MOTUnation.com

I can't cut/paste from the email as it's strictly a raster image (no text), so will try to summarize the announcement.

Basically, it is a grand update and expansion of the Virtual Microphone System, and includes the new VRS-8 interface and ML-2 Modeling Microphone, but goes much further in emulating the entire recording signal path.

Saw that. I'm gonna watch the presentation tomorrow as I'm at my gig.


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The initial pre NAMM presentation is already up.
It looks pretty cool, they're using Thunderbolt to get a reported .7 milliseconds of latency.
The mic pres are all designed to work well with their pre amp plug ins etc.

My only gripe is they compared the CPU performance to UAD, because native is better etc. but I would have rather them compared to a Pro Tools HD in terms of actually running a .7ms with a 'normal load of recording plug ins etc. to see how it compared latencly wise to an HD system which can use both native and HD DSP.

The whole package is reasonably priced, especially the bundle deal including microphones.

I don't care if they compared to Pro Tools HD - never could afford that so I'm not a PT HD person.
Personally for me its better that they didn't.

That said, Steven's presentation made a great point - USB as a protocol sucks big time. It's never been as good as even Firewire 400, despite what manufacturers claim, its worthless for serious audio production. As Steven says, a Native PCIe based system absolutely smokes USB or anything else for that matter. The tradeoff of course is the latency problem. His system seems to have solved that issue, making it very very attractive, especially at that price point.

I have a ton of money invested in UAD, so until my QuadCore Mac Pro dies the all-time death and cannot be resurrected, I will continue to use it. But the Slate VRS definitely looks to be the replacement when that happens.

My own company beat the latency problem ten years ago, but our gear is primarily for live sound. It's been good to see the rest of the industry finally catch up with us, even if a bit scary from a competitive point of view. For reference, I consider 0.5ms to be the least acceptable target.

RME have done a magnificent job of USB, to the point that I no longer use Firewire. But I am intrigued by some of the new Thunderbolt solutions (including those from MOTU, and the AVB stuff that my company helped pioneer).

The long-awaited update from Lynx (new Aurora model at NAMM) seems to not be good bang-for-buck from initial reviews.

I haven't had time to dig into details for Slate's or Lynx's new stuff, or even MOTU's. I watched more of Slate's video than I ahd time for, and then had to give up on trying to figure out what protocol was being used, including connection types or even if it is PCIe based. Same with new Lynx Aurora.

Hopefully these important specs will be easier to find shortly. They're the first specs I look at, as I don't waste my time otherwise. I guess others have different priorities so focus on everything but the connection topology and data protocols.