When it comes to technology format wars, the best doesn’t always win out. Many other factors (generally of the economic variety) dictate which format comes out on top in a particular field. The classic example is VHS’s triumph over the technologically superior Betamax format at the dawn of the home-video era.

So, it was a pleasant surprise to read news stories yesterday about the triumph of the Blu-Ray disc format over its technologically inferior rival, HD-DVD (single layer Blu-Ray discs hold 25 GB to HD-DVD’s 15 GB). Toshiba, which was the company behind HD-DVD, capitulated on Tuesday, announcing that it was suspending development of the format, which was losing its attempts to become the disc of choice for high-definition DVD movies. The nails in the coffin of HD-DVD were recent announcements that movie retailers like Amazon.com, Blockbuster, Netflix, and Wal-Mart were all going exclusively with Blu-Ray.

So why am I writing about it in this blog? After all, EM is concerned with recording gear not consumer electronics. The answer is that now that the format war has ended, we can expect to see lower priced Blu-Ray disc drives for computers, allowing data-hungry recordists to store and backup large projects to disc that in the past exceeded the capacity of conventional DVD drives. Imagine being able to archive up to 25 GB at a time (double that on double-layer drives). I presume that prices will come down for both the drives and the discs. Now we can buy Blu-Ray gear without the fear of the format dying after we’ve invested in hardware—at least not until the next best thing comes along.

Last night I saw the bluegrass group Blue Highway at Joe’s Pub in NYC. It was an awesome show. The band blends traditional and modern bluegrass influences, and features a lineup packed with really amazing musicians.

Blue Highway is touring in support of their new album, Through the Window of a Train (Rounder, 2008). Mixing material from the new CD, some older songs (the band has seven other albums), as well as a couple of traditional tunes, the set was eclectic and highly energized, and the band received three encores from a very enthusiastic audience. Blue Highway really showed their range, as they played everything from breakneck-speed instrumentals to uptempo and medium tempo vocal tunes (with excellent instrumental solos), to ballads and beautifully sung a cappella gospel tunes.

Blue Highway’s lineup includes all-world dobro player Rob Ickes, mandolinist/fiddler and superb vocalist Shawn Lane, virtuostic banjo player Jason Burleson, flashy flatpicker and vocalist Tim Stafford, and solid bassist/vocalist (and frontman) Wayne Taylor. These guys have been playing together for a long time, and you could tell. They really know how to play as an ensemble.

The band got an excellent live sound using mainly individual mics on their instruments (Stafford combined a pickup and a mic on his flattop, and Taylor had an upright with a pickup). Ickes got a great sound from his dobro through an AKG C1000 with the hypercardioid capsule in it. He says he’s been using that mic for years and has found that it works really well for him onstage.

Omnisphere is the forthcoming flagship soft synth from the makers of Stylus RMX, Trilogy, and Atmosphere. Containing many times the sample content of all those programs, it incorporates the new STEAM Engine, which will also be the basis of future Spectrasonics products. Omnisphere combines just about any synthesis architecture you’ve ever heard of (granular, FM, polyphonic ring mod, timbre shifting, and lots more) with some very unusual samples, complex modulation routing, and a new technique for morphing one instrument’s harmonics into another’s. And I was floored by its method for drawing and assigning finely detailed modulation envelopes and arpeggiation patterns in real time. Just about everything else I saw this week had a projected ship date around the end of February, but not this one. Look for Omnisphere on September 15 (they promise it won’t be late), selling for $499.

The factory-programmed voices I heard very accurately reproduced a tremendous variety of signature sounds from music made popular over the past few decades, from Led Zeppelin and David Bowie to the latest hip-hop hits, and it absolutely excels at orchestral and piano sounds. Judging by first impressions, I was simply blown away by the quality of every patch, without exception. Running off custom integrated circuits, the PC3X is a 128-note polyphonic instrument with an 88-note keyboard and an onboard multitrack sequencer. It’s expected to sell for around three grand and ship by the end of February. Or as they say around here, N.A.M.M. (Not Available, Maybe March)!

Under this new alliance, METAlliance member manufacturers will have their products evaluated by the panel. Gear is put through exhaustive testing procedures, and for a product to be certified, it must be approved unanimously by the entire “Gang of Seven.”

“Some may argue that there is no need for higher quality because the average consumer doesn’t care,” said Jim Pace, METAlliance director of business affairs. “It’s not a question of bandwidth or delivery anymore. So who is the METAlliance speaking to? One group would be the people who buy these products here at NAMM-people who try to create and craft their art in any way they can. Because they work to get it right, these are the ‘consumers’ that realize it’s worth it to get the full sonic experience at home or wherever they play music. It doesn’t have to be ‘almost good enough,’ it can be a truly fulfilling experience.”

Sonnox has introduced its first plug-in since becoming an independent company in April 2007. With the new SuprEsser plug-in, it is attempting to fill the void of a professional quality de-esser in plug-in form. The highly featured SuprEsser includes a Simple mode for fast fixes, but also effectively doubles as a linear phase dynamic EQ when used in Advanced mode. Employing three listening modes and an intuitive visual waveform display, users can locate the problem frequencies quickly.

SuprEsser is scheduled to ship this March in RTAS, AU and VST formats for a price of $315. It will also be available for Sonnox’s customized bundles, in which customers can receive a discount of up to 40 percent, depending on the number of plug-ins they buy.