PC and Music News

Blue Cat Audio has just released a new version of Blue Cat's Gain Suite, a freeware gain adjustment plugins package for Windows, including mono, stereo and mid/side DirectX and VST plugins. This new version allows you to link several instances together to achieve complex mixing and gain adjustment tasks, it also brings many new features such as undo/redo, presets import/export, and window opacity management. The plugins can be automated and controlled by MIDI with advanced response curve settings.

New features :

- Link several instances of the same plugin and control several plugins from a single user interface.
- Smooth Bypass: activate/deactivate the plugin with absolutely no noise.
- Undo/Redo.
- Load/Save presets in a host-independant format: you can now share presets between ...

The Musicrow Group has announced the release of PianoBoy, a new virtual piano in VST format. Based on Musicrow "SCS technology", PianoBoy offers a realistic acoustic piano using only 34 Mb of sample data. The SCS technology combines sampling, convolution and synthesis techniques, to provide a dynamic and natural instrument, without the need to use gigabytes of samples.

Features :

- "Realistic and sonically beautiful" piano.
- Extremely dynamic and responsive.
- 22 note polyphony.
- Simple user interface.
- Very modest memory and disk Requirements (loads quickly).

PianoBoy is available now for Windows in VST format and costs $69. Note that a demo version is also available.

Focusrite has unveiled its new ISA 828, an eight channel microphone pre-amplifier. It features eight original ISA transformer based pre amps (same as the original ISA110 module) in a single robust 2U chassis.

The pre-amps are complemented by eight line inputs, four instrument inputs and an optional eight channel 192kHz ADC. Thanks to its convenient 25 pin D-Type connectors, the ISA 828 also integrates quickly and seamlessly with ProTools HD, as well as other popular hard disk recorders and mixing desks. The microphone input stage includes a variable impedance circuit, allowing the user to switch between four carefully selected input impedance settings. The four front panel instrument inputs also feature high and low impedance options to provide a comprehensive and accessible DI solution ...

PreSonus is pleased to announce the release of its first plug-in, EyeQ, which is a VST plug-in featuring seven-band parametric EQ with real-time spectral analysis. Five fully parametric bands are available as well as low cut and high cut shelf bands. Pre and Post buttons allow you to view the spectral analysis of the EQ'd or bypassed signal on the large color-coded EQ display. Input and output volume controls are also available for fine tune adjustment of the overall levels.

EyeQ will be featured in a new PreSonus product to be announced soon.

Waves has taken action against facilities that use their software illegally. Employing undercover agents, the company has obtained video evidence and is now threatening court action to back up its claims for payments plus damages.

For more on this story please visit the ProSoundNews Europe website, which has the exclusive on this story.

The Vienna Symphonic Library team has announced the release of the new Vienna Instruments collection Special Keyboards. This 8 GB collection offers a "state-of-the-art" approach to capturing these rare instruments: a harpsichord, a harmonium, and a prepared piano.

Like all Vienna Instruments collections, the Special Keyboards collection ships in VST, AU and stand-alone versions for Mac OS X (UB) and Windows. It retails for $385 / €295. For more information, please visit their website.