Latest DAW developments revealed here!

Digital Audio, it cannot have escaped our eagle-eyed readers, is a numbers game. Product literature fairly bristles with advanced specifications that leave us with little doubt that bigger and wider is better. These days, 24-bit resolutions at 96 kHz sampling rates are pretty much de rigueur, but what of the future? Will 24/96 be eclipsed by 192 kHz and 384 kHz?

And what of Sony and Philip’s outstanding work with Direct Stream Digital (DSD) oversampled one-bit recording systems, and the companion Super Audio CD stereo and multichannel release formats? To secure a close look at the current options, your intrepid reporter braved the elements to travel to the Big Apple, and strolled the booths at the recent Audio Engineering Society Convention, notepad in hand.

As I discovered, the majority of digital console, hard-disk recorder and workstation manufacturers are either currently offering or plan to offer 24/96-compatible systems, to provide enhanced recording depth, plus production and mastering of DVD-Audio and other high-precision product. Even if current manifestations are only capable of handling 24/48 signals (and there’s sometimes reasonable doubt that several low-order bits in an AES/EBU-format steam are really valid) woe betide any leading firm that isn’t at least turning up the fires beneath the R&D Department.

Solid State Logic offers a range of all-digital solutions in its MT+ Series of large-format production and broadcast consoles, all of which allow networked resource sharing at a synchronous sampling rate of 48 kHz. According to SSL Director of Product Management, Niall Feldman, higher sample frequencies of 96 kHz, 192 kHz, and beyond are being used as competitive benchmarks, although the firm considers that, for some time to come, the majority of production and distribution technologies will continue at 48 kHz.

“SSL is always fully proactive in its analysis of the industry’s production requirements,” Feldman says. “But we believe in fully analyzing an industry sector’s requirements, and then innovating products that offer significant advantages in a professional environment. SSL’s recently unveiled MT+ Series shows that digital development doesn’t have to be a process that results in technical obsolescence. SSL’s business is built on customer relationships; working with those customers to develop products and technologies that best serve their changing needs is what makes SSL successful.”

At the other end of the complexity continuum – or price/performance ratio, dependent upon your viewpoint – Sony Corporation used the AES Convention to unveil V2.0 software for its popular DMX-R100 Eight-bus Digital Console, which enables 24-bit/96 kHz processing in 24-input/5.1-channel surround-sound or 24-input/ stereo modes. (Basically, two channels provide DSP for single 24/96 input sources, and new software reconfigures internal resources to provide upgraded group busses.) V2.0 provides linking of control parameters and surround-sound groups, such as LCR, LS/RS; separate level for a subwoofer/LFE output is also available. Company sources say that the company will adopt a “wait-and-see” policy regarding enhanced sampling rates, reasoning that the DMX-R100’s target market of music project studios, sound editorial and small-format post suites may never need to migrate beyond 24/96.