Mac and Music News

Vestax has quietly unveiled the VCI-100, a new USB DJ controller. The VCI-100 has two special jog wheels that contain sensor and control technology utilized in their turntables. The VCI-100 also features a variable curve generator that controls the crossfader curve from the hardware with the track faders.

Main features :

- jog wheel "constructed with a high-resolution pulse sensor; touch sensor and acrylic platter mechanism". Have to actually try that out to know what that feels like. Jog wheels have built-in "sensor LED."
- hardware-adjustable crossfader controls
- USB MIDI connection, bus-powered
- 90 assignable parameters
- plug and play (class-compliant)
- Bundled with Traktor LE

No pricing or availablity has been announced. For more details see Vestax web site.

Audio Damage has just released Replicant, a delay-based effect in the "beat slicer/looper" vein with panning effect, programmable stuttering buffers and filter drops, and of course randomization features.

Replicant is available for Mac OSX (UB) in AU and VST formats at a retail price of $49. For more information, visit Audio Damage web site.

So far it's nothing more than a picture on a MySpace page, but this is the new thing from M-Audio. Concensus of opinion seems to think it's a dedicated controller for Ableton Live - with what looks like 10 clip launch buttons (maybe in four banks?) and it would make sense, as M-Audio own Ableton (and they're both part of the Avid empire, along with Digidesign/Pro Tools and Sibelius). Presumably we'll know everything on January 18th, when NAMM opens.

Wave Arts has announced the Master Restoration Suite, a comprehensive set of restoration plug-ins for cleaning up tape, vinyl, and acoustic recordings.

The MR Suite consists of 5 plug-ins :

- Master Restoration - all-in-one plug-in
- MR Hum - hum removal, buzz removal, and brickwall filters
- MR Click - click/pop removal and crackle removal
- MR Noise - broadband noise reduction
- MR Gate - noise gate

Main Features :

- All sections can be monitored to hear signal that is removed.
- Comprehensive displays for all processors.
- Onset detector in crackle processor keeps onsets bright and crisp.
- Extremely low latency (under 20 msec) noise reduction can be used in live situations.
- Fast noise floor learning time (down to 50 msec).
- Auto dynamics mode in nois ...

Novation has announced that the XioSynth 49 is now shipping. So the XioSynth now has a big brother for anyone wanting the awesome sound and unrivalled feature set but with more freedom for hands to roam. The 49-key XioSynth provides Novation-class synthesis with seamless audio interfacing and MIDI controlling capabilities to boot.

For more information, visit their web.

Shuriken has released CopyShop which is a very simple but effective buffer chopping / FSU effect plug-in - it chops up the audio buffers and plays them back; you can choose the length of the piece of audio played back and when to apply it.

CopyShop is available for Mac OS X (Universal Binary) as a VST effect plug-in and it is Donationware.

Harmonic Sense has released ChordMate, a chord finder for guitarist with advanced features such as a powerful rule editor in order to fine-tune your search, or a chord symbol lookup tool. ChordMate displays the results of your search as a collection of beautiful diagrams which are customized based on the type of guitar: classical, acoustic, jazz, or electric.

ChordMate is available for Mac OSX (PowerPC or Intel processor). Note that a demo version is also available.

Garritan has announced Marching Band, a new Kontakt Player 2 based Marching, Wind and Concert Band Collection. Marching Band features Trumpets, Trombones, Marching winds, Euphoniums, Baritones, Saxophones, Sousaphones, Tenor Horns, Mellophones, Marching percussion (including drumline sounds from Virtual Drumline 2 by Tapspace), and more... with expressive control, Tongue/Slur Articulations, Intonation, Vibrato, etc. enabling you to create realistic-sounding Marching Band, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, Brass Band, Drum Corp and other Band Arrangements quickly and easily. You can even build your own bands with Ensemble Building.

Marching Band includes Native Instruments' Kontakt 2 Sample Player and will thus be available for Windows and Mac OS X (Universal Binary) in VST, AU, DX, RTAS and stand-alone formats. Marching Band is expected to be released during January 2007 with an MSRP of $239.

Eliosound has announced their next plug-in, ELS Vocoder, which aims to faithfully reproduce the analog vocoder sounds that have been used by many artists in the electronic music history whilst also offering a wide range of new and innovative features.

Features:

* 22-band Vocoder.
* Input Gate.
* Pitch Extractor with retune on notes option.
* Voiced/Unvoiced detector.
* 2 VCOs (Oscillators).
* Noise generator.
* 2 LFOs.
* Frequency Shifter with source selector and advanced stereo settings.
* Slew/Freeze adjust.
* Level Slider and VuMeter for each band.
* Analysis to Synthesis matrix.
* Output Mixer.
* Advanced setting panels for each module.
* Keyboard with key hold.
* Presets & Banks with sorting options.

The ELS Vocoder will be available in early 2007 ...

Applied Acoustics Systems has released new versions of Lounge Lizard EP-3, Ultra Analog VA-1, String Studio VS-1, Lounge Lizard Session and Ultra Analog Session as part of a Windows and Mac OS X "Technology Update" which brings support for the new Intel-based Mac systems, includes brand new Pro Tools RTAS plug-ins for both Windows and Mac OS X, a handful of new features and several bug fixes.

Included in the Technology Update:

* Intel-based Mac systems support—Universal Binary.
* New RTAS plug-ins for both Windows and Mac OS X.
* New total recall of 128-program bank in any host sequencer.
* Full MIDI Program Change support.
* MIDI Pitch Bend and Channel Pressure (mono aftertouch) messages support in MIDI Links.
* Redesigned Edit MIDI Links dialog.
* Omni MIDI channel.
...

NUSofting has released version 2.0 of Peti, their virtual instrument which uses hybrid FM synthesis technology to emulate the sounds of the Harmonium.

New features in 2.0:

* Universal Binary on Mac OS X (AU and VST).
* Adjustable Aftertouch response.
* New key click noise generator (old Peti presets would be slightly adjusted for this new key click).

ReFX has released a demo version of Nexus for Mac OS X (the download also contains Windows version). The full version has just been updated to v1.0.9 too.

Demo limitations:

* After 5 minutes volume fades out / in.
* After 15 minutes Nexus quits (you have to restart it).
* You cannot save patches.
* You cannot render audio.
* Settings are not saved with your song.
* Reduced library (a good mixture between file size and quality).
* No skin import / expansion import.