PC and Music News

EXPANSE is a collection of multi-sampled 24bit waveforms that can be played as instruments, used as drones, or to create tonal beds. Some touching on the traditional, others exploring the surreal or etherial, but never too close to the mundane, and never too far away that they loose the listeners connection.

All patches are programmed with modulation wheel support. 1 gigabyte of 24bit multisamples make up the 128 Instrument Patches and 79 Multi Patches. All instrument patches are broken down into the categories: Fast Attack - Pads - String Hybrids - Vocal - Weird. Multi Patches are sorted as either Fast Attack, or Slow Attack.

Now available for the introductory price of $79 until January 1st 2008. Note that additional patches utilizing Kontakt 3 features and fixes (modulation sync) will be available, free of charge to registed users, 1st quarter 2008.

If you have ever had problems with the member's review section of a software, it's over : it works again. So, if you are willing to state your feelings about any software, please go to any software page, down to the "Submit your review" box.
Whether you are a pro user or an amateur, your opinion will, without any doubt, help the whole community.

Prodyon has released a new multi-FX plug-in called Asteroid which is basically a DJ-Effects plugin similar to the Korg Kaoss Pad. You control a circle on an X/Y-pad that is linked to the various effects like Multi-filter, Slicer or a Phaser. It features five different algorithms that are optimized for live usage. The effects can be switched using the mouse or a MIDI-keyboard for live-use. Almost all parameters are fully automatable, including realtime click/pop-free effects switching. It is possible to freely route the circle's X and Y axis to various targets, such as Cutoff, Dry/Wet-Mix or Quantizing.

Features :

- 5 built-in effects like two filters, slicer, combfilter and a multistage phaser.
- 16-voice polyphonic filter for vocoder-like effects.
- Temposynced lofi-slicer with si ...

Sims Audio has just announced The AMON USB recording interface, a two channel USB interface. It features a high quality microphone preamp, a line level/instrument input, and MIDI I/O. Additionally, the AMON includes a full software package from Native Instruments including: Absynth 4, Massive, and Traktor 3 demo software.

Note that this interface is USB bus powered and requires no extra power supply or wall-wart. The lack of power supply and small size make the AMON ideal for location recording. The AMON also supports zero latency direct hardware monitoring so you can hear exactly what is coming from the recording source. A powered headphone amp is also included in the chassis and it accepts a 1/4" headphone input.

The AMON has a MSRP of $225 USD, and will be available in the 1st quarter of 2008.

"Consider that each band of EQ can be selected from any of the five included 1951-1980 classic hardware models, add to that 60 unique compressor presets with an almost limitless set of input stage, compressor and the EQ combinations and clearly you've got one killer channel strip" says Mikail Graham in his review.

Read the whole story here.

This article is proposed to you by in association with audioMIDI

Tascam has introduced two new digital Portastudios, the DP-02 and the DP-02 CF. The new Portastudios have been updated with a fresh new look, new effects and a new display.

The DP-02CF includes a 1GB card as an introductory offer, for plenty of recording time without purchasing additional memory, The DP-02 records to a 40GB hard drive instead of compact flash, and includes a multieffect processor, stereo reverb and CD burner for CD masters and song backup. Both units feature a Portastudio-style interface so that musicians can mix with knobs instead of digging through menus.

Features :

- Two XLR mic/line inputs with phantom power for condenser microphones
- Eight-track recording at uncompressed 44.1k/16-bit audio quality
- Portastudio-based interface with volume fader, pan, effect send, high and low EQ controls per channel
- EQ frequency button to access high and low EQ shelf frequencies
- USB 2.0 interface for transferring tracks, mixes and backup files to a computer
- Dedicated stereo master track for mixdown
- Internal metronome and bar/beat display for song position
- Headphone output
- Stereo line outputs on RCA analog and S/PDIF optical digital connectors
- 1GB Compact Flash card included as a launch promotion (DP-02CF only)
- 40GB internal hard drive (DP-02 only)
- Multieffects processor with guitar, bass, vocal and drum programs featuring a new tube overdrive effect (DP-02 only)
- Stereo reverb processor with send/return controls for multichannel mixing (DP-02 only)
- Built-in chromatic tuner (DP-02 only)
- Built -in CD-RW burner for CD mastering and song backup (DP-02 only)

Price :
DP-02 CF : $500
DP-02 : $800