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GEAR TREND | BY DAN DALEY n the battle to win the recording hobbyist’s dollar, computer-based recording gear has trumped hardware. The most recent market statistics provided by NAMM indicate MI sales of computer/software-based recording equipment grew more than 20 percent between 2001 and 2002—from $184.5 million to $223.4 million. In the same period, dedicated hard drive-based multitrack recorders dropped to $75 million in sales, down from $91 million the year before—half of what the sector generated in 1998, digital recording’s watershed year. I THE MICRO-RECORDER ne area of dedicated audio recording hardware that has proven immune to the rush to the desktop is the microrecorder. While NAMM’s statistics don’t break out this equipment subset, manufacturers report sales of palm-sized recording systems remain robust. “It’s one of the best-selling products in our PortaStudio line,” said Tascam national sales manager Rick McClendon O 68 | MUSIC INC. | SEPTEMBER 2004 MicroMultitracks Are Still Big Business in the Recording Market of the company’s Pocket Studio5, a tiny four-track recorder that stores audio data to a flash memory card. The Pocket Studio5 features a built-in MIDI file player and sound module, 100 onboard digital processing effects, and can mix down to the MP3 format and transfer data to a computer via a USB port. It has an MSRP of $449. According to McClendon, the sales growth mini-recorders experienced comes largely from the musician market. “Even though the musicians who are into recording a n d p ro a u d i o a re m ov i n g quickly over to computers, they’ve discovered these palmpilot-sized recording systems for use as practice and rehearsal devices, and as songwriting sketchbooks, especially now that you can port the data over to your computer running Pro Tools.” ToneWorks’ PXR-4 palmsized unit is regarded by some as the industry’s prototype. The three-year-old unit has four actual tracks, each of which hosts up to eight virtual tracks. It boasts 77 sounds derived from parent company Korg’s audio modeling technology, 55 onboard drum patterns, USB interface and can m i x d ow n w i t h i n i t s e l f t o stereo, with an MSRP of $299. ToneWorks product manager Paul Kramer reported the unit has done well at the retail level since its introduction. “Initially, musicians have to get over a pretty steep learning curve on these kinds of products, compared to larger hard drive multi-track systems,” he said. “Everything is scaled down, like the multifunction cursor wheel. You have to read the manual. But once they get it, people get addicted to them.” Much of the PXR-4’s digital audio derives from ToneWorks’ Pandora line of pint-sized guitar processors, giving it a distinctly MI lineage, versus products from Tascam or Fostex—companies that have an immediate pro audio association. To counter that preconception, Kramer said the company leverages Korg’s high degree of consumer awareness in the sound generation domain. “People using a Korg Triton LE will recognize the PXR-4 as a vertical extension of that,” he said. Samson Technologies’ new PS-04 palm four-track builds on the company’s Zoom line of guitar processors, and at $199 is one of the least expensive on the market, a downward pricing trend that Samson marketing manager Pete Moe said is still in progress. It’s also tiny, at 3-3/8 inches by 5 inches and little more than 1-inch deep. “There’s a physical limit to how small you can go and still make it usable,” said Moe. “But we’re getting close to that limit.” Moe added that the palm sector is spawning its own culture, with users mailing and trading the SmartMedia cards that many of the units use as memory storage. “We’re seeing it break out of the MI side and into lifestyle,” he says, noting that new ads for the unit are going into Men’s Journal as well as musician magazines. “It’s the hardware that mirrors GarageBand,” he said, referring to Apple’s highly successful software. THE RETAIL TREND etailers have seen the trend develop. Despite a sales slump in hard disk recording systems in the last few years, palm-sized multitracks have helped the category pull back some of those losses. “Pro audio has been a hot department lately, mainly because of software recording systems and palm-sized hard disk recorders,” said Chris Gleason, senior vice president for the 20-store chain Daddy’s Junky Music. “The small devices get a good response, and it seems to be almost a generational thing. Younger customers feel more comfortable with these kinds of products, just as older ones feel more familiar with tape systems, in many cases.” Gleason said that the micromultitrack has established itself as the digital notebook of the recording-savvy musician. “These things have so much functionality built into them now,” he said. “Some musicians use them to replace notebooks and cassette recorders, R but others are using them as primary recording devices, because they have built-in effects and, in some, cases can interface with the internet and MP3.” POP POSITIONING weetwater Music generates most of its revenues from telephone and online sales, but at its brick-and-mortar locations in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and Chicago, the micromultitrack device has become an impulse buy, often placed in a POP location near checkout counters, noted Adam Cohen, Sweetwater’s director of marketing. “It was a of light-bulb-overthe-head realization,” he said. “Most of them cost a few hundred dollars, but relative to much of the pro audio gear, that’s an impulse product. So we have been displaying them that way with big success.” Cohen added that his staff noted the product category’s strong points for musicians— portability, ease of use and the increasing ability to interface with larger recording platforms via USB busses. “We try to have very personalized relationships with our customer,” he said. “If a salesperson knows that a customer is a guitar player who tours a lot or is a composer into recording, they’ll make of point of bringing one of these products to their attention. Now that they have features like editing capability and MIDI files on board, they’re not just for demos or casual u s e a ny m o re. Pe o p l e h ave made them part of their practice and rehearsal habits as we l l a s t h e i r re c o rd i n g approach, and they’ve become an important part of the creative process, especially for guitarists and songwriters.” S The mini-multitrack’s application as a practice and learning aid has not escaped notice by schools. At the American Institute of Guitar, in New York City, assistant director Annabel Chiarelli reported the school encourages the use of such devices to record lessons and play along with music. “You can record music from a CD on two tracks and play your own solos on the other two tracks,” she said. The institute now sells various guitar accessories such as picks, strings and string winders, and according to Chiarelli, the school is considering adding the micro-multitrack to that mix. “If we could budget for it, I’d also like to see these things in every classroom, because they really do help students learn,” she said. Retailers, however, have found that multitrack recorders have not become what some manufacturers hoped—an entry-level conduit into continued pro audio sales by novices. “It’s not doing that,” said Rob Brambila, assistant manager at the Guitar Center in Hollywood, Calif. “These devices store data to memory cards, and they’re just not big enough to handle multiple songs. If someone comes in who wants to get seriously into recording, I wouldn’t steer them towards this category of product; there’s a new line of comparably priced systems, such as Digidesign’s M-Box and Lexicon’s new Omega that do that job much better as desktop systems. But what the micro products have that nothing else does is portability and the ability to let someone capture an idea or a lick immediately. That will probably keep them selling well for some time to come.” MI “With palm-size recorders, there’s a learning curve because everything is scaled down, like the multi-function cursor wheel. You have to read the manual. But once musicians get it, they get addicted to them.” Paul Kramer, ToneWorks product manager “Most micro-recorders cost a few hundred dollars, but relative to much of the pro audio gear, that’s an impulse product. So we have been displaying them that way with big success. If a salesperson knows a customer is a guitar player who tours a lot or a composer into recording, they’ll bring one of these to their attention.” Adam Cohen, Sweetwater Music director of marketing SEPTEMBER 2004 | MUSIC INC. | 69