Mac and Music News

The Miroslav Refills from Sonic Reality will ship in January. These Refiils are a series of dynamic orchestral sound collections featuring the symphonic samples of Miroslav Vitous in Reason 3 Refill format, and working in Reason 3 only. Six new titles will be shipping: Miroslav String Ensembles, Miroslav Solo Strings, Miroslav Brass, Miroslav Woodwinds, Miroslav Choirs and Miroslav Percussion & Keys. Each Miroslav Refill comes on a DVD and includes additional articulations, ensembles and performance elements designed for use with Reason 3's Combinator module and NN-XT sampler.

Miroslav Refill will cost $199 each.

Mackie previewed at NAMM the new Satellite FireWire Recording System. The Satellite FireWire Recording System is an innovative new approach to digital recording, featuring a two-part audio interface. The heart of the Satellite System is the Satellite Pod, a sleek, portable two-channel FireWire interface that incorporates two of Mackie's acclaimed Onyx preamps, as well as 24-bit/96kHz A/D and D/A converters. Additional Satellite Pod features include dual headphone/control room outputs with individual level controls, two inputs, two outputs, and a portable design. A compelling feature of the Satellite System is the Satellite Base Station, which the Satellite Pod snaps into to provide AC power, additional I/O, talkback and monitor switching functions. By plugging the Satellite Pod into the base station, the Satellite System becomes a two-input, six-output FireWire audio interface with professional features such as an advanced routing matrix, built-in talkback microphone, advanced monitoring functions and surround speaker control.

The new Mackie Satellite FireWire Recording System will be available Q2 2006.

Prosoniq today announces that their future Mac OS X product line will be developed, tested and adapted to the Intel-powered Macs by their new contractor OSXTools.com. Led by former Prosoniq CTO Stephan Bernsee, OSXTools.com is an independent R&D group specializing on MacOS X software development. This five-year cooperation agreement not only ensures timely Intel-compatibility of Prosoniq's Mac OS X product line including TimeFactory and many new applications, it also provides Prosoniq with access to the latest in DSP technology via OSXTools' signal processing department at The DSP Dimension.

Thanks to NAMM visitors who saw it there on demo, a new version of Digital Performer should be released during the first quarter 2006. Macintel support should be available during the second quarter. Numbered 5.0, this version will include "track folders" for Audio and MIDI, new editing tools, a better audio editor… Add on this 6 new virtual instruments: Nanosampler, Polysynth, Modulo, Bassline, Proton and Model 12, and last, a new red logo will be used.

Price of the update TBA.

Minod, a small Sweden based company is proposing a small analogue synth, the Vorga. It's a box with one DCO, one VCF Band Pass 12dB or Low Pass 24dB, one or two LFO (it's not clear), one ADSR, a small 8 steps sequencer, Accent, Glide, and an assignable X-Y joystick for live inspiration. The Vorga is totally MIDI. It can substitute itself easily as a MIDI controller too, and then you just use the pots to twiddle other gear or parameters on your computer. Price is 640€ without p/h and AC adapter.

Do you remember the Resonator Neuronium? This weird limited edition analogue synth Jürgen Michaelis issued based on the neural nets applied to analogue synthesis. First its software goes to 1.03. Genetic recombinations between neurons can be individually edited and stored now. Addional mutations of different kinds can be applied to the nets so that networked sounds can evolve with time. The second series of Neuronium is finished. Now it gave Jürgen an idea about filters… So came the M-Resonator. It has a true differential envelope follower and 2 Filters that can be fed back in every way. The filter smoothly distorts. Price and availability TBA.

Universal Audio announced it has agreed with AMS Neve to develop impersonations of Neve signal processors. The first of these will be the Neve 1073 Equalizer at a date undisclosed. Universal Audio also announced the availability of the 4.2 software for the UAD-1 DSP card which will ship this first quarter 2006. This update will include a demo version (14 days) of the $249 Roland Classic FX series. This new bundle is composed of recreations of the Roland Dimension D SDD-320 and BOSS CE-1 Chorus Ensemble, along with the Roland RE-201 Space Echo. Features of this last one:

Focusrite announced another Firewire Saffire interface. The Saffire Pro 26i/o features:

- 24-bit/192kHz operation
- High pass filters on every channel
- 2 super channels, variable impedance and insert points
- Green series preamps
- 8 analog outputs
- 2 SPDIF
- 16 ADAT, 48kHz
- 2 headphones output with individual level
- MIDI in, out.
- Talkback feature for sessions thru software
- 1U rack with detachable ears.

[edit LPM] Price 500 GBP, $1000, available in march with universal binary drivers.
Also:
- Separated headphone buses
- Word clock In and Out
- Front panel Level, Dim and Mute controls assignable to all outputs
- Analogue I/O: 8 In via 8 x XLR (mic - rear) or 8 balanced TRS Jack (line), 8 Out on balanced TRS Jack