PC and Music News

After the announcement of DP6, MOTU unveils Electric Keys, a cross-platform virtual instrument that delivers "authentic sounds" of 50 classic, vintage electric keyboard instruments from the last 40 years.

With a massive 40GB sound library Electric Keys includes over 20,000 meticulously crafted 24-bit 96 kHz multi-samples of legendary electric pianos, electric organs, clavinets, Wurlitzers, tape samplers, string machines, keyboard basses and other rare and exotic electric keyboard instruments. Samples are streamed from disk, so even large presets load quickly and conserve computer memory. Sounds are organized in 12 banks, each with its own authentic look ("skin"), allowing users to install on their hard drive only the banks they wish to use. Electric Keys presets can be loaded into MachFive 2 for advanced sound design and layering.

The Electric Keys window offers a few simple controls, including volume, pan, tone and tremolo settings, along with two preset slots, which allow users to layer two sounds using the convenient multi-column preset browser. All parameters can be automated via convenient "MIDI learn". Users can click the FX button to open the FX-Rack, which is a separate window with eight effects that can be applied individually or in combination as a multi-effect to any preset. Effects include amp simulation, filter, chorus, flanger, phaser, UVinyl (to add "wear and tear"), delay and reverb. Users can load and save "combis" consisting of a snapshot of the entire plug-in, including effects.

Electric Keys supports all major plug-in formats on Mac OS X and Windows (XP and Vista), including VST, DXi, MAS, Audio Units and RTAS. It also runs as a stand-alone application. Electric Keys will ship in February, 2008 for a list price of $295.

VirSyn has released version 1.1 of VTAPE which includes a new Tape Flanger plugin simulating the playback of two tape machines running at slightly different speed.

VTAPE 1.1 :

- Tape Flanger :

* Manual tape flanging simulation.
* Authentic "through zero" Flanging.
* Unique stereo flanging mode.

- RTAS/AudioUnit Mono versions of Saturator.

- Bug fixes:

* Mac/Digital Performer: Settings lost on render to file.
* Latency compensation now working.
* "Kill" Parameter now automatable.
* Sync button state was not saved.
* Save button - Enter key no longer required.
* AudioUnit: GUI problem with more than 16 instances.
* RTAS: Automation with SATURATOR working now.

Here is a video of the two main news of the Winter NAMM show 2008, enjoy !

Nomad Factory and NUSofting are proud to announce their collaboration in creating "top-of-the-line" virtual instruments. The first announced of this collaboration is the Analog Strings Station, an advanced emulation of vintage electronic keyboards known as "String Ensemble Synthesizers " or "String Machines".

Differently to other string machine emulations available as virtual instruments, the Analog Strings Station (ASS) doesn't use samples recorded from the original hardware keyboards, NUSofting developed a native emulation of the "octave divider" circuitry that is the essential technology of the vintage polyphonic synthesizers. The ASS digital "octave divider" can reproduce the same "phase synced" sound of the original Solina, Crumar Performer and similar vintage keyboards.

Priced at $189, Analog Strings Station is "coming soon" for Windows and Mac OS X in VST, AU and RTAS formats.

Abbey Road Plug-ins has just released the TG12413 Limiter for Mac OS X and Windows VST and AU hosts.

The TG12413 plug-in is an emulation of the compressor / limiter from the legendary EMI TG12345 mixing console, which was used on many classic recordings such as The Beatles' Abbey Road and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The TG12345 consoles were never sold commercially and were only available to EMI studios.

The plug-in functions as a 2:1 compressor or as a limiter with up to 20dB of gain reduction. It accurately reproduces the behaviour of the original and features an authentic, TG-style graphical interface. In addition, it can be used in multi-channel configurations, supporting up to 7.1 surround operation.

Two plug-in modules are included, providing variations on the TG so ...

ChocolateAudio has announced Imperial Drum BFD2 expansion library for Fxpansion's BFD2.

Features :

- Sampled at 88.2, released at 44.1.
- Edited from scratch for BFD2 release.
- Dry signal path while recording makes for an excellent use of BFD2 mixing and routing features.
- Some drums feature alternate mics (requires updated BFD2).
- 51 DW, Ludwig and Paiste and other brand drums.
- 13 different stick types, 3 beater types for Kicks.
- Mid-sized Room for maximum mixing flexibility.

The Imperial Drums BFD2 expansion will be available on February 2008 with price to be announced. Note that a crossgrade option will be available to current Imperial Drums and Imperial Drums XL users.