Mac and Music News

SoundHack announces SoundHack Spectral Shapers, a group of four VST and AudioUnits plugins based on the SoundHack program, the underground sound design tool widely used in music and film.

Spectral Shapers, the first release in a series of three groups of plugins, will expand on the filters in SoundHack, and explore new spectral techniques as well. Spectral Shapers bring timbral morphing and reshaping into the realtime interactive mainstream.

The four plugins in the Spectral Shapers group are all filters which emphasize the reshaping of the timbre of sound: +morphfilter, +spectralgate, +spectralcompand and +binaural. Each plugin works as a group of 513 coordinated filters, performing with both macro- and microsonic focus.
Spectral Shapers can be automated by MIDI controller message ...

Intuem, the Midi and audio sequencing software is now available as version 2.1 for mac OS 10.3 Panther. This new version for Panther adds audio capabilities with AudioUnit instruments, AudioUnit effects and a full audio and MIDI mixer.

The update is free for version 2 users, and a 70 euros upgrade is available on the Intuem web shop. We also noticed that a new education section is now open on the Intuem web site.

Universal Audio just released an OSX compatible beta version of their drivers for the Mackie UAD-1 Card, as a free download.

The final and complete 3.3 version will be available on December 18th 2003, with an additionnal new Fairchild plugin.

The italian company Anwida softwares announces a special price on a VST plugins pack. The Xmas Pack 2003 contains CX1V, a compressor-expender, L1V, a limiter-maximizer and GEQ15V, a 15 band graphic equalizer.
This VST plugins pack for Mac OS X costs 99 euros.

An update v1.2 for the Sonalksis SV-517 Equaliser Plug-in is now available. The SONALKSIS SV-517 Equaliser Plug-in is a 6 band tonal equaliser that employs a tone control with true 'Analogue' characteristics. The 1.2 update adds support for Apple AudioUnit. A future RTAS compatibility is announced. This update is a free download for all registered users of SV-517 EQ.

This beginning of December is the perfect time to shed a few nostalgic tears over the career of a computer that musicians have really appreciated to its true value for four years : Powermac G4. How many recording sessions, music and editings have been realised with this computer ? How many outrages did it suffer from it being inserted in a rack to it being transported in some shaggy van for some gig ?

Announced in September 1999 with a sweet code name "Yikes", powermac G4 PCI-video and AGP-video were the first two machines of a larger family to become : Gigabit ethernet and the famous Cube in July 2000, G4 Digital-audio in January 2001 and the first Quicksilver series in July of the same year, followed by the second series in january 2002.

MacMusic announced on november 13th the future availability of Terra 2.0 by VirSyn, it's now done. TERA 2.0 is a modular software synthesizer based on different synthesis modules. This new version includes : Analog synthesis, Spectrum Synthesis, Formant, FM synthesis, Physical modeling, custom waveforms for all oscillators, and 16 modular synths (with up to  64 voices).

Tera 2 is compatible with Mac OS 9/OS X standalone / VST / AudioUnit and now ReWire 2 and RTAS. The price for TERA 2.0 is 299 EUR .Note that all registered users with the original TERA CD 1.1 and 1.2 can download this upgrade for free.

Beta Monkey Music releases Classic Backbeats Plus, a two-CD collection of over 1,200 original drum loops with a decidedly classic and retro sound for today's rock and pop music. With grooves, groove variations, fills, one shots, and single hit samples, this collection of acoustic grooves is designed for any production looking to add the pure and unadulterated tones of an acoustic drum kit that sounds right out of your favorite small to medium-sized club.

The loops are suitable for all variants of the rock and pop genres, but are particularly for use in recording situations where only live, vibrant, acoustic drums will do. The drum loops are organized by BPM and style, ranging from 55 BPM half-time ballad grooves to up-tempo rock and pop grooves at 150+ BPM. All drums are sonically-matched (being from the same recording session) and are free of excessive processing.