When I first started making music eons ago I used two ordinary tape recorders or small boom boxes to layer tracks. I would play a guitar line, record it, then play it back and add a live track and record those on the other recorder. It was as tedious as it sounds. When I got my first 4-track recorder (made by Fostex), it was like moving from a studio apartment into a penthouse suite. The quality by today's standards was horrible; actually it was even bad back then. But I was blinded by my ability to bounce tracks easily and work on mixes. Then after a brief affair with Korg's digital 8-track, during which time I thought I'd reached the pinnacle of home recording, I finally got Digital Performer for my Mac. No more upgrading, right? A friend of mine, though, told me I just had to get Logic. After resisting for some time-after all, I was perfectly content with Digital Performer-I decided to upgrade again. My friend was right, I did need Logic. Well, maybe I didn't NEED it-but I couldn't do without it now.
For consumers this is a difficult dilemma: to upgrade or not to upgrade, that is the million-dollar question (almost literally so if you're into high-end home theater). You would think that there's just nowhere else to go, especially outside of the software industry. But there are clever engineers out there whose whole mission in life is to create something so spectacular that it's irresistible to you. You gladly trade in some paper for product. That's certainly the case here with the Critical Mass UL12. I can't remember when our testers were as enthusiastic about a subwoofer. We've had some incredible speakers on the bench recently, including the top performers in our comparison tests from last year and the Cerwin Vega featured in the October issue, but the UL12 just may outshine them all. So there you go, just when you thought you were set, here's another upgrade. An audiophile-level subwoofer that a bass head would love? That's just unfair, isn't it? Sounds like the perfect sub for me to demo my mixes from Logic.
On the electronic side, consumers have the same problem with navigation products. Considering that it's relatively new technology, we'll all be upgrading for years. But if you love technology then you can't help but embrace the evolution of it. Pioneer and Eclipse are continuing to up the ante. Check out part one of our Navigation Buyer's Guide with reviews on the new single-DIN AVN and the AVIC. Next month we'll take a look at the highly anticipated Z1 from Pioneer, as well as Alpine's Blackbird.
Recently I wrote about computers in Driver's Seat. We have a great follow-up article on Icon-TV's FMIC-PC1. Contributor Dr Barrios covers the other uses of in-car PC. You'll see that once you have the hardware, software makes pretty much anything you can think of a possibility.
Finally, just a few words on Trifecta. We just had the first event at SEMA's Auto Salon in Philadelphia. Big thanks to the guys at SEMA for allowing us to launch the event with them. Look for coverage of the show in next month's issue. Enjoy.
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