Mac and Music News

_audioMIDI.com and puremagnetik have teamed up to offer an exclusive Live Pack library for audioMIDI.com customers. The aM Essentials Live Pack will be free to anyone who purchases a copy of Ableton Live at audioMIDI.com. Musicians who already own Live may also purchase the aM Essentials Live Pack for only $19.99 exclusively at audioMIDI.com. You can find more info on the library here.

puremagnetik's "aM Essentials" Live Pack is a handpicked selection of puremagnetik's best sounds. Compiled exclusively for audioMIDI.com , this pack contains a comprehensive selection of instruments and clips for Ableton Live. Whether you produce electronica, rock, or jazz; puremagnetik's "aM Essentials" has the perfect palette of sounds to get you started producing with Ableton Live.

Features Include:

•  Over 120 Instrument Preset Racks
•  A Collection of Electric Guitar and Wurlitzer Loops
•  Audio Effects Chains from puremagnetik's "RackPak"
•  Extensively programmed Macro Controls for Ableton Live
•  Easy to Customize with "Modular" Instruments

Sound Skulptor unveils a range of high end microphone preamplifiers in kit form. Three different Mic Pre's are offered, based on vintage, universally recognized designs.

The DIY form of these products makes them affordable to most. The skills needed to built them are basic, thanks to the complete kits, careful design and to the very detailed instructions. For those who are not confident enough in their skills, they are also available fully assembled. Four boards can be freely combined into the 19", one unit high enclosure. Additionally, two DI inputs can be internally routed to any of the four preamps.

The MP73 is a three stages, single ended class A preamp based on the 1290/1073 from the world famous British consoles of the 70's. Input and output are coupled with Carnhill/St. Ives ...

Softube has just released Acoustic Feedback, a new guitar feedback plug-in for Windows and Mac OS X in VST, AU and RTAS formats. Acoustic Feedback is a realistic simulation of guitar feedback. After years of hard work spent on perfecting every detail of Vintage Amp Room, the developers at Softube felt obliged to create what they felt was the missing link between a real amp and an amp plug-in. The result is a simple and intuitive plug-in which emulates the feedback effect which occurs between the guitar and the amplifier. Bundled with a special edition of White amp from Vintage Amp Room, Acoustic Feedback aims to "rock your socks off".

Features :

- Realistic simulation (physical modeling) of guitar feedback.
- Fully responsive to vibratos, bends, slides, tremolos, etc.
- Simple user ...

AudioWarrior has released Free Djembe, a free studio-quality 24-bit Instrument that allows you play your keyboard exactly like a hand drum. Your MIDI controller's Pitch wheel will allow you to emulate a talking drum. Designed using Kontakt, Free Djembe is mapped with 10 expressive velocity layers with samples ranging from from C2 to C4 across a 15 key span. C3 is the center-Bass and spreading outwards towards C2 & C4 are the higher pitched rim shots.

Puremagnetik has released BIG07, a collection of 13 Micropaks from Puremagnetik's 2007 catalog. Weighing in at over 2GB of content, BIG07 is exclusively available in Ableton Live Pack format.

BIG07 contains the following Puremagnetik Micropaks :

- Vintage 80's Classics
- Elektrodrum
- EightBit
- String Machines
- Guitar Rack Vol. 1
- JUICE!
- Analog Bass Vol. 1
- Microdrum
- RackPak
- PM-200 Electronic Piano
- P-50 Linear
- Wavebase
- Retroputer

BIG07 can be downloaded immediately upon purchase or ordered on a backup CD for delivery. BIG07 is $98.

Ableton is happy to announce a new upgrade path for owners of Ableton Live 6 LE. The Live 6 LE to Live 7 upgrade will appear with the release of Live 7, coming later this year. The boxed version will be available at retail shops across the globe and at the Ableton webshop for EUR 329/USD 389. The download version will be available at the Ableton webshop for EUR 299/USD 349.

Digidesign is now shipping the latest release of Pro Tools. It offers numerous new music and post-production features and workflow enhancements for Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, and Pro Tools M-Powered users. Topping the list of new features is a powerful, multifaceted new music composition and production tool called Elastic Time. The software also provides improved networking compatibility with Avid Unity ISIS shared storage systems and new support for HD video workflows.

Elastic Time allows users to easily change the tempo and timing of loops, music, dialog, and other sound files in real time without cutting up audio tracks. Users can now easily audition or import loops and audio files that instantly sync with a session's tempo. Users can also use the Elastic Time feature to quantize audio to the session grid or extracted grooves, and fine-tune regions with precise control over each individual beat.

Avid Media Station|PT 2.7 Software with Video Satellite Option: Running on a separate computer, new Avid Media Station|PT 2.7 software coupled with the new Video Satellite Option brings Pro Tools more deeply into the Avid workflow by enabling Pro Tools editors to quickly and easily play Avid video sequences in sync with Pro Tools|HD. The Video Satellite Option eliminates time-consuming video exports and removes all video-processing burdens from the Pro Tools|HD system by synchronizing playback with Media Station|PT on a separate, dedicated computer.

VirSyn announced a suite of 2 virtual analogue tape plug-ins :
- VTAPE Saturator (saturation/ compression/ hiss/distortion/ Zero latence).
- VTAPE Delay ( step-sequencer/ tempo sync up to 32 taps/ rotor effect/ tap tab/ filters Lo/Mid/ High/ real time without clicks/ Zero latence).

Until the 30th of November, VirSyn make an introductory price at 99€ (instead of 169).
You can have the VTAPE suite thru the FX Collection, which contains the new reverb REFLECT, for 229€. Demo avalaible on the website.

Works on OSX 10.4 and windows, formats: VST2.4, AU, RTAS

Edirol announced they are releasing Leopard drivers for all their range of products: controller keyboards, field recorders and their latest M-16DX digital audio mixer. It's time to tread their download section…

Sonic Studio announced the release of a new version of their low cost premastering application, PreMaster CD 2.0.2. This new release consolidates all the maintenance changes incorporated into the code base while adding the framework needed for the 3.0 release, an upcoming Universal Binary version.

PreMaster CD offers expert premastering chops, including completely adjustable Start, End and Index mark placement, ISR and UPC/EAN Codes, plus automatic and semi–automatic PQ generation. Sonic Studio's Smart Fade Tool and background CD writing, along with easy drag and drop resequencing makes quick work of CD refs. The Master Section, with large, adjustable metering, a master fader with dim, and convenient management of redithering parameters, offers centralized command and control. The Manual DeClick II option and DDP File Open for both split and consolidated file sets adds another level custom functionality with the ability to export BWF or AIFF back to your DAW.

Available now starting at $475 for a downloadable version, while upgrades are free for existing customers. Available on Sonic Studio webstore and through Sonic Studio's international network of pro audio resellers. Demo available on the website.

U-he proudly announces the release of Zebra V2.2. What's new:
• Factory presets were replaced with all new bank by Howard Scarr
• MacOS X 10.5 Leopard compatible
• Presets load way faster. User interface opens almost instantly
• A "compact install" for Muse Receptor compatibility was added to Windows installer
• A factory bank of oscillator module presets was added (also by H. Scarr)
• GUI consistency was improved (i.e. renamed some parameters, too long texts get shortened to fit)
• That infamous MSEG bug is fixed (single trigger MSEG may have caused deadlock)
• The Preset Manager remembers name & location of loaded patch, saved with song
• The editor window opens in the state where you last closed it (doesn't/can't save with song though)
• Global parameters such as FX Returns are available in modulation matrix
• Smoother ModWheel, Breath Controller, Expression and PitchBend
• Speaking of PitchBend, ranges can be set to 0 now to free the Wheel for other tasks
• MidiLearn now requires a conscious decision for a menu entry - preventing users from accidentally Teaching a parameter
• Preset scripting was improved so that 3rd party waveform converters are fully supported (still no decent documentation for scripting though)
• A bug in the reverb diffusion on SSE2 machines got wiped out - if that changes your sound, set "D-Feedb" to 0.00
• The Preset Manager can now be used to create new folders and refresh the directory listing (right/ctrl-click)
• .h2p is now default patch format - set to native to save patches for use within host applications (usually not necessary)
• Text rendering quality on Windows was improved
• There's no more need for Microsoft Runtime Libraries on Windows (finally!)
• One can now import patches made with the Computer Music edition of Zebra aka ZebraCM
• Number of voices can be set to 0 in an Arpeggiator step, making this step a "skip"
• …

Zebra is in available in AU and VST format on Mac and windows. You must have MacOS X 10.3.9 or higher (Panther, Tiger, Leopard) installed to use this software on Apple computers. On PC, Windows 2k/XP/Vista are required.

Spectrasonics has announced Intel support solution for their Atmosphere and Trilogy virtual instruments. The solution uses a wrapper application that will run the PPC version of those plug-ins in "Rosetta" mode. The wrapper will work under tiger with Ableton Live 6, Cubase 4, Logic 8, Pro Tools 7, GarageBand and Digital Performer 5. Under Leopard, for the time being, Pro Tools and Digital performer won't do.

Note : this is still a beta!