PC and Music News

Tascam has tested all of their audio interfaces for use with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Apple's latest operating system. Tascam certified the US-122L, US-144, US-1641, FW-1082, and FW-1884 as being fully functional in the OS. The newly-announced US-100, a stereo USB 2.0 interface priced under $100, is also compatible with OSX 10.6.

All Tascam interfaces were tested with the 32-bit mode of Mac OS X 10.6. 64-bit support will be announced at a later date. Windows 7 compatibility testing is now underway.

Propellerhead has just announced the release of Record, their new recording software which combines "effortless recording and a stunning software mixer console with a limitless rack of audio processing gear that builds itself or can be infinitely customized". Over 50,000 users tested Record during its beta test period, which began in May.

Built for independent minded musicians, Record is supposed to have the feel of a million dollar recording studio with the streamlined simplicity of a tape deck. For guitar players, the built-in virtual POD® from Line 6 brings a wide range of top quality guitar amps and cabinets. Record's software mixer's sound is modeled after the renowned SSL® 9000K hardware with flexible routing, full dynamics, EQ, advanced effects handling and complete automation. W ...

Mackie announces the launch of its Onyx-i Series FireWire Recording Mixers, delivering premium analog features, tremendous flexibility, and built-in 24-bit/96kHz FireWire I/O. Onyx-i FireWire mixers can be used with all major DAWs, and is qualified by Mackie for use with Pro Tools® M-Powered 8 (*), offering those users a host of new hardware options.

The new Onyx-i Series mixers feature extremely deep FireWire integration and a host of proven, high-quality analog features like Onyx mic preamps and Perkins EQ. Users can choose to implement the Perkins EQ into the recording path at the push of a button, and can also choose to record auxes, groups (1640i) and the master L/R signal. The flagship Onyx 1640i incorporates a massively flexible 16x16 FireWire interface, allowing the user to return up to 16 DAW channels right back into the channel strips for a true tape-style mixdown.

MakeMusic has announced the simultaneous release of Finale Songwriter 2010 and Finale PrintMusic 2010. Both music notation software packages include new features and provide compatibility with current operating systems and files created with Finale 2010, MakeMusic's flagship software package.

With a list price of $49.95, SongWriter lets songwriters, teachers, band and choir directors, church musicians, students and other musicians create publisher-quality sheet music with instrumentations of up to 8 staves. SongWriter includes tools that inspire creativity including Drum Groove and Band-in-a-Box Auto-Harmonizing. With SongWriter they can hear their music played back using hundreds of built-in sounds, share their music with others using the free downloadable Finale Reader and create .MP ...

Cytomic has announced the release of 'The Glue', a high quality analog modeled plug-in based on a cross between an E and G series SSL 4000 buss compressor with some additional features.

Features :

• 4 in / 2 out stereo compressor (second stereo input for external side-chain processing)
• Accurate analog model of famous British mix bus compressor of the 80's
• Ultra-fast attack time of up to 0.01 mS
• Range knob to naturally control the maximum compression applied
• Peak Clip to optionally hard limit transients
• DSP coded using C++ and assembler, Interface coded using the Juce framework (C++)
• VST, AU and RTAS plug-in formats for Mac OS X, only VST fot Windows but an RTAS version will follow soon.

'The Glue' costs 99$.

BIAS has just announced the release of SoundSoap Pro 2, a major upgrade to its professional audio noise reduction and restoration software plug-in for Mac and Windows operating systems. SoundSoap Pro combines four restoration tools - Broadband noise reduction ; Click and Crackle removal ; Hum removal ; and a Noise Gate.

SoundSoap Pro's intelligent broadband noise reduction is significantly enhanced in version 2 by new adaptive noise reduction (ANR) algorithms from BIAS. "SoundSoap Pro 2 provides 'super-intelligent' noise reduction", said Jason E. Davies, VP Sales & Marketing for BIAS, Inc. "Traditional approaches to broadband noise reduction require a selection of isolated noise in order to work effectively. In cases where the broadband noise changes over time — the results can suffer ...