of mutual experience with consoles, Daking and Thibodeau have combined forces to create DakingPlus products that will be initially available throughout North America from LasVegasProAudio.
Noted Daking, "Dave came to me and said, 'Let's take your line of products and computer control them.' It appears that everybody is convinced that they have to have an SSL console for a great signal path, so why not start building a system that bridges the gap between analog processing and digital workstation plug-ins and offers the best of both worlds?"
" I have always liked Geoff's designs and his approach to audio," said Thibodeau. "He has an excellent sense of what people want and he is very adept at producing good equipment for low costs. Soon after I met Geoff I remember sitting in his backyard having a barbecue and talking about gear design and realizing that we think in similar ways. It was quite a geek conversation. So I approached Geoff about designing gear together and the rest is history - or, should I say, WILL be history!"

Read Geoff Daking's Bio as an Adobe pdf, or click here.

New Products Announced For 2008:

A2D2 AES GRADE 1 DUAL OUTPUT A/D CONVERTER

Microphones are analogue, speakers are analogue, storage is mostly digital and signal processing can be either analogue or digital, software or hardware based. At some point in the signal path, a high quality A/D converter is required, which faithfully reproduces analogue signals in the digital domain. Step up to the new Drawmer A2D2. Read more...

M-CLOCK PLUS AES GRADE 1 MASTER CLOCK/DUAL SAMPLE RATE CONVERTER

M-Clock Plus is a high stability master clock generator offering clock rates from 44.1 to 192kHz, coupled to two sample rate converters, which allow material to be re-sampled and syncronised to the selected high precision clock. In addition to the internal clocks, M-Clock Plus can sync to either external word clock or clocks from AES/EBU signals. Precision clock frequency measurement and display indicates the exact frequency of the selected clock, whether internal or external, to an accuracy of 2ppm. Read more...

M-CLOCK LITE AES GRADE 1 MASTER CLOCK

It is widely accepted that one of the essential requirements for high quality digital recording is a first class, high stability clock generator. These can be complicated devices with many added features, which although useful, may be surplus to requirements. The aim of M-Clock Lite is to provide a simple, high quality clock generator, which is forward compatible with high speed clocks predicted for the future. Read more...