Mac and Music News

Native Instruments announces at AES its new Essentials bundle, a new instrument collection including the full versions of Absynth 3, the semi-modular synthesizer; Battery 2, the percussion sampler; PRO-53, an emulation of the legendary Prophet 5 analog synthesizer; Kompakt, the multi-format sampler that includes a comprehensive instrument library; and one amp emulation of choice from the Guitar Combos series that includes the Plexi Combo, Twang Combo and AC-Box Combo, all derived from NI's Guitar Rig amp emulation system.

NI Essentials is available immediately for of $499. A special limited-time upgrade offer also allows all owners of at least one product from the NI Essentials to upgrade to the full bundle for $339. This upgrade offer expires on December 31st 2005.

BIAS announced that the Master Perfection Suite, a collection of six plug-ins for mastering and sound design, will be available in Q1 of 2006 for Audio Units, DirectX, RTAS, and VST host applications on Mac OS X and Windows XP. BIAS first released the Master Perfection Suite last month as part of Peak Pro XT 5, an extended technology edition of Peak Pro 5 that also includes SoundSoap and SoundSoap Pro audio restoration tools. While currently compatible within Peak Pro 5, the Master Perfection Suite will soon be offered as a separate product with universal plug-in host compatibility on Mac OS X and Windows XP. The Master Perfection Suite includes: Repli-Q (spectral/EQ matching), PitchCraft (pitch correction/manipulation), Reveal (seven tool analysis suite), Sqweez-3 & -5 (linear phase multi-band compressor/limiter/expander), SuperFreq (new edition of the 4,6,8, and 10-band parametric equalizer suite), and GateEx (gate/downward expander). The plug-ins were designed from the ground up by carefully listening to professional user feedback and they offer more features and many user interface improvements over other plug-ins in their class.

MOTU unveiled Version 1.1 of the recently released Symphonic Instrument universal orchestral plug-in for Mac and Windows. Version 1.1 adds disk streaming and support for multiple independent outputs. It will be offered as a free update to all Symphonic Instrument plug-in users later this Fall.

Native Instruments debuts the new version of its drawbar organ, the B4 II. The bass pedal section of the B4 II has been extended with a Pedal Bass Legato function, and now even includes a special "String Bass" option. Th new B4 II comes equipped with a new selection of models, ranging from a number of B3 organs of different age and condition to Vox Continental, Farfisa and Harmonium models. The rotary speaker section, the crucial element in achieving the signature Hammond sound, has also received a complete overhaul that brings both its authenticity and versatility to a new level.

The B4 II will be available in November 2005 for $229, or as a bundle with the B4D Drawbar Controller for $449.

JBL unveils its new LSR4300 Studio Monitors serie, dedicated to project studios, post-production and broadcast facilities, with two models : LSR4326P (powered six-inch two-way system) and the LSR4328P (powered eight-inch two-way system) . Thay will come with a dedicated system volume control, mute and solo functions and input switching that allows the user to monitor a range of analog and digital playback sources. Each model includes high-resolution 24-bit, 96kHz AES/EBU and S/PDIF digital inputs to interface with computer audio interfaces. They will include an accessory kit containing a calibration microphone, remote control, and LSR4300 Control Center Software.

LSR4326P will cost $1,399 per pair, and LSR4328P will cost $1,699 per pair.

Here is good news from AES and for a nice piece of software. Celemony announces the imminent arrival of Melodyne 3. This new version offers a new algorithm that allows any type of audio material to profit from Melodyne's unique editing functions and sound quality; in other words, Melodyne is no longer limited to the editing of melodies but can handle homophonic and polyphonic textures. Melodyne3 also offers fully automatic analysis of the audio material, powerful macros for the correction of intonation and timing errors, and numerous improvements in the user interface.

Melodyne 3 is scheduled for release in November 2005. Melodyne 3 studio (the full edition with the new polyphonic time stretching) will cost 699 euros; The upgrade to Melodyne3 will cost registered cre8 users 99 euros and users of the studio edition 149 euros. For purchases registered after the 1st September 2005, the upgrade will be free.

Another new product announced by native Instruments at AES New York is Bandstand, a highly versatile software instrument designed as the solution for musicians, performers and producers that work with the General MIDI format. This sound module and MIDI player comes with 2 Gigabyte of instrument and percussion sounds, 128 instruments and 9 drum kits. It can be used both as a stand-alone sound module and playback device, or as an instrument plug-in in all common host sequencers.

Bandstand will be available in November 2005 for $229.

Native Instruments unveils its new Guitar Rig 2, which will feature 8 amps, 15 guitar and 6 bass cabinets, 4 rotary speakers, 9 microphones with adjustable positioning and over 40 effects. At the heart of Guitar Rig 2 is the new Rig Kontrol 2, a multi-functional and fully stage-ready foot pedal featuring six foot switches, a multi-functional pedal, an integrated audio interface with inputs optimized for guitar and bass, MIDI and USB.

Guitar Rig 2 will be available in November 2005 for $579.

Native Instruments announces new versions of its Komplete products line that will be available immediately, including now :

- NI Komplete 3, which now contains Elektrik Piano, Guitar Rig and the upcoming new B4;
- NI Komplete Sound 2 contains full range of sound banks and sample libraries for Reaktor, Kontakt, Battery, FM7, Absynth and B4 in a single box;
- NI Komplete Care 2006 is the continuation of NI's update plan.

Komplete 3 is now available for $1499, Komplete Sound 2 for $339 and Komplete Care 2006 for $279 (introductory price valid until December 31st 2005).

Digidesign announces Pro Tools 7 software (shipping soon). The new software will be available for Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE , and Pro Tools M-Powered systems. Pro Tools 7 software is also a cross-platform release, supporting Mac OS10.4 ("Tiger"). New Pro Tools features new music creation tools such as Instrument Tracks for simple and straightforward integration of virtual instruments, non-destructive real-time MIDI processing, and the ability to work with industry-standard REX and ACID files. It also includes new optimizations for our host processing engine that boosts RTAS plug-in counts by as much as 150% on multi-processor computers.

Anyone who purchased a new Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, or an upgrade to Pro Tools TDM 6.9.x or Pro Tools LE 6.9x software on or after September 1, 2005, is automatically eligible for a free upgrade to the corresponding version of Pro Tools 7 software.

PreSonus debuts now the new INSPIRE 1394 software controlled FireWire Recording Interface. The INSPIRE 1394 features four analog inputs and two analog outputs at 24-bit/96KHz A/D/A conversion rate. Inputs on the INSPIRE 1394 include two custom-designed PreSonus microphone preamplifiers with +48V phantom power and two instrument Hi-Z inputs on the front panel. Dual mono or stereo selectable line level or phono (with RIAA filter) inputs are also available on the rear panel. Outputs on the INSPIRE 1394 include RCA unbalanced and mini TRS on the rear panel as well as headphone output on the front panel. Four INSPIRE 1394's can be connected together. The interface comes with an easy-to-use software mixer control panel, Mac compatible.

Apogee Electronics announces its 20th anniversary :"For Two Decades, Apogee has been the professional's choice in digital audio hardware, by offering innovative technology and sonically high products year after year. From the original analog filters back in 1985 to the AD-8000 in 1997 and now the AD-16X and DA-16X, Apogee has led the way in making digital audio Sound Amazing".

To celebrate this 20th anniversary, Apogee wants to give one lucky person a Rosetta 200 and a Mini-MP..follow the link !

A free stuff makes always happy. Thanks to Solid State Logic for offering a free version of a VST - Audio Unis clone of their famous LMC-1 listen-mic compressor. This download is available after registration on the Solid State Logic web site.

Blue Microphones is now shipping the Snowball USB Microphone, designed for desktop recording applications such as podcasting. The new Snowball USB features : USB connectivity, dual capsule design with 3 position switch (cardioid, cardioid pad, omni), capable of handling a wide variety of instruments and vocals, rugged ABS construction.

The Snowball retails for $155.

At the AES SoundToys (formerly Wave Mechanics) is announcing the new SoundToys TDM Effects Bundle for ProTools TDM on Mac OSX. The new comprehensive effects bundle includes nine effects plug-ins for professional audio, sound design, post production, and audio for gaming : EchoBoy, SoundBlender, FilterFreak, PhaseMistress, PurePitch, PitchDoctor, Tremolator, SPEED and Crystallizer.

SoundToys TDM Effects Bundle will be available in early Q4 2005 for $1,195.00.

Cakewalk has announced Dimension Pro, a new Mac virtual a synthesizer that combines real instruments with advanced synthesis. It offers an abundance of sounds that range from pristine realistic acoustic instruments, thumping basses, cutting leads, to complex, evolving atmospheres, along with sound-sculpting engine with analog sound generation.

It will be available in VST, DX and AU plug-in formats from early November 2005 at $359.

Cycling '74 announced the development of UpMix, a surround processing and mixing software package. UpMix has been developed and tested by a team of surround sound professionals and utilizes proprietary algorithms to convert stereo audio into an immersive 6-channel mix suitable for Film, DVD, HD Broadcast and Music surround formats.

UpMix will be available in first quarter 2006.

At AES, Mackie has introduced the new Onyx 1200F, a 30-by-34 channel, 24-bit/192kHz-capable FireWire audio/MIDI interface that features 12 of Mackie Onyx preamps, on-board DSP matrix mixing, an advanced monitoring/headphone control section with four user-assignable headphone outputs, two stereo control room outputs, built-in talkback mic input, and remote switching capability. The rear panel will include 12 combo mic/line inputs, balanced TRS sends and returns for the first two mic inputs, eight balanced line outputs, dual stereo control room outputs, Word Clock I/O, 2 x 2 MIDI I/O, dual ADAT I/O, SPDIF I/O, AES/EBU I/O, and two FireWire ports.

The Onyx 1200F will be available in 2006 at $1,999.00.

At last ! Cycling'74 announced that Hipno plugin suite is now available in VST, Audio Units and RTAS versions at $199,00. Designed by ElectroTap, this package features a mix of granular, spectral, and filter/delay-based plug-ins featuring the unique Hipnoscope user interface. Also included in the package is an amazing set of processors that utilize live video input as a control source, and a new set of modulator plug-ins sure to captivate both the novice and long-time users of Cycling '74's Pluggo and Mode plug-in collections. Some highlights of the Hipno collection include:

- Morphulescence:  a cascaded bank of LFO-modulated morphing filters ready for eruption.
- Vsynth:  a plug-in that uses a live video feed as the spectral source for synth inspirations.
- Deluge:  a quartet of granular processing engines wrapped into one glittering package.
- Shypht:  a pitch-shifting effects system enlivened by pitch quantization, filtering, and feedback looping.
- VcolorTrack and Modulator Vmotion:  a pair of modulator plug-ins to morph and control Hipno, Mode, or Pluggo plug-ins using video color or motion tracking.

Cycling '74, today announced that Octirama, a Surround Dynamics Processor for Digidesign ProTools TDM Systems will be available November 1st at $495. 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.

Steinberg today unveild the latest update- version 3.2 - to its Nuendo software. Nuendo 3.2 features a full Control Room section that provides up to four separate Studio outputs, extra Mix, Headphone and Control Room busses as well as configurable Input Returns and user definable Monitor Setups.

Nuendo 3.2 will be available as an update for registered Nuendo 3 customers from the end of 2005.

TC Electronic today announced a new version of a PCI card for the PowerCore platform. PowerCore Unplugged is the same piece of hardware as PowerCore PCI mkII but without the included plug-ins. This allows the user to compile an entirely individual package of optional high-end plug-ins for any mixing, mastering or production situation. PowerCore Unplugged is also the ideal solution for users, who need further processing power for their existing setup in order to run even more plug-ins simultaneously.

PowerCore Unplugged will ship in October, 2005 at 570 euros (excl.VAT).

URS announced the release of its new Classic Console Compressor Bundle. This pack offers software recreations of the the buss compressor/limiter of two famous british mixing consoles and includes the 1970 Compressor and the 1980 Compressor with two versions each. URS Classic Console Compressor Bundle is available as Native-RTAS-Audiosuite (Mac OS X & Mac OS 9) versions and costs $450. Audio Units and VST versions will be released soon.

Current owners of Everything Bundle 4.0 can purchase URS Classic Console Compressor Bundle for $699.99 (TDM) and $349.99 (Native), until October 31, 2005.

Synthogy announced that the new version 1.5 of virtual piano plug-in Ivory will be available at the end of october. This upcoming release will feature a new and revised library with arround 40 Gb of samples, with proprietary noise reduction for even greater fidelity.