Mac and Music News

PG Music has announced a general maintenance update, adding styles descriptions, for Band-in-a-Box, its automatic music accompaniment software. This version 12b23 is of course freely downloadable from the MacMusic softwares section.

FontanaMixer 1.0 by Karlheinz Essl is a generative sound environment based on John Cage's "Fontana Mix" (1958). The original concept of the piece uses a graphical random generator that is supplied with the score. This new computerized version, however, uses realtime sound generation and produces completely unforeseeable sonic results which are reflecting Cage's ideas of indeterminacy, chance, and silence.

LinPlug has announced an update to version 2.1.3 for DaOrgan, the recreation of the B3 organ, and an other update to version 2.1.2 for Albino, the synthesizer by Rob Papen. These two updates both fixe problems when saving or restoring presets using daOrgan's or Albino's internal file functions.

Fraunhofer IIS has announced the availability of MP3 Surround Evaluation Software 1.0 for Mac OS X. MP3 Surround supports high-quality multi-channel sound at bit rates comparable to those currently used to encode stereo MP3 material, resulting in files half the size of common compressed surround formats. At the same time, the new format offers complete backward compatibility to any existing MP3 software and hardware devices. MP3 Surround was developed by Fraunhofer IIS in collaboration with Agere Systems. Using a psychoacoustic technique called binaural cue coding, MP3 Surround captures the spatial image information of multi-channel sound.

The evaluation period of the MP3 Surround encoder will expire on the 31st of December 2005.

LinPlug has updated SaxLab to v1.0.1 (minor bugfixes) and released a beta version 4.1.2 of RM IV, which features : minor bugfixes, MIDI import improved and Logic 7 integration improved.

The demo version of SaxLab is also now available.

Expert sleepers has announced Merger, a utility plug-in that combines two audio channels into one. This is typically useful for e.g. vocoder plug-ins that expect their two inputs on either side of a stereo pair.

Merger is available as a free download.

I3 has just updated its two track audio editor DSP-Quattro to version 2.0.1. This new release features new PlayList command 'Set All Pauses To", the AU plug-in name does not include the vendor name when displaying it on the Effx Send Mixer, a new settable parameter on the preference dialog for the default 'pause' value for newly created PlayList tracks. It also fixes a problem with Waves, Sony and some others AU plug-ins, appearing greyed out in 2.0, and fixes a problem with the Drag&Drop to the finder under MacOS 8/9.

Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 200 million songs from the iTunes Music Store. The 200 millionth song was part of "The Complete U2" and was purchased by Ryan Alekman from Belchertown, MA ! "iTunes has now sold over 200 million songs, making it the world's number one online music store by far," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.

The iTunes Music Store features a holiday genre page with thousands of holiday favorites, including classics such as Ella Fitzgerald's "Sleigh Ride" and contemporary favorites like Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" and others..

Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH today announced the availability of the first update to its Cubase SX3 music production system. Cubase SX3 0.1 includes new features and a new RoomWorks reverb virtual effect processor.

Cubase SX3.0.1 is now available for download to all Cubase SX3 customers from the Steinberg website.

Absynth 3 by Native Instruments is in the starting blocks ! This software sampling instrument and synthesizer now features an optimized user-interface, surround sound, 256 new presets, a new stereo input, a unison mode, oscillator waveforms can be fractalized in real-time, a Free-Run oscillator mode, 2 new effects (Echo, Effect Resonator), and more...

Absynth 3.0 costs 289 € or $339,00.

Spectrasonics today has announced the release of an update to version 1.1 for Stylus RMX, its realtime groove-based virtual instrument plug-in. This release fixes effects bug (Flanger and EZ-Phaser), graphics problem with edit group add/remove button and problem with filter envelope release. The RTAS update also features : support for multiple outputs in Pro Tools version 6.7, support for automation of RMX parameters in Pro Tools, permits MIDI input when the editor window is closed, and fixes crashing problem with multiple instances.

Native Instruments announced that Battery 2 is updated to version 2.1. 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 2.1 update features many additions and enhancements plus 13 new "All" kits, each of which is built from samples of a particular instrument type.

More info on Native instruments web site.

The ARP 2600 V by Arturia is an emulation of one of the last famous analog synthetiser: the ARP 2600 . This emulation of this semi-modular synth is now available as a standalone version and in AU, VST, RTAS and HTDM formats for Mac OSX.

Arturia ARP 2600 V costs $310 and a demo version is available.

Steinberg has announced the availability of its "pro" audio system Nuendo in version 3. Nuendo 3 is designed to serve the needs for everyone producing sound for film, television, video or game. The new version of Steinberg's media production system offers more features for post production than ever before and also sets new standards in surround production.

More info in the MM softwares section.

Apple has just posted an update to version 10.3.7 for Mac OS X Panther. This 10.3.7 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" and is recommended for all users. This update features : improved AFP support for saving documents with long file names, improved OpenGL technology and updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers, improved FireWire device compatibility, updated Preview application, improved compatibility for third party applications and previous standalone security updates.

Released in March for VST hosts, the Mayhem effects bundle is now available in RTAS format for Mac OS X. The Mayhem RTAS plug-in suite by Audiodamage is a collection of four different effects designed to provide new tools for aggressive contemporary musical styles. Included in this package are Filterpod (a low-pass filter with LFO), Crush (the World's Most Dangerous Compressor...), MasterDestrukto (a plug-in featuring four different distortion algorithms for massive audio manipulation), and TimeFnk (a rhythmic delay).

Mayhem RTAS bundle costs $119.00.

Digidesign announced an update to version 6.7cs4 for Pro Tools TDM and LE systems. This new release fixes: Attack and Release controls on Smack! plug-in would respond slowly when adjusted by control surfaces (TDL & LE versions), lunching a session with/or creating a session with over 16 mono bus or output paths may result in a crash (TDM version only).