DNS Sabelithe - Main Audio/Video Workstation

• Intel Core2Quad QX9650 @ 4x 3.6 GHz FSB 1600
• ASUS Striker Extreme (nForce 680i) motherboard
• 4 GB DDR2-1066 OCZ Reaper RAM (dual-channel)
• Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT graphic card (passive cooled)
• 6000 GB SATA2: 6x 1 TB Samsung HD
  (16 MB cache - 100+ MB/sec sustained transfer rate)
• RME Fireface 800 audio interface
  (4 mic preamps, see details under)
• 2x Audient ASP008 microphone preamps with ADAT interface
  (16 mic preamps)
• Universal Audio UAD-2 Quad DSP audio card
• 100+ stereo realtime audio tracks @ 24-bit 44.1 kHz
• MOTU MidiExpress 128 8x8 MIDI Interface
• 40" Toshiba REGZA full HD LCD flatscreen (1920x1080 - 24/50/60p)
• Logitech G7 high resolution wireless Laser Mouse (2000 dpi)
• Logitech G11 Keyboard with blue key backlight
• Windows Vista Ultimate OS

DNS Luna - Mobile Audio Workstation

• Intel Core2Duo 8400 2x 3 GHz
• ASUS Striker Extreme (nForce 680i) motherboard
• 4 GB DDR2-800 OCZ Reaper RAM (dual-channel)
• Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT graphic card (passive cooled)
• 2000 GB SATA2: 4x 500 GB Samsung HD
  (16 MB cache - 80+ MB/sec sustained transfer rate)
• RME Fireface 800 audio interface
  (4 mic preamps, see details under)
• 2x Audient ASP008 microphone preamps with ADAT interface
  (16 mic preamps)
• Universal Audio UAD-1e Extreme DSP audio card
• 100+ stereo realtime audio tracks @ 24-bit 44.1 kHz
• 22" Samsung LCD flatscreen (1680x1050)
• Logitech G7 high resolution wireless Laser Mouse (2000 dpi)
• Logitech DiNovo Keyboard
• Windows Vista Ultimate OS

DNS Solaris - Audio Laptop

• VAIO VGN-A417M Notebook
• 1.86 GHz Intel Pentium M 750 CPU
• 2 GB Kingston DDR-RAM
• 80 GB internal hard-disk capacity
• Sony DVD+/-RW Dual-Layer drive
• ATI X600 mobile graphic card (256 MB on-board RAM)
• Integrated 17" widescreen with high contrast X-black technology
  and 1440 x 900 resolution
• 900 GB external hard disk backup capacity (35 MB/sec)
• PCM-CIA card with 3 additional Firewire ports
• 90+ mono realtime audio tracks @ 24-bit 44.1 kHz
• RME Fireface 800 audio interface
  (4 mic preamps, see details under)
• 2x Audient ASP008 microphone preamps with ADAT interface
  (16 mic preamps)
• Logitech G7 high resolution wireless Laser Mouse (2000 dpi)
• Windows XP 2003 Media Center edition OS

 

"DNS-Solaris" Mobile Audio Workstation

External views of the DNS Studios building

Studio Features & Storage Capacity

• Studio Features:
  - Direct-to-disk 24-bit 192 kHz recording, editing and mastering
  - Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio standard ready
  - Full digital audio mixing, DSP and MIDI automation within the Logic Platinum and Cubase 4 environments
  - each mixing, plugin and Audio Instrument parameter can be fully automated using the touch-sensitive motorfaders or the V-Pots of the Mackie Control Universal units (1 main and 2 extenders)
• Hard-disk Storage Capacity
  - over 6 TB, all instantly accessible/editable
  - 6000+ hours rec. time @ 24-bit 44.1 kHz, stereo
  - 500+ hours rec. time @ 24-bit 44.1 kHz, 24 mono tracks
• Dynamic range of AD/DA units:
  - AD: up to 117 dB (ADI 8 DS)
  - DA: up to 112 dB (ADI 8 DS)

Real-time Track Count & System Audio Latency

• Track Count on "DNS-Sabelithe" Workstation (Core2Duo 6700):
  - over 200 mono audio tracks @ 24-bit 44.1 kHz
• Track Count on "DNS-Solaris" Mobile Audio Workstation (VAIO Pentium M 1.86 GHz):
  - over 90 mono audio tracks @ 24-bit 44.1 kHz on
• Latency @ 192 kHz:
  - 0.75 ms (digital I/O)
  - 0.625 ms (realtime audio instruments)
  - 1.25 ms (analog I/O)
• Latency @ 96 kHz:
  - 1.5 ms (digital I/O)
  - 1.25 ms (realtime audio instruments)
  - 2.5 ms (analog I/O)
• Latency @ 44.1 kHz:
  - 3 ms (digital I/O)
  - 2.5 ms (realtime audio instruments),
  - 5 ms (analog I/O)

Audio Interfaces, MIDI Interfaces & Preamps

• RME Fireface 800 sound card (8x 24-bit 192 kHz analogue I/O, 2x ADAT I/O, 1x AES/EBU, WordClock, 4 mic preamps)
• 2x Audient ASP008 8-channel ultra-high-quality, variable impedance microphone preamp with integrated ADAT interface (8 transistor discrete Class A front end with extended band-width and a noise floor close to the theoretical Johnson limit)
• total 20-channel mobile studio mic preamps
• 1x RME ADI8-DS high end 8-channel 24-bit 96 kHz AD|DA unit (ADAT + T-DIF I/O interface)
• (RME Fireface 800 + 2x Audient ASP808)
• 2x RME Digi9652 "Project Hammerfall" sound cards (3x ADAT I/O + AES/EBU + WordClock), 24-bit 96 KHz capability, 52 I/O channels (26 in + 26 out), 0-CPU Load ASIO-2 drivers, Nemesys GigaSampler drivers, 1.5 / 3.0 ms latency at standard operating mode (ASIO)
• Universal Audio UAD-2 Quad DSP audio card with Extreme Plugin Pack, SPL Transient Designer, LA3A and Precision De-Esser
• Universal Audio UAD-1e DSP audio card with Extreme Plugin Pack
• Emagic Unitor8 mk II MIDI/SMPTE sync interface - AMT technologiy for extreme MIDI timing accuracy - 128 MIDI channels I/O
• Emagic AMT 8 MIDI interface with AMT technology
• 1 MIDI I/O included in RME Fireface 800

Control Surfaces

• 1 Mackie Control Universal
• 2 MCU Extender units
• 25 touch-sensitive Penny & Giles motorfaders and 24 V-Pots
• Jog Wheel, large transport buttons
• 3 LCD displays and 1 SMPTE/bar-beat LED display
• Supports Logic, Cubase, Vegas

CD-RW and DVD-RW drives

• High quality Sony + Pioneer DVD+/-RW drive for backup and DVD Audio or Video mastering
• 2x Pioneer DVD-106S slot in drives (40x CD-ROM, 16x DVD-ROM speed)
• High quality CD-R mastering recorder (Plextor 40/12/40) with VariRec option for best CD-R Audio quality

Mackie Control Universal

Sony VAIO VGN-417M

RME Fireface 800 audio interface,
Audient ASP800 microphone preamp
and Unitor 8 mkII MIDI interface

900 GB Hard-Disk Storage Capacity
on Mobile Audio Workstation

Logic Platinum

HDR|MIDI & Video Editing Software

• Steinberg Cubase 5 hard-disk recording / MIDI sequencer (24-bit 192 kHz)
• Emagic Logic Platinum hard-disk recording / MIDI sequencer (24-bit 96 kHz)
• Sony Vegas Pro 8.0 + DVD Architect 4.5 non-linear audio/video editing with advanced video-overlay and transition effects
• Sony CD Architect 5.2 + Sound Forge 8.0 editing / mastering suite
• Steinberg Wavelab 3.04 24-bit 96 kHz editing / mastering suite
• Creamware TDAT v3.0.6 24-bit 96 kHz hard-disk recording, editing and mastering suite with real time DSP processing (8 band full parametric EQ on each channel, compressor/limiter/expander, virtual room simulator, echo/delay, pitch and time stretching, declicking/denoising, bass/treble sound enhancing, etc.)

Audio PlugIns

• List of UAD plugins running on the UAD-2 Quad and UAD1e DSP cards:
  Dynamics:
  - 1176LN/SE
  - Fairchild 670
  - LA-2A
  - LA-3A
  - SPL Transient Designer
  - Empirical Labs "Fatso"
  - Neve 33609
  - Precision Limiter
  - Precision Multiband
  - Precision De-Esser
  EQs:
  - Trident A-Range EQ
  - Cambridge EQ
  - Neve 1073 EQ
  - Neve 1081 EQ
  - Pultec EQ
  - Pultec Pro EQ
  - Precision EQ
  Modulation:
  - Boss CE-1
  - Roland Dimension D
  - Roland RE-201
  Channel Strips:
  - Neve 88RS
  - CS1 Plug-In Suite
  Speaker Simulation:
  - Nigel Plug-In Suite (UAD-1 only)
  Reverbs:
  - EMT 250 Reverb
  - Plate 140 Reverb
  - DreamVerb
  - RealVerb Pro
• PSP Vintage Warmer high-end multiband compressor / tape saturation simulator
• Lexicon PSP42 high-quality digital stereo delay and phrase sampler - a perfect replica of the Lexicon 42 delay
• PSP84 high-end digital stereo delay with additional modules (tape saturation, filter, modulation and vintage hall)
• PSP Nitro advanced multimode filter - it offers many filter types derived from analog prototypes in addition to other useful processing blocks such as phaser, bit-crusher/downsampler, waveshaper and interpolated delay blocks; these can be connected to each other using virtually any routing scheme
• PSP MasterQ high-end parametric mastering EQ
• PSP Mix Pack including PSP MixBass, PSP MixSaturator, PSP MixPressor and PSP MixTreble
• Waves Native Power Pack v 5.x plugins (L1 Ultramaximizer, C1 Dynamic Processor, Q10 Parametric EQ, S1 Stereo Imager, TrueVerb Virtual Space/Reverb)
• Waves IR 1 v 5.x Parametric Convolution Reverb including hundreds of impulse responses from acoustic spaces worldwide
• VB Audio Plug-ind Pack 1 plugins: Aphro V1 (high-end Reverb with room, hall, plate and chanber algorithms), EQpro G3 (professional phase correlated EQ) and C-Limiter (compressor-limiter)
• Antares Systems AutoTune v 5 VST (realtime automatic pitch correction)
• GRM Tools plugin pack including: BandPass, Comb Filters, Delays, Doppler, Freeze, Pitch Accum, Shuffling, Reson
• Destroy FX plugins: Transverb, BufferOverride, Geometer, Scrubby, RezSynth, Skidder, Polarizer
• TobyBear plugins: Deconstructor, AlliGater, MorphOne, SilverBox, ShivaShifter, CowDelay, PeakFreak
• Digital Fish Phones plugins: Dominion (transient designer), Endorphin (compressor), Blockfish (Analog modeling compressor with saturation), Spitfish (de-esser), Floorfish (noise gate)
• Sinus Web plugins: FreeVerb 1.5, MultiLens
• iZotope Vinyl (simulates the sound of an old vinyl disk)
• Big Tick Audio plugins: Hexaline, Dual Delay, Nasty Shaper
• WaveWalkers, FireWalkers and Osiris Restauration Suite plugins for TDAT

Steinberg Cubase

PSP Lexicon 42 and PSP 84 Delays

PSP Vintage Warmer

PSP MasterQ

PSP Nitro

VB Aphro V1 Reverb

Studio Microphones

• 2 x DPA 4600 with Brüel & Kjaer omnidirectional condenser capsules - these are among the best microhpones available today! They offer more than 140 dB of dynamic range, very low noise, a warm, natural, transparent and completely distortion-free sound.
  We use a special matched pair together with a Jecklin disk for OSS (Optimal Stereo Signal) recording. This setup will faithfully capture every nuance of the performance, delivering the full spectrum of frequencies and sound colors of the original instruments. Ideal for orchestra, choir, ensemble and piano recordings.
• 2 x Brauner Phantom C high-end, large membrane, high resolution, low noise condenser microphones. The Phantom C uses the same capsule as the legendary Brauner VM1. This is a fantastic all-round microphone, excellent on female and male vocals, solo strings, etc.
• 9 x RODE NT1000 large membrane, high resolution, low noise condenser microphones. A good all-round microphone.
• 2 x AT 3035 large membrane, high SPL condenser microphones. Max input 158 dB SPL (with pad on), ideal for drumkit overheads and other high SPL situations.
• 2 x AKG C460B with CK61-ULS cardioid capsule for instrumental recordings. Extremely flat on-axis freq. response. Very good on piano or acoustic guitar.
• available on demand: AKG C414 B-XLS, MBHO, Neumann, etc.

Mic Preamps and Mixers

• 2x Audient ASP800 8-channel ultra-high-quality, variable impedance microphone preamp with integrated ADAT interface (8 transistor discrete Class A front end with extended band-width and a noise floor close to the theoretical Johnson limit)
• RME Fireface 800 sound card (includes 4 extremely low noice mic pres)
• Mackie 8•Bus 24/48 tracks in-line mixer with meter-bridge
• Mackie 1402 VLZ portable mixer
• 1 Mackie Control Universal and 2 Extender Units (see details above)

Outboard

• Lexicon LXP 15 digital reverb
• Lexicon PCM 90 (LX 480-L programs)
• Behringer Ultrafex II EX 3100 bass + treble harmonic enhancer/stereo surround processor/noise reduction module
• Behringer Composer MDX 2100 compressor/limiter, expander/gate module
• Digitech Talker analogue vocoder with Advanced Vocal Synthesis technology
• Additional outboard by AMEK, TL-Audio and more available on demand

Monitoring

• Quested VS2108 high resolution self-powered nearfield monitors (frequency response 55 Hz - 19 kHz +/- 2 dB, 110 + 100 Watt RMS per channel)
• ADAM Artist portable nearfield monitors with precision ribbon tweeters
• 2 x UltraSone HFI 650 DVD high resolution headphones with extended bass response (10 Hz - 225 kHz)
• 2 x AudioTechnica ATH-M40fs full range stereo headphones
• Sony MDR-F1 full open air stereo headphones (frequency response 10 Hz - 30 kHz)
• Pioneer SE-DJ 5000 professional DJ stereo headphones

Cabling

• All studio equipment connected using exclusively the studio reference Studio Pro 1000 or Performer 500 Microphone and Instrument Cables or Monster StudioLink^© Performer 500 Snakes. These high quality cables guarantee excellent signal transmission with extremely low noise.
• Microphone Cables by Monster or Cordial, all featuring Neutrik XLR connectors.

Mastering Recorders

• Tascam DA-45HR 24 bit 44.1/48 kHz high resolution DAT recorder
• Tascam Model 103 master cassette deck (Dolby B/C)

DPA 4006 and Jecklin Disk (OSS)

Brauner Phantom C Special Edition

RME Fireface 800 audio interface and Audient ASP800 microphone preamp

Quested VS2108 Monitor

ADAM Artist Monitor

Acoustic Instruments

• Bechstein concert grand piano (length: 273 cm). Built in the '40s, this is one of the finest instruments of this kind ever made; played among others by Benedetto Michelangeli. The mechanic has been recently re-calibrated and is in perfect working conditions.
• Grimaldi type Harpsichord, 1 manual, 8'+8' registers, 415 and 440 pitch (tranposing keyboard)
• African Djembe, 3 Didgeridoos, woodblocks, shakers, etc.
• Other instruments available on demand

Hardware Synthesizers

• Novation Supernova ASM (Analogue Sound Modeling) synthesizer with OS v3.0 - 20 voice polyphony, 56 simultaneous effects
• Korg M1-EX AI synthesis music workstation (with additional PCM sample cards, program cards and SAM1 interface)
• Roland JD800 Synthesizer with custom sound library
• SAM1 sample expander module for the Korg M1
• Korg P3 digital piano module (with additional PCM sample cards)
• Quasimidi Technox techno-rave-electronic sound module
• All external MIDI instrument parameters can be automated with the Logic Platinum and Cubase SX sequencers

Software Samplers

• Nemesys GigaStudio 160 - 160 voices sampler + realtime effects - virtually unlimited sample memory (reads samples directly from the hard-disk)
• Emagic EXS24 mk II Sampler

Software Synthesizers

• Emagic ES1 virtual analog synthesizer, ES2 vector/wavetable synthesizer, EVOC 20 vocoder, EVP 88 virtual E-Piano (including many Rhodes and Wurlitzer models).
• Native Instruments Pro52 virtual analog synth (a Prophet 5 emulation)
• Waldorf PPG Wave 2.V wavetable synthesizer (a PPG Wave 2 emulation)
• Waldorf Attack drum computer with vast sample library
• Waldorf D-Pole analog filter emulation (lowpass, highpass, bandpass, notch and resonator - capable of self-oscillation - all types resonant)
• Cockaigne Audio Instruments: Oberon Poly 8 (virtual analog), Satyr-8 (VA), Quantum 64 (inspired from the Commodore 64 SID), Panzertank PM4 (FM), Phibes (electric organ), Morpheus (FM sampler)
• TobyBear Audio Instruments: Borderliner and MorphOne
• Big Tick Audio Audio Instruments: Cheese Machine (analog pad synth)
• rgcAudio Audio Instruments: Triange II (virtual analog)
• Muon Software Audio Instruments: Tau Bassline (a Roland TB 303 clone)
• reFX Audio Instrument: Claw
• All internal software instrument parameters can be automated with the Logic Platinum and Cubase SX sequencers

Sound and Sample Libraries

• Vast custom DNS sound and sample library for the GigaSampler and the SAM1 sample expander
• Vienna Symphony Library OPUS 1 and OPUS 2 orchestra samples for EXS24 mkII and GigaStudio
• Vast sample library including: SpectraSonics Liquid Grooves, Burning Grooves and Distorted Reality, Conexant GigaSampler GS Library, etc.
• All outboard MIDI effects controllable over the LOGIC sequencer
• Additional sounds and samples available on demand

Korg M1 EX AI Synthesis Workstation

Novation Supernova ASM Synthesizer

Emagic ES2 Vector/Wavetable Synthesizer

Emagic ES1 Virtual Analog Synthesizer

Emagic EVP88 Virtual E-Piano

Emagic EXS24 mk II Sampler

Cockaigne Satyr 8 Subtractive Synthesizer