PC and Music News

Sonic Core is going to introduce its newest addition to the SCOPE product line at the upcoming MusikMesse show in Frankfurt (Hall 5.1, Stand D10). The SCOPE XITE-1 device combines DSP-based accelerated audio processors with a high-end audio interface. The external 19inch/1U rackmount unit is connected to a laptop via PCI-Express interface.

Using state-of-the-art SHARC signal processors allows for an increase of processing power by a factor of 10 compared to the older 14DSP SCOPE-Board.

A continuously developed low-latency technology allows the professional user to work with an agreeable, quasi-analog behaving audio platform. The flexible software environment includes a full range of plug-in audio devices: A selection of digital mixers, more than 50 audio effects, samplers and synthesizers in uncompromising sound quality. Additional compatible plug-ins developed by well-known third-party manufacturers continue to be available.

Planned to be released at the same time, the latest SCOPE software (Version 5) is intended to be available for Windows Vista, Windows XP and also Mac OS X. Scheduled release will be May 2008 at a retail price of 2698,- EUR excl. VAT (Introductory Price).

PreSonus has just announced that they will showcase the StudioLive 16.4.2 Digital Performance and Recording Mixer next week in Frankfurt.

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 an ...

VertexDSP has released version 2.2 of MultiInspector, its FFT and 31-band spectral analyzer designed to be used in a multitrack environment.

Enhancements :

- The controls area on the right side can now be switched to a name panel. Every signal can be given a name to clarify the usage in a mix setup. The names are shared between all instances and are shown with selectors for the signal color.
- The memory switches can now be used in combination with the alt
- key to access a complete row with one mouse click, e.g. for storing all signals at the same time.
- Pause button added.
- Additional zoom buttons for setting the level range.
- The maximum peak hold time has been increased from 5 sec to 20 sec.
- New measurement tool: By clicking into the frequency display area the mouse cursor changes to a crosshair and shows the frequency and the level at the current position.

INFRASONIC, one of brands of SIMS audio (Samick Innovative Music System), releases and starts shipping its 2-in 4-out FireWire Audio Recording Interface, DEUX.

Key features :

- 2-in/4-out FireWire audio interface v
- 2 balanced inputs with 1/4 inch TRS phone jack — A/D converter: SNR 102 dBA @ (44.1 kHz)
- 4 balanced outputs with 1/4 inch TRS phone jack — D/A converter: SNR 106 dBA @ (44.1 kHz)
- Supports fully balanced I/O
- Supports up to 24-bit/96 kHz
- Small footprint with a heavy duty aluminum case
- 1 x FireWire (IEEE 1394a) port
- Bus-powered with 6-pin connector
- External power supply is available
- Supports zero latency direct hardware monitoring
- ASIO2.2, WDM, DirectSound and CoreAudio supports
- Windowsฎ XP/VISTA (32-bit and 64-bit) or later, Mac OS X (10.3 or later)
- Native Instruments ABSYNTH 4 DEMO, MASSIVE DEMO and TRAKTOR 3 DEMO software included

Vienna Symphonic Library announces the release of seven Extended Libraries complementing its already existing Vienna Special Edition download products. All Special Edition modules including the PLUS libraries now offer additional instruments, available at Vienna's web shop as of today :

- Special Edition Strings — Extended Library
- Special Edition Strings PLUS — Extended Library
- Special Edition Woodwinds — Extended Library
- Special Edition Woodwinds PLUS — Extended Library
- Special Edition Brass — Extended Library
- Special Edition Brass Plus — Extended Library
- Special Edition Percussion & More — Extended Library

Blue Cat Audio has just released Digital Peak Meter Pro v3.0, a totally redesigned version of its audio analysis tool which includes many new features and enhancements.

What's new :

- New user interface design.
- Bob Katz's K-System scales support (K-12 / K-14 / K-20).
- You can now blend RMS and Peak envelopes for the transformed output.
- New mid-side mode: you can now easily switch from Left-Right to Mid-Side stereo mode for instant mono compatibility check.
- Average values display.
- The output envelope can now be a combination of the peak and RMS envelopes.
- Main MIDI settings are now available from the main panel.
- Undo/Redo support.
- Import/Export presets in a host independent format and share them between the directX and VST versions.
- Window Opacity Management: make the plugin window transparent and see behind.
- New toolbar to access main functionality.
- Main MIDI settings are now available from the plugin user interface.
- Curves are now anti-aliased.
- Improved the display of parameters values in the MIDI settings panel and the host application.
- Improved graphs refresh rate.
- Reduced memory consumption when using several instances.
- Improved Skins loading performance.
- Default values for MIDI controllers have been changed to be more convenient.
- Blue Cat's Skinning Language 1.4.2 support.

This plug-in is available alone or within Blue Cat's Master Pack and Blue Cat's Analysis Pack bundles in DirectX and VST formats for Windows. A limited time offer is available for these products until the end of the month.

Prices :

- Blue Cat's Digital Peak Meter Pro: €41.65 (instead of €49) or $58.31 (instead of $68.60) [-15%]
- Blue Cat's Analysis Pack: €220.15 (instead of €259) or $308.21 (instead of $362.60) [-15%]
- Blue Cat's Master Pack: €269.10 (instead of €299) or $376.74 (instead of $418.60) [-10%]