PC and Music News

Applied Acoustics Systems releases the String Studio VS-1 v1.1.2 Update for Mac OS X and Windows. This is a maintenance update containing the following changes:

• Authorization now works with non-admin user accounts
• Fixed browser focus crash on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
• Fixed drag-and-drop in Logic 9 but now have a separate edit window
• Fixed MIDI Links behavior on On/Off buttons
• Fixed Termination module instability
• Fixed Recorder crash on Windows
• Fixed automation from plug-in window in Logic 8
• Fixed audio cuts when the plug-in window was displayed
• Fixed MIDI Link crash on "Default" channel
• Fixed Cubase 5 crash on Windows
• Now works with Cubase 5 64-bit VST Bridge
• Now works with Sonar 64-bit BitB ...

Evol Audio unveils the Fulcifer, a distortion synthesizer & sound shaper designed to give you many colors with which to create and shape your palette of sounds.

Softube is shipping the Trident A-Range for native (VST/AU/RTAS) and TDM. Trident A-Range is available today at the Softube web shop and at authorized Softube dealers at an introductory price of $229 (Native) or $329 (TDM/Native), excl. VAT. The introductory offer will last through out February, thereafter the price will be $279 and $449, respectively.

Univers Sons/Ultimate Sound Bank has released a new sound library called Acoustic Toy Museum. Here's what they say about it :

"For the first time, hundreds of musical toys were used to create a magical and unique sound library that will add innocence and freshness into your productions. Deeply multi-sampled in 24 bits / 96 kHz and meticulously recorded in the very best conditions using world-class microphones and Class-A equiment, each instrument sounds authentic and soulful.

Rycote has announced a new product at the 2010 NAMM show in Anaheim, California — the InVision USM, a universal mic suspension for large-diaphragm recording microphones. According to Rycote, this mic mount offers substantially more isolation (up to 12dB) from unwanted vibrations than that afforded by traditional elasticated 'cat's cradle' mic suspensions.

The InVision Universal Studio Mount (or USM) has been designed to provide an alternative to elasticated suspensions, the basic form of which has remained essentially unchanged for several decades. Based around the 'u'-shaped Lyre suspension mount used in Rycote's existing InVision suspension range for smaller-barrelled microphones, the InVision USM will fit any microphone from 18 to 55mm in diameter, including large-diaphragm models and those with flat-sided and tapered barrels.

In addition to the InVision USM, Rycote has also announced the InVision TLM mount, a version of the new mount designed specifically for Neumann TLM-series mics.

In the "Toontrack TV" section of Toontrack's website you can find a very interesting video called "A Couple of Days in the Life of Toontrack"...

Shot in November 2009, this video provides several hints which suggest that Toontrack might be working on a virtual bass instrument, and maybe a virtual piano !

2010 promises to be exciting at Toontrack !!