Sound Sculpture Switchblade 16

Editors Choice Award Winner 1995

Reprinted in it's entirety by permission from Electronic Musician Magazine, January 1995
Written by the Editors of Electronic Musician

MISCELLANEOUS HARDWARE AWARD

"Miscellaneous" categories are weird, because it's hard to compare radically different products. However, we wanted to reward two worthy products—Aquila Systems' MR2 MIDI wireless system and Sound Sculpture's Switchblade 16 MIDI controlled audio switcher—that don't fit in a conventional structure. Both deserve to be winners.

Sound Sculpture Switchblade-16 ($2,299)

Sound Sculpture's Switchblade-16 isn't the first MIDI-controlled audio switching system, but it's the best by far. If you've always wanted totally automated, flexible effects routing and have the budget to swing it, this is your best bet. Any combination of its sixteen inputs can be routed to any combination of its sixteen outputs, with automated gain control. Four internal LFOs can be swept to control gain in various ways.

The MIDI implementation is superb; you can even use SysEx and Control Changes to set up the connection and control matrix. Continuous controllers can handle gain changes, including a reverse slope for panning and crossfades. EM reviewer Peter Freeman dubbed the Switchblade the "Rolls Royce of commercial effects-switching boxes" and is using it as the heart of his bass effects rig for the current Seal tour.