SX-1 Digital Production Environment Now Shipping

(Click for a close-up)

TASCAM announced at NAMM that their SX-1 Digital Production Environment is now shipping and available at select TASCAM dealers. Combining automated digital mixing, hard disk recording, MIDI sequencing, extremely powerful editing, DSP effects and CD-burning capabilities, the SX-1 is the culmination of over two years of joint development between TASCAM R&D in Iruma, Japan, the TASCAM Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in Palo Alto, CA, and TimeLine Vista in San Marcos, CA.

Designed to accommodate the needs of professional project studios, commercial recording facilities, broadcast production, and places of worship, the SX-1 is an all-in-one solution for professional audio recording, MIDI production and editing.

"There has never been an integrated audio production tool that offers the feature set and level of integration of the SX-1," says Jim Bailey, TASCAM product development manager. All components, from the MIDI sequencer and hard disk recorder to the editing and mixdown systems, are specifically designed to work together seamlessly. This allows SX-1 owners to focus on their art rather than the technology."

TASCAM marketing manager Jeff Klopmeyer added, "The SX-1's true strength is that it offers a no-compromise solution for people who want to take advantage of the benefits of high-end DAW-style recording and editing, but without dedicating a computer toward this purpose."

The SX-1's feature set includes:

• An extremely flexible 40 input, 32 x 8 x 8 digital mixing console with 100mm, touch sensitive faders, advanced built-in dynamic automation, and 16 high-quality phantom-powered mic preamps.
• A full-function, 48kHz, 24-bit, 16-track hard disk recorder that uses an internal IDE disk drive. Additional SCSI drives may be connected to the SX-1 via a front-panel slot or a rear panel SCSI interface.
• Highly integrated and intuitive waveform, MIDI, and automation data editing via an internal recording/editing engine that uses the fast, reliable, multimedia-optimized Be operating system and an extremely powerful graphics engine.
• Complete surround mixing capabilities with the ability to record a full 5.1 mix to the internal HD in addition to the original 16 audio tracks.
• A 128-track MIDI sequencer with advanced editing modes that are available on the fly, with real time and step record modes and highly accurate timing derived from the internal sample clock. Each of the 64 MIDI outputs can be mapped to channel strips on the console, and channel strip faders and knobs can then be assigned to output MIDI channel or custom, user-defined MIDI messages.
• A built-in CD-RW drive for creating Red Book audio CDs, data backup and archiving, importing sounds from audio or data CDs, and SMF import/export.
• DSP plug-in technology that offers built-in effects by TASCAM, TC Works and Antares as standard features as well as more effects that will be added in the future.
• Extensive analog, digital, MIDI and computer interfacing that includes (16) balanced XLR inputs, (16) 1/4" TRS line inputs, inserts on each analog input, an onboard speaker switcher, eight channels of ADAT Optical digital interface, two stereo S/PDIF inputs (with sample rate conversion) and outputs, wordclock, two MIDI inputs (for MIDI controllers and MIDI Time Code), four MIDI outputs, a SCSI port, a 100Mbits Ethernet jack for FTP capabilities, separate studio and control room monitoring and more.
• Built-in timecode/sync support via SMPTE/LTC, video sync, and Sony P2.
• Expansion slots for 24 more channels of I/O (including optional multichannel interfaces for AES/EBU, TDIF, ADAT Optical) or additional analog I/O.

Other standard features of the SX-1 include an onboard LCD screen that offers a wide variety of editing and automation information, as well as an XVGA output that acts as a complete, stand-alone DAW interface for total control of the machine with no external computer required. The SX-1 also offers a jog/shuttle wheel that allows users to scrub audio and MIDI data simultaneously.

The SX-1 is available from select authorized TASCAM retailers for a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $8999.00 (USD). For more information on the SX-1 and to locate an SX-1 dealer please visit the TASCAM web site at www.tascam.com.