About a month ago, DiGiCo announced the acquisition of UK-based live sound software developer and manufacturer Fourier Audio. Such a move of bringing a cutting-edge company into the DiGiCo family is not entirely surprising, especially given the overwhelming success of DiGiCo’s 2018 purchase of immersive in-ear pioneer KLANG:technologies. Of course, the DiGiCo brand is part of the Audiotonix family, which also includes Allen & Heath, Calrec, DiGiGrid, KLANG, Harrison, Slate Digital, sonible, Sound Devices and Solid State Logic, so historically, high-tech acquisitions are hardly unknown within the group.
Since its founding two years ago, the Fourier Audio name has been somewhat shrouded in mystery to most in the live pro audio community. It was vaguely described as “a team of software engineers, sound designers and dreamers setting out to change the way live audio is processed and delivered” — certainly a rather bold statement.
However, this claim definitely has some serious street cred behind it, given the pedigree of the company’s three co-founders: chief creative officer, Tony and Olivier Award-winning sound designer Gareth Owen; CEO mechanical, audio and acoustical engineer Henry Harrod; and chief technology officer, electronic and computer science engineer as well as concert and theater lighting designer Peter Bridgman.
Breaking Silence
At DiGiCo’s booth at last month’s AES Convention in New York City, the details of Fourier Audio’s efforts during the past two years — code-named “Project Core” — were finally made public. The result is a new hardware-enabled platform bringing the power of studio audio software plug-ins to live engineers, with deliveries slated to begin shipping in Q1 2024.
The key to the system is the new transform.engine. Housed in a two-rackspace touring-grade chassis, it’s a 64×64 in/out, Dante-connected server designed to run all VST3-native software plug-ins in a live environment, bringing premium studio software to live sound and broadcast applications. Fully compatible with any VST3 plug-in that can run on Windows, the processor offers engineers and creatives access to the very best studio-grade processing on a robust platform that is specifically designed for the rigors and complexities of live productions.
Intended as a turnkey solution for plug-in hosting, the transform.engine is easily controlled by a remote Windows (10 or higher) or macOS (11 or higher) client application, reducing the need for complex setups. Users simply connect to the engine via a standard Ethernet cable, install their plug-ins and get directly to processing. The transform.engine has 64 channels of Dante input and 64 channels of Dante output. These can be freely assigned to chains as required and can run at up to 96 kHz.
Intended for integration directly into live audio workflows, transform.engine will soon put control of plug-ins directly under the fingers of engineers on their own worksurfaces, starting with DiGiCo consoles. However, similar to products from sibling brand KLANG:technologies, the new Fourier Audio device is fully capable of operating in conjunction with virtually any professional digital console on the market via Dante, using the Windows/macOS application to control the engine.
Based on a powerful Intel Alder Lake i9-12900 CPU, the transform.engine can also process audio standalone with no computer required. Controlled remotely by a Windows/macOS application, with plug-in user interfaces “teleported” and controlled in ultra-low-latency over the network, the product has been tuned to deliver the lowest-latency (down to 0.67 ms) solution on the market for hosting VST3 plug-ins, while preserving the reliability and performance of the server.
Designed for the Road
Fourier Audio’s Gareth Owen points out that transform.engine’s reliability will be one of its greatest hallmarks. “There are a lot of other VST hosting approaches out there, but when you have a theater, arena or stadium full of people listening to your show, there’s no margin for error,” he says. “With the backing and support of DiGiCo, which is celebrated for its decades of designing tourable, reliable, and long-lasting hardware, we are building the ultimate plug-in solution.”
Aside from the rugged build of the transform.engine itself, the unit is designed for the live, no-fail environment, featuring fail-safe dual redundant power supplies. Audio I/0 connectors are etherCON dual-redundant Dante. Additionally, Fourier Audio’s patent-pending audio software engine provides a rock-solid sandbox with plug-ins ring-fenced from each other. Should a plug-in crash, the rest of the system will not only be unaffected, but the transform.engine will immediately restart that plug-in, quickly restoring the original integrity of the mix.
Reactions
Commenting on the system is beta tester Muse FOH engineer (and Avid S6L user) Marc Carolan, who said he was “very happy to work with Fourier Audio on something that’s probably going to end up on practically every audio system during the Muse Will of the People world tour. Alpha testing very quickly became I’m using this for the show!”
Meanwhile, Professor Green FOH engineer Rampton called the system “a dream to work with.”
Another early adopter was Coldplay head of sound Tony Smith, who said “It’s been a pleasure working with Fourier Audio over the past few months, beta testing the transform.engine. The ability to run any plug-in, beyond Waves, is exciting to say the least and also being able to integrate it into our DiGiCo workflow is a game changer, it gives us the ability to take any studio tool out on the road.”
A Team Approach
Fourier Audio’s team of engineers, led by CTO Bridgman, has followed two years of intensive R&D with a recent collaboration with DiGiCo to deliver a brand new hardware platform for transform.engine. DiGiCo technical director (and Parnelli Award recipient) John Stadius has been working closely with the Fourier Audio team and his excitement is evident. “It has been an exciting challenge for our teams to design a brand new bespoke hardware platform,” says Stadius. “The Fourier Audio team reminds me of an early-stage DiGiCo, and that enthusiasm really motivated us all to get it done. I couldn’t be happier with the end result and what it will mean for live sound engineers.”
More to Come
Also in the works for 2024, the transform.engine will feature an optional software subscription bundle. “In the meantime, we’re inviting studio software manufacturers to contact us about potentially offering their plug-ins as part of transform.engine’s ever-expanding open ecosystem of live tools,” says Fourier Audio CEO Henry Harrod. “We want to introduce them to a whole new market segment that they’ve not previously had. At the same time, we want to offer live sound engineers not just ‘good’ emulations of various studio plug-ins, but the absolute best-sounding authentic versions of every plug-in they might possibly want from the professional recording world. It’s a ‘win-win’ situation for everyone.”
Audiotonix CEO James Gordon was genuinely excited about the Fourier Audio deal. “We are always looking for the next audio innovators that are a good technology and cultural fit, and with Fourier, I’m pleased to say we have found both. Bringing this talented team into the Audiotonix fold under DiGiCo will allow us to give live sound users access to a wider range of our own and third-party developers’ plug-ins.”
At a Glance:
Turnkey Hardware
Fourier Audio’s transform.engine is a non-proprietary turnkey hardware plug-in hosting solution for the live environment.
STATS
- CPU: Intel Alder Lake i9-12900
- DSP Storage: 400 GiB NVMe
- Audio Ports: (2) Dante etherCON
- Audio: 64 channels, bidirectional
- MIDI Ports: In/out/thru
- Latency: down to 0.67 ms
- Sample Rate: 44.1 / 48 / 96 kHz
- Power: 100-240 VAC; 56/60 Hz
- Dimensions: 19” 2U
- Weight: 12.1 pounds
- Plug-ins: Windows 10-compatible VST3
- Price: TBA
MANUFACTURER: Fourier Audio
CONTACT: www.fourieraudio.com
