In this month’s tech round-up James Trigo take you through Native Instruments’ latest all-in-one Kontrol S8, Genelec’s revolutionary new monitors and iZotope’s new version of their much loved mastering plug-in, Ozone 6.
In a bid for your Christmas buck the last month’s been a busy one for gear releases, kicking off with NI’s flagship all-in-one controller, the Traktor Kontrol S8. Swapping out the jog wheels and replacing them with two high-res screens, it’s clear NI are firmly set on trying to part the DJ from their laptop, although the hardware is still bundled with the fully integrated Scratch Pro 2. With a 24-bit/48kHz audio interface, fully functional on-board 4-channel mixer equipped with XLR, RCA and 1/4” outputs and the same high quality encoders and touch strips that’s on NI’s other hardware, it does have a lot going for it. Available now for £999.
This month also heard news of the release of Genelec’s new monitors, the 8351’s. Deemed “revolutionary” they do look unlike any monitor we’ve seen before thanks to the Maximised Directivity Controlled Waveguide, MaxDCW and the Acoustically Concealed Woofers or ACW, which basically looks like you’re missing a speaker. This however is the technology that enables Genelec to deliver flat frequency response in any room. Taking it’s dimensions from the 8050 monitor it’s a good size for a three way monitor and with the Minimum Diffraction Co-axial midrange/tweeter driver developed from the 8260, the monitor is still unmistakingly Genelec. With no price or date your just going to have to make do with this video
Amassing quite a legion of high quality plugins, iZotope have just realised the next version of their much loved mastering plug-in, Ozone 6. Promising a new interface, a modern workflow and lots of improved EQ tools, this incarnation also offers new analog hardware-modelled EQ shapes, based on classics like API and Baxandall-style filters. There’s a customisable signal chain to host third party VST’s or AU’s and a seamless bypass tool that gain matches to enable more accurate A/Bing. On Sale now until Nov 13th at $199 for standard and $599 for Advanced.
