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Welcome to the first ever edition of feed, our new-look newsletter for all things Protel. From now on, whenever you receive an email that looks like this we hope you'll read on to discover anything from product news and user stories to special promotions and useful tips and hints.

This audio-only edition features new interfaces from Focusrite, VENUE D-Show Software, the Beatles Rock Band game, a fun iPhone App from McDSP, and new agency Sound Performance Labs.

Focusrite Saffire PRO Sparkles

Introducing the new generation of Focusrite multi-channel firewire audio interfaces, designed with today's project studio in mind.

Award-winning mic-preamps with 25 years of design excellence are combined with the latest in firewire interfacing technology for seamless computer integration and driver stability. JetPLL jitter elimination technology ensures pristine quality as audio flows between the analogue and digital domains. Mix Control software provides ultra flexible control over routing and monitoring, which includes presets for immediate set up of commonly used mixing situations, plus full metering across all inputs, outputs and submixes.

Leading the desirability stakes is the flagship of the range, the Liquid Saffire 56. This marries Focusrite's celebrated Liquid technology into two of the eight legendarily transparent mic pre's to deliver a host of authentic pre-amp flavours. Each of the Liquid pres provides a choice of ten different pre-amp emulations, including Neve 1073, Pultec MB-1, Telefunken V72, etc.

Saffire PRO units include a Plug-in Suite of all-new Focusrite Compression, EQ, Gating and Reverb. Also in the box, the Xcite+ Software Bundle including Ableton Live Lite, Novation's Bass Station soft synth and over 1 gig of royalty-free samples.

Watch for further introductions to the Saffire PRO range in coming newsletters.

More on Focusrite here >>

CEDAR Retouch and The Beatles

Abbey Road Studios' Surround Mastering and Restoration engineer, Simon Gibson, recently co-presented a lecture to the Institute of Broadcast Sound alongside Gordon Reid of CEDAR entitled Audio Restoration at Abbey Road Studios and the role of CEDAR Retouch.

Gibson demonstrated how CEDAR Retouch had been use to eliminate blemishes from the latest remasters of the Beatles catalogue, due for release in September 2009. He had removed low-level noises from material that had no obvious problems, but which were audibly improved when the 'before' and 'after' tracks were compared. However, the greatest revelation came when Gibson showed how he used CEDAR Retouch to eliminate individual instruments from mixed tracks so that they could be used for the forthcoming Beatles Rock Band game. Hearing Paul McCartney's bass guitar removed from a song without unduly affecting the other instruments and vocals proved to be a revelation, as did examples where Gibson separated drums, handclaps, and other instruments in just seconds.

This month's Resolution Magazine interview has him commenting;
"Since we've had Retouch... it's changed the way we [at Abbey Road] work."
"There's no way that Rock Band could happen or we would have been able to offer the first
half of the [Beatles] catalogue without Retouch."
"Retouch... has given us a quicker and easier way of fixing things and a more successful
way. It covers so many different problems."

CEDAR Retouch 4 is a huge leap forward in sound processing technology. Unlike conventional restoration tools, it provides a wide range of time/frequency editing capabilities, and allows users to define the temporal and spectral content of the sound that they wish to treat. Retouch 4 allows them to mark complex areas in its spectrogram using the types of tools commonly found in the most powerful image manipulation software. Once identified, unwanted sounds can be eliminated, replaced, moved, copied, or even remixed seamlessly with the surrounding signal.
All other audio remains untouched.

More on CEDAR Retouch >>

SPL - Sound Performance Lab

Protel is very pleased to announce our recent appointment
as the New Zealand distributor for Sound Performance Lab (SPL) of Germany. SPL designs and manufactures audio processing software and hardware for front-end and back-end use.

Since 1984, SPL has been offering analogue and digital audio signal processors for the professional sound and music production markets. Milestones in the company's history include the patented VITALIZER sound optimization processor, the invention of the mother of all transient design tools, the TRANSIENT DESIGNER and the development of the SPL SUPRA op-amps with an unprecedented operating voltage of 120V.

In 2008 SPL formed a new team of software developers and accomplished the breakthrough in developing digital products without compromising sound quality, thanks to a new approach in component modeling. With the advanced line of Analog Code plug-ins, SPL now makes its unique audio signal processors available for all digital platforms and formats. Rediscover analogue in any environment.

Visit the SPL home >>

Software updates for VENUE

D-Show Software-It's FREE!

Learn the basics of Digidesign's feature-rich standalone software in your own time. D-Show lets you pre-configure performances wherever you can use your laptop. Download now and give yourself an introduction to Digidesign's easy to use comprehensive control software for VENUE live sound consoles, before you have to use one on a show!

Some of what you can do

Assign hardware I/O and routing, and name channels.
Set channel input, EQ, dynamics, pan, and other settings.
Create and maintain a library of show setups, with access to nearly all parameters available on the control surface.
Store and recall Snapshots.

New 2.8.1 D-Show software release
The latest software release for the VENUE family of live sound console introduces a raft of new features, including:

Cue on Mains Fader - fast monitor bus access using the Mains fader
Enhanced Snapshot Crossfade - channel pan now included
Plug-in Target Follows Channel Control - selected plug-in automatically shown on-screen.
VCA and Group Spill - instant access to channels within a VCA or Group

VENUE SC48 | VENUE Mix Rack | VENUE Profile | VENUE D-Show

VENUE info >>

Retro Recorder

And lastly, put some fun back into audio recording with Retro Recorder by McDSP. The highly stylized yet simple interface makes recording easy on any iPhone. Patent pending Audio Level eXtension (ALX) technology improves recording quality beyond the capability of hand held recorders costing many times more. Even without an external microphone, Retro Recorder can capture detail other recorders cannot, with up to 32 times more signal level.

Supports iPhone and second generation iPod Touch. An external microphone is required to use Retro Recorder on the second generation iPod Touch.

This is the best bit, Retro Recorder is currently on sale for $1.99US at the Apple App Store.

McDSP are here >>

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