Mac and Music News

Ever want to get a song off your iPod? AudioFinder can now help you with that. New in this release:

Added "Scan iPod" to the Scanner menu. AudioFinder can now find, play and copy sounds off your iPod.
Increased the range of "Show Guides" to 64 measures.
Added an Add ("+") to the Tools Palette.
In the Scanner changed the "Search Within Results" checkbox to a "Refine" button for ease of use.
Improved Scanner display by adding a "Folder" column.
Added "Add Sounds Manually" to the Scanner Menu, along with an Add ("+") to the Scanner to allow manual control over scan contents.
Added ID3 Tag display
Made Preferences, Tools Setup and Organizer Setup panels into sheets.

Trillium Lane Labs has announced TL Space, a new reverb plug-in for Pro Tools. The developer claims TL Space combines the best offerings of convolution reverb with the traditional controls of synthetic reverbs. It is the first Pro Tools plug-in to deliver a number of technical breakthroughs that unleash the full power of the Pro Tools HD platform and erase the difference that previously existed between high end reverb hardware units and software reverb processing. Finally, the promise of convolution reverb processing is available directly inside Pro Tools with no compromises.

Recent advances in reverb processing technology for digital audio have come with strings attached. Although convolution reverb offers excellent realism by sampling real reverb spaces, the downside of limited control of reverb parameters and heavy CPU overheads have slowed adoption. In addition, users of convolution reverbs have found library formats incompatible, restricting their ability to mix and match impulses between reverbs. Finally, the heavy CPU overhead of native convolution reverbs has made their use in live sessions difficult due to high latency.

Dave Lebolt announced that Digidesign is about to release a new Digital mixing console which would be dedicated to Live performances and, of course, Pro Tools based.

After the ICON console, Digidesign seems to lead towards new directions with these new product line which should be available around September at the PLASA conference. To follow....

At his usual keynote address to next month's WWDC developer conference, Steve Jobs will unveil the new OS X system version 10.4. Puma, Jaguar, and Panther will be followed by "Tiger." The beautiful silver "X" on a black background will soon become an oldie.

Ed: It'll be interesting to see what audio/music enhancements the new OS brings; we should get some details at WWDC. 10.3, 10.2, and 10.1 all brought major enhancements to music performance and functionality on OS X, including tools like Audio MIDI Setup. We'll keep you posted on how the new OS impacts music and audio -- and you can bet we'll have more compatibility issues to deal with, too. -PK

ITunes 4 already had the ability to import audio from a CD, convert audio to compressed, compact AAC or MP3 audio, burn music to CDs, and load files onto the iPod, but the best new feature in iTunes 4.5 is probably the new Apple Lossless encoder. Arguably designed with the iTunes Music Store in mind, the Apple Lossless Codec is a compromise between the small but lossy encoding of AAC or MP3 and the large file sizes of pristine AIFF audio. Apple Lossless provides full uncompressed CD quality audio in about half the space of the original file, answering the call by discriminating musical ears for a format that offered both compression and high-quality audio. Let's see the Apple Lossless encoder at work on a CD track.

Apple has confirmed that some iPod users have encountered bugs after updating their software with the iPod Updater 2004-04-28. Apple's discussion forum has several cases in which iPods were no longer recognized by iTunes 4.5. Lossless audio also seems to function correctly only with third-generation iPods and iPod minis. iPod users would be well-advised to use caution with the update and stay posted.

Ed: iPod Owners, sound out here -- hit comment and let us know your experience. -PK

Native Instruments is providing a special offer for Native Instruments software users through May 31st 2004. If you have at least one application included in the Komplete pack, you can upgrade to the full NI KOMPLETE 2 package for 596,80 euros, tax included. You will have ten new products instead of nine and will save 50% on the NI KOMPLETE 2 standard price. This pack includes : Absynth 2, Reaktor 4, B4 Organ, FM7, PRO-53, Kontakt 1.5, Kompakt, Intakt, Battery, Vokator, and NI-Spektral Delay. More details on this offer on Native website.

Scott Shepard is back with yet more audio interviews from NAB: show 4 features Paul Foeckler and Wendy Abowd from Digidesign, Soundminer's Steve Pecile, SRS Labs' Alan Kraemer, and Mac developer BIAS' Zac Wheatcroft. I'll be listening on my iPod; download from the link below and listen on yours. We'll keep looking at these announcements in more detail through the week, particularly Digidesign's extensive new lineup (like that gorgeous ICON console we keep fawning over; picture at right!).

PowerFX, an online distributor of loops, sound effects and samples, released three additional collections of CD-ROMs in the Apple Loops Disc Jams series. These Apple Loops libraries are optimized for use with Apple's Soundtrack & Garage Band applications. The three new titles are available for $49 exclusively from the PowerFX website. These new products are:

• Rock and Pop Trio: A huge and well recorded collection of acoustic drums, electric bass, and guitar riffs, rhythms and leads in a straight up rock style.

• Street Stylin: An urban themed collection of loops in R&B/Hip Hop/Down Tempo flavors with synth basses, funky guitars, keys, FX and booming beats.

• Session Percussion: A broad and indispensable collection of clean and beautifully recorded percussion loops that can be used in almost any genre. It includes traditional percussion plus congas, bongos, shakers, timbales and bells.