PC and Music News

M-Audio unveils the Studiophile DSM1 and DSM2 reference monitors with built-in DSP.

M-Audio engineers worked closely with their counterparts at sister company Digidesign to bring their experience to the Studiophile DSM series. The monitors feature an onboard DSP engine, which provides compensation for phase differences between the two drivers at the crossover point. The onboard DSP also manages a number of functions that enable users to tailor each speaker to their unique space and placement needs, for monitoring in any environment.

Features :

- 1" Teteron soft fabric, high-frequency dome with Neodymium magnet and ferrofluid cooling – accurate to 27kHz
- custom low-frequency driver with anodized aluminum cone provides low distortion (6.5" on DSM1, 8" on DMS2)
- onboard DSP manages the complex, 4th-order digital crossover for pristine imaging
- DSP-based EQ and Acoustic Space Controls optimize monitor for difficult acoustic environments
- bass-reflex port delivers controlled extended bass response
- high-density cabinet yields good damping and reduced acoustic interference
- professional digital inputs (up to 24-bit/192kHz): S/PDIF and AES
- balanced analog inputs: XLR and 1/4"
- bi-amplified with Class D power amps: 100 watts (low frequency) and 80 watts (high-frequency)

The Studiophile DSM1 and DSM2 monitors are expected to ship in the fourth quarter of 2008 and carry an MSRP of $649.95 per unit and $749.95 per unit, respectively.

Ueberschall has announced the release of Club Électro, an Elastik Player-powered sample library that provides "synth groove fury and finesse". It features 28 construction kits which contain edgy minimal to maximal electronic club sounds. This collection combines an epic spectrum of sequences, deep lead sounds, resonant bass lines, pads, atmospheres and effects as well as hundreds of finely conditioned drum and percussion samples and loops.

Club Électro was developed with analog synth and signal processing gear of today and classics of yesterday. The instrumentation of this production was derived from synths such as Andromeda, Minimoog, Moog Voyager, Prophet 5, Oberheim OBMX and more.

Club Électro is available now for Mac OS X and Windows in VST, AU and RTAS formats at a retail price of $119/€99/£69.

Universal Audio has just announced that the UAD-2 family is now available worldwide !

UAD-2 offers scalable DSP power via three different types of cards (UAD-2 Solo, UAD-2 Duo and UAD-2 Quad) which can be mixed and matched in any combination (max. 4 cards). There are three UAD-2 families (Standard, Nevana and Flexi) thus giving nine UAD-2 products to drool over :

- UAD-2 Solo ( $499) includes UA Mix Essentials 2 and a $50 UAD Plug-In Voucher
- UAD-2 Duo ( $899) includes UA Mix Essentials 2 and a $50 UAD Plug-In Voucher
...

Today M-Audio unveils a new FireWire audio interface : the ProFire 610.

Features :

- 6 x 10 simultaneous analog/digital I/O
- 2 preamps with Octane technology (phantom power, 20dB pad on each preamp, signal/peak LED indicator lights)
- 2 ¼" TRS balanced line inputs
- 8 ¼" TRS balanced line outs
- stereo S/PDIF I/O
- 2 ¼" TRS headphone outputs
- flexible onboard DSP mixer
- up to 24-bit/192kHz
- built-in 1 x 1 MIDI interface
- user-assignable master volume knob
- standalone operation as 2 mic pre/2-channel A/D-D/A converter
- JetPLL jitter elimination technology
- powered via FireWire bus or external power supply

The ProFire 610 is expected in Q3, 2008 with an MSRP of $499.95 / €389.

Audio Damage unveils their next release, Automaton, which is described as a unique look at buffer effects, allowing you to experiment with artificial life within your DAW.

With four separate effects (Stutter, Modulate, Bitcrush, and Replicate) driven by a cellular automata sequencer, Automaton is capable of adding subtle seemingly random fills and "humanizing" effects, but if you like, you can crank the sequencer up to eleven, and watch as your DAW becomes a petri dish while Automaton makes complete hay of the track you've inserted it to.

Features :

- Cellular automata sequencer with host tempo-sync, five different musically useful rulesets (including a step sequencer), extensive randomization features, and a life of its own.
- Four sequencer-driven effects, including Stutter (a buffer delay for extremely short loop slices), Modulate (a self-modulating ring modulator), Bitcrush (sample rate and bit depth reduction, and our own "Error" effect), and Replicate (a special version of our Replicant effect, tuned for use with the cellular automata sequencer).
- Master section allows extensive mixing capabilities, enabling Automaton to excel at either adding subtlety (like an occasional extra hi-hat) or complete self-generating IDM madness.
- MIDI Learn for hardware control of most parameters (VST only)

Automaton will be available soon for Mac OS X and Windows in VST and AU formats.

Steinberg has just released Cubase 4.5 and Cubase Studio 4.5 Update

The 4.5 update offers many new integrative technologies, with full support for the upcoming Steinberg MR816 CSX/X Advanced Integration DSP Studios and the CC121 Advanced Integration Controller. It also introduces VST Sound(TM), a new and improved universal media management format that is a fundamental part of VST3 standard. Last but not least, Cubase 4.5 includes the VST Sound Collection Vol. 1, offering 1.6 GB of new sounds and instruments for Cubase.

The 4.5 versions are available now as a download for all registered Cubase 4 and Cubase Studio 4 customers at :