PC and Music News

Imagine a control surface with real knobs, sliders, real switches for your favourite sequencer, plug-in, virtual synth or whatever. Let me introduce you to SenseSurface, a working demonstration prototype from Girton Labs.

Applications that would normally use a mouse, Qwerty keyboard or MIDI controller can be now controlled with traditional knobs. The scroll bar on the right hand side of your computer screen can be controlled with a real slider button. SenseSurface can be used with most laptops with a USB input. The sensing knobs have a custom designed movement sensor to determine position within a range of 180 degrees with a 10 bit digital output, linearity typically 1%.

The magnetic knobs can be removed and repositioned immediately by picking them up and moving to a different part of screen. A unique sensing x/y matrix is attached to the rear of the laptop screen to detect the control's position. The distance of the sensor from the screen can also be detected.

The system is multitouch and scaleable , the number of controls on the screen is limited by the size of the screen. The screen can be at any angle. The SenseSurface should cost less than $100 in production.

Girton Labs is looking for interested business partners and manufacturers. For more information, please visit the link below :

Tune It! is a piece of software that helps musicians to tune their instruments. It can also be used to monitor the pitch during live performance. It is based on an original and very accurate pitch detection algorithm. It can tune a wide range of instruments such as guitar, bass, piano, flute, violin, saxophone, etc.

Available for both Mac and PC, it can be ran as a standalone application or as a plugin within a VST or AU host. The good news : Tune It! is totally free !

DSK Music has just announced the release of a new free VSTi : DSK Analog Matrix, an "Analog FM Synth" VST instrument plug-in for Windows.

Features :

- 2 OSC with 6 waveforms.
- Amp. Envelope.
- Octave & fine tuning.
- Advanced pulse modulation.
- 2 LFO with 6 waveforms.
- 2 Filter (4 modes).
- Osc 1/2 Balance.
- Osc sync.
- Velocity response knob.
- OSC & Filter route.
- 7x14 Matrix panel.
- 3 Effects: Chorus, Reverb & Drive.

Ableton Live 7 is now available absolutely free for 14 days. This is a great opportunity to test drive the new Ableton instruments or discover the new features and functions in Ableton Live 7.

The trial version includes :

- Ableton Live 7
- Sampler, Operator, Electric, Analog, Tension
- Extensive built-in step-by-step tutorials
- Localized software menus, tutorials, and PDF reference manuals

Try out all the features, including save and export, for 14 days by following the link below.

Note that each session requires connecting to the Ableton server to activate saving and exporting.

Tascam has announced that they are ceasing development of Gigastudio products, which includes the GVI engine. An official statement from the company states, "TEAC America, Inc. will cease further development of Gigastudio and Gigastudio related products as of July 21, 2008. Product sales and technical support will continue through the end of the year."

This comes as sour news not only for GigaStudio users (especially those who have recently purchased GigaStudio 4), but also to software developers who have licensed GigaStudio programs for their own products.

It sounds like Tascam is getting out of the software business completely. If you check their web site, the product category for software is completely empty, and everything Giga-related is now in the legacy software category.

In response, a petition to pass on the torch and make GigaStudio code open source has been started at OpenGigaStudio.com. To sign the petition you just have to leave a comment.

Tone2 has just released Warmverb Multi-FX, a new modular multi effect plug-in with routable modules and 35 types of effects.

Do you want to flange a feedbacked reverb tail and pass it through a vocoder ? Warmverb is a multi effect unit which gives you the flexibility to create unique custom effects in high-end sound quality.

Features :

- High-end quality reverb algorithms.
- 150 professional factory sounds.
- 35 different effect modules (reverbs, delays, vocoder. phaser, flanger, pitch shifter, chorus, etc...)
- Modular design.
- Feedback module.
- Real stereo architecture.
- Smart sleep: Low CPU mode.
- 8x oversampling.
- Anti-aliasing.
- 64 bit processing.
- 22-192 kHz sample rate supported.

Warmverb Multi-FX is available now for Windows in VST format at a price of $79.