PC and Music News

NuGen Audio has just updated its audio analysis tool Visualizer to version 1.9.

This update introduces a new feature in views supporting chromatic scaling. In these views, the frequency axis now displays frequency as a note name and number. The tone generator (right-click tone function in Set-up options) also snaps to note values at the appropriate dB level, when chromatic options are chosen.

This new feature can be used to simplify and accelerate tonal detection (including individual notes within existing audio), harmonic & overtone inspection and tuning compatibility analysis.

MUTEC from Germany, manufacturer of professional digital audio and video equipment, now ships the new MC-4, a digital multichannel audio format and sampling rate converter.

Features :

• ADAT , AES/EBU and S/P-DIF interfaces working in one box
• Format and sampling rate conversions from 32.0-192.0kHz
• 16 channel SRC engine for bidirectional conversions
• AES11, Grade 1, internal reference clock (0.5ppm)
• Built-in international power supply

Applications :

• Interconnection of consumer and professional digital audio devices
• ADAT , AES3 and S/P-DIF format and sampling rate conversions
• Bidirectional conversions with different sampling rates
• Clock recovery and signal regeneration
• Usable within small studio set-ups up to broadcast installations

The MUTEC MC-4 is available at all MUTEC dealers and distributors worldwide from now on.

Antares has announced the availability of Harmony Engine Evo, the next generation of its tool for vocal harmony creation.

Building on the power and ease of use of the original Harmony Engine, Harmony Engine Evo incorporates Antares' Evo Voice Processing Technology for faster, more accurate pitch detection, smoother, artifact-free pitch shifting, and seamless, natural-sounding throat modeling. And with the addition of 5 channels of Antares' unique CHOIR Vocal Multiplier, Harmony Engine Evo allows the creation of huge vocal ensembles from a single vocal line.

With four independent harmony voices, a variety of powerful harmony generating modes, humanization features for natural sounding performances, and a flexible real-time preset system for harmony and vocal type, Harmony Engine Evo provides easy-to-use tools to quickly produce virtually any vocal arrangement one can imagine.

Harmony Engine Evo is available for RTAS (Mac OS X and PC), VST (Mac OS X and PC) and Audio Units (Mac OS X) at a U.S. MSRP of $249.00.

Featured by the Urbanic Series, the Finest R&B by Ueberschall is an all new massive release which includes 16 Construction Kits providing 2.7 GB of smooth high quality R&B Music. Including tempos between 61—84 BPM, you'll find primarily slow and calm Kits with applicable accents, which are perfect for creating love tunes, ballads or even melancholic/moody tracks.

All Construction Kits are filled with extraordinary samples, beatz, guitars, Rhodes, pianos, basslines, synths, pads, fx sounds and a whole bunch of Drum and Percussion sounds. Every sample on The Finest R&B is labeled with BPM information and root key (key signatures).

Furthermore, the kit contains up to 4 sub-kits and a drum single sound folder, material is organized as follows :

• Main Kit — Includes the main them ...

Steinberg is pleased to announce that its much-anticipated major update to The Grand is now shipping to resellers worldwide.

The Grand 3 offers the sound of three legendary concert grands, as well as leading electric and upright pianos, all recorded in outstanding quality with two microphone positions in up to 20 velocity layers. Additional features include onboard equalization tools, a full tuning editor, a range of technologies to enhance computer resource efficiency as well as a stand-alone mode.

The Grand 3 supports VST3, VST2, AU and ReWire and runs on Mac OS X, Windows XP and both Windows Vista 32- and 64-bit versions. The Grand 3 costs €349.00/£291.00. Video and audio examples are available at :

Hal Leonard Books has published a new book called "In The Studio With Michael Jackson".

No one was closer to Michael Jackson at the height of his creative powers than Bruce Swedien, the five-time Grammy winner who, with Jackson and producer Quincy Jones, formed the trio responsible for the sound of Jackson's records.

Friend, co-creator, and colleague, Bruce Swedien was already a seasoned recording engineer — plucked from a job at legendary Universal Audio in Chicago — when he began working with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones on the soundtrack to The Wiz, and he was the master technician who gave the records their sound as the trio progressed to Jackson's greatest triumphs, Off the Wall, the iconic, history-making Thriller, and beyond,

Part technical guide, part anecdotal narrati ...