PC and Music News

The Italian Grand from Synthogy has been shipping for some time as an expansion for the Ivory piano software. Now the Italian Grand is available as a standalone product (for Mac and Pc) and is no longer just an expansion pack for existing Ivory users.

Highlights of Ivory Italian Grand Piano :

- Premium 10 Foot Concert Grand
- 19GB Core Library
- Over 2000 Samples
- 12 Discrete Velocity Layers
- Comes with Ivory piano engine
- Release samples triggered by velocity and duration
- Una Corda (soft pedal) samples at multiple velocities
- Full EQ and Effects section
- All of Ivory's Piano Specific features and controls
- Dozens of new Ivory programs and effects

Ivory Italian Grand is available now for Windows and Mac OS X in VST, AU, RTAS and stand-alone formats at a retail price of $169.

Yellow Tools has just released Independence Pro v2.1, the first update for the Independence Pro sampler workstation. All three products of Independence Pro (Independence, Independence Live & Independence FX) get updated to version 2.1.

Beside many improvements of the workflow, performance and stability, Independence 2.1 and Independence Live 2.1 now also support the import option of 3rd party VST Instrument und VST Effect plug-ins. Additionally the new Independence FX 2.1 update includes the import option of 3rd party VST Effect plug-ins.

The update to Independence Pro 2.1 is free for all registered users and is available for download in the Yellow Tools User Area.

Do you remember this excellent article about iZotope RX last month ? Well, iZotope has finally released iZotope RX audio restoration plug-ins, featuring the essential tools for cleaning and restoring audio.

Available for VST, Audio Unit, MAS, ProTools (RTAS, AudioSuite), and DirectX, the plug-ins are now included with the standalone version for the same price of $349. Current RX customers are eligible for a free download of the plug-ins. Note that a 10 day fully functional trial of RX is also available.

AudioWarrior has released Studio Drums for HALion 3. This library includes 30 hard hitting multi-velocity professional kits from authentic acoustic kits to contemporary electronic collections and ethnic percussion from around the world.

Studio Drums is available now for Mac OS X and Windows XP | Vista, it costs $49. Note that HALion 3 is required.

Once again, Ueberschall announces the release of a new sample library : Analog Attack.

With more than 1450 diverse Patterns and Sequences for 1.6GB of contents, this new product works well with Electronic Methods such as Minimal, Techno, House Hardstyle, Breakbeat, Techhouse, Progressive and Trance. Analog Attack was developed with analog synth and signal processing gear of today and yesterday. The instruments used for this production include: Minimoog, Moog Voyager, Prophet 5, Prophet 600, Andromeda, Se-1x, Omega 8, Arp 2600, Yamaha CS 80, Juno 106, SH 101, Matrix 6, etc... As usual all this material is supported by the elastik audio instrument.

Analog Attack is available now for Mac OS X and Windows in VST, AU and RTAS formats at a retail price of $119/€99/£69. For more information, please visit the link below :

De la Mancha has released unstable, an effect plug-in that likes to mess around with your audio pitch, with 3 subtle pitch modulation modes to simulate the unpredictable but lovable pitch instability of an old tape machine or analogue equipment. It doesn't only do subtle though, you can also put it in 'insane' mode if you'd rather just f**k things up.

features :

- 3 modes of continuously random pitch modulation

. buzz – rapid, fuzzy modulation
. wobble – medium, jerky modulation
. drift – slow, gentle modulation

- adjustable frequency and level for each modulation mode
- master level mode to adjust overall subtlety of effect
- wet / dry mix level control
- insane mode – removes all subtlety and smacks your pitch up
- all controls mapped to midi CC values

unstable is available now for Windows as a VST plug-in at a very reasonable price of $8. Note that audio examples and a demo version are also available.