PC and Music News

Avant Electronics has finally announced that the Avantone Active MixCubes are now shipping.

The new Active MixCubes each contain a separate 35-watt Class A/B amplifier with cooling handled by Convection/Heat Sink-Aluminum Fins. The Drivers are 8 ohm 5.25" Cast Aluminum Frame / Paper Cones in a Sealed Cabinet Design with a frequency response of 90 Hz to 17 kHz. Coated in an Elegant Polyurethane high gloss "Butter-Cream" finish the 7mm thick neoprene pad embedded into the base of the cabinet serves as a skid-resistant acoustic isolator.

They are available now at an introductory price of $359 pr.

Today our dear friend sleepless has written a complete review upon the UAD SPL Transient Designer plug which comes with the new OS (4.9.0) of the famous UAD family of DSP Card's.

Wanna know if this "transient modifier" sounds better than the others ? Just take a look then...

Blue Cat Audio has updated FreqAnalyst Pro (v1.4), FreqAnalyst Multi (v1.2), StereoScope Pro (v1.2) and StereoScope Multi (v1.2). The new versions include minor improvements and a fix for a bug that could cause a crash when opening the settings window under particular conditions. This update is free for registered customers.

Improvements :

- Fixed a crash on certain configurations while opening the global settings window.
- Settings window is now faster to open.
- [FreqAnalyst Pro] Minor skin changes.

AtomSplitter Audio has released Clip-R, a stereo effect which allows you to trim/clip the ceiling (top) and floor (bottom) of any audio you put through it. It also features a boost control which happens before the clipping and can be used to distort the signal in combination with clipping. The left channel is shown in green and the right in red, the clipping level is show in black and this lets you see exactly what is happening to the signal. The effect works well on basses and basic waveforms like a saw etc and can change the shape.

Clip-R is available now for free as a VST effect for Windows.

DSK Music has recently released DSK DrumZ BeatVoiZe, a free human beat-box VSTi for Windows.

Features :

- 8 sound slots (C3 to C4 white keys).
- Level and pan control.
- 8 stereo outs.
- 26 samples.
- 3 kits.
- MIDI automation.
- Preset selector.

DSK DrumZ BeatVoiZe is available now as a VSTi for Windows and it's free.

Marantz introduces the PMD580 Solid State Recorder, the newest addition to its family of rackmount digital recorders.

The PMD580 brings many of the same features found in the PMD Series recorders but adds a crucial new dimension: network connectivity. Via its Ethernet port, this unit can be positioned as a network device, allowing users to set menu parameters, schedule recording events, and transfer and archive audio files, all by using a web-based GUI interface from any PC or Mac in the network.

The new unit also adds balanced XLR inputs and outputs, SPDIF as well as AES/EBU digital interfaces and RS232 control. It offers MP3 and WAV Recording formats, and users can select between 16-bit and 24-bit resolution.

Highlights :

- Choice of 24-bit or 16-bit Recording onto Compact Flash (CF) Card
- Ethernet Connectivity and Internal Web Browser
- Automatic Archiving of Recorded Files
- Easy Recording
- MP3 and WAV File Formats
- Menu-selectable Quality Settings
- Balanced XLR Inputs and Outputs
- AES/EBU and S/PDIF Digital Inputs and Outputs
- RS232 Control Port
- No Moving Parts
- FAT32 File Structure
- Contact Closures with Menu-driven Control