PC and Music News

Alien Apparatus Company, Inc. announces the release of The Alien Hand Microphone Stand, a microphone stand designed specifically for miking speaker cabinets.

The Alien Hand was designed to overcome the inadequacies of the traditionally used floor-mounted microphone stand. Its design consists of a plastic spring clip with an extended arm to hold a microphone. The spring clip is simply inserted into the gap between an amplifier and speaker cabinet. The flexing of the clip between the amplifier and the cabinet provides friction to hold The Alien Hand in place, but yet it can be easily positioned by lifting up one side of the amplifier. Because of the unique spring clip design, no permanent attachments or modifications need to be done to the music gear.

The Alien Hand Microphone Stand retails for $24.99 and can be purchased though Alien Apparatus Company's online web store and through their reseller network.

Today, IK Multimedia announces an extended range of downloadable products for purchase from the IK online store.

Previously available only for single FX plug-in downloads, IK's downloadable product range has now been extended to include the following instruments, workstation plug-ins and bundled effects :

- Virtual Instruments -

- SampleTank 2.5 XL
- SampleTank 2.5 L
- Miroslav Philharmonik
- Miroslav Philharmonik CE
- Sonik Synth 2
- SampleMoog
- SampleTron

- Effects Bundles -

- Total Effects Bundle
- Total Guitar & Bass Gear Bundle

After purchasing downloadable products from the online store, customers will receive a serial number that, once registered, will enable them to download the purchased software and sounds from their IK user area.
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Earlier this year Celemony introduced the new Direct Note Access technology, followed by a huge echo in the public. Now a film team came to visit Melodyne inventor Peter Neubäcker in his laboratory for a preview to this groundbreaking technology. Their result is a 14-minute interview that gives you a deep insight into the possibilites of Direct Note Access.

Six weeks have passed since the official release of Sequel 2 and Steinberg has finally launched a free trial version... better late than never !

The Sequel 2 Trial Version showcases all the new features introduced with Sequel 2 such as the Controller Learn Mode, Track Freeze, Track Icons, the enhanced Sequel MediaBay, the Virtual Keyboard and much more.

Sequel 2 is available for both Mac OS X and Windows at a retail price of €99. Updates from the previous version are available exclusively from Steinberg's online store for €29.00.

Groovebox Music presents Brainwerks: Pro Tools Operator Tutorials, a collection of Pro Tools video tutorials by Pro Tools super genius Stefan Hedengren.

From the basics, such as I/O Setup and fast track creation, to more advance topics such as making stems and submixes, Elastic Time, and daily clean up, Stefan shows you his personal tricks and techniques in detail, and sometimes wacky way, to becoming a serious Pro Tools operator.

You can view all the video tutorials in the "Pro Tools Operator" collection online for 30 days for $14.99 or download and own the full disc for $49.99. The boxed disc version will ship in 2-3 weeks for $54.99 plus shipping, but you can order it today and get the instant digital download included for free so you can start learning right away.

NUSofting has announced the launch of SMPlugins.com, a new web site created to commercialize Windows-only VST plugins produced using Outsim's SynthMaker.

For this occasion, SMPlugins has announced Open Guitar, a new acoustic guitar emulation. Open Guitar is designed for the accurate emulation of the beautiful sound of arpeggiated guitar chords in the first position of the fretboard (hence the "open" strings sound). Open Guitar can just do strums and arpeggios of an acoustic guitar, but it is customizable with the Soundbox with EQ controls. Notes range is from D1 to C4.
Open Guitar sound synthesis is created using single note samples and DSP filters. So it's not a loop player, it's a true instrument which can play any sequence you want. MIDI files are included as examples of accurate guitar sequencing. The "hammer on" and "pull off" techniques are possible.

The release date has not yet been announced but it will be priced at $35.