Mac and Music News

According to many, the MacMusic stand at the Apple Expo was a great success. Ours was the biggest stand in the whole music village. The demos were very popular. We even managed to get people to sing "MacMusic" so that the whole neighbourhood knows the song by heart. ;-)

Apple seemed to appreciate our presence, as the MacMusic stand is among the official photos.

On the other hand, the MacMusic party didn't do as well, with only half of the registered visitors present. But the best ones were all there and we stayed up late...

We would like to thank our partners, as well as ...

Antares announces the availability of Auto-Tune 3 MAS for Mac OS X. (Ed: MAS is the plugin format for MOTU's DP4. -PK)

Upgrades from previous versions of Auto-Tune MAS are available as follows:
- Upgrade from Auto-Tune 3 MAS (v3.x) to Auto-Tune 3 MAS OS X: $49.00
- Upgrade from Auto-Tune MAS full version (pre-version 3) to Auto-Tune 3 MAS OS 9 or OS X: $99.00
- If you purchased Auto-Tune 3 MAS for OS 9 after December 1, 2002, you are entitled to a free upgrade to Auto-Tune 3 MAS OS X.

In about 3 weeks, Macally will release a horde of new products, as previewed at AE2003:

- Need a massage? There's a vibrating mouse that's not the best mouse but massages the palm of your hand very well. It goes brrrrrr!

- Now if you don't like mice, a mini graphic tablet, the IceCad, is coming too. It's really small (it can rest in your hand), and features 1024 levels of pressure, 2 ways to click, absolute positioning, and more. I tried it (quickly, but I'm a daily A5 Wacom user) on the stand, and it worked ok (using Apple default driver) either in the Finder or in Ableton Live. With about a 5.5 by 7.3 cm active area, it's perfect for crowded environements or on the move. 49$

- If you need a small USB microphone, there's the egg-shaped iVoice 2. 49$

- Tons of alu ...

HyperEngine-AV (formerly known as "Montage"), is an OS X native multimedia editor that offers an innovative trackless, free-form interface. This makes it not only very powerful yet easy to master at the same time, but it is also the guarantee of a productive -- and fun -- experience to all users regardless of their knowledge of the digital media world.

HyperEngine-AV allows the seamless combination of video, audio and text for the creation of full DV quality multimedia content, ranging from family movies or slide shows to business presentations and feature films.

The program comes with a wide variety of free studio-quality audio effects from Arboretum's acclaimed Hyperprism suite of processors (See Features for details), including an excellent Reverb.
More can be added via a flexi ...

For the week of September 16, Apple has dumped a huge new catalog of music on the iTunes Music Store, including lots of new Rounder album, making Rounder the first independent label to appear on the service. Now you can enjoy the sounds of The Klezmer Conservatory Band, Zydeco Shootout at El Sid O's, or an album of Czech Polkas -- provided you're in the USA since European access is still delayed.

Here comes the latest and greatest of Mackie's Products! ;-)
Coming later at the end of this year, it is a fully integrated computer based recording system, a little bit like the M-Box but with Mackie's personal touch.
All that you need to know about it is under the following address.

The Sample Extractor is a unique and powerful feature that will save you many hours of audio editing. While some professional sample CDs come in WAV or AIFF format the bulk are in Audio CD format, with each track containing multiple samples. In order to use the individual samples from Audio CD traditionally one would have to import the track and then open it in an audio editor application and manually find each sample section, cut it out and make a new file. AudioFinder's Sample Extractor automates the sample cutting and editing process so that sounds with multiple samples can be sliced into individual files almost instantly.

In the support section of the Digidesign website you will find the new Pro Tools update 6.1.1 and the corresponding Core Audio driver update 6.1.1 both for Mac or Windows platforms

PowerFX, the sample content providers for Soundtrack/FCP4 has just released ProScore; two specially produced DVDs for use with Apples Soundtrack software. Each disc contains over 2200 pre-formatted Apple Loops that are organized into folders by category & genre. The material can be indexed & searched direct from the DVDs via Soundtracks Media Manager window which saves users valuable hard disk space. The titles are as follows: DV Composer's Toolkit is a complete musical composition library with everything from urban & cinematic themes to Asian & Indian flavors. It features Soundtrack arrangements, ambiance textures, and hundreds of assorted instrument loops. This collection was created for scoring, audio vignettes, sound logos and general music composition. Massive FX is designed to create ...

Things are getting faster than it seems: Steve Jobs announce during his Keynote that the BlueTooth mouse and Keyboards will be available in 15 days and three days later it's already on sale !
- Wireless Blue Tooth mouse 69$
- Wireless Blue Tooth keyboard also for 69$

If everything goes that fast would "Panther" be ready by the end of the month ?

Presonus releases the Eureka a recording channel (Pre, comp, EQ, VUmeter, optional digital out) in a 1 U rack. It's even good looking ;)

For the happy few who are or can be in Paris tomorrow, there will be the 6th anniversary of MacMusic. Warning! 200 people at the max! Not a lot of (free) tickets left!
Music is NOT optional ;)

See you there!

Happy Birthday MacMusic… Happy Birthday (etc.)

According to AFP from 17/09, Steve Jobs has announced the iTunes music service online store being available for Windows users before the end of 2003. Europe would follow next spring. Something to keep an eye on.
Apart form that, Steve Jobs has apparently given up on buying Universal Music.

An update on both Clavia and Elektron, the respectively red and silver synth makers:

The Nord Modular G2 is in Alpha testing, a few are running Europe at least to get their knobs twiddled. Still no news from the expected (by us) but not announced (by Clavia, not on the road map right now) Mac Editor. The thing is as red as ever.

Elektron has solded (with discount) in less than 24 hours the first 100 Monomachines for betatesters. The first samples are online for the happy few (all members of the Elektron friend mailing list -see Elektron site for that- have had the link) show the actual ...