Mac and Music News

At AES, Motu unveiled the Motu Traveller, a new bus powered 24Bit 192kHz Firewire audio interface equipped with 4 Mic-Pre's (all with individual phantom power) and a total of 20 channels of I/O. The Traveler draws power directly from your computer via FireWire, with no AC or DC power required and can record at sample rates up to 192kHz. This new interface will feature: Compact size (14.75 x 9 inches), Powered by computer or battery, 20 channels with 4 mic inputs (individual 48V phantom power), Record up to 192kHz, 8-bus monitor mixer, Stand-alone operation, ADAT optical, AES/ EBU, S/PDIF digital I/O, Midi, Word clock, SMPTE & ADAT sync.

Now if we stand back a little from these specs, we can see that: the compact size which is praised in some comments to sit comfortably under a laptop (w ...

At it was the case for Pro Tools HD, Digidesign also posted an update to version cs1 for Pro Tools LE 6.7. Pro Tools LE 6.7cs1 update for all LE systems is now available for download and fixes : Option-Clicking on the Tempo Slider Would Cause a Crash (Item #55496).

This update is recommended for all Pro Tools LE 6.7 users.

Edirol has released Version 2.0.1 of Mac OS X drivers for 10 audio interfaces. These new drivers offer improved performance under high CPU loads as well as a further reduction in the already-minimal latency factors. In addition, Edirol has also added an uninstaller for easy removal.

Edirol audio devices with version 2.0.1 OS X drivers include the M-100FX 10 Channel Mixer with Integrated USB Audio Interface; PCR-1 S.L.I.M. 25-key USB MIDI Keyboard Controller and Audio Interface; PCR-A30 32-Key USB MIDI Keyboard Controller and Audio Interface; SD-90 USB Sound Module, FX Processor, and Audio Interface; UA-20 USB-Powered Audio & MIDI Interface; UA-25 USB-Powered Audio & MIDI Interface with Phantom Power and a built-in limiter; UA-3FX USB Audio Interface with Effects; UA-5 USB Audio Interface with Phantom Power; UA-700 USB Audio & MIDI Interface with Microphone & Guitar Amp Modeling; and the UR-80 USB Control Surface and Audio & MIDI Interface.

Steinberg has announced Virtual Bassist, an addition to its virtual player range of virtual musicians. Utilizing a huge array of samples and phrases in 25 styles, Virtual Bassist covers any possible music genres, giving lots of samples of rock, pop, reggae, metal and hip hop among others.

Available from 1st quarter 2005 as VST and Audio Units formats, Virtual Bassist also runs as a standalone mode and will cost $250.

Panic announced that the company has decided to officially retire Audion, its popular Mac MP3 player/encoder. The good news is that Audion is now free of charge but is no longer being actively developed, and is provided as-is without support.

Audion X 3.0.2 is available in MM softwares section.

Make Music just updated its music notation software Finale to version 2005a. This latest update now features a new System Spacing Options, repeat "Show On" settings in Document Options, human Playback improvements include enhanced Incorporate MIDI Data, batch processing FPA files is now possible with FinaleScript and many bugs fixed.

As usual this free update is available in MacMusic softwares section.

Digidesign just posted an update to version 6.7 for its Core Audio manager. This new driver features : fix for large TDM systems where the driver would timeout waiting for the Manager app to auto-launch and fixed a problem where older versions of Avid Xpress DV and Avid Xpress Pro would produce noise out of outputs 5-8.

Native Instruments announced that a demo version of Battery 2 is now available. Battery 2 takes drum sampling to the next level with a powerful new sampling engine, enhanced sound shaping and modulation capabilities, sophisticated
sample control and a revised user interface. The Battery 2 demo version comes with a selection of five drum kits, and is available now as a free download on the NI website.

Both demo and full versions are now available. For more information, please see www.ni-battery.com.

ChucK is a new audio programming language for real-time synthesis, composition, and performance, which runs on commodity operating systems. ChucK presents a new time-based concurrent programming model, which supports multiple, simultaneous, dynamic control rates, and the ability to add, remove, and modify code, on-the-fly, while the program is running, without stopping or restarting.

The 1.1.5.3 version is available in our softs section.

Open Tuning is a MIDI utility for Mac OS X offering to MIDI and MIDI-fied polyphonic instrument players the ability to play and explore an unlimited number of virtual tunings without needing to retune the instrument each time. In this new version, the internal Mac OS X Audio-Unit DLS Soft-Synth can now be chosen as MIDI destination to be played from Open Tuning through a user-friendly interface.

More info and dowload in the MacMusic softwares section.

Project Sam announced that true Strike 1 will be available in January. True Strike 1 is an orchestral percussion sample library which features sampled percussion instruments and will be available in 2 versions. The 51 instrument is a 18 Gb featuring a wide range of percussion instruments, effects and the versatility of three microphone sets. The Sarter Edition features a collection of 41 out of 51 percussion instruments in one microphone set.

The Professional Edition will cost 399$ and the Starter Edition 199$.

Digidesign has updated Pro Tools TDM to version 6.7 cs 1. This update fixes following items : option-Clicking on the Tempo Slider Would Cause a Crash (Item #55496), an Audible Pop Would Result when Stopping Playback (Item #54509), an Audio Glitch Could Be Recorded when Using Pre-Roll (Item #54843)and it Was Possible to Assign a Multiple-Output Instrument Plug-In's Output to Its Own Input (Item #55546).

This 20 Mb update is available in MM softs section.

Bias Inc. announced an update to version 4.13 for its audio editing softwares Peak X, Peak LE and Peak DV. These new versions features : Adds the "Delete" process to the list of processed in the batch file processor, Problems with SMDI transfers have been fixed, Compatibility with WAVES mono/mono AudioUnit plug-ins has been fixed, Fixed a problem when using a mono file with stereo WAVES plug-ins, Fixes a problem with the repair click function, Fixes a problem where hitting the fade out button rapidly would cause a crash, Fixes a problem with 32-bit WAVE files, Fixes a problem with some plug-in GUIs when playback stops and Fixes a problem with -39 errors in JAM when saving or bouncing to a JAM image.

These updates are available as free download.