Camel Audio has updated the sample manipulation synthesizer Alchemy to v1.10 and released over 200 free sounds for registered users of Alchemy and the add-on soundbanks.

The factory content has been expanded with almost 150 purer and less experimental sounds, the Electronic bank now has an additional 35 dance sounds and the Atmospheric bank has 30 extra smooth pads and soundscapes. The presets were specially commissioned from sound designers Robert Rich, Luftrum, Lotuzia, bManic, Adam van Baker, Ugo, Ole Jeppesen, Martin Walker, Jim Hunter, Paul Nauert and Christian Kjeldsen.

Alchemy v1.10 has numerous enhancements and fixes including right-click context sensitive help, ability to analyse files up to 5 mins in length, an easier to use file import dialog including scroll wheel support ...

Empirical Labs has just announced that its brand new unit EL9 "Mike-E" is now shipping.

The Mike-E is a modern digitally-controlled Microphone Preamplifier chocked with unusual features to warm and soften the source, along with an excellent compressor/limiter. Mike-E offers an incredible performance transformer-coupled mic preamp, whose noise floor is far below any microphone's self noise. The one-of-a-kind 'CompSat' section is an uncompromising compressor and saturator circuit that offers versatile 'coloring', and classic knee compression.

Mike-E's Seven Circuits :

1. Mic Preamplifier with super low noise & stepped gain switching.
2. Built in 'Direct Box', called the 'Inst In', offers unparalleled distortion, noise, and frequency response when pre-amping instruments.
3. 'Colored' 80Hz High pass filter emulates the warm low frequency cut of our favorite vintage equalizers.
4. Phase Switch to invert the audio signal 180 degrees.
5. CompSat offers both a musical Compressor/Limiter and a unique tape-like saturation circuit.
6. Emphasis high-frequency emphasis system softens high frequency 'pile-ups' and further the creamy color of the Mike-E.
7. Mix Control allows the blending of the Compressed/Saturated signal with the clean unprocessed "Dry" signal.

Mike-E is available now at a price of £1585/€1629.

Loomer has updated its semi-modular virtual synthesizer Aspect to version 1.4.0.

Changes :

• Support for the sustain MIDI controller.
• Lag Generator component now only filters audio rate modulation sources when the Lag is set to above 0%.
• Lag Generator output can now be used as an audio source, as well as a modulation source.

This update is free for all registered users.

D16 Group is proudly announcing a new product : Toraverb (Space Modulated Reverb). It's the latest plug-in from SilverLine Collection. More details about this unit will be revealed to you next week.

Official release is planned on the end of July 2009, but You can already preorder it and get a better price. Toraverb is now available for €29 (in preorder offer) and its official retail price will be €35 - in a day of release, and that day will be included to their bundles. Audio examples are available at :

Best Service unveils Titan - 200 Synthesizers in One, which is described as "the biggest and most extensive Synthesizer Sound Collection of all time".

Titan offers 5,500 multi-samples of the best sounds from 200 classic Analog Synthesizers and Modular Systems, including the biggest and most famous Digital Synths and Workstations of the 80s and 90s, and from the newest virtual instruments and current synths, all in one massive plug-in. That means 40 years of synth history and sound variety. Best Service put great emphasis on preserving the unique sound character of each instrument - that's why many of the instruments were partially sampled with their original effects and filters, which can be hard to reproduce in the virtual domain. All instruments were sampled and looped perfectly and i ...

Waldorf has updated Largo to version 1.1.0. This update is not only a "bug fix", it also carries a bunch of new features e.g. the Mod Delay, a completely revised Reverb and an extended multi-part function plus several additional enhancements. The PDF manual has also been updated.

On top of that, anyone interested in the Largo software synthesizer can now get a 30-day evaluation license. Put the Largo synthesizer to the test ! Use and abuse it 30 days without any limitation.

Please note that you will need an internet connection to activate the demo version of Largo.

Here's a new Pro Tools Corner issue by our VIP Moderator Brian White from audioMIDI.com.

"Have you ever heard a mix that had elements so wide they sounded as if they were originating from beyond the speakers? Often, this is the result of a stereo width enhancer processing the audio in a way that tricks our brain into thinking the speakers are farther apart than they really are. This week, in the second installment of "Mixing with AIR," I will break down the new AIR Stereo Width plug-in and share with you some of the tricks and pitfalls of stereo enhancement processing while mixing."

If you have a Pro Tools related question that you would like Brian to take a shot at answering or have any feedback, please post-it in our Mac ProTools Forum or Pc ProTools Forum. Brian will do his best to select the questions that seem to stump the most people.

AudioMIDI.com and PSP offering Nitro for $10.00 until 8/09/09 (reg. MSRP $149!). Nitro is a powerful Windows/Mac plug-in featuring four sound processing blocks containing a variety of filters, a phaser, bitcrusher and more along with a highly flexible routing scheme.

Said audioMIDI.com's Russ Jones, "This is the third in our series of super "no-brainer" plug-in deals, bringing powerful music software tools to the end user at unheard of prices."

audioMIDI.com will offer an affordable upgrade path to PSP's full EffectPack bundle including the Lexicon PSP 42, PSP 84, PSP 608 MultiDelay and PSP EasyVerb for just $249.00.

Nitro is available for purchase via electronic serial number at this special price until 8/09/09, exclusively from :

AcousticsampleS presents his new library : AkousKontr, a very expressive upright bass sample library.

Features :

• The AkousKontr is a four strings Upright bass recorded at 24bits 44.1khz both from the pickup and with an electro-static microphone
• 779 Mo (1710 samples) sample library, no loops
• Sustain samples: 5 different velocities per note and 2 round robins separated in microphone and pickup samples.
• Release samples: about 13 different velocities per note.
• Hammer-on samples easily triggered with the keyboard thanks to the advanced scripting
• Advanced Vibrato effect controlled via modulation wheel
• Multiple slides effects
• Harmonics, ghost notes, string hits samples
• Percussion samples
• KONTAKT 2 and 3 format only, it uses a lot of script for hammers, slides, mixing, release level. Easy to use KONTAKT interface.
• priced at €49

Visit the website for screenshots and audio demos of the library.

Her is a message from Roger Linn :

"We're still hard at work but regrettably won't be able to meet our earlier estimate of a 3rd-quarter 2009 ship date. The recent changes in the economy have caused us to rethink our design, which had become too expensive. One problem is that Dave's customers and my customers had different views of what the product should be, so we had been working on a more elaborate design that we thought would please them both. Then the economy tanked. Oops. The other issue is that Dave and his team have been having such success with their analog synths that they've been spreading themselves pretty thin trying to work on both projects.

So given these circumstances, we'd prefer not to state another release date estimate at this time, but when we do we promise to post it here along with any other information we're able to release. Also, given that Dave and his team have their hands pretty full and that a beat-oriented product is more of a Roger product anyway, we'll probably be selling it through Roger Linn Design instead of from both companies as we had previously considered.

I'd personally love to tell everybody all the details of the product design, features and price as we did with our initial designs of the product, but there's that pesky problem of keeping the information from our competitors. So we need to keep tight-lipped for now and regrettably can't answer any questions. Thanks also to those who have kindly asked to place advance orders. However, we don't feel it's right to accept orders until we are able to release the price or more information about the product.

And now I must get back to work. :)

- Roger"

Toontrack Music has just updated Toontrack Solo to version 1.2.1. It fixes a number of faults with the new Metronome feature as well as expand the game controller support launched as part of version 1.2.0.

The changes in a nutshell :

• added support for Mad Catz XBox Rockband® drumkit on PC
• metronome should now work as expected on PC
• click sounds are correctly recalled/found regardless of the project
location on PC
• default metronome settings are remembered
• fixed a bug when opening save files with incorrect paths on PC
• Open/Save/Save as/New combinations should remember the filename
• some minor graphical issues in the mixer have been fixed