PC and Music News

A new page dedicated to tutorial movies for XILS 3 is available on the XILS-lab web site.

XILS 3 is an exciting new matrix style virtual modular synthesizer. Based on the architecture of the legendary EMS VCS3 synth, the XILS 3 is capable of creating both 'classic' sounds and totally new ones.

Features :

• Three aliasing-free oscillators: sine, ramp, square, triangle.
• One 2/4 poles low pass filter (a 3 pole self-oscillating mode is also planned).
• One envelope, based on two different designs, trapezoid and ADSR.
• One spring reverb.
• One ring modulator.
• One 128 steps sequencer.
• Two output static filters.
• One joy-stick.
• Three connection matrix.
• One input gate.
• One input envelope follower. ...

It's been nearly one year since the launch of 440tv, our new video broadcast site exclusively geared to musicians, and pro audio enthusiasts. And what a year ! 440tv is now offering more than 2500 videos including hundreds of useful gear reviews, tutorials, e-lessons, interviews of renown professionals as well as hot tips & tricks and much more.

Up to now, only YouTube videos were supported. Today we are proud to announce that 440tv also supports videos from Vimeo !

By the way, you will certainly notice that our video player now offers a higher quality. What a wonderful world, isn't it ?

You can now submit videos from YouTube and Viemo by visiting the "Add" section of :

For the whole of the month of July 2009, Universal Audio is offering a free UAD2 Solo DSP card ($499 Value) to anyone who buys an LA610 MkII preamplifier/compressor.

Customers purchasing the LA610 MkII simply need to download and complete the promo form and return it to the local distributor in order to claim their free UAD.

Sonic Elements has released the Dragonfly Bundle, a collection of 164 patches for Lennar Digital's Sylenth1. It contains all patches from Dragonfly volumes 1 and 2.

Dragonfly takes advantage of Sylenth1's two tiered VA structure to redefine what is possible with this analog inspired scream machine, according to Sonic Elements. There are a wide range of styles and genres contained in this bank - you'll find subtle textures and timbres, hands-up style leads and bass, pulsating rhythmic bliss, ambient/gothic tones, and "searing trance patches from beyond the cosmos".

Features :

• 164 presets for Lennar Digital's Sylenth1.
• Compatible with Sylenth1 v2.2+.
• Modwheel, Aftertouch, and Velocity mapped on every preset.
• Emphasis on creating new and unheard of sounds.
• Contains sounds that build-up & decay naturally.

The Dragonfly Bundle is available for electronic distribution at $25. Volumes 1 and 2 can also be purchased separately for $20 and $15 respectively.

Roland is pleased to announce the release of version 1.30 update for the Fantom-G workstations. This free download adds new content and enhancements to the Fantom-G, including new rhythm patterns, and a newly added Arpeggio Import Function.

New Features :

• Arpeggio Import Function for creating user arpeggio styles
• Enhanced functionality, including independent tempo for Live and Studio modes
• New keyboard modes for RPS and Rhythm Patterns
• New real-time control of multiple sounds at once
• Hundreds of new rhythm patterns and RPS phrases
• New piano patches, Live Sets, and Studio Sets

To download version 1.30 for the Fantom-G Series, please visit the link below :

Expert Sleepers presents Silent Way, a suite of plug-ins designed for use as part of a modular analogue synthesiser system. The plug-ins produce no sound themselves, nor do they process sound - rather, they generate signals to be used as control voltages (CVs), which can be patched into the control inputs of oscillators, filters, VCAs, etc. of an analogue system.

There are currently two plug-ins in the Silent Way suite - Silent Way DC and Silent Way Voice Controller. These are described in more detail below. It is anticipated that more plug-ins will be added to the suite in the future - watch the website for product announcements.

All plug-ins also feature :

• Full MIDI and OSC control.
• MIDI/OSC scriptability.
• Sample-accurate handling of MIDI note messages.

Silent Way DC
Silent Way DC is a simple plug-in that generates constant output signals. It is intended to be used in conjunction with parameter automation (via MIDI or directly by the host application) to generate varying signals. For example, you could use it as an LFO where you draw out the LFO waveform in your host's parameter automation GUI.

Silent Way Voice Controller
Silent Way Voice Controller is a virtual instrument plug-in designed to directly control an analogue synthesiser by generating the appropriate CV and gate signals via an appropriate audio interface. By listening to the synthesiser's output signal, the plug-in is able to calibrate itself to generate the appropriate pitch CV for the incoming MIDI notes. As well as the basic pitch and gate signals, the plug-in can generate three multi-stage envelope CVs which you can feed to VCAs, VCFs, etc. in your synth.


Silent Way is available for both Mac OS X and Windows in VST and AU formats at a price of $49.