Mac and Music News

There still are too many problems for some FW HD with Panther. Here are a few useful tips to prevent you from going nuts when seeing 120 Go of sessions or soundbanks disappearing just like this.

These tips were taken from Joe Kissell's article, "Revisiting Panther's FireWire Data Loss Problem", available on tidbits.com and they kindly accepted that we publish it on MM.

M-Audio has announced the immediate release of its new 8-channel Octane preamp. Unveiled at NAMM, the Octane is due to ship this month. The Octane is designed as a 2-rack space front-end to multitrack digital recording systems, and would seem an ideal counterpart to, for example, a MOTU 828. The box features two mic-instrument channels for guitar, bass, and other instruments, M-S matrix encoding on 7-8 for pro stereo miking technique, analog preamp direct outs for each channel, ADAT for multichannel digital out, and word clock for syncing up multiple units. Each channel has both XLR and 1/4" TRS I/O with 1/4" outs, balanced/unbalanced operation, phantom power with indicator by group (1-4, 4-8), and full 24-bit audio resolution throughout. Approximative price : 799 € TTC, US$749.95 MSRP. This should shape up to be one of the hottest pro boxes to ship this year.

The Steinberg V-Stack is standalone rack software that allows you to run up to 16 VSTi plugins, or to insert plugins via VST Link, with no sequencer required. This new version adds Rewire 2 support and OS X compatibility. EUR50 for a complete new version; free update available for registered users.

Lo-Res Recording & Distribution has announced Vintage Synth Rescue Kits for several popular models of synthesizers. Each Mac/PC-compatible CD contains thousands of patches in Sysex format as well as a massive SoundDiver file containing up to 10,000 different patches. You'll also find Sysex librarians, manuals in PDF format, as well as articles and other information that may prove handy when picking up a second-hand instrument from Ebay.

Synths currently available in version 1.1: Korg's Poly-800 family, DS-8/707, Korg M1 Family, Roland D-50 family, Yamaha DX7 family, and Kurzweil K2x00 family. US$9.99 for all but the 2-disc Kurzweil set. Compare $10 to $10-20 for manuals alone purchased from other sites! Plans for the future include supporting more universal Editor/Librarians like MidiQuest and Unisyn, and of course free updates are available via email to anyone who buys a disc, as long as your email account can handle attachments over 2MB.

Bitcarel Software has annonouced the availability of iRecordMusic 1.2. This utility was previously named RAW. It enables you to surf and record Internet audio streams to MP4-AAC and now AIFF. You can record multiple radio streams, Hollywood movie trailer soundtracks and news webcasts at the same time. Recorded files are iPod compatible and iRecordMusic now integrates with iCal.

iRecordMusic 1.2 costs US $20.00.

The following has been published on Waldorf site regarding the company's insolvency. it brings some hope at least.

Ergonis software has announced that it has released version 2.0 of its MIDI sequencer software Easy Beat. With this release, Easy Beat runs on (and requires) Mac OS X and features up to 16 song tracks plus a metronome track, 100+ instruments and drum kits with the software synthesizer, score printing, import and export of standard MIDI files and export of QuickTime movies and AIFF files.

Easy Beat 2.0 costs US$89 and a demo version is available.

Lawrence Fritts, Director of the Electronic Music Studios of the the University of Iowa has created a Musical Instrument Samples library. All instruments were recorded in the Anechoic Chamber in the Wendell Johnson Center and are posted on AIFF files. Sounds are available for free download with no restrictions on their use: only the friendly reminder that "the Iowa University music studio appreciates hearing about any research publications or works that utilize the database."

Ed: Ah, music samples with the spirit of free academic sharing -- great, right? This isn't really news, as the library has been around for a while, but worth a reminder if you haven't checked it out yet. -PK

Our colleagues at the excellent French site MacPlus have put their hands on a recently registered a patent for a "synthesizer face" registered by Apple in Europe. The Emagic look is obvious. Who knows if this patent will some day become a reality, but this highlights Apple's intentions to link with the music world, and not only the music playback / MP3 market.

English Ed: Always some interesting fodder in the patent registries. It's clearly an analog-inspired synth based on the front panel: look at the selectors for sin, square, triangle waveforms on the front! Other than that, a bit hard to tell exactly what it does, and this could be a component of something else. But nice to dream, whether or not this becomes a finished product. -PK

KavaSoft has announced iTunes Catalog 1.6 for Mac OS X. iTunes Catalog creates web catalogs of your iTunes music library, displays the cover artwork for each album, and copies album artwork into iTunes. The new version supports display of album year for release date sorting, and uses Amazon for correct release dates so that smart playlists based on years actually work. There are numerous other features, including star ratings and Finder integration for custom icons, all for US$9.99 (other currencies accepted). It's free to try out the program on part of your library.