One of the things that I wanted to see was the Artist Series from Euphonix. I caught a glimpse of it both at the Steinberg booth and the Euphonix room they had on the second level of Hall B. Very slick - very solid. These things are going to be the new control surface standard in project studios. The MC Pro was very impressive as well. I caught a glimpse of it in full light at the Steinberg booth and in a "controlled light" setting in a mini console they set up in the Euphonix demo room - very cool looking with ergonomics that are very easy on the eye. If/when I get the budget, I'm definitely going that route.
I also got a chance to check out Arturia's Origin rack unit and new keyboard. I did some demos for them last year when the Origin was in more of an alpha-state - and I can definitely see and hear how much it's matured over the past year. It's an extremely well-thought-out instrument. And quite frankly, when I first saw the Origin keyboard I thought to myself "nah, I'll stick to the rack" - but now that I've seen it in person I might be changing my tune. It has a really great feel and I love the flip-up control panel. Also, the large ribbon controller is SUH-lick. I could definitely see retiring my Kurzweil MIDIboard and ExpressionMate combo for this - especially with all of the synth "brains" in it taking a huge load off of my DAW. I'm long past my 'rock and roll road warrior' days, but I can see this keyboard being at home on the road or in the studio. Also the Analog Factory Experience looked really cool. The built-in hooks to Analog Factory is not the only trick up its sleeve - since it can also work as a general MIDI controller. Just plug it into a USB port and go. I was surprised at how solid it felt - and the knobs and sliders had a particularly good response. It feels nice and heavy too - like it was made to last - the wood end caps don't hurt either.
iZotope also had some cool hardware gear, though it's mostly out of my baliwick. Their ANR-B is a one rack unit that's designed for industrial-grade use - which looks to be the same type of DSP that's in their Rx applications/plugins in an outboard package - with a lot of additional stuff under the hood that's specific to broadcast. Like Arturia, they've had their hardware stuff in the works for some time, but it seems that the wait has been worth it. The good folks at iZotope also had a separate room for meetings and other demos, and I have a feeling that they're got more up their sleeve in the hardware and software area but aren't showing their hand just yet.
So that's about it - the better half and I did a quick walk-through of the rest of the floor and then took off. Now it's time to clear the decks and make room for some new gear in my studio.
