News and Updates

A little while back we had in the new HEDD Audio Type 05s and Type 07 studio monitors. We were very impressed with what these were capable of.

Since then, we've had the flagship of the Type Series in to our demo stock. These are a three way, loaded with two 7" drivers handling the bass, a 4" mid range and the HEDD Air Motion Transformer, Klaus Heinz's latest take on the ribbon design. All the drive units are custom designs from HEDD. There are very few companies that actually make their own drivers. This puts HEDD at a bit of an advantage to most of the speaker manufacturers out there. They join a very select group of designers who are able to design the drivers around the performance of the whole monitor, rather than trying to adjust their amplifier, cabinet and cross over design to compensate for the performance of generic, off-the-shelf drive units. The cabinets are front-ported with a slot- design.

Designed as mid fields for decent sized rooms, they pack the kind of power you'd expect to see at this size with no less than four 300W ICEpower® amplifiers. This gives these monitors some serious welly.

On the back, there are balanced XLR inputs along with unbalanced RCA and the space for the HEDD Bridge cards- a series of digital expansion options that HEDD have developed, adding a very easy way to get their monitors working with digital gear or added to a Dante network. Along with that there are a couple of tuning trim controls for high and low shelf to adjust for any room discrepancies or personal taste.

In terms of performance, they're exactly what we'd expect for the money and fit exactly the aim that HEDD have set out for. Running some test tones through monitors can often reveal some of the characteristics of a monitor. Sweeping a sine wave across the cross over points shows a very balanced transition with no frequencies jumping out or ducking particularly. Similarly, getting down low, the design of the ports, HEDD seem to have fixed the port chuffing that some designs suffer from.

For mixing work, they produce a very well defined sound stage with instruments and vocal sounding very natural. Lows are very well represented and don't cloud mixes. The mids are clear and vocals project well but without the forced-feeling that some three way boxes give.  Tops are detailed and smooth with transients sounding very musical.

Overall, HEDD have created a very capable monitor. We'll be keeping these on demo for a while. If you're interested in hearing them, you can book a demo with us now.

This August get 10% off all DPA Microphones Slim mics – both d:screet™ 4060 and 4061 Slim Lavalier mics and d:fine Slim omnidirectional and directional Headset mics of all colours and variations.

10% off Which DPA Slim Mics?

Lavaliers

• d:screet™ 4060 Slim lavaliers (details)
• d:screet™ 4061 Slim lavaliers (details)

Headsets

• d:fine™ Slim Omni headsets (details)
• d:fine™ Slim Directional headsets (details)

To take advantage of this offer, call us on 0121 270 5652 or email . We'll take you through the options and get the right microphone for you.

Over the years, there are many products from the consumer audio world that have found their way into the studio and stuck there- the ubiquitous Yamaha NS10s are a great example. Even though Yamaha stopped making them over ten years ago, they still occupy space atop many mixers in studios throughout the world. Focal, who already make a very nice studio headphone in the form of the Spirit Pro may well have just created another.

Being well known in the world of high-end hifi, Focal released three new headphones last year for the consumer market - Listen, Elear and Utopia. whilst the Listen were very much audio on the move, both the Elear and Utopia are aimed far more at the discerning music lover. Utopia are a no-expense-spared affair using a combination of Focal's unique knowledge and production capability featuring beryllium drivers, carbon fibre trim, they also carry an eye-watering price at £3499, reflecting the R&D that have gone into them.

The Elear, however, feature many of the technical advancements seen in the Utopia but with slightly less exotic materials which give them a slightly more palatable price tag at £899.

For the money, you get a fantastic performing headphone. From a mixing point of view, they support the full frequency range with an impressively neutral tonal balance. No frequencies ever feel enhanced or hyped but rather that they're what was originally put into the recording. That feeling is also apparent in their reproduction of dynamics- if you're mixing and adjusting compression levels, the Elear are able to reveal and show what even subtle changes are doing to your mix and will let you know when you've gone too far. Similarly, instrument placement and panning is made very easy thanks to their incredibly spacious representation of the sound field. It's very easy to focus on what you need to in a mix and draw out what you need to.

If you have to mix on headphones and can't compromise on the sound, you would do well to take a test drive of the Elear. Similarly, if you've never mixed on headphones, you might find that there is finally a set that perform how you need them to for your work.

It's a good time for monitors at the moment. The market has come on in leaps and bounds lately, with manufacturers really pushing the technology and creating some amazing speakers at some amazing prices.

We've added a couple of very interesting new things to our demo stock.

HEDD Audio

This is a very interesting company with an amazing heritage and they've come to market with a range of incredible sounding monitors all based around new technology.

Their chief designer is better known as the guy who bought us Adam Audio. Famous for their ribbon tweeter tech seen in classic monitors like the A7. This was a favourite of Drum and Bass producers thanks to it's extended low end and incredible mid and top end clarity.

This new company was started and has introduced several advancements on the old designs, along with solving some of the issues seen in these old Adam models.

New tech

The HEDD Ribbon AMT tweeter is at the heart of the design with the highest resolution and detail found in any ribbon on the market producing a natural and uncoloured sound with a super-high resolution.

They're also designed for the way the modern broadcast audio world is developing, with the addition of the Hedd Bridge- a slot in card system to connect the speakers to the latest in network audio- be that Ravenna, Dante, AES67 or USB. It also leaves room for upgrading to future specifications that might come in the next few years.

With carefully matched woofers and amplifiers, superbly constructed with a rubberised finish, these new monitors are currently available in several versions

Type 05 - A two-way nearfield monitor with a 5" woofer, featuring two 50 watt amplifiers.

Type 07 - A two-way nearfield monitor with a 7" woofer and two 100 watt amplifiers

Type 20 - A three-way near/midfield monitor with a 7" bass cone, 4" midrange with three 300 watt amplifiers

Type 30 - A three-way midfield monitor, with twin 7" bass drivers, 4" midrange and four 300 watt amplifiers

We currently have the Type 05 and the Type 07 on demo at our Jewellery Quarter show room and they are available to listen to in our fully treated listening room.

The new Type 07 is on demo at Giraffe Audio

Got a set of Focal Alphas in your studio? Focal are running a little competition for users of their range. Simply tag a photo of your monitors with the hashtag #proudofmyalphas and you could win one of the following prizes.

•      A training session with Fab Dupont in NYC
•      A set of Focal Solo 6 BEs
•      Focal Spirit Professional Headphones

You can read a bit more about it here on Focal's website.

Feeling a bit left out with your faded and jaded with your current monitors? Well, it could be a good time to upgrade with some great savings on all the Alpha series.

Ableton have some great offers on this winter. If you've been looking at getting into Ableton now is the best time with a massive 20% saving on any of the software packages

• Suite for £447 (£120 saving)
• Standard £271 (£68 saving)
• Intro £71 (£18 saving)

They've also got Push discounted from £599 to £479- a massive of £120 on one of the best controllers on the market.

Running an older version of Ableton? No problems- the upgrades all on offers too

Got an old Turtle Beach card from the mid 90's gathering dust on a shelf somewhere? That could be worth over £300! RME will take that or any other audio interface and give you 20% off the price of a new UFX.

Used by professionals the world over, the UFX features 60 channels of crystal-clear i/o, reference-class AD/DA conversion and sample rates of up to 192 kHz, as well as the ability to operate and record in standalone mode. You can read the full write up here

To take advantage of this great offer, all you need to do is send us your old interface- RME haven't set any limits on what this is - it can be any brand, condition or price. Act now as this offer finishes just after the new year...

Get 20% off any of Audient's award winning 'iD Range' interfaces with their exclusive UK Student Discount. Audient's interfaces are renowned for their Class-A console mic pres, class-leading converter technology, console style monitor control, JFET D.I's and other useful features such as ADAT & their virtual scroll wheel technology - ScrollControl.

Audient's reputation is built on quality and it's that reputation that has seen their launch into the interface market be met with critically acclaimed reviews and multiple industry and fan-voted awards. Upgrade your setup now, invest in your sound and get the professional sound you deserve. For more information on the 'iD Range' please visit Audient's website: iD4, iD14, iD22.

If you are a student in the UK head over to the Audient's website now and register to receive your exclusive discount code.

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Native Instruments have announced a brand new addition to their Maschine line up of controllers. Meet Maschine Jam.

Aimed at bridging the gap between the studio and performance, Jam allows you to fire off sample and sequences, control effects to literally, jam, with your music.

Shipping at the end of September, Native Instruments are including both the full Maschine V2 software and Komplete Select 11, this is an ideal box for both existing Native Instruments users, or for people looking to get into a bit of music production and performance.

Here are some shots of the new hardware courtesy of NI. Due the end of September, we'll have it on demonstration for you to get hands on with.

http://www.giraffeaudio.com/native-instruments-maschine-jam.html

iZotope have some serious savings on some of their software for August with between 10 and 50% off selected packages including Ozone 7, the Music Production Bundle, Alloy 2 and Nectar.

For existing users on older version of Ozone, there are also reduced prices on upgrades available.

More information on all the iZotope products can be found here or you can contact us directly for more information.