Industry Talk

Have you ever wondered exactly what goes on when classic hardware is recreated in plug-in form? Heres the full story from some of the industrys biggest names.

After looking at the development of and theory behind mLAN, Paul Wiffen continues his series on the new FireWire-based music and audio protocol with a practical look at the effect it will have on the gear in our studios and how we connect it together.

Last month, Paul Wiffen explained how he heard about mLAN — a new data-transfer protocol which will allow us to send audio, MIDI, and even video down one FireWire connector. This month, he finds out from Yoshi Sawada of Yamaha's mLAN development team how the system is likely to work in practice.

A new interfacing standard is just around the corner which can carry digital audio, MIDI, timecode and hard drive communications down a single cable, in addition to the digital video and multimedia signals which the likes of Sony, Apple and others are already sending down it. Paul Wiffen, long an advocate of high-speed digital interfaces, investigates and finds that he may just have a new religion to evangelise.

Commercial singles and albums are incorporating ever-more-sophisticated interactive audio and visual content, often using the Enhanced CD format. Janet Harniman-Cook starts this two-part feature with a look at how the format is being used by record companies, and the possibilities that are open to independent musicians.

Ian Gilby asks the question.