PC and Music News

Announced at the latest MusikMesse, Toontrack Music has finally released EZplayer pro, the follow-up to their percussive MIDI engine EZplayer Free.

EZplayer pro is a VST, AU and RTAS plug in for Mac and PC with extended Map Wrapping capabilities between major drum sampler formats in the market. (FXpansion's BFD 1&2, Digidesign's Strike, NIs Battery, EZdrummer and Superior Drummer in addition to others).

The new multi track MIDI clip arranger offers time stretching, editing and multi layer arranging of MIDI files. EZplayer pro also has hardware learn features enabling live triggering of MIDI arrangements. The MIDI content in EZplayer pro is recorded by drummers David "Fingers" Haynes and Per Mikaelsson.

With the release of EZplayer pro Toontrack also starts working more closely with 3rd party MIDI content creators. First out is Groovemonkee that can be easily reached through the help menu in EZplayer pro.

EZplayer Pro is available now for a fee of $49 / €39. Note that EZplayer pro will also be included as the MIDI engine in the upcoming Toontrack sampler Superior Drummer 2.0.

Ableton has just announced that its "light" version of Live 7 is finally available. Built on the same fundamental concepts as Ableton Live, this version offers most of Ableton Live 7's new features. It includes :

- Studio-quality recording up to 32-bit/192 kHz*
- Sixty-four audio tracks and unlimited MIDI tracks per project
- Powerful and creative MIDI sequencing for software instruments
- More than twenty built-in audio effects, including a host of creative delays, filters, distortions, studio compressors and EQs*
- Two software instruments &mash; Simpler for creative sample-based synthesis, and Impulse for dynamic, sampled drums*
- VST and AU effects and instruments support; automatic plug-in delay compensation*
- Real-time time-stretching and warping of AIFF, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MP3 files for DJing and instant remixing
- Real-time tweaking of Live's controls with any MIDI controller — just MIDI-map it or choose from a list of popular supported controllers for instant mapping
- Single-screen user interface for simple, creativity-focused operation
- Multicore and multiprocessor support

*Live LE is limited to two simultaneous stereo audio inputs and outputs, twelve built-in audio effects, eight built-in instruments, two AU/VST effects and two AU/VST instruments per project.

Live 7 LE is available as a download from the Ableton webshop for €129/$149. The boxed version is available in stores and at the Ableton webshop for €169/$199.

Big Fish Audio has released Found Percussion, a new sample library described with this simple catchphrase : "In kitchens, garages and back yards everywhere, everyday objects lie waiting to be turned into percussion instruments."

There are 85 construction kits of unique and quirky percussion material, using 'found' instruments such as wine bottles, air conditioning ducts, coffee cans, electric fans, welding rods, slack bass strings, suitcases, everything, including the kitchen sink!

Contents :

- 6.16 GB (2.47 GB WAV Files)
- 85 Construction kits in 3 formats
- 2151 Loops in 3 formats
- Format: Apple Loops/REX/WAV/RMX/Acid

Found Percussion is available now for a fee of $99.95. Note that a demo of Found Percussion can be heard on the following address :

MoReVoX has announced the release of Elektromorph 2, a new drum sample library.

Elektromoph 2 gives you several ways to create drums tracks: deep and punchy digital sounds, warm and dirty-valve analog sounds, dry impact drums, explosive roomy wide hits, massive pure natural sounds, classic MoReVoX creative sounds, and more, for a total of 820 samples and 118 Instruments (24bit).

Features :

- 30 Kicks
- 40 Snares
- 6 Toms Racks
- 6 Sidesticks
- 36 Cymbals

Elektromorph 2 is available on DVD ($199) & Digital Download ($189) in the following formats : Drumagog, DrumRehab, Battery 3 and Raw Wav. Audio examples are also available on their web site.

Solid State Logic announces the release of Mynx which is described as "a simple, elegant and cost effective way to get the depth, clarity and characteristic sound of SSL SuperAnalogue processing into your recordings".

Basically, Mynx is a little desktop chassis that allows you to load your choice from the X-Rack module range into a simple two module desktop box. It measures a mere 105mm x 190mm x 185mm and its rugged metal enclosure is made from 4mm thick extruded aluminum. Power supply to the modules is via an external supply and audio connections are made directly to the back of your selected modules. NOTE Mynx has no Total Recall capability.

Mynx will begin shipping in early June at a MSRP of $595.

Having introduced the free mixing and host software Vienna Ensemble 2 in November 2007, the Vienna Symphonic Library team has released the follow-up, Vienna Ensemble 3, which is described as the first MIDI and audio LAN solution that enables users to set up a cross-platform network of Macs and PCs using a simple Ethernet cable, without any additional audio hardware.

Developed for and to be used exclusively with Vienna Instruments, Vienna Ensemble 3 aims to make conducting a full-blown orchestra over a network a breeze. While using a sequencer or notation software on the master computer, Vienna Ensemble 3 can host numerous Vienna Instruments plug-ins on any number of slave machines and route all of those audio streams back to the main machine via an Ethernet cable. Assigning the Vienna I ...