PC and Music News

Today Native Instruments has announced the third version of Guitar Rig. Guitar Rig 3 offers more amps and effects, powerful new live features, a completely reworked tone library complete with improved preset handling, and a redesigned Rig Kontrol pedal board with optimized control and audio interface functionality. Both a "Kontrol Edition" with foot pedal and a software-only "Software Edition" of Guitar Rig 3 will be available.

Top Features :

- Twelve supreme-sounding guitar and bass amps
- New matched cabinet module provides tried and true classic sounds in seconds
- 44 perfectly emulated guitar effects
- 18 guitar and six bass cabinets, four rotary speakers and nine microphones
- Includes Rig Kontrol 3 foot controller with Audio/MIDI interface
- Intelligent preset management f ...

Arturia announces version 2.0 of its Analog Factory software, a free update for all registered owners, featuring numerous improvements and bug fixes.

New Features :

- Includes 3500 sounds instead of 2000
- Now includes presets from Jupiter-8V
- Improved effects management
- Vst 2.4 \ Cubase 4 ready

Main Bug Fixes :

- Preset switching has been improved to avoid any problems whilst browsing presets and playing simultaneously
- Improved loading time
- Hanging notes have been eradicated when used within a sequencer
- The preset database has been updated to avoid presets with same name and/or sound
- Fixed a bug in the minimoog engine: on mac intel, some preset parameters could go out of range and cause a bad sound
- The GUI (Graphical User Interface) has been improved
- Pr ...

Vir2 Instruments has just released syntAX, a Kontakt Player 2 based virtual instrument synth plug-in. The core of syntAX is a 2000+ patch synth library covering an immense amount of synth territory, including soaring leads, evolving pads, thick basses, harsh distortions, unusual textures, other-worldly atmospheres, FX, hits, blips, and more. Then syntAX blazes into new territory with its custom scatterFX engine which allows real-time manipulation and interaction with the syntAX core library. scatterFX is made up of two components :

- scatFX gives you control over rhythmic stuttering, allowing you to program, play, and command rhythmic patterns of syntAX.
- stepFX functions as an advanced step modulator allowing you to melodically animate pattern-based arpeggiations.

Bo ...

PreSonus Audio Electronics is proud to announce that the FireStudio Project will be shipping this week. The FireStudio Project is a complete professional recording system combining eight XMAX microphone preamplifiers, 24-bit/96kHz sample rate conversion, zero-latency matrix router mixer, and the PreSonus ProPak Software Suite featuring Steinberg's Cubase LE 4 48 track recording and production software, over 25 real-time plug-in effects, and more than 2 GB of drum loops and samples.

Based on the award-winning FP10(FirePod) the FireStudio Project features the following upgrades and improvements :

- Improved analog to digital converters (114dB dynamic range)
- Synchronization with JetPLL for improved clarity and stereo imaging
- FireControl Mixer/Router to send up to five mixes to musicians
- LED input metering on all channels
- Internal IEC-based power supply
- Updated ProPak software bundle

The FireStudio Project will be available at an estimated street price of $499.

Jonathan Schmid-Burgk has released VisualVox VST, a free intonation correction VST Plugin for Windows. With it you can :

- shift notes of a voice recording to perfect intonation
- fit a voice recording into rythm by stretching, cutting and moving parts of it
- fit a voice recording to another key with minimal pitch changes
- produce a perfect vibrato
- visualize how right or wrong you are singing
- create artificial polyphony from single voice recording
- draw frequency curves freely with your mouse
- let the VST plugin improve intonation automatically

Note that VisualVox VST is still in a developmental stage so every feedback is welcome !

Steinberg is proud to present a new member of the WaveLab product family. WaveLab Essential 6 combines a streamlined audio editing, mastering and CD burning features with a complete podcasting module. Professional 96kHz/32-bit audio quality, Audio CD Montage environment and a range of studio-grade effect processors make WaveLab Essential an ideal editing application for anyone on a budget.

Features :

- Podcast creation and publishing
- Redbook compatible CD burning with CD-Text
- Stereo non-destructive editing with versatile clip grouping over multiple lanes
- Powerful real-time engine with integration of clip-based and global effect plug-ins
- Superior audio processors
- Video track for sample accurate alignment of audio and video
- Sample accurate audio editor with crystal clear audio processing at up to 96 kHz and 32 bit floating point resolution

WaveLab Essential 6 is priced at €99.00. WaveLab Essential 1 customers can upgrade to the new version for €59.00.