John Gatski is the Publisher & Executive Editor of Pro Audio Review.
Astute readers may notice a new logo affixed to the front of this month’s issue: NewBay Media. Pro Audio Review — along with its sibling titles Audio Media, TV Technology, Radio World and Broadcast & Production Italy — was purchased by NewBay Media in July.
NewBay Media formed last year and purchased the U.S. division of CMP, including Pro Sound News, Systems Contractor News, Guitar Player, Bass Player, EQ and Residential Contractor News, as well as a number of other titles.
The new publishing structure is great news for PAR in that it gives the magazine more resources to cover the industry’s products, as well as sets up logical synergies with Pro Sound News — the industry’s best news and information source for many years.
It also means that the staff gets to work again with our old pal Frank Wells, the NewBay pro audio division editorial director and editor of Pro Sound News. Frank got his foot in the pro audio magazine world in 1995 as one of Pro Audio Review’s lead bench testers. In 1997, he became the editor of Audio Media U.S., and then joined PSN in 2000. It will be great to work with Frank and all those in the new organization.
Animated About Audio
As a father of an almost four-year-old, I can tell you that cartoons are pretty serious stuff. The TV and movie studios know that as well, as evidenced by the amount of creativity and resources that go into cartoon audio production. In this issue, PAR takes a behind-the-scenes look at the audio side of two popular TV animated series, The Wonder Pets and Higglytown Heroes, as well as a macro look at animation audio from several big film studios.
The available digital tools that enable pristine music production also allow the makers of today’s hottest cartoons to produce the best sound — whether in stereo or in multichannel. And a few old tried and true audio techniques continue to be implemented. For example, check out Frank Beacham’s The Wonder Pets profile, where the classical music and singers are all scored at the same time.
Product Update
Those who emailed me about my review of the Trident 8T-16 board, asking about smaller configurations, listen up. John Oram has told me that, spurred by demand, an eight-channel version is ready for those who need fewer channels for their location or studio sound needs. It will contain the same features and be offered with an optional meter bridge. Price is estimated to be under $2,500, with the meter bridge about $600. It has the same EQ, direct outputs and channel routing as the 16, and it comes in a rack or tabletop configuration.
We are still waiting to get our hands on a Toft Audio ATB analog board that came out many months ago to see how it stacks up against the competition. I hope to have that review and a lab bench test ready by AES time.
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