Mac and Music News

Waves Audio announces the latest in its series of educational events, The Waves Logic Studio Tour.

The Tour will feature legendary producer/engineer Eddie Kramer, along with Waves Product Specialists, demonstrating Waves' plug-ins in conjunction with Logic Studio and other Apple professional audio applications. These events, presented in association with Apple Pro Audio Resellers, are free and open to the public. The Waves Logic Studio Tour will take Kramer and the Waves crew to several cities across the U.S. throughout September.

Latest tour date updates and news are available online at the Waves website.

Sonoris Audio Engineering has just announced the release of Sonoris Dither, a professional, high quality audio plugin for mastering purposes.

With this plugin you can quantize audio to a lower bitdepth with dither and/or noiseshaping. The dithertype is selectable between TPDF and High Pass (HP) TPDF. TPDF is short for Triangular Probability Densitity Function, a form of dither that eliminates non-linear distortion during re-quantization and has no signal modulation artifacts.

The noiseshaping can be set to three flavors: Curve A, B and C or "Off". It is also possible to set noiseshaping without dither.

The output bitdepth can be set to 16 and 20 bit or "Off" for no quantization.

Sonoris Dither is available now for both Mac OS X and Windows in VST format and is priced at $75.

Perimeter Sound Arts has released Tone Set #5, a collection of 128 newly created Gearbox patches.

Sorted into 4 categories, 'Alternative', 'Blues', 'Clean', and 'Metal', with a focus on mixing and matching guitar & bass pres and cabs, and bringing out the truer tone of the amps, with fewer effects added and almost no compression used.

Tone Set #5 is available now and is priced at $20. Note that a free no-restrictions-on-use (and no email sign up of any kind required) free demo pack of 16 patches from Tone Set #5 is also available.

McDSP has extended its offer on the "Create Your Own Native Bundle" special for the month of August. You may purchase any one native plug-in for $295, two native plug-ins for $495, three native plug-ins for $695 or four native plug-ins for $795

All McDSP native plug-ins are included in this one-time-deal of creating your own bundle – Analog Channel, Channel G, Chrome Tone, CompressorBank, DE555, FilterBank, FutzBox, MC2000, ML4000, NF575, Revolver and Synthesizer One.

The McDSP Native product line supports RTAS and AudioSuite formats, and operates on Pro Tools HD, LE, and M-Powered. Special available only via electronic delivery. All plug-ins purchased within a bundle must be deposited to the same iLok account. Note that this offer ends August 31, 2008.

Tascam has announced three recording bundles designed to "supply musicians with the tools they need to make great recordings".

The Track Pack T1 combines the US-122L audio interface with a dynamic microphone, headphones and Cubase LE4 recording software. The Track Pack T2 matches the US-144 interface with Tascam's new TM-78 condenser microphone. The Field Pack pairs the DR-1 portable recorder with the TM-ST1 stereo microphone.

Pricing :

- Track Pack T1 sells for $299 MSRP/$179 street.
- Track Pack T2 sells for $369 MSRP/ $199 street
- Field Pack sells for $498 MSRP/$349 street.

Soniccouture has released Bowed Piano, a new sampled instrument for EXS24 and Kontakt.

First suggested by the composer Curtis Curtis-Smith in 1972, the Bowed Piano technique uses flexible bows made from monofilament nylon fishing-line which are then coated in rosin. The nylon is threaded under the strings, and the performer can coax a sustained tone from the piano.

The Soniccouture Bowed Piano instrument was recorded using a 9 foot Baldwin Grand, a popular model with Bowed practitioners. Each key has alternate samples to prevent repetition of attack transients, and there are 3 articulations per key — Normal bowing, Hard bowing, and short, staccato bows. The Normal and Hard samples are looped long, for infinite sustain. When playing, you can crossfade from normal to hard bowing using the mod-wheel, and the staccato bows are activated via a keyswitch.

Features :

- 1.6 GB Sampled Instrument
- 24 bit Stereo 44.1 Recording
- 9' Baldwin Grand Piano
- Multiple Articulations
- Alternate Round Robin Layers
- Convolution Reverb From Piano Cabinet Kontakt 2 / 3 or Logic EXS24 Required

Bowed Piano is available now fand is priced at £49 (download) / £52 (DVD). Audio examples are also available at the following address :

Native Instruments has just released Absynth Twilights, the latest entry in the series of Kore SoundPack libraries.

Highly suitable for film and game scoring as well as for various electronic music styles, the new collection offers 200 pads and soundscapes based on the Absynth synthesizer. Originally created by Camel Audio / Biomechanoid, all sounds in Absynth Twilights take full advantage of the powerful sound shaping and preset browsing features in Kore 2 and the free Kore Player.

Absynth Twilights is available for download purchase in the NI Online Shop for a suggested retail price of $59/€49. More information including audio demos can be found at :

The Vienna Symphonic Library has added plenty of new download products to its web shop.

47 brass and woodwind instruments in the categories of Flutes & Reeds, Clarinets & Bassoons, Saxophones, Horns & Tubas and Trumpets & Trombones are now available instantly and wherever on the planet users might need them — provided they have Internet access, a credit card, and a ViennaKey.

Prices start at €60.

Yamaha presents the Pocketrak CX, a new compact pocket recorder equipped with big diameter and high sensitivity 90° X- Y microphone.

Unlike his "big brother", the Pocketrak 2G, this new device works with micro SD or micro SDHC cards. The included re-chargeable "eneloop" AA battery makes 22 hours continuous recording in CD-quality. The "eneloop" battery does not suffer from the self-discharge problems of similar batteries - so it will be ready for at any time.

You can connect the Pocketrak CX to a computer with the enclosed USB cable. High performance DAW software Cubase AI4 customized for exclusive Yamaha is bundled. A variegated play-back function is built into, and plenty of accessories provides a big conveniences for you.

Features :

- Memory micro SD-Card / micro SDHC-Card
- Recording format 16 Bit, 44,1/48 kHz, Linear PCM / MP3 Stereo 32 kbps, 64 kbps, 128 kbps, 192 kbps, 320 kbps
- Playback MP3, WMA, WAV, PDDRM-WMA
- Built in 90°X-Y stereo microphone
- Battery 1x AA Alkali battery or 1x AA "eneloop" battery
- Battery life ("eneloop") MP3: 40 hours, PCM: 22 hours
- "eneloop" recharge: 220 minutes
- Inputs Mic / Line (stereo mini φ3.5mm)
- Outputs Earphone / Line (stereo mini φ3.5mm)
- Computer connector USB 2.0
- Monitoring integrated loudspeaker or enclosed earphone
- Dimensions / Weight (Width x Height x Depth) 4,65 x 12,95 × 1,75 cm / 92 gram
- Accessories Stereo earphone, USB cable, AA "eneloop" rechargeable battery, Wind screen, 2GB micro SD card, CUBASE AI4 DVD, Carring case, owners manual, Microphone stand adaptor

Price and avaibility TBA.

Togu Audio Line has released TAL-Dub-II, an extended version of TAL-Dub with a completely new sound engine. A 4x over-sampled distortion stage allows you to add vintage distortion to the delayed signal (it is also possible to make clean delays). A sinus LFO has the possibility to modulate delay time and low pass filter cutoff. Adjustable LFO stereo width is also included. An analog sounding 6dB low pass filter with resonance and a 3dB high cut filter are also parts of TAL-DUB-II. Different routing options open a wide range of possibilities.

Features :

- Synced delay times (1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1/1, 2/1 and tripled and dotted notes).
- 4x over-sampled distortion stage.
- VU-Meter shows gain reduction.
- LFO (low pass cutoff and delay modulation, stereo width).
- 6dB resonance low pass filter.
- 3dB high pass filter.
- MIDI learn for all pots.
- 20 factory presets.
- Documentation.

TAL-DUB-II is available now for Windows VST and Mac OS X Audio Unit and VST Universal Binary. The good news... it's a freeware, so enjoy !