Mac and Music News

Here it is, our last review for January!

"This update is more than essential" says our reviewer, -i snor

To know why, read his words, see his screen captures and listen to his sounds, in this complete review of the 7.4 update.

McDSP will be running a special on the Classic Pack HD and Native bundles for the month of February. Classic Pack HD will run for $995 and Classic Pack Native will run for $495. The Classic Pack includes Analog Channel, CompressorBank, MC2000 and FilterBank.

For more information, please visit their web site.

Story & Clark Pianos announced that it's all-new acoustic piano line would come standard with PNOscan , which features MIDI and USB ports, effectively creating a bridge between the world of traditional acoustic pianos and today's leading-edge technologies.

PNOscan, the only retrofit optical recorder on the market, was introduced last fall. Providing full recording and playback capabilities, it uses 88 optical sensors to track the movement of every key as it is played and translates the sound for output via MIDI and USB ports.

For more information, please visit the link below :

Manytone Music has just released ManyBass, a bass guitar sample based synthesizer. Designed and built in collaboration with AraldFX, ManyBass comes with 2,4Go of samples and includes a large choice of amp simulators , speakers, and FX rack with choices from phaser to compressor, chorus, flanger and delay. On top of that ManyBass will allow you to load up to 4 different articulations of an instrument and switch between these articulations using simple Keyswitching or Midi cc.

ManyBass is available for $139.95 (introductory price of $119.95) in PC VSTi format and Mac AU and VSTi formats (Universal Binary).

After Stereoiser and Stereoplacer, NuGen Audio offers with Audio Visualizer a spectral analysis tool with a lot of functionalities.
Already available as a VST plug for Windows, Visualizer is now ready for the Mac, in a beta UB version (AU and VST). Its price is $89.

Main specs:

-Multiple metering meters (Peak/RMS/K12/K14/K20 etc.)
-FFT Spectrum Analysis
-Stereo Spectrum Analysis
-Stereo Spectrogram
-Vector Scope
-Stereoscope
-Stereo Bias meter
-Correlation Meter
-Intelligent window optimisation
-Frequency zoom and scroll
-dB Zoom and scroll
-Peak hold control
-Colour selection
-A/B snapshot

NuGen Audio is always looking for beta-testers, and Jon Schorah, creative director, always shows great reactivity (I'm not a NuGen employee...).

Peavey has just acquired Alien Connections and its ReValver plug-in and unveiled ReValver Mk III.

Features :

- 15 amp models, including Peavey 6505, JSX, Classic, ValveKing and Triple XXX.
- Modules in amp head, preamp and power amp formats.
- Two operation modes, with 64-bit and oversampling in HQ mode for hi-fi fanatics.
- FFT based convolution reverb, including sampled spring reverb.
- More than 150 speaker samples using real-time convolution and membrane modeling.
- Algorithm improvements from Mk II to enhance realism, especially in the tube and transformer simulation.
- Standard Tuner and Simul-Tuner with six independent tuners for tuning to presets.

ReValver Mk III will be available for Mac OS X and Windows in VST and AU formats with an MSRP of $299.99.

Christian Knufinke Software has released version 2.2 of its convolution reverb plug-in SIR2 and also released a public beta version for Intel-Macs (VST and AU).

Improvements in v2.2 :

- More routing capabilities (mono->mono, mono->stereo etc.).
- Better support for mono-channels.
- Auto true stereo file creation for special impulse response libraries.
- Improved host compatibility.

ESI has announced the new U46 XL USB audio interface with 4 input and 6 output channels for all current Windows versions and Mac OS X including Leopard.

Features :

- compact device in stylish white / aluminum case
- supports 48kHz input recording and output playback with 100dB(a) dynamic range ADC / DAC
- 6 channel analog output plus separate mix output
- microphone input with balanced XLR input and switchable +48V support
- Hi-Z input signal support (i.e. for electric guitars)
- 4 channel analog line input (4 simultaneous input channels in total)
- bus powered (no extra power supply needed)

The U46 XL will most likely be shipping in Q2 2008.