On the video side: HD video is everywhere you look, but working with it live may seem like a far-off fantasy. Enter the Intensity video card. If you’ve got a supported PC or Mac with a free PCI-Express slot, you can mix HD video live for just US$249-349. Max/MSP/Jitter whiz Anton Marini tests the card for CDMusic’s sister site Create Digital Motion:

Review: Real-time, Uncompressed HD Mixing On the Cheap, with Decklink Intensity

The possibilities are tantalizing. Anton uses an HD converter to mix a Mac laptop with visuals generated by a Mac desktop. With the right configuration, you might also mix two external HD streams, and/or output to HD using the card. On the PC side, this could even be portable, using a lightweight SFF PC. Now, if they’d just give us ExpressCard. If you do video as well as music, let us know what you think of the story.

(Side note: the card lives at Polytechnic University, which has what’s turning into a powerhouse program for interactive media. As it happens, it’s also been host to regular Max “patching circles” for any of you in New York. Now, we did actually leave the building last night as a small fire had broken out in the building. We didn’t start the fire, though.)

Even in the age of computers, there are many cases when mixers come in handy. The drummer needs a click track. Hardware effects need special signal routing. You want to control monitoring of some live mics, and to adjust level directly. You need to mix the sound from your computer with external hardware, and don’t want to have to mix in the computer to do it. I could go on, but you can use your imagination.

Rouding out this week’s slew of M-Audio announcements, M-Audio’s new NRV10 combines an 8 x 2 analog mixer with a 10 x 10 FireWire audio interface, at a pretty reasonable price of US$899.95 (especially if you consider having to buy this gear separately). It doubles as a mixer and audio interface, and can be used as a mixer when no computer is connected.

Correction: I incorrectly stated that Euphonix themselves collaborated with UA; instead it is Euphonix co-founders and veterans of the company Scott and Rob Silfvast. I apologize for the error. In a way, this is even better; they represent some of the individual design vision behind Euphonix. See Scott Silfvast’s ideas at the end.

This weekend is the high-end AES audio show in San Francisco, meaning we get to ogle beautiful gear with serious-looking VU meters and drool-worthy audio quality. Universal’s new modular “desktop console system” is at the top of the list on both counts, and it’s actually geared at the project-sized computer music studio.

SM Pro has released a “passive summing mixer” that mixes eight analog audio channels to two. The idea is that digital summing, as performed in software, will cancel certain sound components and result in a less detailed mix after mixdown. The PM8 passive summing mixer does this for you in the analog domain, theoretically resulting in a better mix.

Here’s an excerpt from the marketing materials: “The summing and mixing features built into the PM8 allow users to avoid unnecessary A/D & D/A conversions commonly found in digital studios and thus attain extremely detailed mixes with superb stereo imaging and punch.”

PR is actually mixing metaphors here. Summing in software has nothing to do with A/D or D/A conversions. What I think they mean is that, by connecting analog inputs directly to this mixer instead of routing through your software, you won’t have to go through additional conversions; that much is true.

The manufacturer also claims that the mixer “Achieves better stereo imaging” and “Creates exceptionally detailed mixes with clarity and punch.”

PM8 Product Page [SM Pro Audio]

I’d sure like to hear an A/B test of digital summing in music software with analog summing, with all other variables minimized as much as possible. Mostly what I hear is people arguing over this based on these issues based on hearsay or theory. Certainly, a good passive mixer will have uses in studios, for those who can afford / actually need them. But my question is, does digital summing really deserve all the flak it gets? (My mixes aside; I don’t think you need fancy equipment to hear more detail in my mixdown as I’m no engineer!)

Maybe Bob Dylan will want one?

It’s like mastering engineer: the game. Craig Harris has a great review for IGN of the new GBA Bit Generations series in Japan. Soundvoyager has you don headphones and play using your ears:

There are various different game styles in Soundvoyager, but they ultimately boil down to “find the center channel.” In one mode, you’re a dot sliding along a forced-scrolling environment trying to find an invisible dot on the grid by listening for its sound in the left or right channel. Center up your on-screen dot, and snag the soundmaker.

Previews: Bit Generations Part II [IGN]

Stereo phase as a game? I’ll bite. Now all we need is a whole series of games to retrain our less-than-golden ears and teach us how to properly mix, apply compression, and use EQ. Any game programmers - slash - audio engineers up to the challenge?

No word yet on whether Bit Generations will get a US import (sounds like a good idea, given the slim pickin’s for GBA these days). But given Nintendo’s adventurous, experimental releases and the fact that games are light on text, I’ve got my fingers crossed. Readers in Japan or bold importers, let us know if you pick this up!