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NEWS
•MARCH
9, 2001
Emagic Launches New Hardware and Software at Musikmesse
Virtual instruments, new USB interface highlight offerings
by
David Nagel
Executive Producer
dnagel@digitalmedianet.com
In addition to announcing Logic Audio 5,
Emagic, a German audio hardware and software developer, has also launched
or announced a whole slew of new audio products. The announcements come
out of the Musikmesse festival going on in Frankfurt, Germany. First on
the list is Emagic Synthesizer 2 for Logic Audio. The new synthesizer
is touted by Emagic as not just another "virtual reincarnation of synthesizers
with wooden casings." The ES2 has up to 16-note polyphony per unit, with
three oscillators per voice. Oscillators 2 and 3 can sync to oscillator
1. Analog and digital waveforms, including FM, Ring Mod, Noise and others,
can be used as sound sources. Timbre is shaped via two self-resonating
filters, which run serially or in parallel. One is a multi-mode filter
with distortion circuit. The other offers lowpass with selectable slope
and fatness parameter for enhanced bass, even at high resonance settings.
The lowpass filter can also be frequency modulated by oscillator 1. It
will be available in May for about $250.
Emagic's new ES2 software synthsizer
The company
has also launched the EVOC20, a 20-band vocoder for filtering and monophonic
pitch tracking. It also operates as a vocoder with a built-in polyphonic
sound carrier engine and a formant filter bank. It offers a new interface
and was modeled after analog vocoders to allow the sonic characteristic
of the analysis signal to be printed to the synthesis signal. The EVOC20
will be available in May for around $150.
Third to be announced is the EVP88—the Electric Vintage Piano 88—a new
software instrument for use with the Logic Audio series. The EVP88 provides
users of Logic Audio Platinum, Gold, Silver and MicroLogic AV with the
sounds from electric pianos like the Fender Rhodes Mark I & II Suitcase
and Stage series, the Wurlitzer Electric Piano 200A and the Hohner Electra
Piano. It includes an effects section for two-band EQ for bass and treble
manipulation, based on Emagic's FatEQ. A Phaser and Tremolo are also included.
Both have an adjustable stereophase control to help create a broad spectrum
of stereo effects. The EVVP88 will be available this month for about $200.
Another vintage piano also made its debut. The Fender Rhodes Stage Piano
Mk II has been reincarnated as a VST plugin. The new EVP 73 is compatible
with any host application capable of running VST 2.0 Instruments. The
73-note polyphonic EVP73 features the same core engine, sound and styling
of the EVP88. Sounds are created in real time via a native tone generation
system, which dynamically responds to the user's playing style. The EVP73
allows control over enveloping, tuning, stereo width and tremolo. It will
be available this month for about $100.
On the hardware side, Emagic has announced the EMI 2|6, a mobile
multichannel audio interface for USB. It delivers six playback and two
recording channels at 24-bit audio quality. The computer automatically
recognizes the unit, and power is supplied via the USB port. According
to Emagic, their low latency technology allows software instruments like
the ES1, EVP88 and EXS24 and VST 2.0 compatible instruments to be played
in real time. It will be available this month for about $500.
Other announcements from Emagic coming out of this week's Musikmesse in
Frankfurt, Germany, include:
- A 3.03 update to SoundDiver, a MIDI editor library. The new update
includes new editors for products from Access, Hughes & Kettner and
Behringer, bringing the total number of supported devices to more than
570. These new editors are available to current owners of SoundDiver
3.0. The update will be free to registered users of version 3.0 beginning
in April. The full version costs about $200.
- The EXSP24 sample player, which runs on host applications capable
of supporting VST 2.0 Instruments. It can play samples ranging from
8- to 24-bit depths, any sample rate from 11 kHz to 96 kHz, in any combination.
Sample import capabilities will include WAV, AIFF, SDII and SoundFont2
across platforms. EXSP24 will be available in April for about $180.
- The Emagic System Bridge TDM allows the integration of up to 32 EXS24
units in the aux channels of Logic Audio Platinum's TDM mixer. EXS24
outputs can be processed entirely within the Logic Audio Platinum Mac
OS TDM environment using the ProTools DSP. MIDI performances are recorded
on aux tracks with sample accurate playback timing. Ity will be available
this month for about $300.
- Finally, EPIC TDM, the Emagic Plugin Collection for TDM, has been
ported for full compatibility with TDM and ProTools hardware and software
systems. This allows users of Logic Audio Platinum Mac OS or ProTools
version 5.1 and higher to take advantage of the complete selection of
Emagic plugins using the DSP power of their ProTools hardware. All plugins
operate at a 32-bit internal resolution. Pricing and availability are
yet to be determined.
For more information about Emagic, visit http://www.emagic.de.
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