The M3000's internal clock is switchable between 44.1 and 48kHz operation. All the audio connectors are gold‑plated, and any combination of (or all) the digital outputs can be used simultaneously. The rear panel has an additional power switch, an IEC mains socket, a pair of balanced XLR analogue inputs, a pair of balanced XLR analogue outputs, optical input and output sockets switchable between ADAT and S/PDIF formats, a phono connector for word clock (a phono‑to‑BNC adaptor is supplied), a pair of XLRs for AES‑EBU and a pair of phonos for S/PDIF digital input and output, plus MIDI In, Out and Thru connectors. One further button is provided to let you tap a tempo for the delays, while a large parameter‑adjustment wheel takes up the last bit of space at the far right of the front panel. Buttons are provided in the last column to let you confirm operations, Shift to the secondary functions, and move the cursor between parameters or page up and down. The next column lets you control the combined presets - which use both processors - and a further column of smaller buttons lets you quickly store and recall any of these combined presets. The Recall and Store buttons each have a second function when the Shift button is activated - to recall a Wizard (a 'helper' to suggest a selection of suitable presets for your application) and to delete a preset.
The next two columns provide the recall and store buttons for the presets, and the Edit mode and bypass buttons for Engines 1 and 2, as the dual processors are known. a particularly useful feature here is the ability to alter the digital input gain - to raise the level of an incoming signal from a DAT which has been recorded too low, for example. The first column of buttons lets you set up the inputs and outputs, select the routing mode, adjust the input and output levels, and control various utility functions. Talking of buttons, there are six main groups of four buttons each, occupying the main part of the front panel to the right of the parameter display.
And, to be fair, the display is about as large as is practical on a 1U unit with as many buttons to accommodate as there are on the M3000. It can also be a little difficult to read from an angle, although you can adjust the viewing angle from the Utility page if you are going to be looking from a particular angle a lot of the time. This was the one feature I felt let the unit down somewhat - the parameter display is not really large enough to do justice to the number of parameters which can be controlled. From the left‑hand side, the front panel sports a slot for a PCMCIA card just underneath the power on/off button, with a display area to the right of this encompassing a pair of LED PPM meters, a column of LED indicators for overload, sample‑rate and MIDI activity, and a parameter display area. Front & Rearīreaking with the more conventional black‑with‑grey‑buttons look, the M3000 comes in a 1U rackmount case with an attractive grey metallic finish - and black buttons. The M3000 also features 24‑bit resolution A‑D and D‑A converters, along with 16‑ and 20‑bit dithering for output to devices working at these lower resolutions. Like the existing M2000, the M3000 features two separate processors which you can use in serial, parallel, dual‑input, dual‑mono, linked and pre‑glide modes. The new algorithms offered are the VSS Reverb and Gate, along with TC's CORE (Coefficient Optimised Room Emulation) Reverb, Reverb 3, Delay, Pitch, EQ, Expander, Compressor, Chorus/Flanger, Tremolo/Panner, Phase and De‑Esser. You won't run out of memory slots to store your own presets very easily either, as you not only get an internal RAM bank for up to 250 single and 50 combined user‑memories, but you can also store the same number again onto a standard PCMCIA card - very useful for taking your favourite setups from studio to studio. The M3000 offers a mammoth selection of 250 single and 50 combined presets in ROM, including many of the favourites from TC's previous units.
TC Electronic's new effects unit represents a new approach to reverb design based on their 'virtual space simulator' technology (see ' VSS Technology' box at the end of this review). Mike Collins provides some early reflections on TC Electronic's latest reverb unit and effects processor.
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