Following a successful 2011 in pro DJ equipment hire & sales, and foreseeing an even busier 2012, Studiocare has further increased its inventory of the Pioneer Pro DJ range.

Last year saw an unprecedented amount of units hired during the UK summer festival period, in particular the CDJ2000 and DJM2000. However, the mixer set to dominate this year is the DJM900 Nexusand, as such, Studiocare has increased its hire stock to over twenty units at time of writing.

Studiocare holds over 200 pieces of Pioneer Pro DJ equipment in its hire stock, servicing the UK festival and club markets. Recent clients include Global Gathering, Creamfields, Big Reunion and Lake of Stars festival in Malawi.

Please feel free to contact Drew in the Hire Department for a quotation to supply DJ equipment for your next event.

Studiocare Hire Department have launched a great Promotion for January 2012. You get 20% off all equipment hired in January if you quote ‘JAN Web Offer’ When calling up to book any hire Equipment

Audient Launch the New ASP4816 which provides the key features of a large format recording in a compact, cost effective format. Designed by audio guru, David Dearden and featuring Audient’s legendary analog circuitry, ASP4816 is the perfect centre piece for production studios and educational facilities. The main input channels feature Audient’s renowned Class A preamp and 4 band EQ – a combination found in hundreds of ASP8024 equipped studios where many users no longer feel the need to reach for their outboard preamps and EQ. The console features 40 faders,16 bus routing, 6 auxes, 2 dedicated cue sends, 4 stereo returns, stereo bus compressor and a comprehensive monitor section.

Pioneer Dj Cashback

Pioneer DJ are pleased to announce today our £100 cashback promotion for the CDJ 2000 and DJM 2000.

Consumers (DJ’s/Venues) can claim £100 cashback per product when they buy CDJ-2000s and/or DJM-2000s from Studiocare Professional Audio (max 6 product claims per person).

Between now and the 31st of Jan 2012 any customer who purchases one or more of the participating products from you can make a claim via our promotional micro website, www.pioneer.co.uk/djcashback, providing proof of purchase (copy of store or on-line invoice plus serial number), store, bank and personal details, then after claim validation Sales Promotion Agency (sales-promotions.com) makes electronic cash transfer of claim amount directly to purchaser’s bank account within 28 days.

Here at Studiocare, we are pleased to announce that all UK Web Orders over £50 will qualify for free UK Mainland Shipping. The offers applies to all web orders and starts today.

AVID Pro Tools 10

Avid release pro tools 10 with loads of new features, contact the sales team at Studiocare for more information on pricing, upgrades and availability.

Your dedication deserves the best tools available. Introducing Pro Tools 10, the next generation of the best sounding, most powerful audio production software for recording, composing, editing, and mixing music and sound for picture.

For large-scale projects that demand the utmost in sound quality and performance, Pro Tools HD software enables you to compose, record, edit, and mix big productions quickly and easily. The software comes with Pro Tools|HDX and Pro Tools|HD Native systems. What’s more, you get all of the same benefits of Pro Tools software along with these additional features and workflows.

New features and workflows

Mix it up—at higher resolution

With Pro Tools 10, you can mix multiple audio file formats and bit depths within the same session—including interleaved—without any file duplication to cause project bloat. Plus, with support for 32-bit floating-point file formats, you’ll get higher resolution sound when recording or importing, with more headroom to preserve the integrity of your audio from beginning to end.

 

Plug into legendary sound

With the included Avid Channel Strip plug-in, you get the renowned channel strip of the Avid (formerly Euphonix) System 5, one of the most sought-after consoles used to create some of the greatest mixes ever produced. Work with exact replications of the console’s EQ and compression algorithms to add life to your mix.

 

Record and compose music and audio

Edit audio to perfection

Create great-sounding mixes

Welcome to the NEW 2264ALB 500-series mono limiter/Compressor module Lunchbox TM…

meet (yet another) Legend.

The Cascade Fathead is a ribbon microphone with a central positioned corrugated aluminium membrane (the ribbon) which therefore means it receives audio equally front and back (like most ribbons it is a fig 8 pick-up pattern). This is ideal for using a pair in Blumlein configuration for stereo recording. The Fathead stereo pair package comes with a stereo bar for such configuration, which is what I used for this review.

The stereo pair comes in a fitted aluminium brief case which also contains the stereo bar and mic mounts. First impressions of the actual build quality are very good, the finish is good and there were no imperfections on the machining on the body of the mic. The head grill also seems very well made. The supplied mic mounts are also of good quality, which they need to be to support the weight of the mic. The output impedance is 200 Ohm and the manufacture recommends a 1000 ohm load impedance on the mic pre-amp, although playing around with the pre-amps impedance, if the pre-amp allows, can alter the sound of ribbon mics for better or worse – always worth experimenting.  The ribbon mic feels very robust, however the actual ribbon is very delicate so care should be taken when handling (care should be taken handling any mic of course)!

In Use

The session I was booked to record was a prog rock band by the name of Mr So and So, exceptional musicians with quality instruments, I knew it was going to be a long session and no time to be messing about changing mic set ups, so the Fatheads had better perform! Being a avid ribbon mic user I had already worked out what they were going to be used on instrument wise – I rate ribbon mics very highly when tracking to digital medium and 95% of my work is to Pro-Tools.

First up drums, with the Fatheads used as overheads. If I had more ribbons to hand I would have also used them on hats and ride, the fig 8 pattern works well with its side rejection, so reduces snare spill and captures hats very well.

The pre-amp I used was a custom made Neve with vintage Kelso modules fitted, very similar to the 1081. The pre-amp suited the Fatheads exactly (there is no 48v option on these so no danger of sending 48v to ribbon and causing damage) with the stereo imaging and detail also being great, pretty much what I hoped for.

Next up was acoustic guitar. I generally wouldn’t go for a ribbon on acoustic guitar particularly quiet picked guitar, but decided I would go for the Fathead (I also used condenser for safety and comparison). I positioned the Fathead around a foot and a half away – I generally like to have a bit of distance on acoustic to capture a bit of air movement. The pre-amp used for this was a Neve 4081 – NB please be aware when using the 4081, if the unit is switched to line the 48v is disabled. However, when switched to mic and 48v engaged previously, it stays engaged when switched back. Ribbons don’t like 48v, unless it is a specific phantom powered ribbon.

I really liked the sound of the Fathead on acoustic. I knew a bit of EQ would be required later but the overall smoothness compensated for this. Compared to the condenser, the Fathead had a fuller sound but lacked the top end that you generally would get from a condenser. In an AB comparison the condenser, although brighter, lacked the lower-end smoothness. In hindsight I wouldn’t have used either mic and should have gone for a more trusted mic that I would have normally used. (See mix section).

For distorted rock and roll guitars my first choice is always to use ribbons. The amp the guitarist used is probably one of the best I have heard, a custom Bogner Ecstasy. Using the Neve 4081 again, I also put up 3 other mics to compare. The Cascade Fatheads were quite clearly better than the rest and the reproduction of the amp was exactly what I wanted. Also impressive was the Fathead being able to handle the loud SPLs from the amp and not overloading. A lot of ribbons struggle to handle very loud SPLs, but not here.

In the mix

Drum overheads – Sounded great. With ribbons they need a bit of top end lift which they got, no need to be shy about it either, ribbon mics seem to handle a fair amount of EQ without sounding bad.

Acoustic guitars – I did like the sound of the Fatheads but the amount of gain needed to capture the guitars when played quietly introduced noise from the pre-amp. A lot of ribbons do need a fair amount of gain due to their low output, so a clean pre amp would be advisable on quiet sound sources.

Distorted guitars – Sounded great, very little EQ needed, sat in the mix very well.

Conclusion

At £285 plus VAT for a matched stereo pair, it is a no brainer, buy some. I am.

Al Unsworth is a professional international freelance recording, mixing & Pro-Tools engineer. With over 15 years experience his credits cover all genres of music. Past clients/projects include Kylie Minogue, Mariah Carey, 808 State & Yes.

Studiocare is the European distributor of Cascade Microphones.

To view Al Unsworths personal website click here

Studiocare have taken shipment of Neumann KH120D Active Nearffield Monitors, Neumann’s first product in the new line of Neumann Studio Monitors.

The KH 120  studio monitor is designed for use as a near-field loudspeaker or as a rear loudspeaker in larger multi-channel systems. The KH 120 A represents the latest in acoustic and electronic simulation and measurement technologies to ensure the most accurate sound reproduction possible. It has a Mathematically Modeled Dispersion waveguide (MMD (TM), flexible acoustical controls, analog class-AB amplifiers, a large headroom analog input and an extensive mounting hardware range. All of this provides the user with the maximum versatility over a wide variety of acoustic conditions, source equipment, and physical locations.

The KH 120 is perfect for tracking, mixing and mastering in music, broadcast, project and post-production studios. 

For more information and prices on this product click here or call our slaes department for more information