Mac and Music News

Linplug has released version 3 of their soft synth Alpha. Just when you get tired about the many over-complex synthesizers of today, when you want to return to the roots, the beginning of all synthetic sound, the times when a Synthesizer could be fully programmed, then the Alpha 3 is the right synthesizer for you.

Alpha 3 is available for Mac OS X (UB) in AU and VST 2.0 formats at a retail price of 99 US$ / 79 Euro.

WaveMachine Labs has released Drumagog Platinum and Drumagog BFD. These versions of Drumagog offer the ability to directly trigger BFD, without the need for MIDI or other complicated setups, enabling you to harness the power of BFD directly from the Drumagog interface so if you own a copy of Fxpansion's BFD this is exactly what you need !

Drumagog Platinum is the top-of-the-range version of Drumagog and retails for $379. Drumagog BFD lacks various features, such as internal sounds and sample import, and retails for $199.

Grooveboxmusic.com, the online pro audio training provider has released a new in-depth Pro Tools 7 training product entitled "Excel Pro Tools 7". Containing 34 video tutorials and running over 3 hours in length, "Excel Pro Tools 7" covers many useful "Tips and Tricks" and task specific topics about the industry standard recording software Digidesign Pro Tools 7.

Just some of the tutorial videos on "Excel Pro Tools 7" include:

• Cleaning Vocal Tracks
• Create a Composite Track
• Auto Punch Recording
• Groove Quantize Audio
• Recording Reason Rewire
• Recording Virtual Inst
• Print FX to Track
• Using Playlists
• Stereoize Tracks
• Creating Submixes
• Telephone Effect

"Excel Pro Tools 7" is available for purchase right now exclusively as an Instant Digital Download on Grooveboxmusic.com for $39.99.

Toontrack has unveiled EZplayer Free, a MIDI bridge, organizer and wrapper between different drum sampler formats. Available to all registered Toontrack users, EZplayer Free features the same MIDI-handling capabilities featured in Toontrack EZdrummer. The application organizes and converts MIDI files to the mapping of supported drum samplers, provides dfh Superior users with access to MIDI content and functionality, and supports drag-and-drop operation in all major hosts. EZplayer Free is also the first step towards EZplayer, which will be unveiled and released later in the spring and will boast much extended functionality for performers as well as composers. EZplayer will be available through all Toontrack Music distributors. Exact release dates and pricing are as yet unavailable.

EZplayer Free will be available Mac OS X (Universal Binary) in VST, AU and RTAS formats. For more information please visit their web site.

TC Electronic has announced the pristine sound of the System 6000 plug-ins is now available for Pro Tools HD and Accel systems on both Intel and PowerPC based Macs, thanks to the new Universal Binary versions, which also add numerous optimizations and fixes to the existing PowerPC versions.

These update are free of charge for existing users and can be downloaded from the TC Electronic website.

"Le Synthé V4" by Pierre Couprie is the fourth version of an AKS Synthi emulator, and is based upon a modular matrix to construct your sounds. This new version is available in VST, RTAS and AU formats and of course it's still free !!

Lately Didier and Olivier Guillon (well Known for Harmony assistant software) have decided to produce a new software for converting Pdf scores into music files playable with a simple sound library. And then to make possible a conversion and an export to audio file as MusicXML, MIDI files, Myr (Harmony Assistant files) and even in .WAV or .AIFF.

They have worked and programmed for 9 months and produced PDFtoMusic (a free lite version and a pro version). Have a look at the result.

Music Unfolding has released the Collective 8 AudioUnit bundle which consists of three Audio Units: F8-V2, Mod8 and Res8. All three share a similar amplitude modulation sequence configuration. The audio stream is copied into 8 identical streams and an amplitude modulation pattern can be applied to each stream. The amplitude modulation patterns can be drawn to any shape, with an-easy-to use editing environment that automatically appears when hovering over the patterns with a mouse. Each stream also has filters or effects applied to it individually. The streams are then mixed back together. Amplitude modulation patterns can be copied and pasted within each AU or between them.
F8-V2 has LFO's, which are applied to highpass, bandpass or lowpass filters. Res 8 has a choice of a driven, nonline ...

Zoom has announced the H2 USB recorder which comes with an integrated mic and some unusual flexibility thanks to 3 integrated capsules.

Features :

- 3 mic capsules and mid and side patterns allow front 120-degree cardioid, front-90 super cardioid, rear 120-degree cardioid, rear 90-degree super cardioid, and 360-degree polar
- USB interface, works as an audio interface - meaning this doubles as a USB mic
- WAV 96/48/44.1 KHz, 320kbps VBR MP3
- External mic for plug-in power stereo mic
- Time stamp function

... no mention of a flash card slot, but I'm guessing the slot would at least be there.

The Zoom H2 USB should be available in may at a retail price of $199.

M-Audio has announced the Studiophile AV 40 and AV 20 portable desktop speaker systems designed for travel or tight desktop spaces. The Studiophile AV 40 speakers feature 4" polypropylene-coated drivers, 3/4" silk dome tweeters, 20-watt-per-channel internal amplifier and OptImage III wave guides for punchy lows, crisp highs and an even response. For more mobility, the AV 20 speakers include 2" composite woofers, 1" ferrofluid-cooled Mylar dome tweeters, internal amplification and them same OptImage III technology as the AV 40s.

The Studiophile AV 40 detail at $199.95. The AV 20 are available at a retail price of $129.95.

The d16 Group has released Drumazon v1.0, their Roland TR-909 emulator, and announced a price drop for both Drumazon (€129) and Phoscyon (€59) which can be purchased together as a bundle for €159.

For more information, visit their web site.

Alien Connections has released a public beta version of their guitar amp modeler ReValver Mk II for Mac OS X. Note that this is still a BETA version so it it may or may not work as expected.

For more information, visit their web site.

SampleSwap.org has officially launched a public website featuring 4.6GB of free loops and audio samples. This 4.6GB collection of handpicked 16-bit 44khz professional-quality samples now resides on a dedicated server with ultra-high speed Internet access. An innovative "basket" based sound browser allows members to quickly audition and download 20 to 100 MB of samples as well-organized ZIP-compressed archives instead of individual sound files.

For more information, visit their web site.