Mac and Music News

Steinberg has announced that the update to its HALion String Edition product is now shipping worldwide. HALion String Edition 2 offers a total of 9GB of solo and ensemble strings, and integrates Steinberg's HALion sampling technology with a specially recorded sound library. Samples are recorded in 24-bit and using top grade recording equipment. Included are solo and ensemble strings in a large variety of articulations including, crescendo, trills, up and down bowing, portamento and many more.

HALion String Edition 2 is available now for $399; registered owners of HALion String Edition Vol. 1 can update for $149.

Recordare has released version 3 of its Dolet plug-in for the Finale music notation program. Dolet 3 for Finale reads and writes MusicXML 1.1 files for the highest-fidelity translation available between music notation programs. Dolet 3 also includes batch translation features to automate the process of moving music notation files from one program to another. Dolet plug-ins works as an universal translators between music notation programs. Finale users on OS X can now read all files produced by programs including Sibelius, PhotoScore Professional, and Virtual Composer. Dolet 3 supports Finale 2004 to 2006 on Macintosh OS X.

Dolet 3 for Finale is available for US $119.95.

Rogue Amoeba announces an update to v1.0.6 of Airfoil, fixing bug with unexplained lost connections, bug with systems where IPv6 is enabled and compatibility bug with some machines running AirPort 4.2. An updated version 1.8.1 of Nicecast is also available, which includes : Re-added .m3u Save button, Re-added Listener Stats, Properly supports OS X 10.3.0-10.3.8 again and several bug fixes.

PSP audioware unveils its new plugin PSP MasterComp, a high fidelity stereo dynamics processor. It's double-precision (64-bit floating point) and double-sampled (FAT - Frequency Authentication Technique) processing offers transparency even at extreme compression settings and high sample rates.

PSP MasterComp will be available soon, and Mac version is still in development.

URS has updated its URS Everything EQ Bundle to version 4.0.1 for Audio Units/VST on Mac OS X. This release fixes several bugs : buffer overrun error, default "off" position not available, and automatic turning on of the highpass and lowpass filters. URS Everything EQ Bundle includes series EQ - four band EQ, N series EQ - 5 band EQ, A10 series EQ - 10 band graphic, N12 series EQ - 12 band graphic, S series EQ - 6 band parametric, BLT 2 band Program EQ and FullTec 5 Band Program EQ.

MacMusic is proud to publish in its article section the "Top Ten Picks for Mac Audio Freeware" by our friend Jay Shaffer from Macaudioguy.com.

Thanks to Jay. Enjoy your reading !

Steinberg announces Studio Case 2. This new pack includes new version of Cubase SE sequencer, and six entry-level versions of Steinberg VST instruments : Groove Agent, HALion, The Grand, Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition, D'cota and the new Virtual Bassist SE.

Studio Case II will be available for 279 euros from September 2005.

Rob Papen, famous soft synth designer (Albino synth and soundsets for Emu, Native Instruments and others) announces Blue, a new virtual synth project. Blue will be available as a VST and Audio Units plugin for Mac, and three MP3 demos are available at Rob Papen web site, but we have no more information about this new synth.

Rop Papen web site announces that Blue go on sale at the end of august

CreamWare announced in April its new Authentic Sound Box (or ASB), two new digital emulations of classic synthesizers. The first one is the Minimax ASB, a recreation of the famous Minimoog, which fully integrates with your computer via USB and offers polyphony and preset management. The second one is the Profit-5 ASB, a recreation of the classic Prophet V synth, with features similar to those of the Minimax ASB.

The first one, the Minimax ASB, is on its way to the dealers and will soon be available at 730 euros.

Digidesign announces two new Avid MediaDrive standalone SCSI hard drives (146 GB and 300 GB) and a new MediaDock Shuttle 146 GB removable SCSI drive. Digidesign is also lowering prices for the 73 GB MediaDrive and 73 GB MediaDock Shuttle. At the same time, the 80 GB FireWire drive and the 36 GB versions of the MediaDrive and MediaDock Shuttle are being discontinued.