Mac and Music News

Impromptu is an new OSX programming environment for composers, sound artists, VJ's and graphic artists with an interest in live or interactive programming. Impromptu is a Scheme language environment, a member of the Lisp family of languages. Time plays a major role in the Impromptu environment allowing accurate real-time scheduling of events and code blocks. Impromptu is a dynamic environment designed specifically for the creation and manipulation of running programs in live performance.

This stunning free application is available in our software section.

SimpleChord, the chord reference and composition tool for Mac OS X, has been updated to version 3.3. The new version, released Friday, adds the ability to export chord progressions to MusicXML format which can then be imported into many other music applications, including the latest versions of Finale and Sibelius.

The upgrade is free for all registered users; the program costs $12.95 US for a single-user license.

The vt3 by Smassey is a new 3-band equalizer plug-in with a crisp, unique sound that's extremely DSP efficient. The plug-in supports Pro Tools LE or Pro Tools TDM, including MIX, HD, and HD Accel. The TDM version operates with 48-bit precision. A trial version is available which has no time limitations and no annoying mutes or beeps in the audio.

The full version adds additional features and is available for $69.

Audio Damage updated DubStation to version 1.1. This new Universal Binary version adds full Mac Intel processor support. The DubStation plug-in is modeled on the "bucket-brigade" style of vintage delay units, and has all the mojo that made those boxes great.

DubStation for MacIntel is available as a crossgrade ($5.00).

MOTU is now shipping the UltraLite, a half rack-space, bus-powered FireWire audio interface that turns a laptop or desktop Power Mac, Intel Mac or PC into a mobile 24-bit, 96kHz recording studio with 10 inputs and 14 outputs. Housed in sturdy yet lightweight aluminum alloy, the UltraLite provides 2 mic/instrument inputs with preamps, 48V phantom power, unique three-way pad switch (-36, -18 and 0dB) and front-panel Digital Precision Trim knobs that provide 24dB of gain in 1dB increments for a total gain range of 60dB. It also features 6 balanced line-level quarter-inch (TRS) inputs (a total of 8 analog ins) and 10 analog TRS outputs. Also included are 96 kHz stereo S/PDIF digital I/O, a dedicated stereo headphone output and MIDI I/O.

Motu UltraLite is now shipping worldwide (MSRP $595).

Pro Tools M-Powered 7.1 is now available and includes additional M-Audio Interface Support (M-Audio Fast Track Pro and JamLab ). Pro Tools LE 7.1 and Pro Tools M-Powered 7.1 both include the following new or enhanced features:

- Default Track Timebase when Creating New Tracks
- Support for co-installation of Pro Tools LE and M-Powered on the same computer
Pro Tools LE 7.1 and Pro Tools M-Powered 7.1 can be installed on the same Digidesign-qualified computer. Co-installation is only supported when Pro Tools LE and M-Powered have the exact same version number.