PC and Music News

Fostex is proud to announce the new LR16 Live Recording Mixer which is a 16/4/2 live mixer with built-in 16-track recorder.

Main Features :

- Connector Box (recorder + I/O) and Controller (mixer section) can be flexibly separated via off-the-shelf CAT5 cable up to 50m. Just one cable from I/O box on the stage to the F.O.H. mixer controller instead of heavy and expensive snake cable.
- Intuitive analog-like mixer operation in digital domain with 16 inputs faders + 4 bus faders + master fader.
- Built-in 80GB HD for approx. 16 hours of 16-track uncompressed digital recording (16bit/44.1kHz) or 9 hours at superior digital quality of 24bit/48kHz.
- One hit of "REC" button starts 16-track recording immediately.
- Multitrack and Stereo Mix can be recorded simultaneously creating 16 x mono wave files plus 1 x Stereo wave file on the HD.
- Choice of MTR-like stand-alone integration or separated rack mounting.
- FAT 32 formatted HD can be mounted on PC or Mac via USB.
- Digitally controlled TRIM with LIMITER on all the 16 channels.
- 3-band EQ on all the 16 channels.
- Built-in Master Effects (Reverb/Delay)
- USB Host connector to dump recorded data to USB flash memory for easy data transfer to PC or Mac.
- 10 keys on the recorder panel for instant playback.

The LR16 will carry an MSRP of $2199.

Spectrasonics has released updates for Omnisphere :

- Omnisphere Software v1.0.3f
- Omnisphere Patch Library v1.0.3
- Omnisphere Soundsource Library 1.0.2

The good news is that it adds over 2000 brand new patches with :

- Lots of new aggressive and punchy synth sounds
- Added "Dance" genre to the entire factory library
- Hundreds of evocative new 'Psychoacoustic' and "Hybrid Organic" patches
- Traditional and Vocal/Choral patches greatly expanded
- Created by the renown international sound designers (Diego Stocco, Scott Frankfurt, Ignacio Longo, John Lehmkuhl, Tobias Marberger, Stéphane Bonvallet, Hans Jörg Scheffler, Tolga Gurpinar and Eric Persing)
- Total Omnisphere factory patch library now over 4000 Patches

Of course this is free for all registered customers.

Ueberschall announces three upcoming releases :

- Synthlines : a Liquid library which comes with over 1000 bass and lead phrases
- Electrolines : another Liquid library featuring 78 themes and over 1000 analog synth sequences
- Dancehall Madness Vol. II : an Elastik Soundbank described as "the easy way to create any synthetic dancehall riddim you want" with the help of its 34 Construction Kits

Each product has an MSRP of $119 / €99 / £69. The included Liquid / Elastik Players are available for Mac OS X and Windows in AU, VST and RTAS plug-in formats.

QuikQuak has released version 2.0 of its real-time pitch changing plug-in : Pitchwheel.

Changes :

- High quality, sample accurate pitch changing.
- 8 note chords, with low additional CPU resources.
- MIDI input.
- New user-interface.
- Zero offset phase bug fix from 1.1.

Pitchwheel v2.0 is available now in VST and AU formats for Mac OS X and Windows and it costs £15. Note that demo versions are available.

Blue Cat Audio has released Blue Cat's Protector 1.1, a new version of its stereo brickwall limiter plug-in. The plug-in is now available for Mac in VST and Audio Unit formats and includes several improvements and fixes to the PC VST and DirectX versions. It offers simple controls and yet provides a wide range of sounding capabilities, from very transparent limiting to heavy distortion, with no latency.

What's new in Blue Cat's Protector 1.1 :

- Mac Audio Unit and VST support.
- New Windows installers (much faster install, improved upgrades).
- Automation output can now be disabled for hosts that do not propose automated parameters choice.
- (Bug Fix): fixed MIDI learn issues.
- (Bug Fix): window opacity is now properly reset when selecting factory presets.

Blue Cat's Protector can be purchased alone or within the Blue Cat's Master Pack plug-ins bundle. A demo version is available for download and the product can currently be purchased at a special introductory price of €53.10 (instead of €59) / $71.10 (instead of $79).

112dB has announced the release of Redline Monitor, a high-quality near-field monitor simulation for headphones.

Redline Monitor is a listening, mixing, and mastering tool. It replaces the extreme stereo separation characteristic for headphones with the detailed stereo image of near-field monitor speakers, turning headphones into a portable uniform listening environment. Whether in the studio or on the road, on a full-blown studio rig or your notebook, even in home studios and untreated rooms, with Redline Monitor mixes sound identical where ever you go.

Features :

- True stereo soundstage with adjustable left/right speaker position from 30° to 90°.
- Transparent sound with flat frequency response (±0.1dB for the entire 10Hz–22kHz range).
- Separately adjustable phantom-center level from 0dB to -3dB for optimal speaker matching.
- Distance control from 0m to 2m to simulate placement of near-field monitors in room.
- Auxiliary left/right solo and phase invert controls for critical listening.
- Output switchable to mono for mono-compatibility checking.
- Support for samplerates up to 384kHz.
- Flexible MIDI learn system.

Redline Monitor is available now in RTAS/VST/AU formats for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and up at an introductory price of €69 / $69 until April 21, after which the regular price becomes €99/$99. Note that an unrestricted 60-day evaluation version is available.