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The Spectral/Euphonix R1 Digital Audio Recorder
JPG photos of this meeting
Written by Gary Louie, AES PNW Secretary
March 30, 1999 at Jack Straw Studios
The PNW Section met at Jack Straw Studios in Seattle March 30, 1999, to
examine the engineering behind a new digital audio recorder. It was
co-developed by a local company, Spectral, a division of Euphonix.
Section Chair Rick Chinn opened the meeting, having all attendees (over 40)
introduce themselves. The door prize drawing awarded some Boss socks, a
Neumann CD-ROM, Firewire cables and a copy of PNW member Bob Moses' book,
"Digital Projects for Musicians" by Craig Anderton, Bob Moses and Greg
Bartlett.
Mark Doenges, one of the founders of Woodinville, WA based Spectral (now a
division of Euphonix), was joined by Dana Bourke of Spectral and Richard
McKernan of Euphonix. Mark began with a little history of Spectral. They
were the first company to put a digital audio bus in a computer in 1988, had
an early realtime synthesizer in a computer, and later sold the AudioEngine
DAW. Their background in DSP and DAW development led them to search for a
partner for new products. This led to their joining with Euphonix of
California.
Mark introduced their R1 recorder - a merging of the latest DSP, DAW and
digital recording technologies into a new animal that often looks and works
much like a traditional high-tech 24 track audio recorder.
Mark discussed the hardware and the bus structure, describing the MADI
(Multi-channel Audio Digital Interface) and IEEE 1394 "Firewire"
implementations. Mark described the interface arrangements - the transport
DSP engine at the center, MADI on one side streaming data out with sample
clock, SCSI on one side bursting and interleaving to the HDs, and IEEE 1394
on one side interfacing to the standard computing environment. They made a
concious decision to not compete with the computing industry - just be ready
to utilize computer industry developments.
The R1 is a hybrid of DAW technologies, but acts like a tape recorder, and
is meant to work in conjunction with studio DAWs. Much time was spent on
reliability and ergonomics. The unit presents a traditional console that
anyone should be able to walk up to and operate. However, unlike a real
multitrack tape recorder, non-linear operation is possible. The sound
quality is 24 bit, 48 KHz sampling (96KHz ready). Mark noted that 24 bit
works much better than 16, but 16 bit is still available. Analog Devices 40
bit floating point SHARC processors are used.
With the varispeed, sampling rate is not changed. The sound change is done
on the transport engine, which sounds better and doesn't break your DAW.
They felt that the storage media must be non-degrading, unlike tape; they
used 9 GB SCSI IBM Ultrastar hard drives, Kingston mounted (a removable
modular tray). They wanted one HD to handle 24 tracks, but two are
recommended for seamless 24 track punch in/out with monitoring (with 88 min.
capacity). No error correction is needed unlike tape based digital
recorders. They do not defragment HDs - it's fast enough to not worry about.
The unit has some editing features, linear in orientation, such as
cut-copy-paste; mark in, mark out. It's also modular and expandable up to
192 channels.
Digital converters, for MADI to AES are coming soon. Mark emphasized that
they believe in adhering to standards for formats and interfaces. They
support MADI, AES stereo, analog, IEEE 1394, WAV, broadcast WAV, and AAF.
Mark then ran the hardware and showed its operation. The features operated
like a traditional 24 track, with additions for its added features - they
trademarked this as "Reel Feel." Many audience questions on engineering
details were fielded, and the hardware given a thorough workout before
attendees adjourned for some light refreshments.
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last modified 11/4/2001