Archives for 2003

United States Autosound Competition International (USACI) has provided event details for a couple of Spring Break competition events coming up in March.

First up is 6th annual Spring Break Jam, March 1-2, 2003 at the South Padre Island Convention Center in South Padre Island, Texas. The event will include a USACI triple-points regional sound off and USACI custom car show, plus live performances, free product giveaways, and bikini contests.

Spring Break Jam will also feature “The Mike Outlaw Show,” under a new agreement that will bring Mike Outlaw and his “incredibly crazy personality” to the spring break event every year for the next three years.

“I am pumped!” exclaims Mike Outlaw, explaining that he can hardly wait to take the stage at Padre. “I do a lot of events, but few as fun or spontaneous as Spring Break Jam” he says.

A couple of weeks later comes the USACI Spring Break Beach Bash, sponsored by Audiobahn. It takes place March 15-16, 2003, at the Miracle Mile Amusement Park on the “Party Strip” at Panama City Beach, Florida. It will be a USACI Regional event, World SPL Record Event, and Tuner Jam Car Show. Organizers are expecting about 100,000 spring breakers to attend.

The event admission includes one free admission to the amusement park, World Finals size trophies, and cash prize money in every class, with one lucky competitor winning a guaranteed $1000 cash prize.

Among the attractions at the Beach Bash:

• “The Judge” SPL tower
• the “Mike Outlaw Show” (sponsored by Memphis Car Audio)
• SPL Legend Alma Gates will sign autographs
• “The Bronco,” the vehicle that changed the face of SPL competition in America

Team Kicker will be on hand to support their competitors as will Crutchfield, Memphis Car Audio, Audiobahn, Digital Audio, Ichibahn, Xcite Audio, Swiss Audio, Alphasonic, and many other local and national sponsors.

Sommers Audio of Panama City Beach will be the local host sponsor for the event.

USACI Web Site

he new VOKATOR plug-in from German virtual synth developer Native Instruments is a vocoder that the company says will define a new standard for transparency, detail, and smoothness. It will be available in February 2003 for Mac OS9 and Windows PCs (support for DXi II, RTAS and OS X including Audio Units will follow later), at a suggested retail price of $299 (US).
It is not only an exceptional vocoder, but also a sophisticated synthesizer, a granular sampler, and a virtual sound-fusion laboratory. By offering multiple modes of operation, VOKATOR opens vast new worlds of sound-design possibilities.

VOKATOR’s high-resolution FFT spectral engine is a milestone in vocoder development. Previous vocoders used eight, sixteen, twenty, or thirty-two frequency bands at the most ­ the more frequency bands, the smoother and creamier the effect. Unlike its predecessors, VOKATOR’s advanced engine uses 1024 bands. In addition to its stunningly transparent, full-resolution operation, VOKATOR’s bands can even be grouped together for a convincing vintage-vocoder emulation. To ensure optimal dynamic range across the frequency spectrum, an integrated frequency-domain compressor balances the levels of all bands.

A pair of vocoding channels can either be spectrally combined or played independently. Channel A can be switched between an integrated file player or external input A, while Channel B can be set to a full-featured synthesizer, a time-stretching granular sampler, or external input B. For a traditional vocoder effect, the frequency spectrum of the external input would be controlled by the synthesizer, but VOKATOR’s capabilities are much more advanced than simple vocoding.

VOKATOR is both an effect plug-in and a vocoder-based synthesizer. Its synthesizer features an advanced dual-oscillator design with dynamic preset morphing controlled by the modulation wheel. VOKATOR’s granular sampler can independently control a sample’s pitch and time. A full range of modulators ­ step sequencers, envelope followers, LFOs, and more ­ can be easily routed to any of the synthesizer’s or sampler’s parameters.

Native Instruments Web Site

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