Mac and Music News

To improve the series of Black Hole microphones and provide wider choice for customers, JZ decided to launch the third version of Black Hole with a pad of -5db and -10db options.

The new microphone under the name Black Hole PE (BH-3) has a fixed cardioid polar pattern but after numerous requests from real life engineers as addition here comes a pad with options of -5db and -10db. It is used to avoid overloading mic preamps with high output mic signals such as when recording loud guitar amplifiers or cabinets and kick drums. As capsule of the Black Hole could handle 135db SPL this mic can manage also an operatic soprano at close range. Visually it looks similar to previous two versions (BH-1 - multi pattern, BH-2 - fixed cardiod mic) only it is in dark green color.

Together with the new BH-3, JZ Microphones launches also new shock mount and pop filter system for the microphone Black Hole. The new shock mount which is made more in vintage style based on elastic rubber bands is devised to use on crazy applications where included stand holder is not enough to handle all thunderclaps. The package also includes "revolutionary pop filter, whose curved cone-shaped form in close recording applications reduce blasts and blows more than any other pop filter in the market".

The Black Hole PE has also five year warranty and the retail price of it is $1995 / €1395. The shock mount together with pop filter costs $360 / €240. The BH-3 will be presented at AES show in Amsterdam.

Prism Sound will be exhibiting at AES Amsterdam with its newly upgraded Orpheus Firewire interface, which now allows users to convert their audio inputs to ADAT outputs and vice versa. Users will be able to connect the new and improved Orpheus directly to a variety of DAWs, including Pro Tools LE.

The upgraded Orpheus units incorporate an AV/C model that behaves as ADAT Send & Return, but also works when the Firewire cable is connected. This provides users operating in DAW mode with pure audio conversion. Launched in 2007, Orpheus is a 1U, 19-inch rackmount 192kHz-capable unit, offering eight simultaneous balanced analogue inputs, four line-level jack ins and four auto-sensing mic/line Neutrik combo jacks that will accept either jack or XLR connectors. Built-in mic preamps allow the signal at the mic-level inputs to be boosted by up to 60dB (in 1dB increments), and each analogue input has its own adjustable patented Prism Sound Overkiller built in, to prevent signal overloads before the A-D conversion stage.

Ableton has just announced that its "light" version of Live 7 is finally available. Built on the same fundamental concepts as Ableton Live, this version offers most of Ableton Live 7's new features. It includes :

- Studio-quality recording up to 32-bit/192 kHz*
- Sixty-four audio tracks and unlimited MIDI tracks per project
- Powerful and creative MIDI sequencing for software instruments
- More than twenty built-in audio effects, including a host of creative delays, filters, distortions, studio compressors and EQs*
- Two software instruments &mash; Simpler for creative sample-based synthesis, and Impulse for dynamic, sampled drums*
- VST and AU effects and instruments support; automatic plug-in delay compensation*
- Real-time time-stretching and warping of AIFF, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MP3 files for DJing and instant remixing
- Real-time tweaking of Live's controls with any MIDI controller — just MIDI-map it or choose from a list of popular supported controllers for instant mapping
- Single-screen user interface for simple, creativity-focused operation
- Multicore and multiprocessor support

*Live LE is limited to two simultaneous stereo audio inputs and outputs, twelve built-in audio effects, eight built-in instruments, two AU/VST effects and two AU/VST instruments per project.

Live 7 LE is available as a download from the Ableton webshop for €129/$149. The boxed version is available in stores and at the Ableton webshop for €169/$199.

The SAE Alumni Association is pleased to announce the start of the submission period for the 4th SAE Alumni Awards. As in previous years, the winner in each category can look forward to great prizes, namely a brand-new iMac and a cash prize of €3.000. This time, we are accepting submissions for the following five award categories: Music Production, Multimedia, Short Film, 3D FX/Animation, and (for the first time ever) "Creativity First". The competition is open to students and graduates of state-run and private educational institutions around the world. For more details, please consult our [www.sae-alumni-award.org]official homepage[/]. The submission deadline is August 31st, 2008.

The 2008 SAE Alumni Awards are presented under the patronage of a committee composed of representatives of the media industry and of SAE Institute. Submitted projects will be reviewed by a panel of industry professionals and representatives of the SAE Alumni Association. The winners will be officially announced during the Awards ceremony at the SAE Alumni Convention Party in Berlin on October 16th, 2008.

Announced at the latest MusikMesse, Toontrack Music has finally released EZplayer pro, the follow-up to their percussive MIDI engine EZplayer Free.

EZplayer pro is a VST, AU and RTAS plug in for Mac and PC with extended Map Wrapping capabilities between major drum sampler formats in the market. (FXpansion's BFD 1&2, Digidesign's Strike, NIs Battery, EZdrummer and Superior Drummer in addition to others).

The new multi track MIDI clip arranger offers time stretching, editing and multi layer arranging of MIDI files. EZplayer pro also has hardware learn features enabling live triggering of MIDI arrangements. The MIDI content in EZplayer pro is recorded by drummers David "Fingers" Haynes and Per Mikaelsson.

With the release of EZplayer pro Toontrack also starts working more closely with 3rd party MIDI content creators. First out is Groovemonkee that can be easily reached through the help menu in EZplayer pro.

EZplayer Pro is available now for a fee of $49 / €39. Note that EZplayer pro will also be included as the MIDI engine in the upcoming Toontrack sampler Superior Drummer 2.0.

Big Fish Audio has released Found Percussion, a new sample library described with this simple catchphrase : "In kitchens, garages and back yards everywhere, everyday objects lie waiting to be turned into percussion instruments."

There are 85 construction kits of unique and quirky percussion material, using 'found' instruments such as wine bottles, air conditioning ducts, coffee cans, electric fans, welding rods, slack bass strings, suitcases, everything, including the kitchen sink!

Contents :

- 6.16 GB (2.47 GB WAV Files)
- 85 Construction kits in 3 formats
- 2151 Loops in 3 formats
- Format: Apple Loops/REX/WAV/RMX/Acid

Found Percussion is available now for a fee of $99.95. Note that a demo of Found Percussion can be heard on the following address :

Algoriddim has just updated djay, its turntable-style digital audio player, to version 2.1.

This new version supports multi-finger gestures using the trackpad built into Mac notebooks. Sliding two fingers horizontally operates djay's crossfader, perfectly matching the motion used to control traditional mixers. Moving two fingers up and down scratches the record just like on a turntable, perfectly in sync with the hand motion. Even advanced features like scrubbing, pitch-bend, and speed adjustment can be performed using finger gestures in combination with keystrokes.

The two-finger gestures are supported on all Mac notebooks featuring two-finger scrolling, making the feature available to most users with iBook, PowerBook, MacBook or MacBook Pro computers. Users of the MacBook Air and the latest MacBook Pro can use additional three-finger gestures to backspin the record or perform djay's built-in song transitions.

djay v2.1 is available now for Mac OS X and is priced at $49.99 / €39.99. Note that a demo version is also available.

Solid State Logic announces the release of Mynx which is described as "a simple, elegant and cost effective way to get the depth, clarity and characteristic sound of SSL SuperAnalogue processing into your recordings".

Basically, Mynx is a little desktop chassis that allows you to load your choice from the X-Rack module range into a simple two module desktop box. It measures a mere 105mm x 190mm x 185mm and its rugged metal enclosure is made from 4mm thick extruded aluminum. Power supply to the modules is via an external supply and audio connections are made directly to the back of your selected modules. NOTE Mynx has no Total Recall capability.

Mynx will begin shipping in early June at a MSRP of $595.

MoReVoX has announced the release of Elektromorph 2, a new drum sample library.

Elektromoph 2 gives you several ways to create drums tracks: deep and punchy digital sounds, warm and dirty-valve analog sounds, dry impact drums, explosive roomy wide hits, massive pure natural sounds, classic MoReVoX creative sounds, and more, for a total of 820 samples and 118 Instruments (24bit).

Features :

- 30 Kicks
- 40 Snares
- 6 Toms Racks
- 6 Sidesticks
- 36 Cymbals

Elektromorph 2 is available on DVD ($199) & Digital Download ($189) in the following formats : Drumagog, DrumRehab, Battery 3 and Raw Wav. Audio examples are also available on their web site.

IK Multimedia has announced that AmpliTube Metal is now shipping. Based on IK's AmpliTube 2 software, AmpliTube Metal is a guitar amp and FX modeling software dedicated entirely to heavy metal gear, with an arsenal of 48 models of modern and vintage amps, cabinets, stompboxes and rack effects.

Features :

- 5 separate modules: tuner, configurable Stomp pedal board, Amp head, Cabinet + Mic, and Rack Effects
- 14 Stomp effects
- 5 classic high-gain Amps
- 13 cabinet and 6 microphone models
- 9 post-amp FX Racks
- 2 fully configurable rigs with up to 32 simultaneous effects
- Digital tuner
- Stand-alone and VST/AU/RTAS plug-in for all popular DAWs
- Includes SpeedTrainer for playing along with or your favorite recordings
- Includes AmpliTube X-GEAR for seamless integration with all the other "Powered by AmpliTube" products, MIDI control and StompIO integration
- Mac OS X (including Leopard) and XP/Vista compatible

AmpliTube Metal is available now and costs $269 / €199.

Having introduced the free mixing and host software Vienna Ensemble 2 in November 2007, the Vienna Symphonic Library team has released the follow-up, Vienna Ensemble 3, which is described as the first MIDI and audio LAN solution that enables users to set up a cross-platform network of Macs and PCs using a simple Ethernet cable, without any additional audio hardware.

Developed for and to be used exclusively with Vienna Instruments, Vienna Ensemble 3 aims to make conducting a full-blown orchestra over a network a breeze. While using a sequencer or notation software on the master computer, Vienna Ensemble 3 can host numerous Vienna Instruments plug-ins on any number of slave machines and route all of those audio streams back to the main machine via an Ethernet cable. Assigning the Vienna I ...

Nomad Factory and BBE Sound announce the release of the high-resolution D82 Sonic Maximizer multi-formats plug-in that includes the original processing technology and proprietary BBE Sound's algorithms that can be found on the original BBE 882i Sonic Maximizer hardware.

Features :

- High quality signal processing algorithms
- Stereo Low Contour control (0 to 10)
- Stereo Process control (0 to 10)
- Output Level control variable from -12dB to +12dB
- Bypass control (BBE Process)
- Full Automation for all parameters
- Easy-to-use modern interface.
- Windows XP / Vista32 and Mac OS X (Intel & PPC) supported
- VST, AU and RTAS supported
- 24 bit / 192 kHz supported

The D82 Sonic Maximizer is available now at a price of $129. Note that demo versions are also available. For more information, please visit their web site.