EXCLUSIVES

Deck 3.5
By Trey Yancy

August 2004

As with many pro and semi-pro audio engineers, I cut my teeth on magnetic tape with analog equipment. Creating sophisticated mixes with all the attendant panning and ping-ponging required considerable know-how and dexterity on the board while battling the demon of tape hiss by such methods as recording unpleasantly shrill master tracks. The arrival of digital audio and automated mixing was an amazing step forward, and the appearance of such technology on the home desktop was even more amazing. A great example of this is Deck 3.5 digital audio workstation from BIAS, Inc.

Acquired from Macromedia® in 1998, Deck has grown from its early 2 X 32 roots to a very sophisticated system. Its most recent iteration, Version 3.5.3, brings Deck into the OS X Panther™ fold and includes such features as linked faders, 5.1 surround, and OMF import. Although facing serious competition, Deck continues to provide a great combination of features, compatibility, stability, and speed.

It supports up to 999 virtual tracks and, depending on hardware, can record, mix, and process up to 64 simultaneous tracks. It features high-resolution linkable faders that, as with panning and surround, are automated, with moves being recorded manually or via breakpoint editing.

5.1 Surround, Video, and Sync
A prominent feature of this release is full panoramic 5.1 surround-mixing with panning algorithms for width, angle, and ambient placement. As with the standard level and pan faders, 5.1-surround panning is also automated, although this does not extend to the muting of specific surround channels. Surround placement and panning are displayed graphically for each channel, with the actual control being handled via a floating surround pan panel.

Output from 5.1 mix-to-disk is in the standard Dolby® A-Pack-compliant AIFF format. Other formats include Deck's native SoundDesigner II format, as well as standard AIFF, WAV, and Apple's 8-bit SND.

Another feature is support for QuickTime® video (QuickTime 3 or later required), with better-than-frame accurate audio sync. Desk also supports video scrubbing with full audio chase, extremely fast auto spotting to picture, and better-than-subframe accurate nudging and trimming. It can also export QuickTime projects with multiple format options.

It is also SMPTE fluent and, with appropriate CoreMIDI support, it provides frame-accurate SMPTE/EBU sync, including chase lock and slaving to external decks, as well as MIDI sync. While not designed to function as a synced recording slave, Deck supports continuous SMPTE resync on playback.

Deck is compatible with most ASIO- or CoreAudio-compliant hardware. A list of compatible hardware is available on BIAS' Web site (bias-inc.com).

Other Features
Deck supports bit rates of up to 48 kHz and 16 bit with appropriate hardware, or 44 kHz and 16 bit with stock Mac® hardware. It also includes ADR (automated dialogue replacement) support, discontinuous clip selection, non-destructive punch-ins and punch-outs, and click-through editing by Peak or other sound editors. A copy of Peak LE is included in the bundle, providing tools for mono and stereo mastering along with CD burning.

Effects
Deck is bundled with the BIAS' Vbox effects matrix along 25 VST effects and the carbonized Freq 4-band parametric equalizer (upgradeable to OS X native SuperFreq 10 band EQ for $49). Deck can handle up to four real-time effects per track, including built-in EQ, chorus, delay, and multitap delay. It should be noted that not all of the bundled VST effects work with OS X and many of them are carbonized. (A set of 34 OS X compatible effects can be downloaded directly from Maxim Digital Audio at www.mda-vst.com.) In the interest of broader compatibility, an OS 9 version of Deck is also included in the package.

Observations
Deck provides an interface that is familiar to users of both analog and digital workstations, the layout is fairly efficient, and bountiful options are only a menu item (or button click) away. It works well enough with single monitor systems, but its small though screen-hungry array of windows make a compelling case for multiple monitor solution.

Deck works with a wide range of hardware, from monster breakout boxes to basic out-of-the box Macintosh® audio I/O. Connecting external CoreAudio devices is as simple as connecting the device and launching Deck. ASIO devices require a few extra steps but are not difficult to set up. The fader, pan, and transport controls are MIDI mappable, making it possible to connect an external control surface. Choose the MIDI map command to light up the mappable controls, click on the control or fader(s) to activate it, and link it to the desired control on your MIDI device by moving the control to trigger a MIDI event.

As for the 5.1 surround features, they are just plain fun. If you are new to mixing in 5.1, you will discover that it opens up a whole new world of effects that are largely limited only by your imagination. Having a background of years of stereo mixing, and remembering the glory days of quadraphonic 8-track tapes, I found stepping into 5.1 to be very stimulating; and it left me itching to get my hands on the master tapes of such multi-track masterpieces and Jimi Hendrix' 1983/Turn the Tides and to bring them into the 21st century. Hoping to do the same with my own sessions, I discovered that the only way to do this was to import each audio file individually and then arrange the tracks manually. I see this shortcoming as being in need of attention.
It should be noted that a G5-optimized installation requires a specific installer that, although available for download, was not included on disk. As for my wish list, I would like to see support for 7.1 surround, savable window layouts, and dockable windows.

Conclusion
Deck 3.5 provides a nice combination of power and ease-of-use; it works with a wide assortment of hardware and is a good solution for audio professionals and serious hobbyists alike. The lack of an easy means of importing stereo sessions into 5.1 is a problem, but this aside it is an excellent choice for the professionals of today and the George Martins of tomorrow.

Deck 3.5
From: BIAS <bias-inc.com>
Pros: Powerful, good balance of features and ease of use
Cons: Cannot convert stereo sessions to 5.1, due for an upgrade
Pricing: $399 (upgrades from $59 to $249); studio bundle with Peak 4&Toast Lite: $799