Mac and Music News

Crest Performance announces two new 4-BUS CPM 24-4 & CPM 32-4 Mixers. They both feature 32 (or 24) low noise XLR inputs, three-band EQ, six aux sends, two fully assignable stereo returns with low cut, four sub groups, separate mono bus, and seven XLR balanced outputs.

CPM 32-4 costs $2899.99 and CPM 24-4 costs $2299.99. They will be available second quarter 2005.

MOTU has unveiled Version 2.0 for its instrument plug-ins MX4 which now features more built-in effects, more factory presets, new pattern gate function, arpeggiator, envelope follower, new invert and transform functions.

MX4 v2.0 will be available first quarter 2005 for $295

And another symphonic plugin ! Motu unveis its Symphonic Instrument plugin that gives users access to an 8 GB library of orchestra sounds for composing, sequencing and rendering realistic orchestral performances. Instrument highlights include strings, brass, woodwinds, orchestral percussion, tutti (complete orchestra), choirs, pipe organ, piano and "historical instruments" (strange name for harpsichords and viole).

Symphonic Instrument will ship in first quarter 2005 at $295.

Tascam announces its new digital console DM-3200, which adds more busses, effects, auxes ans USB compatibility. Up to 6.1 surround panning is available and the DM-3200 features 48-channel digital mixing at resolutions of up to 96kHz / 24-bit, 32 channel inputs and 16 return inputs, 16 busses and 8 aux busses, 4-band full-parametric EQ and dynamics on each of the 32 channel, 4 stereo effects or two surround effects (8-in/8-out), 17 touch sensitive 100mm motorized faders, USB 1.1 connection to computer for data backup, companion software for Mac OS X, 16 XLR balanced mic/line inputs with phantom power, 2 XLR AES/EBU and 2 S/PDIF digital I/O.

MOTU has unveiled Version 2.0 for its instrument plug-ins MachFive, which now features : stand-alone operation, unlimited parts, full-screen preset browser, enhanced Giga and EXS24 library support, expanded envelope editor, expanded sample editor, built-in mixer, new LoopLab function and real-time time stretching.

MachFive 2.0 is of course not available now, but will ship in second quarter 2005 and should cost $395.

Alesis announces the IO|2 USB, a 2 channel portable 24-bit-96k USB interface with mic-pres, phantom power. Channel inserts are provided for outboard processing. The unit even has 2 XLR plus 2 1/4" balanced line inputs, MIDI input/output and S/PDIF I/O, and is USB bus powered.

The IO|2 USB will be available first quarter of 2005.

You all know (who doesn't in this world ?) our famous software section. This true Alladdin's cave for MacMacmusicians contains thousands of treasures, updates, freewares, sharewares where you can navigate, thanks to the famous tracker. And yet in a cave, as it is the case in any house, the paintwork has to be redone at times. It's done! From now on, the software section allows you to find the history of all the versions of a software, to have access to a complete list of software by the same manufacturer, to read all the news linked with this manufacturer, or else for plugins you'll be able to move from VST version to Audio Units version for example, in absolute comfort.

In the part of Aladdin, it's our friend June Bug who proposes these improvements and whose daily and titanic work allows us all, MacMusiciens, to have this softwares database : unique and essential.

Anwida Soft announces a new VST Pack for MacOS X, which contains 5 VST audio plug-ins in a bundle : CX1V compressor/expander, L1V limiter/maximizer, GEQ15V - 15 band 2/3 octave graphic equalizer, GEQ31V - 31 band 1/3 octave graphic equalizer and PEQ1V - parametric equalizer.

VST Pack costs $199.

IK Multimedia has announced their studio instrument workstation Studiophonik. This plugin station is designed to control the sound of a band in a studio and allows user to create a virtual band. Studiophonik offers a huge variety of different vintage and custom brand instruments and comes with 2 DVD of 7 GB sound sets.

Studiophonik will be be available from Spring 2005 at 399 euros.

Cycling '74 and Octiv released Octirama, a surround dynamics processor for Digidesign ProTools TDM systems. Octirama is a multi-band dynamics processor for 5.1 surround mastering for the Digidesign TDM environment. Octirama incorporates four and five band processing for each of five channels plus advanced bass management.

Octirama will be available in first quarter 2005 for $995.

Mackie has announced a new update to v2.0 of its Audio-Midi sequencer Tracktion. This new release introduces an enhanced MIDI editor, more comprehensive keyboard control and the ability to map hardware MIDI controllers to filter parameters. This version also adds a new 64-bit mix engine, improved external synchronization support, eight auxiliary sends and returns, and full integration for Mackie Control Universal and C4 controllers.

A demo version is available on Mackie web site.

Gibson is releasing a digital guitar, featuring an ethernet-connection in addition to normal analogue out. It is designed to work as a normal Gibson Les Paul, but with digital options to expand the guitarists creative canvas, including the ability to assign separate outputs for separate strings, via a claimed no-latency breakoutbox. With some agile fingers you might be able to play all six guitarparts of your new rockopera yourself, at the same time.

My little finger (well, Peter in fact…) told me that the author of the infamous (and ultimate) "A to Z of Analogue Synthesizers" is on the way to finish his book on effects. If it's on the same league as the AZAS expect: companies histories, product extensive info, advice on the value both in use and on the 2nd hand market, and unknown beasts and white elephants.

Expect the book to be out for sale on the VEMIA site before the end of the year.

Ableton has updated its audio sequencer Live to version 4.1. This release is a huge bugfix version : crash with sample reverse, crash with MIDI Learn button, crash when deleting MIDI Track, crash when removing MIDI interface devices, and much more.

Info and download in the MacMusic softwares section.