PC and Music News

Focusrite is pleased to announce the imminent arrival of their latest eight channel pre-amp. OctoPre MkII features eight channels of Focusrite pre-amplification and a built-in 24-bit / 96 kHz ADAT output.

OctoPre MkII has been optimized for drum recording. Designed not to clip, 10dB pads are provided across each channel, and the gain range of the pre-amps has been tailored to handle extreme levels from sound sources like the kick drum. Finally, OctoPre MkII's first two channels also feature DI's, so it can also turn its hand to recording Guitar and Bass.

OctoPre MkII features everything else you'd expect from a multi- channel mic-pre solution; 5-LED input metering on every channel, switchable phantom power and a variety of internal and external clocking solutions.

The OctoPre MkII will be $499.99 US MAP with October 2009 projected availability.

Toontrack Music proudly announces that Monster Drummer Peter Fredlander is back with the third package in the Monster MIDI series - Monster MIDI Pack 3 - Fills! Boasting more than 450 individually played fills with drum beats leading up to them, hierarchically organized by level of intensity and difficulty, this is a given must-have in your arsenal of MIDI and a shot of adrenalin to your creativity and songwriting! These fills and lead-ins will spice up your drum tracks like never before!

Works for all genres - fills to suit anything from mellow Pop to insane Metal!

Works with EZdrummer®, Superior Drummer® or any GM compatible drum kit (optimized for 1 kick, 1 snare, 2 toms, 1 floortom, 2 crash-cymbals, 1 ride-cymbal).

The Monster MIDI Pack 3 is priced at €15. Check out demos and video at :

Audio-Technica unveils its first-ever ribbon microphones, the AT4080 and AT4081 Bidirectional Active Ribbon Microphones, two new offerings from A-T's expanding 40 Series.

Audio-Technica's R&D team in Japan engineered and manufactured the AT4080 and AT4081 from the ground up, utilizing a hand-built, proprietary design and rugged, durable construction. Both offer smooth, warm and natural sound with precise, articulate detail to meet the critical requirements of today's recording, broadcast and sound reinforcement professionals. With 18 patents pending, Audio-Technica's innovative ribbon transducer advances the evolution of ribbon microphone technology, combining remarkable durability and high SPL capability with smooth, rich audio quality.

The AT4080, whose footprint is that of a cla ...

Spectrasonics has announced that the world premiere of its highly anticipated new bass virtual instrument "Trilian" will be in Paris, France on October 22, 2009. The event will take place at the IRCAM Facility (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) in central Paris. Although the event is free, seating is limited and attendance is set by RSVP to a special webpage, first come first served. There will also be a raffle at each of the two sessions, 3pm and 6pm, where a copy of the Trilian Total Bass Module software will be given away free to one of the lucky attendees. Representatives from Spectrasonics will be at the event presenting the live demonstration and answering questions afterwards.

Spectrasonics' Trilian Total Bass Module is the successor to its award-winning Trilogy bass module. The virtual instrument has a much larger core library and features highly detailed new acoustic, electric and synth basses, as well as enhanced versions of the classic Trilogy sounds. Sporting a brand new user interface with numerous software innovations, Trilian is the

Voxengo has released TransGainer — an audio plug-in suitable for a wide range of professional music production uses. TransGainer implements audio signal envelope adjustment algorithm that reacts on transients rather than on signal's loudness level. This algorithm allows you to adjust volume of attack and sustain stages of any sounds you use it on. TransGainer was designed in a way to be suitable for all possible sound sources — be it individual tracks or full mixes.

Features :

• Transient stage loudness adjustments
• Sustain stage loudness adjustments
• Transient-to-transient time control
• Multi-channel processing
• Internal channel routing
• Channel grouping
• Mid/side processing
• Up to 8x oversampling
• 64-bit floating point pr ...

Avid Technology today announced three new Pro Tools Essential bundles, hardware-software combinations that target consumers and hobbyists who are interested in musical composition, editing, and production, or who want to create and share music, podcasts, narrations, and other audio content. The packages are: Pro Tools Vocal Studio, Pro Tools Recording Studio, and Pro Tools KeyStudio.

Pro Tools Vocal Studio includes the Producer USB microphone that lets people capture vocals, as well as record acoustically played instruments. Using the software, users can remix vocals to produce soundtracks and podcasts. It also comes with a desktop stand and carrying case.

Pro Tools Recording Studio lets users craft songs