Mac and Music News

Particular Sound and LinPlug announce the release of the Sophistry Ambient Synthesizer. Particular Sound created a wide variety of ambient presets : over 700 presets based on more than 5 Gb of samples which are bundled with the LinPlug CronoX3 engine, wrapped in a new colour scheme of the CronoX3 GUI.

Sophistry is a CronoX3 instrument with all features of the CronoX3 :

DontCrac[k] announced that Nomad Factory has chosen DontCrack.com to promote and sell it's audio software via download. All Nomad Factory products and bundles are available including the brand new "Analog Signature" series that include monster LM-662 - recreation of the classic Fairchild 670 limiter, EQP-4 - full range stereo channel unit, SC-226 - stereo channel recording plug-in and BlueVerb DRV-2080 - vintage-style world-class recording studio reverb. All Nomad Factory software are Available in RTAS, VST and Audio Unit formats, for Mac OS X.

DontCrack already distributes the following audio software manufacturers : 4Front Technologies - Acon digital media - Camel Audio - CDXtract - CodeOperator - Delaydots - Ergonis Software - NUSofting - PSP Audioware - Sagan Tech - Softplug - Swar Systems - Wusik

Applied Acoustics Systems announced that version 1.0.1 of String Studio is now available. This maintenance update improves plug-in stability in Pro Tools, Logic, and Digital Performer; corrects abnormal behavior of the Termination model; and adds a flexible 15 days grace period to the authorization system.

All String Studio users can download the update for free and find more details on AAS website.

MHC announces the release of version 1.5 for Audio Unit hosts on Mac OS X. Ambient Keys is a synthesizer, which plays an extensive set of ambient waveforms, processing these using a filter, envelopes, an LFO, an ensemble, delays and an effect section which features 133 different effect modes, including crossfading effects and layered effects.

Version 1.5 includes the following new features and improvements:
- New GUI
- The drop down menus have got increment/decrement buttons.
- Fixed a couple of bugs.
- The manual has been extended with around 20 pages.
etc.

Priced at $99, including the three soundpacks.

Updated drivers (v1.1.0 for Mac OS X) have been released for a wide range of Yamaha USB products. It is compatible with Intel Mac. These drivers are available for download from

The Moog teasing (it's quite a trend to tease this year it seams) just add another episode. So we have wood ends, a 37 notes keyboard, Moog buttons with LEDs as for an encoder, nuts and bolts… And the coming Musikmesse to drool on it!

Latest speculation range from the mini Voyager in kit form to some dangerous sequencer…

Expert Sleepers released the first version Universal Binary compatible with new MacIntel of Augustus Loops, now available as version 1.6.1 Audio Units. Augustus Loop is an emulation of a tape-based delay effect, with some extra features to facilitate its use as a looping device.

This shareware is available in the MacMusic software section.

M-Audio announces the version 2 firmware update for the Black Box. This new update increases the total number of guitar and bass amp emulations from 12 to 40. The unit now boasts modeled versions of the Fender Deluxe Reverb, Fender Champ, Marshall JCM-800, Vox AC-15, Roland Jazz Chorus, Mesa Boogie Mark IIc, Diezel VH4, ENGL Powerball, Peavey 5150 MkII, Bogner Ecstasy, Budda Twinmaster, Matchless Chieftain, Acoustic 360, Ampeg SVT, Gallien-Krueger 800RB, SWR SM-500 and more. Additionally, the effects section has been significantly revamped and now includes five different reverbs, compression and new modulation options as well as a host of new beat-synced effects. The unit now includes 121 total effects.

M-Audio Black Box owners can download the free firmware update from the M-Audio web site.