Mac and Music News

Edirol Corporation announced that their new UM-550 5x5 USB MIDI Interface is now shipping.
The newest in a long line of Edirol MIDI interfaces, this 3/4 rack unit provides a 5 input – 5 output MIDI switching interface. The UM-550 is the little brother of the UM-880 and contains many of the same features – ideally suited for the MIDI studio with fewer devices. The suggested list price is $240.

BIAS, Inc. announced that its multi-effects control environment, Vbox 1.1, with support both Mac OS X and Windows operating systems, as well as Mac OS 9, is now shipping. BIAS Vbox 1.1 for Windows marks the company's first product release for the Windows platform; Vbox 1.1 for Mac OS X is among the first audio products for Apple's newest operating system. Following the release of BIAS Peak 3 and BIAS Deck 3.5 for OS X, the release of Vbox 1.1 brings the entire BIAS product line to Mac OS X.

Akai comes to software and now ships 5 VST plug-ins for mac: -DC VOCODER- a high quality 50-band vocoder, -ROTATOR- a rotating speaker, -QUADCOMP- a multi-band compressor/expander, -PITCHRIGHT- a real-time pitch corrector with "virtually" zero latency, -DECABUDDY- a multi-channel harmony generator.

BIAS Inc. unveiled Peak 3.1, a new version of the award-winning digital audio editing application. This upgrade adds support for QuickTime 6, encoding audio with Dolby's AAC, and several other feature enhancements. Based upon the recently released Peak 3, Peak 3.1 is native for Mac OS X and will also run under Mac OS 8.6 - 9.x. The upgrade will be available free of charge for owners of Peak 3.

"Since our recent release of Peak 3 for Mac OS X, we've been hard at work continuing to add features and improve functionality," said Jason Davies, VP of Worldwide Sales for BIAS. "We're pleased to be offering Peak 3.1 to owners of Peak 3 at no charge. The upgrade includes a number of features and enhancements that they will really appreciate."

Support for QuickTime 6, Dolby AAC Files and More ...

Lexicon, Inc, introduces the new MPX 550, a true stereo dual-channel processor featuring 24-bit A/D and D/A conversion and 24-bit internal processing. This latest in Lexicon's line of acclaimed MPX series processors provides both balanced analog I/O's and S/PDIF digital I/O for maximum flexibility. Powered by Lexicon's proprietary Lexichip, the MPX 550 has
255 presets (plus 64 user definable) with classic true stereo reverb programs, as well as dual programs that combine two independent effects plus digital compression in four routing configurations. A host of other reverb effects, including Ambience, Plate, Chamber and Inverse, as well as Tremolo, Rotary, Chorus, Flange, Pitch, Detune, 5.5 second Delay and Echo are also included.

Four dedicated front panel knobs permit adjustment of ...

Edirol Corporation announced the release of their latest combination USB audio capture and MIDI interface, the UA-20. The UA-20 is an efficient USB Audio/MIDI solution for the PC and Mac with a suggested list price of $215. This 24-bit USB bus-powered audio/MIDI interface is ideal for laptop users who don't want to compromise audio quality for portability.

Thanks to the new website, we are now launching a new mailing-list service to discuss mac and music.
This new system, completly linked with our forums will allow you to receive a daily digest of all the latest discussions, within your email client.

The french site, MacBidouille, just published some pictures and a PDF showing the futur Pro PowerMacs coming soon. The news case contains 4 PCI slot, 1 AGP, up two 6 IDE drive, SDRAM, and an audio input minijack (coming back). Decide for yourself!

(07/23) Apple just forced Macbidouille to remove the pictures, but we've found another copy here...

M-Audio ships Uno MIDI, a basic MIDI USB interface which provides and MIDI activity indicators (leds). Drivers available for Windows 9x/2000/XP and Mac OS 8.6 or greater including OS X. OMS only...

TASCAM has recently announced the version 2.0 operating system update for their DM-24 Digital Mixer. This update is available as a free download from the TASCAM web site at www.tascam.com. Version 2.0 software adds 20 new features and functions to the DM-24, including Mackie HUI emulation, improved internal signal routing and direct surround panning capabilities, new footswitch control capabilities and more.

2.51 updates of Spark & Spark XL are available on the TC-Works website. Essentielly bug corrections and some minor improvements of existing functions.