Mac and Music News

This is a real sunday news item : the MidiGun is a handheld midi controller. It replaces the classical DJ mixer and the keyboard at the same time. The "midiGun" is a new kind of device that "can be intuitively used because of its handy shape and easy accessible knobs, buttons and sensors". The "midiGun" offers 16 different controllers which can be cascaded in 16 switchable sets. This allows for a total of 256 independent sound and effects controls at the reach of your fingertips.

Digidesign will be bundling the Melodyne version Uno Essential - a cut-down version of Melodyne uno- free of charge with its Pro Tools software from September 2005 onwards. This will give Pro Tools users the benefit of Melodyne's unique functions for pitch correction, vocal production and melody editing. Uno essential supports all commonly used audio formats and is integrated into ProTools via the ReWire interface.

Melodyne Uno Essential is included free with every Pro Tools Ignition bundle. Upgrades from the essential to the full version of Melodyne uno are available for US$99

Rob Papen released a demo version of its new Blue virtual synth. Blue as six oscillators which can be connected in various ways, two analogue style modelled stereo filters, an large range of processing and modulation options and a sequencer. Nete that the demo goes silent every 45 seconds and that you can not save presets or banks.

CodeOperator announce DelayPack for OS X. DelayPack is a package with five useful delays like COSimpleDelay, COSpectralDelay5, COModulationDelay, CODuckingDelay, and COPingPongDelay. The package will grow every month.

DelayPack can be purchased at $49.95 until september 15, then the price will be $69.95. If you buy DelayPack now, you will receive every new Delay for free.

Propellerhead posted an updated version of its virtual studio Reason. This version 3.0.4 fixes several issues : MIDI import, loading old songs, cross-browsing, combined note handling, and missing icons in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

This update is available in the MacMusic software section.

Gemini introduces the iKEY, a compact portable USB recorder. This product can record an audio signal, then convert it to MP3 or WAV (without extra hardware and software) and can write it to a USB storage device in real-time. It features two RCA inputs. The iKEY will allow the user to record live music, live speeches/seminars, radio, karaoke, transfer a vinyl collection to MP3, or record music to an MP3 Player hard drive.

iKey is available at $229.99.

As we announced on August 10th, the new virtual synth "Blue" by Rob Papen is now available. Blue features FM Synthesis, Phase Distortion Synthesis, Wave Shaping Synthesis and Subtractive Synthesis, and contains six oscillators, two analogue style modelled stereo filters, ten LFOs, 32 step mono sequencer, nine envelopes AHDSFR type, and 16-voice polyphony. Blue is available in VST and Audio Units plug-in format.

Blue will be available August 26th and will cost $199. A demo version is coming soon.

Audio Ease announces an update to version 5.1 in Audio Units, RTAS and VST formats for its Altiverb reverb. This new release features : greatly improved stability, bugfixes in PT version, added load as aux functionality, added on/off switch for key trigger function of samples, fixed problems with SDII & Gain Correction, and IRI files can't be overwritten by Analyse IR.

This update is available as a free download.