PC and Music News

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.

KRK Systems announces they are now shipping the R6 passive studio monitor. The R6 incorporates design cues from KRK's Rokit line, including radically radiused edges along the front of the cabinet.

The R6, like its Rokit brethren, provides a sleeker, more modern look that KRK claims to be as functional as it is beautiful. A key component to the new look is the molded front baffle. This design feature virtually eliminates diffraction distortion caused by standard flat baffles.

The R6 leverages KRK's research and development into baffle design and fabrication. The curved front baffle was engineered to minimize diffraction of high-frequencies, resulting in a sweet spot that is significantly larger than products with square or lightly rounded baffles. The baffle also houses a molded fro ...

Cascade Microphones is now shipping the new FAT HEAD II Live/Studio microphone.

The FHII L/S is fitted with a robust 5-micron symmetrical ribbon. The heavier ribbon is perfect for the hostile environment outside the studio, yet the frequency response is virtually the same as it is with the studio version FAT HEAD II.

The FAT HEAD II Live/Studio is available now at the introductory price of $175.

VoxBox by Puremagnetik has been developed as a one-stop solution for instrument building and sound design applications that require vocal timbres. Whether you wish to construct standalone voice programs or to layer vocals into existing sounds, VoxBox provides the raw material for patch thickening and harmonic variant creation.

The included VoxBox menus and looped phrases are equally suited as ready-to-play without further processing. Simply load up one of the tempo synced clips or play the one-shot phrases as you would any other instrument.

Voxengo has updated its mastering limiter plug-in Elephant to version 3.4.

Changes :

• Latency change reporting fixed in AudioUnits.
• Lock-up problem on single-core CPUs fixed.
• Plug-in initial loading time reduced.
• K-metering is now following specification fully.
• Calibration K-metering modes added.

Beginning July 1st 2009 the fully featured vielklang by zplane is now available at a special price of only €199 / $219 (regular price €249 / $299).

vielklang is a plugin instrument for instant audio harmonization, it generates up to four voices from a single-voiced audio input. The progression of each individual voice is controlled by sophisticated harmony progression and voice leading models, resulting in musically meaningful harmonization without any configuration efforts.

With vielklang, you can thus easily generate and prototype natural sounding background vocals and brass sections, modify melodies and single-voice loops in terms of pitch and scale, and experiment with different harmonizations or chords triggered by different MIDI-inputs. It allows you to generate four voices, edit their harmonies and single pitches, and convert the audio to MIDI.

vielklang is available for both Mac OS X and Windows in VST, AU and RTAS formats.