In development for years, Pro Tools | HD was hardly a secret due to numerous industry leaks; however, the real surprise came with its debut at Winter NAMM 2002, when it was revealed that the system supported 192 kHz recording for true high-def performance. Best of all, a Pro Tools | HD rig cost about the same as the earlier PT|24 MIX 888|24 systems, but was based on enhanced hardware for improved DSP, more extensive routing and I/O options and improved fidelity.
Conceptualized by Eveanna Manley, VoxBox is a no-compromise unit combining a mic preamp, compressor, equalizer and de-esser in a single chassis. But the story goes much further. The tube preamp stage adds a high-Z DI input and high pass filters; the 3:1 compressor is an electro-optical circuit; the passive EQ is based on the Pultec MEQ-5, but expanded to 33 bands; and the de-esser is an LA2A-sounding opto peak 10:1 with a passive LC sidechain.
Eventide's H3000 UltraHarmonizer series took its original 1975 H910 and (1982) H969 Harmonizer pitch shifters to new heights, offering the first processor with human-like, intelligent/diatonic pitch shifting. But it didn't stop there. Later incarnations of the H3000 ranged from the H3000B "broadcast" model (that even included helicopter sounds to simulate an in-air traffic report, even when the reporter was in an office) to the D/SE version with instrumental presets by guitarist Steve Vai and studio effects from top mix engineer Bob Clearmountain.
By modern standards, the Lexicon PCM 41 didn't offer a lot of delay capability — 800 ms at the extended 6 kHz mode, or 200 ms at its 16 kHz "full bandwidth" setting. However, its great sound and versatile feature set took it well beyond that found on the typical digital delay. Certainly, it could handle basic chores such as speaker delays in P.A. systems.
The Roland RE-201 Space Echo was hardly the first tape loop-based delay device, but added sophisticated controls — such as variable tape speeds, three-input mixer, 12 mode settings and a built-in spring reverb — that took it beyond the competition. It was developed by Ikutaro Kakehashi, whose Ace Tone company created organs, rhythm machines and tape delays, so it was no surprise he launched a line of delay and echo products (starting with simpler RE-100 and RE-200 units) when he founded Roland in 1972.
For five decades, the Shure SM58 has been a world standard in handheld vocal performance microphones.
The KM84 condenser microphone is not only is famed for its historic 28-year production run, but also was the first microphone to use the now-standard 48-volt phantom powering system invented by Georg Neumann. This "no visible power supply" approach, combined with the precision cardioid pattern of its KM64 capsule, low-noise FET electronics, -10 dB pre-attenuation switch (for 130 dB SPL handling) and ultra-compact 110mm body made this an instant hit with live, studio and broadcast engineers everywhere.
The original compact reference monitor, Auratone speakers were the brainchild of company founder Jack Wilson, who in 1958, debuted small cube-shaped studio monitors with a single 4.5-inch driver. While not exactly hi-fi, Auratone Sound Cubes offered a real-world representation of how your mix would sound on AM car radios or a mono TV set, and by the 1970's, were found in every recording studio worldwide. As TV and auto sound improved, these eventually fell out of favor, as the Yamaha NS-10 became the standard in small reference monitors.
Invented in 1954 by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company's chief design engineer Cliff Anderson, the Wurlitzer Electronic Piano was intended as a portable and compact replacement for the acoustical piano. It's electromechanical design was based on a series of a tuned metal "reeds" with an electrical potential that when struck by a key, vibrated near a conductive member, changing a voltage shift that could be amplified and converted into audio oscillations.
Today, we all so familiar with the decibel (dB) unit, whether dealing with electro-acoustical measurements on audio meters or with numbers that define Sound Pressure Levels, such as knowing that an SPL of 120 dB refers to the human hearing threshold of pain, or that 1 dB is accepted as the smallest change of level that is generally perceptible to the human ear.