Midiman Introduces New M Audio Division and
Many New Products
February 15, 1999 At this year's 99 NAMM show MIDIMAN announced its new digital audio
division, M Audio. The new M Audio division will focus exclusively on products
for the rapidly-growing PC and Mac based digital recording market. Midiman's
M Audio division expects to introduce over a dozen products in 1999 and several
of these were on display at this year's NAMM show including:
Lagoon™ -- ADAT and S/PDIF PCI Digital Audio Card: A half-sized PCI card
with 1 optical in and 1 optical out, each of which can interface to ADAT or
S/PDIF in any combination. All I/O modes are full-duplex for simultaneous play
and record. ADAT sync is also supported through a standard Alesis style 9-pin
D-type connector which can alternately be used as a 1 in/1 out MIDI interface
(MIDI breakout cable included). Multiple Lagoons can be synced together using
on-board sync I/O jumpers. The Lagoon sports a powerful Motorola 56301, 80 Mhz.
DSP that supports downloadable audio effects and processing. 768 k Bytes of
DRAM ensures reliable audio streaming and effects.
PipeLine 8x8™ -- 24-Bit Multi-Channel Converter for ADAT Lightpipe: A single
height, full rack 8 channel, 24-bit ADAT to analog conversion box. The Pipeline
8x8 converts from ADAT to audio and from audio to ADAT with selectable word
widths and noise-shaped dither for 16 or 20-bit systems. PipeLine also offers
an exclusive BitRazor™ 24/16™ mode which automatically encodes and
decodes 24-bit audio onto any 2 tracks of an ADAT recorder. Other features include:
balanced and unbalanced inputs and outputs on1/4‰ TRS connectors; word
clock in and out; accurate 8 channel LED metering with Peak Hold mode; selectable
+4 dB or -10 dB signal levels; and a whole lot more.
DMAN™ PCI -- Stereo Audio PCI Card: A relatively low cost, PCI compliant
stereo sound card with 90 dB dynamic range. The DMAN PCI has stereo line-level
inputs and outputs on gold-plated RCA jacks and MIDI in and out on 9-pin DIN
connector (MIDI break out cable included). Also on-board is a 64-voice General
MIDI wavetable synthesizer with GS reverb/chorus effects, a built-in header
for addition of standard wavetable daughter board (optional) and a high-quality
differential CD audio input. The DMAN PCI is fully Windows 95/98 Plug-and-Play
compatible and requires only one IRQ and no DMA channels.
CO3™ -- AES/EBU-S/PDIF Coaxial and Optical Converter: A natural follow
on to Midiman's popular CO2 converter, the CO3 converts between AES/EBU, S/PDIF
Coax and TOSlink format digital audio streams. The third-rack CO3 has AES/EBU,
S/PDIF Coax and TOSlink inputs and outputs. A mode button determines which input
is the audio source (master), and the other two inputs are then ignored. The
source input is converted to all three output formats simultaneously. Sample
rates of up to 100kHz are supported with built-in jitter correction.
24 Bit Flying Cow™ and Calfs: A 24-bit version of Midiman's very popular
20-bit Flying Cow A/D and D/A converter box, with even better specs than its
bovine predecessor. Also shown were similarly upgraded 24-bit versions of Midiman's
best selling Flying Calf ™A/D and Flying Calf™ D/A converters.
Midiman folded several of their other best-selling digital audio products into
the new M Audio Division offerings including: DMAN 2044™-- PCI 4 In/4 Out
Digital Audio Card, CO2™-- Coaxial/Optical Bi-Directional Converter, SAM™
-- S/PDIF to ADAT Mixer & Converter, Digipatch 12x6™-- Digital Audio
Patchbay, and Audio Buddy™-- Mic Pre Amp and Direct Box.
Lastly, Midiman showed its two newest MIDI products:
USB MidiSport 2x2™ -- USB 2 in/2 out MIDI Interface: A 2-in 2-out USB MIDI
interface (32x32 MIDI channels) for USB-equipped PC's or Mac's. The MidiSport
is self-powered with MIDI-activity indicators for each port and a "MIDI
Thru" pushbutton that allows gear to be accessed even when the computer
is turned off.
BiPort 2x4s™ -- Mac/PC MIDI Interface with SMPTE: A cross-platform, high-speed
serial bus interface that works with both PC's and Mac's. The BiPort has 4 independent
MIDI outs (64 channels) and 2 independent MIDI ins (32 channels). Large deep
data buffers ensure full MIDI throughput with no data loss and front panel buttons/LEDs
allow full stand-alone SMPTE control even without a computer. The BiPort has
a built-in SMPTE Time Code reader/writer/regenerator that supports all common
MTC formats and SMPTE User Bits.
For more information, visit Midiman's web site at www.midiman.net. | 
