Mac and Music News

General Vibe announced VectorSector. This VSTi software synthesizer is the recreation of the wavetable synth Sequential Prophet VS. VectorSector features 4 oscillators (126 waveforms or white noise for each), 4-pole (24 dB/octave) lowpass filter with resonance, up to 16 voice polyphony, 2 LFOs per voice and modulation matrix.

Vector Sector will be available from February (Audio Units and VST version for Mac OS X) and will cost $199.

Digidesign has officially qualified Mac OS 10.3.7 for use with the following systems:Pro Tools 6.7 software with Pro Tools|HD Accel and Pro Tools|HD. For LE systems, Digidesign has officially qualified Mac OS 10.3.7 for use with Pro Tools LE 6.7 software with Digi 002, Digi 002 Rack and Mbox.

Art announces a new MicroPre USB Audio Interface for Mac OS X and OS 9. The USB Micro PRE is a USB audio interface with a standalone phono preamplifier, analog inputs (witchable between phono and line level signals), optical output and input, and line output jacks. The USB Micro PRE can be powered by either an external power source or directly off the USB port.

The USB MicroPre is $99.00 and will be available from April 2005.

Griffin Technology today announces the Griffin Lapel Mic. This multipurpose lapel microphone offers quality stereo audio input for recording interviews, lectures and other events. An iPod equipped with the Griffin iTalk voice recorder instantly becomes a mobile recording unit. Griffin Lapel Mic features a standard 3.5mm stereo mini-jack and a swivel clip.

The Griffin Lapel Mic is priced at $14.99 USD, and is available immediately.

We have more info about the new Minimoog RME (Rack mount Edition). The RME is five units high and RME's rear panel delivers all of the same extensive input/output resources that are available on the Voyager via its MIDI IN, THRU, and OUT connectors, four audio input and output jacks, and two accessory port connectors. Presets from the Voyager are useable in the Rack Mount Edition, and multiple RMEs can be chained together with MIDI to achieve polyphony.

The Rack Mount Edition sells for $2,195.00 and production will begin in March.

XP Sound will unveil its new XP202 USB audio interface for Mac at NAMM. It will offer 24-bit/96kHz conversion, a built in equalizer, two adjustable microphone pre-amps, two stereo line inputs, a stereo headphone amp, and mix/balance control.

The SP202 will be available in Q2 2005 for $199.

Celemony Software is presenting its new audio editing software 'Melodyne uno' for Mac OS X at the NAMM show. This small version of the audio software Melodyne works in a similar fashion to a sample editor — except that it offers characteristic Melodyne functions and is therefore the ideal tool for pitch correction, vocal production and the editing of melodies.

Melodyne Uno for Mac OS X costs around $199 US (169 euros) and should be available from March 2005.

TL Space convolution reverb by Trillium Space Labs is updated to version 1.0.3. This update is recommended for all users and fixes several bugs : GUI issues with Avid Xpress, loss of saved wet/dry settings in some sessions, and much more.

Info and download in the MacMusic software section.

Steve Jobs doesn't lack talent, and he's got a nerve too. Indeed the introduction of the Mac Mini and the iPod Shuffle on Tuesday shows that the Apple founder undoubtedly gives his company the greatest change in policy in its history. The challenge is as much nice as it is daring. And it is about winning back the customers left to Windows for too long, with two products that are both nice and cheap. The concept is both simple and brilliant, since it is about making the most of the trade's success put under the spotlight that was created by the success of the iPod, to sell a computer, the Mac mini : and Apple expects it to become, like the iPod, a leading product, an icon, a social phenomenon. What's more, when it offers a computer that is quite powerful and neatly designed, equipped with a user-friendly software suite, at an absolutely unbeatable price, Apple pulls for good the rug out from under his detractors, who thought the prices of the computers belonging to Cupertino limited its development. So, as usual, Apple innovates, produces nice and powerful machines and for the first time, the prices are within the general public's pocket.

And yet, though this challenge is nice, it is a risky one.

Celemony Software is now shipping Version 2.6 of its audio software 'Melodyne'. The emphasis is upon numerous improvements in the handling of keys and scales, editing of diatonic and chromatic notes — with far more musical results from both correction and transposition operations, enhanced compatibility with Apple Logic 7 and DP4.5 and better pitch recognition.

Registered Melodyne users can now download the new update free of charge.

We can read in Digitimes.com that Taiwan maker Asustek, which currently produces iBook notebooks for Apple, will also start shipping iBook G5 notebooks to Apple in the second quarter of this year. It also seems that Quanta computer will start shipping new Powerbook G5 in the second quarter of 2005 too, and will ship 30 or 50,000 units/month to Apple.

Cyndustries has announced a custom modular synthesizer built around the new Apple Mac mini. The Cynthia Macintosh is a combination of Mac mini with a touch-screen controlled liquid crystal color video monitor. The Cynthia Macintosh is available only by special order.

More info on Cyndustries web site.

Edirol announces that the R-1 portable wave/mp3 recorder is now shipping. Since its announcement, the R-1 has been refined to version 1.03 offering compatibility with 4 Gb Flash Cards.  The R-1 is a mobile recording device offering direct storage to Compact Flash (CF) memory, 24-bit effect processing, and operation from 2 AA batteries. The R-1 is equipped with two hi-grade electret mics, external line and mic inputs.

Edirol R-1 is now shipping and costs $550.


 

You know of course that Cassini-Huygens spacecraft (Titan-IVB/Centaur) will reach its destination, Saturnus' moon Titan, on Friday January 14th 2005, it has traveled through Space seven years, 4 billion kilometres long way. A music about the mission history, composed by french composers Julien Civange and Louis Haeri, is available on the iTunes Music Store. But an other music, "Charm of Sound", by finish electroacoustic music composer Petri Kuljuntausta, has traveled inside the Huygens probe on a cd-rom.

Huygens will be collecting 500 MB of data from Titan, including images and sounds.

Motu has updated Digital Performer to version 4.52, in order to offer numerous feature and performance enhancements, including Dynamic CPU Management, Multi Bounce and more. This maintenance update is available in the softwares section.

Apple announces an update to version 4.7.1 for iTunes, which now supports the new iPod Shuffle and includes other performance improvements. iTunes 4.7.1 is available via the softwares update utility in Mac OS X, or in the Mac Music sofwares section.