Native Instruments today released the first of a series of videos showcasing respected Japanese producers, performers, and DJs. Five artists give detailed insights into their individual creative processes with MASCHINE – Native Instruments’ groove production system seamlessly integrating tactile hardware and advanced software. After a widely successful launch of Native Instruments' Japanese office in Tokyo earlier this year, the company is beginning a series of activities with skilled local artists to further expand its footprint in the Japanese music production and DJ equipment markets.

Five-time DMC world champion DJ team KIREEK uses MASCHINE to intuitively create beats on the fly, dragging them directly into TRAKTOR PRO for an instant transition from their studio setup to playing live. International touring artist KAITO from the Cologne-based Kompakt Records lineup constantly discovers new ways of working on dance music in a way which is only possible with MASCHINE. Tokyo's star performance duo HIFANA loves the comprehensive collection of sounds and use MASCHINE in their live setup on stage. Samplesmith DJ Baku uses MASCHINE as his main production tool to sample records from various genres and to find new musical inspiration. Fukuoka's beat specialist OLIVE OIL has discovered MASCHINE as his go to tool – not only for sampling old records but even for mixing and arranging entire tracks without any additional software.

Sample Logic breaks new ground with IMPAKT — A suite of over 850 breathtaking morphed concert percussion instruments and multis that will blow you away.

This diverse collection of instruments ranges from dramatically twisted marimbas and xylophones, blissful chimes and bells to massively transfigured timpani, gongs, bass drums, cymbals, and a variety of world percussion instruments. IMPAKT also includes a complimentary set of traditional concert percussion instruments. All sounds were recorded on the Scoring Stage at Skywalker Sound (a Lucasfilm Ltd. Company) under the direction of renowned percussionist Jim Wunderlich and System Blue, the result of which is a comprehensive library that contains both traditional instruments and an evocative collection of morphed cinematic instruments, transitions, atmospheres, leads, impacts, and tempo-synced rhythms.

From Thursday evening, October 24 through Saturday, October 26, 2013, PreSonus® will pull out all the stops for PreSonuSphere 2013, the company's third annual user conference. One- and two-day passes will be available at very low prices.

Held at the gorgeous Manship Theatre in historic downtown Baton Rouge, and featuring seminars by well-known experts, the conference will present in-depth tips and techniques for PreSonus' StudioLive™-series digital mixers, Studio One 2 DAW, StudioLive AI-series Active Integration™ PA speakers, and ADL-series preamps and channel strips. Top professionals will show you how they do their live-sound and recording magic using PreSonus products, and especially popular topics will be repeated so that one- and two-day attendees won't miss out.

EASTWEST has teamed up with legendary studio console maker Solid State Logic to present the SSL/EW FX Suite, a collection of professional audio processing tools for use inside the EASTWEST PLAY 4 software. The SSL audio processing tools provide the superior precision, advanced feature set and legendary tonal characteristics of SSL console products. These tools allow musicians to achieve professional compositions that sound like a record.

The foundations of the SSL collection are adaptations of two SSL console classics. The EQ & Dynamics Channel plug-in provides an EQ & Dynamics processing solution with all the power, precision, flexibility and signature tone of an SSL console channel strip. The legendary Stereo Compressor gives users the classic SSL stereo compressor that brings power and punch to the music without compromising clarity. The Transient Shaper is a 'task specific', carefully selected and crafted processing tool to get outstanding drum and percussion sounds quickly and easily.

Nektar have upgraded their DAW support and extended the range of directly controllable Plugins and Rack Extensions.

NEW VST PLUG-IN MAPS FOR CUBASE/NUENDO
Nektar's quest to map every VST plug-in known to man continues! They have added another 54 insert and instrument maps to the collection, each carefully handmapped at Nektar HQ, so you don't have to.

These maps not only give you tactile control but also in many cases improve the user experience over the software GUI. Take for example Xhun Audio's LittleOne where you now can select the effect you want right from Panorama's Instrument home page, plus you don't have to click on a parameter to adjust it. Or the Sound Tower editors that already give great control over Dave Smith synths. You can now control the parameters right from your Panorama keyboard or control surface including arpeggiation and sequencing!
REASON Rack Extensions SUPPORT UPDATE
Great new Rack Extensions have been launched recently for Reason and we finally have an update ready. It includes the Korg Mono/Poly and the updated version of Propellerheads own PX7.

After seven years of faithful service, Firebird itself has become vintage.

Even though it's no longer profitable to remain a commercial product, we feel that more people deserve an opportunity to enjoy this sometimes heavily underestimated synthesizer.
Which is why we decided to release one last update and turn Firebird, previously sold for $79, into freeware.