Mac and Music News

The M-Audio iControl will start shipping in June at 179 euros. The iControl is a controler for GarageBand. USB powered, it packs transport controls, a jog wheel, 8 encoders assignable (control volume, pan, aux bus sends or effects), 7 mode assign buttons, 8 sets of buttons for Mute, Solo, and Record-enable… The icontrol include also a MIDI In for a keyboard.

Tinysoft has become tinytool ! A new name, and new updates for Outi 2 and Chachacha 1.6...Outi is a real-time loops player which allows you to record, loop, use VST plug-ins. It includes a cut-up feature, and is tempo-synchronised. Chachacha is a audio video live mixing tool which helps you mix four videos depending on the mix of their sounds.

Both are donationwares you will find on our site.

Applied Acoustics Systems announces String Studio VS 1.0., a new string modeling synthesizer for Mac OS X, available as a standalone application and supports VST, Audio Units and RTAS formats. At the core of String Studio lies a whole new cutting edge string model interacting with picks, bows, hammers, fingers, frets, dampers, and soundboards. With String Studio play stunning guitars, basses, harps, clavinets, bowed instruments, ethereal pads and wild textures. Check out the extensive preset library or use String Studio's innovative tools to craft earthy, organic timbres or other-worldly instruments simply not possible with other synthesizers.

String Studio is available at US$249.

The demo of Kontakt 2 is now availble as download on the Native Instruments web site. The demo version comes with a special demo library that contains nine instruments and showcases the new KSP and convolution features. Kontakt 2 is a powerful new sampling engine that offers virtually unlimited polyphony as well as 64-part multi-timbrality. Multiprocessor support delivers up to 100% performance increase on dual processors systems, while Altivec optimization gives a further performance boost on Macintosh computers equipped with G4 and G5 processors. This new version also features support for multi-channel formats ranging from 3.0 up to 16.0, including industry standards like 5.1 and 7.1, a new Kontakt Script Processor (KSP) a fully programmable processing engine that transforms and generates MIDI and control events on the basis of a versatile yet easy-to-learn script language, a new Ram purge function, and a new convolution effect unit.

Ableton has updated Live to v4.1.3. This new release fixes several bugs : problem with audio effects in MIDI track, bug in MIDI editor velocity selection, and potential crash with MIDI or Audio devices.

Propellerhead today announced the immediate availability of ElectroMechanical 2.0 ReFill, an expansion set of vintage keyboard instruments for exclusive use within Reason 3.0 software. ElectroMechanical 2.0 ReFill is a full set of sound patches and files of vintage keyboard classics such as the Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer electric piano, Hammond organ and Hohner Clavinet & Pianet.

The ElectroMechanical 2.0 ReFill is a free download for all Reason 3.0 owners. It can also be ordered on a CD for $12,00.

It seems that a very serious bug occurs when using a PowerMac G5 single 1.8 Ghz with Mac OS 10.4 "Tiger". Only G5 single 1.8 Ghz, Rev B (end of 2004, product now on sale on the AppleStore), with ATI Radeon 9600 XT (or Nvidia 5200) graphic card, are affected. The bug consists on a freeze (no Kernel Panic) with softwares using full screen OpenGL (iPhoto, iTunes, Quicktime movies on Safari, and more).

Spongefork is a complete softsynth, sampler, live improvisation tool, and studio soundfile processing application. This new version 3.1.3 now supports full channel count for audio devices with more than 8 channels and fixes several bugs. The demo version increases demo period to 60 days.

Ambrosia announces that WireTap is now available as version 1.1.0 which adds Mac OS 10.4 Tiger compatibility, support for one-off timed recordings, a graphic EQ, the ability to record Microphone and Mac audio simultaneously, and more. WireTap Pro allows you to record any audio, saving it to a file for later listening or processing. Streaming Internet audio, sound snippets of a DVD movie, voice notations/narration, audio from a game, digitized audio from a line-in...

WireTap is available in the MacMusic softwares section.

Ableton's Live 4 best seller software is a fantastic application that radically changed the way musicians perform and/or create music... MacMusic is very proud to collaborate with our partner AudioMidi.com and offer to our visitors this very complete and exclusive review of Live 4 written by our friend Douglas Edge.

Enjoy your reading!

FabFilter has released Volcano, their new filter effect plug-in for Mac OS X. It features two independent filters with low-pass, high-pass, and band-pass responses, and panning setting on both filters. The frequency, peak, and panning settings can be modulated in any way imaginable with the two LFOs and the triggered envelope generator. FabFilter Volcano works with any MIDI keyboard or controller.

Volcano filter (VST and Audio Units) costs $139.

PSP announces the release of new versions for Lexicon PSP42, PSP84 and PSPNitro. New versions of Lexicon PSP42 and PSP84 are v1.4.3 (AudioUnit, RTAS, VST) and new version of PSP Nitro is v1.0.4.(AudioUnit, RTAS, VST). They're both bugfixes versions.

Digidesign announces Pro Tools 6.9.2 is available as a free download for Pro Tools TDM 6.9 users. Pro Tools TDM 6.9.2 adds support for Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" to the Pro Tools 6.9 feature set. Pro Tools TDM 6.9.2 software provides support for Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" with Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools|HD Accel. Pro Tools 6.9 must be installed first in order to use the Pro Tools 6.9.2 Updater.

Updater CDs will be available soon through the DigiStore for $4.95 plus shipping and handling.

A Reaktor Workshop will take place in Brusseles on June 4th 2005. The Workshop will be held by Brian Smith (Native Instruments) and Andreas Sumerauer. Topics covered: advanced sequencing (by Brian) and physical modelling - Reaktor5 core technology (by Andreas).

Food and Drinks are included in the workshop fee which is 60,- Euros for registered Reaktor Users, 110 Euro for everyboy else.

DJ-1800 is a shareware application that emulates the Denon DN-1800F professional CD Player system used by many DJs and radio stations. This v2.0 release features improved iTunes synchronisation, support for QuickTime 7 and Tiger (Mac OS 10.4), crackle-free (and much higher quality) pitch shifting, and many other fixes and improvements.

Cycling '74 today announced a special workshop on Cycling '74 products at the San Francisco Apple Store. As part of a series Apple hosts, this workshop will feature Product Specialist Gregory Taylor at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, May 25th  at the San Francisco Apple Store located at One Stockton Street in downtown San Francisco.

The event will feature an overview of the Max/MSP/Jitter audio and video environment, and a first look at the JazzMutant Lemur programmable touchscreen controller.

Tascam announces that its full line of FireWire audio control surfaces and interfaces are now compatible with Apple's Final Cut Pro 5 and Soundtrack Pro editing software with Apple's unveiling of the Final Cut Studio production suite that includes the Final Cut Pro 5 upgrade. This major upgrade to the Apple's software means that Final Cut Pro 5 and Soundtrack Pro are now fully compatible with MCP (Mackie Control Protocol) devices, so you can use external audio control surfaces— including TASCAM's FW-1884 or FW-1082—to edit and manipulate audio more efficiently.

Ploytec GmbH (formerly known as "propagamma") just released their first non-beta version of the USB Audio driver for Mac OS X. It's completly redesigned and finally unleashes the performance the USB ASIO driver for Mac OS 9 is known for, on Mac OS X. The design ensures real 1:1 audio and already works with USB2 highspeed devices in Ploytec's lab. The driver is available as a free update for registered owners of the earlier versions and a 50% off crossgrade for users of the USB ASIO driver for Mac OS 9.