PC and Music News

SAE launch entry-level course aimed at aspiring producers, singers and musicians starting a home recording studio…

Opportunities to record and produce music at home have never been greater – or more affordable. Couple that with the ability to distribute music online and you have the ingredients for what is shaping up to be the future of the music industry.

But with so many options available it's easy for the technology to get in the way of creative ability, so spending time trying to figure out how to work the technology rather than getting down to recording your masterpiece is a common problem amongst those wanting to unleash their creativity.

SAE's new Home Studio Certificate aims to change all that. This new entry-level qualification is ideal for the singer/songwriter, hobbyist or beginner wanting to produce their own music, and will leave students fully conversant with the basic equipment and techniques necessary to take control and record music at home.

The Home Studio Certificate will train students in setup and optimisation of any standard home recording system with regards to recording instruments and vocals, editing, adding signal processing and even mixdown into a finished track.

Courses start June '09 – call SAE for further details.

The Covert Operators released Encounters, an effects presets Live Pack for Ableton Live 8.

The Live Pack contains :

• 25 Arpeggiator Racks that allow unique sequences to be played with little effort. More info about how to use the preset or how it was made can be found in the info text view if you mouse over the preset name.
• 40 Audio Effect Racks ranging from simple filtering tools to some creative Racks made using Live 8's new and improved Audio Effects. These Racks also come with notes that either recommend sounds to use it on or the notes explain what is going on inside the Audio Effect Rack.
• 50 Groove presets, selected from a large collection of grooves that we extracted from our personal record collection.
• 100 Dummy Clips that contain parameter automation for 10 different Audio Effect Racks. Trigger pre-programmed effects by triggering clips. The improved Effects such as the Simple and Ping Pong Delay now sound smooth when the delay times are altered. The lack of a smooth delay is exactly why you didn't see this earlier. Its a flexible collection of Dummy Clips that automate an Audio Effect Rack, this means that you can hot-swap a Rack with any other Rack and keep the automation.

Pricing : €25

Blue Cat Audio has released a new version of Blue Cat's Dynamics, its all-in-one dynamics processing plugin for Mac and PC.

What's new in 3.0 :

- Mac VST support.
- Mac Audio Unit support.
- Mid/Side processing capability.
- New stereo linking options.
- Enable/disable processing on each channel.
- Customize the range of the meters and zoom/navigate in the display.
- Automation output can now be disabled for hosts that do not propose automated parameters choice.
- Improved accuracy of MIDI output.
- New Presets.
- New installer (much faster install, improved upgrades).
- Brand new documentation.

Pricing (limited time offers):
- Blue Cat's Dynamics: 95.20 EUR (instead of 119 EUR) or 127.20 (instead of $159)
- Blue Cat's Master Pack: 269.10 EUR (instead of 299 EUR) or $359.10 (instead of $399)

A special upgrade price is available for existing customers, and others can purchase the plugin with 20% discount (one month introduction offer). The plugin is available alone or within the Blue Cat's Master Pack bundle. The company also proposes promotions on all their plugins until the end of May, to celebrate the port of all their plugins to the Mac platform.

Line 6 has announced the release of POD Farm v1.1 (the associated device drivers for all supported devices have also been updated - Win: v3.4.3.6 / Mac: v4.1.0).


Changes :

• Various USB unplug issues with Line 6 hardware - FIXED.
• Loading POD Farm iLok in 64-bit Steinberg DAWs causes VST Bridge Crash - FIXED.
• Model drag & drop not functioning in 64-bit Steinberg applications - FIXED.
• Host Sync button sometimes doesn't properly save within DAW - FIXED.
• Model Sync button sometimes doesn't properly save within DAW - FIXED.
• Speed knob does not affect Random Sample & Hold model - FIXED.
• Input/Output gain knob settings not saved within DAW - FIXED.
• POD Farm settings saved in DAWs reset to "Default" tone when no dongle is detect ...

The original AKG C 747, the so called „pencil microphone", was first built in 1987. Due to its excellent technical specifications, especially the wide and flat frequency range, it was used for the recording of all kinds of musical instruments, even those with very low frequencies. As it is more and more used in conference applications, AKG carefully redesigned the C 747 to better cope with some specific installed sound issues.

The new C 747 V11 will have an integrated RFi shield to block out unwanted interference by mobile phones, wireless mics and the like. Also AKG have fine tuned the frequency response to give especially the spoken word an outstanding presence, without changing the flavour of the classic C 747 sound.

An enhanced polar pattern provides consistent off-axis rejection to control ambient noise and feedback in acoustically difficult environments. This makes the C 747 V11 an excellent choice for noisy discussion groups or reverberant pulpits while it is forgiving enough to clearly pick up talkers moving around in front of the microphone. A switchable LF roll-off filter suppresses mechanical noise. The low-impedance transformerless preamp operates on 9 to 52 V phantom power.

The C 747 V11 ships with an extensive accessory set including a shock mount/adapter, mini gooseneck, stand adapter, mounting clamp, thread link, and windscreen.

Pricing TBA.

Practical Sampling has made available 507 impulses created from a Lexicon 960L, one of the highest regarded reverb/effects units ever.

Collection includes (but is not limited to):

- 24 Vocal Plates
- 21 Snare Plates
- 25 Large Halls
- 8 Guitar Chambers
- 18 Drum Plates
- 32 Large Wood Rooms

You can download this collection for free at :