Mac and Music News

Apple has announced the availability of the iPod 4th generation. The new iPod features a new click wheel and up to 12 hour battery. There are now 2 iPod : iPod 20 Gb (349 euros) and iPod 40 Gb (459 euros).

New iPods are available on the Apple Store.

Sound Quest (www.squest.com) is now shipping Midi Quest 9.1 ($199) and Midi Quest XL ($299) for Macintosh OS X and OS 9. Midi Quest 9.1 and Midi Quest XL for Macintosh both include support for over 600 instruments from more than 60 different manufacturers and feature an unparalleled collection of tools to backup, create, edit, organize and tweak the settings of your synthesizers, effects units, drum machines and other MIDI devices.

Product Price & Category: $199 / $299 USD

Defective Records Software has updated VSTi Host for OS X to v3.1. In addition to adding support for ReWire, many new features and fixes have been implemented:added patch name drop down menus for all VST plugins, MIDI port names now reflect custom port names entered into Audio MIDI Setup application, scanning of VST plugins on startup is now more robust , display of plugin currently being scanned on startup now reliably displayed in startup window, added status window menu option, to display application startup and status messages and updated addendum document.

VSTi Host costs $35 USD and a demo is available. The update is free for registered users.

MidiPipe is a Midi utility which allows you to modify in real time MIDI messages. This new version features : MF Player - plays up to 128 MIDI Files; handles Song Select, Start/Stop/Continue messages, added "Save" to the file menu , "MicroTuner" tool now uses channel 1 to 9 and 11 to 13 (skips channel 10 that some synths reserve for drum kit).

MidiPipe download is available in the brilliant MacMusic softwares section, skilfully managed by our friend June Bug.

SoundFont Synth is an Audio Unit component plug-in designed to make the synthesis of natural instruments using Sound Fonts, available to GarageBand and other Audio Unit hosts. This new version adds a check box to remove internal reverb.

SoundFont Synth is a 15$ shareware.

Creamware Audio announces its "Scope Home" pack at a special price : 555 euros !!! Scope Home is composed of a Luna sound card with an extension box. New features are : 10 analog inputs/outputs, 1 S/PDIF I/O, 1 Midi interface, Asio drivers, very low latency, a mixing desk, an effects bundle (reverb, filters,...), a modular synth with more than 80 presets and STS-4000 sampler, compatible with Akai and soundfont sample files.

All information regarding Scope Home are available on Creamware web site.

The MODE plug-ins set, built with Pluggo technology, includes five primary plugins: POLY (polyphonic synthesizer), MONO (synth with a dual 2-op FM engine), BANG (FM and analog percussion voices), SPIN (time-synchronized effects) and WASH (delay-based effects processor) as well as 18 plug-in "modules". This new version 1.1 is now compatible with Max/MSP 4.5.

Updates in VST/RTAS/AU are available in the MM softs section.

Cycling '74 today announced the release of MAX/MSP version 4.5, a major upgrade to its graphical programming environment for audio and media. New Features in Max/MSP include: Complete ReWire slave support with objects for retrieving and controlling all ReWire host information, Visualization tools for audio signals, including sonogram and spectrogram displays and a new VU-style meter with adjustable ballistics, Anti-aliased oscillators with a warm, analog sound, A preset management system with parameter morphing and file storage in human-readable XML, Sample-accurate audio signal step sequencing, New high-quality realtime pitch and frequency shifting objects based on intelligent audio signal analysis, Scalable anti-aliased 2-D and 3-D graphical user interface elements driven by JavaScript, ...