PC and Music News

OTR88 is an electric piano physical emulation developped by Devine Machine. It aims to offer in a few drags and clicks what used to take hours with a screwdriver and lots of sweat with a real electric piano.

Unlike sample based instruments, OTR88 physical synthesis provides seamless dynamics and virtually unlimited electric piano sound models, for less than 10Mb hard drive space and moderate CPU usage.

OTR88 gives access to 17 physical parameters fully editable for each 88 key individually (Pickup positions, tine harmonic content, tine decay, oldness, tuning, pan amongst others) through a user-friendly interface. Scala microtonal file import feature has been implemented to complete sound flexibility. It also features 8 MIDI-Learnable FX pedals (Chorus, Delay, Distortion, Flanger, Phaser, Reverb, Tremolo, and Wah) set in an intuitive pedal board.

OTR88 will be available in February 2009 in VST, RTAS, AU and standalone versions for both Mac OS X and Windows.

PreSonus proudly announced that after two years of intense R&D, it is shipping its new StudioLive 16.4.2 digital recording and performance mixer.

Designed for both live performance and studio music production, StudioLive is a powerful and flexible sixteen-channel digital mixer loaded with sixteen high headroom XMAX microphone preamplifiers, built-in 22x18 FireWire recording and playback engine, "Fat Channel" processing with 4-band EQ's, compressors, limiters and gates, DSP effects, six aux buses, four sub-groups, extensive LED metering, talkback and much more.

Key Features :

- 16 inputs, 6 auxiliary mixes, 4 subgroups
- 16 class A XMAX microphone preamplifiers
- Hi-Definition analog to digital converters (118dB dynamic range)
- Unlimited headroom 32-bit floating point digital mixing and effects processing
- 22x18 FireWire digital recording interface
- Compact 19" rack-mountable rugged steel chassis
- Fat Channel Select :

o High Pass Filter
o Compressor
o Limiter
o Gate
o 4-band semi parametric EQ
o Pan
o Load/Save/Copy/Paste

- 2 Master DSP Effects (reverbs, delays, time-based effect, with load/save)
- Load/Save Mixer "Scenes" - all settings
- 100mm long throw faders
- Military grade quick touch push buttons
- Fast-acting LED meters
- Talkback communication system
- StudioLive multi-track recording software

The StudioLive carries an MSRP of $1,999.

GForce has unveiled the successor of its impOSCar soft synth, the soberly called impOSCar 2.

Features :

- PWM on both oscillators.
- Aux Mod Section with comprehensive routing (destinations include: OSc2 pitch, PW1, PW2, PW1&2, Filter Separation, Filter Q, Osc Mix, Noise Mix).
- Additional LFO.
- Improved LFO sync options.
- New Modulation & Controller Routing options.
- Pink noise.
- Vastly Improved Arpeggiator.
- Chord Hold & Retrigger from a single key.
- Controller Section Featuring Channel & Poly Aftertouch.
- Mod Wheel Controls now switchable between Aftertouch, Expression and Mod Wheel.
- Pan Spread Modes (left to right, Random etc) and Spread Amount Control.
- Mono & Poly Unison Modes (up to 8 voice poly unison).
- Unison Voice Spread.
- Portamento Spread on Unison glides.
- New Chorus Modes.
- Ring Modulation.
- External Audio Input with the new FX version.
- Release Velocity Response.
- Small, Medium & Large GUI sizes.

Pricing and availability TBA. For more information as well as video demos, please visit the link below :

Version 1.9 of the Serato Scratch Live software is on its way - as always, the upgrade is completely free. Major new features include SP-6 Sample Player, LiveFeed, native MEP-7000 support, Loop Roll, enhanced History, and support for Video-SL 1.1.

The new SP-6 Sample Player adds six extra audio players that can be triggered with the computer keyboard or a MIDI controller, turning compatible Rane hardware into a high performance sampler.

Brand new in Scratch Live 1.9 is a groundbreaking feature called LiveFeed, taking live external audio and placing it directly on a Scratch Live virtual deck, all in real time. The DJ has instant control of live external audio with Vinyl, CD or MIDI.

"LiveFeed gives DJs a live stream of audio to mess with, the creative possibilities are really endless", reports General Manager, Sam Gribben.

The Pioneer MEP-7000 gains plug-and-play native support, joining the popular Pioneer CDJ-400 as a Scratch Live control surface. Control CDs are not required, and song data is shown directly on the MEP-7000's displays.

Loop Roll adds an interesting new stutter effect, which can also be used in conjunction with the new LiveFeed feature.

The History function now keeps a comprehensive record of every track played, during every gig. This is a real time saver for professional DJs who need to log their sessions.

Album Art is also added to the virtual deck in Scratch Live, assisting with rapid song identification.

Scratch Live 1.9 also adds offline video playback, in conjunction with the Video-SL 1.1 plug-in, also being shown at NAMM 2009. This feature lets Serato Video-SL users manage effects, cue and loop points for their videos without hardware connected. Video-SL 1.1 adds support for the Rane SL 1 and Rane MP 4.

A public beta of Scratch Live version 1.9 is available now at :

Combination SD and CD Recorder Built Into Portable Sound System, the newly-announced Tascam BB-1000 Portable CD/SD Recorder is built to make recording to CD as simple as pressing record on a cassette 'boom box.' The battery-powered recorder records to either SD Card media or blank CDs from four built-in microphones or XLR mic inputs. The two front and two back mics can be individually trimmed for a balanced recording, and tracks can be immediately played back through a built-in 10W sound system. The BB-1000CD has been designed for simple operation in schools, houses of worship and band rehearsal spaces.

The BB-1000CD offers uncompressed recording to CD-R/RW media for audio CDs. The SD Card can capture as WAV file or MP3 files, and SD Card recordings can be burned to CD. The recorder can use two microphones on the front of the unit, two mics on the rear, or a pair of XLR mic inputs with phantom power as the recording source. Tracks can be played through the built-in speaker system, and can be looped and slowed down without changing the pitch.

This year Native Instruments has announced three new products at the Winter NAMM : Maschine, Audio 4 DJ and Guitar Rig Mobile.

Maschine combines a software sequencer and sampler with a performance controller. Audio 4 DJ is an USB 2.0 audio interface specifically designed for Traktor and other DJ software. Guitar Rig Mobile is a system which combnes an ultra-compact USB 2.0 audio interface with the Guitar Rig 3 LE software.

Maschine will be available in March 2009 for a suggested retail price of €599.Audio 4 DJ is available now for purchase in the NI Online Shop for a suggested retail price of €229. Guitar Rig Mobile will be available in April 2009 for a suggested retail price of €99.