PC and Music News

Toontrack unveils a new virtual instrument called Beatstation.

Not much information available yet but as you will see on the official website, Beatstation plays percussion pads, lead instruments and melodic basses. It uses a flexible and skinnable open playing surface and it handles custom samples, MIDI grooves and .rex files.

Stillwell Audio has announced the release of Bombardier, a buss compressor plug-in. Here's what they say about it :

"Bombardier is our most ambitious project to date – a premium quality buss compressor, tailored for smooth and musical processing of complex audio such as drum groups, vocal stems and your full stereo mix, lending a controllable sense of weight, fluidity and cohesion.

Bombardier gives a nod to the non-linear and frequency-variant subtleties of a wide range of Grade-A hardware buss compressors, and should you wish these can be pushed almost into the realms of a character compressor.

Due to its RMS compression engine (and unlike The Rocket, which uses peak compression), Bombardier is ideally suited to final mixdown and mastering usage, as well as for those who like to set up buss dynamics first and then mix 'into' the buss compressor.

SoundToys has just released Decapitator and PanMan.

Decapitator ($349 TDM/$179 Native) is an analog saturation modeling plug-in. It models the saturation or distortion created when driving professional analog studio equipment. SoundToys analyzed vintage and modern classics from Neve, API, Ampex, EMI and Thermionic Culture, and more to create accurate models of high-end studio gear. Decapitator creates that highly sought after analog sound from subtle harmonic changes to extreme driven distortion.

PanMan ($349 TDM/$179 Native) is an advanced auto-panner plug-in with groove control. It takes the process of moving audio back and forth in the stereo field and gives it that special touch that is uniquely SoundToys. It features a complete range of panning modes to recreate classic analog ...

The latest addition to the Milab product family is the DC-96C, a side-addressed large membrane microphone designed mainly for studio work, but also for many live applications. The DC-96C is the latest version of the classic DC-96 series — originally released in 1967 — and has been updated with the latest technology. It shares most of its components, including the capsule, with the DC-196, but like previous DC-96 versions, it is cardioid only and has a single layer mesh grid.

The DC-96C is suitable for a wide range of applications, including studio vocals, acoustic guitar and piano, hi-hats and overheads, guitar amps and more.

Features:

• Hand built in Sweden
• Cardioid
• Large rectangular condenser capsule
• 12 dB(A) self noise
• Transformerless
&bull ...

MuTools announces that a pre-release version of Mu.Lab 3 is now available for download for Windows and Mac OS X.

Mu.Lab is an alternative, state of the art software application for OSX and Windows, transforming your computer into a rich virtual music studio.

New features :

• Function shortcuts: Map a key or MIDI event to almost any function.
• Step Recorder.
• Integrated virtual MIDI keyboard.
• Compressor Module.
• Sub Tracks.
• MIDI Clock Out.
• Relative audio file paths - easy to move sessions to another system.
• "Open Recent".
• Line tool for velocity beams.
• Improved sequence loop system.
• New comfortable editor zooming & scrolling system.
• New mouse tool system.

Supreme Styles by Ueberschall is a library of urban music focusing on guitars for a range of styles such as HipHop, R&B, Club and Dancehall, as well as other surrounding genres.

Each of the 30 Construction Kits delivers a composed track, (including a main part, variation, intro/outro), which consist besides its instrument and drum and percussion loops, of several guitar loops. With a range of 58 bpm to 127 bpm, you'll find unique tracks, which have their own tension, feeling and style.

The 4GB package has more than 1600 loops and samples. Since the main focus of this library was set on guitars, there is a range of acoustic and amped guitars, such as rock guitars with and without distortion, flamenco guitars, classical nylon guitars, also guitars with wah-wah effect and more.

All ...