Mac and Music News

In My Dream App, a competition between different applications ideas submitted by aspiring apps designers, one of the final 18 contestants is Whistler. Whistler is a software that translates your humming, whistling or tapping, into melodies and beats. In addition it is able to load plugins and letting you dress and layer your inputted whistling and tapping in instruments and arrangments.
The winning app design will be coded and put on the market, so if it sounds good, get voting!

Inspired by classic hardware - Latronic Nortron - DSP Audio has released Nortron 1.0, a virtual step sequencer which can control Softsynths and standard MIDI devices through IAC and CoreMIDI.
Nortron is Mac OSX 10.2, 10.3 Panther and Tiger compatible and is available for $200 USD.
More details on DSP Audio website.

D16 group has released a Mac version of Phoscyon, their TB-303 emulation. At this time Mac version is available in Universal Binary format as VSTi plugin (Audio Units to follow).

For more info about Phoscyon visit the d16 group website.

MHC announces Industrial Tones 1.0, a synthesizer which plays an extensive set of industrial waveforms, processing these using a filter, envelopes, an LFO, an ensemble, delays and an effect section which features 133 different effect modes, including their "unique crossfading effects and layered effects".
Version 1.0 has been released as a VSTi for Windows and an AudioUnit version for Mac OS X (Universal Binary) will soon be available.

More details on MHC website.

CharterOak Acoustic Devices will unveil the new M900 Small Diaphragm Condenser microphone, at the upcoming San Francisco AES exhibition. The M900 is the only small diaphragm condenser microphone in the CharterOak line of high quality microphones for recording and broadcast.
Features :
- two step sensitivity switch (-10db and –20db)
- two position bass roll off at 150Hz and 75 Hz
- ships with cardioid, hyper-cardioid, and omni directional capsules.

The M900 is scheduled to ship Nov 1st and will list for around $550 and a sequentially matched pair lists for $1099. The M900 Kit includes flight case, shock mount and wind sock.

Sonalksis has released TBK2 - Digital Grimebox, "The Ultimate Grime", the latest addition to their Creative Elements range, which is a creative sonic degradation plug-in, comprised of a bitcrusher, a downsampler, an adaptive bias and distortion algorithm, and a low pass filter.
TBK2 Digital Grime is available now for Windows and Mac OS X in VST, AU and RTAS plug-in formats. It costs $99.99 / €79.99 but owners of TBK1 will receive a license for free. A demo version is available.

Sonalksis has released FreeG, a free Gain / Fader plug-in that can be used for a variety of applications to increase the control and flexibility of the signal flow in the insert chain of the host - FreeG provides extensive, customizable metering features and settings, and is available for Windows and Mac OS X (Universal Binary) in VST, AU and RTAS plug-in formats.

Auto-Tune, the professional solution for pitch correction from Antares, will soon be available in version 5.

Key new Auto-Tune 5 features include:

* Improved pitch detection algorithm.
* A sleek new interface.
* Consolidated Pitch Tracking control.
* Humanize function.
* Realtime natural vibrato adjustment.
* Larger Pitch Edit Display.
* Sync to host transport (host dependent).
* Selectable Clock Source.
* Realtime pitch tracking display.
* Full-time correction mode (host dependent).
* Multiple simultaneous Graphical Mode instances (host dependent).
* Editing functions no longer modal.
* Enhanced Envelope Display functionality.
* Realtime graphical vibrato depth adjustment.
* Dedicated Snap To Note button.
* Dedicated Clear All Data function.
* Compat ...

Though this is still an unofficial information we can find webpages entirely devoted to a new FireWire audio/midi interface from MOTU on their official website... This newcomer is called the 8pre and provides 16 inputs with 8 mic preamps and 12 outputs including separate phone and main outs.

For more details see the

Digidesign released Pro Tools HD 7.2cs1 for PPC-based Mac only.

This update is recommended for all Pro Tools HD 7.2 users and will not work without Pro Tools HD 7.2 for Pro Tools|HD or Pro Tools|HD Accel systems on Mac OS X 10.4 ("Tiger"), already installed.

More details on Digidesign Website.