Mac and Music News

Voice of the GoatCactus is an application that lets you create original "music" with "the click of a button", even if you have no musical training. You can use the demo version to create studios and bands, listen to their music and make modifications. If you pay the license fee, you can save the music you've created, as entire studios or individual bands, or export the music as MIDI files. All music is royalty-free.

You can download a demo version of Voice of the GoatCactus or buy the 30 euros licence.

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, will deliver the opening keynote address for Macworld Conference & Expo, at San Francisco 2004 on Tuesday,January 6, 2004 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center Jan 5-9. Just wait...

TX7 Editor is a complete freeware editor for the Yamaha TX7 expander. It allows to edit all the voice and performance parameters of the TX7, and to load and save banks in System Exclusive format.
TX7 Editor is Panther compatible and is available on free download.

If you're a Cubase user and want to move from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X, OMS Convert will help you ! This utility allows you to convert OMS Patch Name files into Cubase SX 1.0x and 2.x format.

OMS Convert is free downoadable beta version.

The 10.3.2 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" and is recommended for all users.

Key enhancements include:
- improved file sharing and directory services for mixed Mac and PC networks
- more robust printing to PostScript printers
- improved font management
- updated Mail and Address Book applications
- new ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- FileVault, FireWire 800, WebDAV and USB Printing improvements
- previous standalone security updates

Laurent Colson releases MusicMath 2.21, now OSX compatible. Music Math is a freeware which converts music values (BPM, semi-tones, samples, ms, Hz, Timestretch %). You can calculate the time stretching to use on a sample if you change the tempo, or the number of semi-tone to transpose, the time stretching to apply if you transpose a sample and you don't want to change the duration, the delay in ms to synchronise with BPM. It also include a tap delay function and a BPM/sample converter.

Music-Math features 5 conversion functions:
- Tempo : computes the equivalent TimeStrecthing from the original and new tempos.
- Transpose: converts semi-tones to TimeStrecthing values
- Delay : convert tempo to musical duration (ms) or equivalent frequencies (Hz), ie for LFOs rates.
- Samples : convert samples duration (in samples) to tempo or tempo to sample duration.
- Tap : Tap the tempo

Gmedia Music annouces the impOSCar. This plug-in instrument is based on the original UK designed OSCar synthesiser, released in 1984 and which subsequently became a favourite instrument of Ultravox, S-express, Jean Michel Jarre and Underworld.

This plugin version adds new features such as polyphony, improved UserWave editing, enhanced filter modes, synchronised LFO and increased LFO waveforms, delay and chorus effects. Demo for the impOSCar for VST and Audio Unit on Mac OSX are available on download.

Elemental Audio Systems announced the release of version 1.2 of its audio analysis plug-in, Inspector. The new version adds Digidesign RTAS support, an enhanced user interface design, automation support, and new spectral display modes. Now, Digidesign Pro Tools users can use Inspector's alarms to be notified of adverse conditions in their audio.

Inspector is available as a FREE download and supports the RTAS, Audio Unit and VSTplug-in formats on Mac OS X.

Emagic just released an update version 6.3.3 of his main audio software Logic Platinum. This update fixes a compatibility issue with Digidesign Audio Engine (DAE 6.2.2) on Mac OS 10.3 Panther. The Update is free and available on download on Emagic web site.