PC and Music News

Puremagnetik has released Toybox, a collection of sounds captured from toys, gadgets and music education devices, all expertly programmed for Live, Kontakt and Logic. From squeaky plastic instruments to mini synthesizers and toy pianos, Toybox explodes with a variety of colorful sounds.

Toybox includes the following instruments :

- Lapharp - An organic 12 string plucked instrument.
- Synthjam - 6 instruments and an efx menu from toy synthesizers.
- Stylophone - Includes the "classic" Stylophone® sound as well as 2 new models.
- Junior Piano - A quirky toy piano with multi-velocity sensitivity and mechanical nuances.
- Toy Accordion - A small plastic accordion with a fun squeaky sound.
- Jamboree - Toy vibraphone with both "finger" and "plastic" variations.
- Melodica & Recorder - Legendary educational wind instruments.
- Astroblaster - A menu of laser gun sound effects.
- Drumrock - A lo-fi kit sourced from a toy drum synthesizer.

The Ableton Live version of Toybox comes with 14 multisampled instruments including 2 effect menus and a drum kit rack. Each sound has been carefully tailored with extensive Macro controls for easy editing and tweaking. Toybox for Kontakt comes complete with a customized KSP driven GUI for instant editing and effects processing. The Logic version includes 18 unique channel strip configurations for quick loading sonic exploration.

Pricing : Basic Monthly Subscription: $5.75/Month Basic Yearly Subscription: $60/Year All Access Pass - $198/Year.

Christmas is in the air so LinPlug has 3 special offers for you :

- Buy Albino 3 and get BLUE for free, in collaboration with Rob Papen LinPlug can offer you a free BLUE with every purchase of the Rob Papen Albino 3 from their website.

- Buy 2 different instruments other than Albino 3 and get one additional instrument license for free (valid for all instruments except Albino 3).

- Buy 3 different instruments other than Albino 3 and get 2 additional instrument licenses for free (valid for all instruments except Albino 3).

All seasons offers are time limited until 31st December 2008. Offers can be combined. For more information; please visit their website.

ESI unveils the UGM96, a new portable audio interface. The UGM96 offers an ultra mobile guitar and microphone to USB interface that allows you to connect two guitars (via the Hi-Z instrument inputs) or one guitar and one microphone simultaneously to your PC or Mac.

Features :

- 2 x analog input and 2 analog output channels
- 2 independent mono Hi-Z inputs
- one Hi-Z input switchable to microphone input with preamp
- 2 headphone output
- one headphone output can work as line output
- fully USB bus powered
- drivers for Windows Vista/XP with ASIO support with low latency
- Core Audio support under Mac OS X 10.4 and higher
- dimensions: around 7 cm x 6 cm

The UGM96 is available now at an estimated price of $75/€59 (excl. VAT).

As McDSP's 10 Year Anniversary and the year of 2008 come to an end, McDSP offers a one-time only special on the HD and Native Emerald Pack Bundles, including upgrades. Emerald Pack HD will be offered for $2495 and the Native bundle will be offered for $1345.

Emerald Pack bundle includes Analog Channel, Channel G, Chrome Tone, CompressorBank, DE555, FilterBank, FutzBox, NF575, MC2000, ML4000, Revolver and Synthesizer One.

The McDSP HD line supports TDM, RTAS and AudioSuite formats and the Native line supports RTAS and Audiosuite formats. The HD and Native bundle operate on Pro Tools HD, LE and M-Powered. Special available only via electronic delivery.

This offer ends December 31, 2008.

Note that McDSP's Winter Special Bundle offer is still available until the end of the month.

To celebrate the birth of their own inhouse TDM-team, Brainworx is releasing a free control listening tool bx_solo. The new 1.0.2 installer includes TDM - RTAS - VST - & AU and is available for MAC and PC.

Note that Brainworx has also announced that all bx-tools will soon be available in TDM format (bx_control TDM is scheduled for Dec 8). Fair upgrades from Native to TDM will be available for all customers and all plugins.

Voxengo releases LF Max Punch, an audio effect plug-in for music and sounds where low-frequency thump and punch are most welcome, and where distortion is applied specifically to bring the bass sound to life.

LF Max Punch plug-in dynamically emphasizes selected bass frequency band, applies a smooth saturation over it, and produces additional sub-harmonic content, with the ability to blend it with the original bass band sound. Optional compression can then be applied to the resulting low-frequency sound. LF Max Punch first splits the broad-band signal into low- and high-frequency bands and then applies the aforementioned effects to the lower band only.

Features :

- Puncher module
- Saturator module (2 modes)
- Sub-harmonic synthesizer
- Built-in compressor
- Effect monitoring switch
- Multi-channel processing
- Internal channel routing
- Channel grouping
- Mid/side processing
- Up to 8x oversampling
- 64-bit floating point processing
- Preset manager
- Undo/redo history
- A/B comparisons
- Contextual hint messages

LF Max Punch is available now for Mac (VST / AU) and PC (VST) at an introductory price of $55.95. Upgrading from both previously available LF-Max and LF-Punch plug-ins costs $34.95 if they were purchased earlier than 90 days from now: otherwise upgrade is free during this grace period.