FICS Congress 2006 in Ossendrecht, NL
Report of the FICS Representative for Sound
Uwe Mehlhaff
Photo: Hartmut Tiborra, Asbach (Westerwald)
Uwe Mehlhaff
- Representive of the FICS for sound -
D-50823 Cologne,
Ehrenfeldgürtel 155
0049-221 / 552486 + 0171 / 4409320 0049-221 / 5028722
E-Mail: uwe.mehlhaff@t-online.de humbert.flourbay@web.de
For the FICS-convention in october 2006 in Ossendrecht in the Netherlands
1. Contents
2. Technical Trends2.1 PrefaceDroping this lines I leaf through the Frankfurt daily, the journal of Musikmesse/Prolight + Sound.
This journal comes out every day of the duration of the fair. I'm looking for news and trends, shown in this journal.
To see and to know the trends, it's very important to visit this fair with international (worldwide) producers and dealers.
Contrary to the past I spend two days at the fair. The first day, I picked up informations, the second day I made records
with my flashcard recorder. I used the records (mainly interviews and music) for an own sound production (nearly 42 minutes,
only in German), shared out to German and Swiss soundhunters (page 16, chapter 6). The digital technology replaces more and
more the anlogue. The slogan of this year was "analog is getting digital". I wrote about this development already
last year. In Frankfurt, I didn't find worldshaking news. Most of the interviewed producers told me something about
servicing the existing products. I had also been in Munich at the High End, this year 4 days. I also took along my
flashcard recorder for records, interviews and music. I also made a sound-production (nearly 52 minutes, only in German)
about this fair ( page 16, chapter 6). In the next chapters we have a view to the different species of sound-equipment.
Analogue equipment is dying. Digital tape recorders (DAT) and minidisc-recorders do the same. Tascam is still the only
producer from home minidisc-equipment. The question is: How many years does Tascam produce minidisc-equipment? Sony offers
portable HI-minidisc-recorder, but these products are ignored in Germany. The big rivalry are mobile flashcard-recorders
with a lot of more features and nearly the same price, e. g. phantom-supply. CD-recorders as stand-alone equipment scrape
a bare living, because if no new products. A lot of mobile recording equipment has USB-connection. So copies from mobile
recorders to computers are possible and very easy. The future belongs to two-channel-records on flashcard- and/or
SD-card-recorders. Powerful chips make the equipment smaller and lighter. More-channel-recording is possible by use of
mobile harddisc-recorder, also called as multitracker. Microphone-inputs with phantom-supply, USB-interface (USB 2.0) and
digital sound effects are already integrated.
All wellknown producers (e. g. AKG, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, Rode) didn't show new development. Noone talks today about
digital microphones, years ago shown by Beyerdynamic.
New development is achieved at digital and half-digital mixers. Half-digital mixers are still working analogue, but
they have digital features as sound effects (created by digital sound processors). Looking to pure analogue mixer, a few
producers presented new development, e.g. imq/Monacor. The same is to higher priced mixers as e. g. "clubixer".
Loudspeakers are getting "digital". This means, they include digital processors. The future will bring more
and more radio controlled loudspeakers. Some loudspeaker producers habe shown equipment for home cinema.
Digital headphones (radio controlled headphones) have future and are meanwhile shown by different producers. The radio
controlled technic is working well and without problems.But the prices for good "digital" headphones are still high.
3.1 TrendsThe following overview contains a personal estimation from sound carriers und their chances for the future. Following symbols are existing: sound carrier without future and without any developments sound carrier with low available in the market phase-out technology with low or no chances for the future with sporadically developments sound carrier with future The estimations from the author to the future of these 11 sound carriers:
3.2 Digital RecordersThis chapter contains without claiming to completeness a list of recording equipment for the soundhunter. Who wants to know more about the shown equipment, has to look for manuals in internet. A lot of producers have put the manuals into internet, which can be downloaded (e. g. as .pdf-File). On the following pages you'll find actual digital stand-alone-recorder for out- and indoor-use. Most of the recorders are for mobile use:
3.3 Software for Sound ProcessingThis chapter is about soundprocessing-software, which can be used by
This topic can only be raised shortly, because it's to extensive. You need a good sound card. The prices for good soundcards vary from two-digit to three-digit. Following some wellknown and at specialized trade available soundprocessing-software:
The mentioned software is working similar, the features are different. Other software-products:
A complete listing is not possible, because there is too much software in the market. Following exemplary some features of WaveLab (by Steinberg) are mentioned: WaveLab is a sample-editor, a software, which shows diagramms as fader, keys, controllers on the monitor of the computer. You can compare it with a mixer with a lot of effects, sound effects and equalizer, but not as stand-alone equipment. It's offered on computer-CD, which has to be copied on a pc. WaveLab is a tool, which allows to work on soundfiles by clicking the mouse. Tracks and sampling-frequencies can be set by record-function. The level can be controlled by a peaklevel-meter while making the records. You can choose between different time-informations. Fade-in, fade-out, cross-fade are also installed. The processing of high signals (e.g. 24 bit/192 kHz sampling-frequency) is standard. Echo and delays to 50 milliseconds are inside. Meanwhile Steinberg presented another version from WaveLab Version2 with less functions and without possibility for making records on DVD. A little bit lower in price: Magix music maker 2005 deLuxe or Magix music studio 2005 deLuxe. The last-mentioned software is, if you beleive to the trade press, the most sold sound-software worldwide. In summary all the named soundprocessing-software replace a lot of normally expensive equipment as mixer, equalizers, expanders...; but it can't replace additional external eqipment as e.g. tape-machines, -recorders and so on. 4. Literature for Sound, High Fidelity and Sound EngineeringFollowing in parts an overview of new journals and books. All the named prices are German prices.
5. Diary 2006/2007The following overview with dates from 2006 (november/december) and 2007 gives a worldwide overview with meetings of video and audio systems. (All the listened dates are from internet and without guarantee.)
6. Visits to the Fairsprolight + sound / Musikmesse and High End The last years I wrote about the fairs in this report. In 2006 I produced CDs with music and interviews from each fair, but only in German. The CDs have been distributed two several soundhunters in Germany and Switzerland.
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Last updated 14th December, 2006