FOCUSRITE COMPANY PROFILE
department worked the idea using a process called Dynamic Convolution, which is carried out on the PC or Mac the VRM box is connected to. “The VRM box itself is a small unit roughly
three inches square, nicely weighted to sit on the desktop, with a volume control, headphone output, USB input and an S/PDIF input.” Drawing its power from a USB feed, the VRM
soon becomes an essential piece of kit, Hoult says, saying he is now not only using one to mix, but also for everyday listening to feeds from iTunes and the like. “It even enhances just listening to music for pleasure, so I personally use mine at my desk, listening to Spotify and iTunes. In fact I think at about the £80 mark it’s great just for that use alone.” Delving further into the specs, the VRM box looks more interesting at every stage. It lets the user choose the desired acoustic environment, from a bedroom studio, through a domestic living room to a professional studio and then gives the user a series of industry standard monitor and hi-fi speakers to switch between. “It’s a great product and I don’t
think anyone else is doing anything like it at the moment,” Hoult says with some understatement. “Despite the low price, it’s a very high quality product with a dynamic range, A- weighted, of 108dB, which is miles better than most laptop headphone outputs, which are rarely better than 93dB – so even if you don’t use the VRM technology, the headphone amplifier in it is better than anything you’ll find in a laptop.” And laptop users are one set of ideal customers for the new Focusrite, Hoult explains, pointing to the number of musicians who now record their gigs while on tour and try to do some sort of after-gig mixing in hotel rooms, where noise restrictions prohibit the use of speakers and where the quality of laptop amplifiers can be all too obvious. Connecting a VRM box suddenly takes the user out of the hotel or backstage environment and puts him in a virtual studio. “That’s certainly the message we’re trying to
get across – that it’s great technology for people trying to mix at 2am in a domestic environment, but also for the guy who’s travelling around and wants to mix something in a simulated studio environment, while he’s travelling on a plane or in a hotel room. We’ve got artists who are actually on tour doing that very thing and it’s the only way they can do it. “Having the VRM gives them the
chance not only to have the emulated environment but also to audition it using different speakers. Ben Supper, one of our
HOULT: “It’s a great product and I don’t think anyone else is doing anything like it
R&D team, has measured impulse responses form many industry standard loudspeakers, and these are included here – various hi-fi speakers as well as the obvious range of 10 nearfield and standard studio monitors.” Indeed, Ben Supper’s work was the subject of
an AES convention paper, so even though this is a sub-£80 box, the technology locked inside shouldn’t be dismissed lightly – it’s serious, top- end stuff. Indeed, so determined is Focusrite to give users the complete range of listening environments for potential mixes, that the VRM box even
includes simulations of typical TV and computer speakers, which suggests that even if a user wasn’t using the processor to avoid noise pollution issues, he could save an awful lot of CD burning and running from environment to environment, in the quest to get an acceptable sound for all of them. “It doesn’t replace speakers – nothing will do
that, but it is a valuable tool for engineers – indeed, for anyone who wants to listen to music over headphones,” Hoult says. “Whilst VRM box can be used as a Core Audio
or ASIO device, it can also be used purely as a VRM processor and headphone amplifier alongside your current audio interface. This is achieved by sending an S/PDIF signal from the interface to the input of VRM Box. This also ensures that VRM box can be used in conjunction with any set-up featuring an S/PDIF output, such as Pro Tools HD for example, without the user having to completely change their workflow.” To help retailers with the VRM box,
Focusrite has maintained its record of providing excellent marketing backup and has introduced a sound cloud to demonstrate the VRM technology, with three music tracks and a succession of the room and speaker emulations, so potential buyers can hear for themselves what the unit has to offer.
“In the pipeline we’ll have a Flash- based application that will be on our website and which I hope will be available to retailers soon as a standalone app, which they can launch to show an interface similar to the final product. Though there’s no
reason why most of our retailers wouldn’t have a demo unit, which will be easily available,” Hoult says.
“
The system enables home recordists to emulate speaker performance
characteristics on their headphones.
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