PC and Music News

Kong Audio rolls out ChineeGuanZi - the Pipe of Tristesse - to the world.

Characterized by the triste tone, GuanZi (literally means Pipe) is a one-of-a-kind double-reed instrument from China. Originated in Central Asia, like many other existing Chinese instruments, GuanZi was embraced dearly and became an integral part of Chinese instruments ever since the great Tang Dynasty (7th -10th centuries).

GuanZi was once one of the standard instruments of court music. It was also used in military and festival events, as well as monumental, burial ceremonies. It is, sometimes, considered to be too distinctive to be a team instrument though, hence resulted its slightly being overlooked today.

The combination of pitch-envelopes with keyswitching in the patch programming makes ChineeGuanZi a much lively and expressive instrument to play with. ChineeGuanZi (in G) contains legato, tremolo, and various other playing techniques. The note range is from D4 to D6.

ChineeGuanZi is now available for $60.

Future Audio Workshop, a.k.a. FAW, has just updated its great semi-modular software synthesizer Circle to version 1.0.7. This new version including some bug fixes and minor feature updates.

Expert Sleepers releases Oomingmak, a pitch- and envelope-tracking (re)synthesis plug-in effect. Or, to put it another way, if you feed a sound source (e.g. a guitar) into Oomingmak it will come out sounding like you're playing an analogue monosynth. Or maybe something else entirely.

Oomingmak tracks the pitch and level of the incoming audio and uses them to :

- Synthesize an entirely original sound, using classic analogue-style waveforms and subtractive synthesis.
- Apply pitch modulation to the incoming audio, while syncing to the original waveform (the classic 'oscillator sync' effect, except that the 'oscillator' here is your audio).

The oscillator can also be synced to the incoming audio, and the tracked envelope can be used to modulate the pitch, filter cut-off and oscillator pulse-width. LFOs are also provided for further modulation possibilities. Two ring modulators are also provided, allowing two different combinations of the above sounds to be modulated against each other. As with all pitch-tracking devices, Oomingmak tends to work best on monophonic sound sources. It was designed particularly with the guitar in mind, in which case it tends to work well on solo lines rather than chords. However, sending chords, or even non-pitched sounds (e.g. drums) through it can also have very interesting results.

Oomingmak is available now for Mac OS X (AU/VST) and Windows (VST) and is priced at $29. Demo versions are available. To celebrate the release, Expert Sleepers is offering $10 off any other Expert Sleepers product when purchased at the same time as Oomingmak.

Empress Effects has released its new Empress Tremolo plug-in, a digital re-creation of the Empress Tremolo Pedal. Empress Effects has included all the features from the hardware pedal along with some bonus features, including stereo operation.

New extra features only in the plug-in :

- Accurate Sync: The Plugin is able to sync to your Digital Audio Workstation. This means you can play through the whole song and don't have to worry about your Tremolo going out of time. It will sync up at the DAW tempo, 1/2x, 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, and 6x the DAW tempo.
- Phase: This feature goes hand in hand with the sync feature. You're able to adjust the phase of the Tremolo's waveform, this way you can have always pulsing on the beat, or on the off-beat, or slightly before the beat, slightly after the beat... you get the idea.
- Stereo Operation: There are four stereo modes:
- Linked: in this setting the Left and Right channels pulse together.
- Ping-Pong: in this setting the Left and Right channels are opposite - i.e. When the left channel is loud the right channel is quiet. This allows the Tremolo to work extremely well as an auto-panner.
- Left follows Right: In this setting the waveform shape of the left channel is slightly delayed relative to the right waveform.
- Right follows Left: In this setting the waveform shape of the right channel is slightly delayed relative to the left waveform.
- The Stereo modes allow the plug-in to act like an autopanner on steroids.
- Automation


Empress Tremolo is available for Windows and Mac OS X in VST and AU plug-in formats at a price of 79$.

Clavia is about to introduce the new Nord C2 Combo Organ at the upcoming MusikMesse. They will also present two new accessories : an aluminum stand for the C2 and a bass pedal keyboard – the Pedal Key 27.

Nord C2 Features :

- Pipe Organ
- New keyboard action
- Improved output routing capabilities
- Monitor input
- Percussion controls moved to the "classic position"
- Vibrato and chorus controls moved to the "classic position"
- Enhanced click
- Drawbar Preview

Pricing and availability TBA. Audio demos are available at :

M-Audio unveils two new sets of Active Studio Monitors : the Studiophile CX-5 and CX-8.

The CX-5 and CX-8 have 5-inch and 8-inch Kevlar low-frequency driver, respectively; and 1.25-inch silk-domed high-frequency driver. Both speakers feature a number of "room tuning" controls on the back for combating the ill-effects of placement within less-than-ideal acoustic situation. LF Cutoff, MF Boost and HF Trim switches provide attenuation along specific bands, and an Acoustic Space control. They offer RCA inputs and Neutrick combo connectors.

The Studiophile CX-5 and CX-8 are priced at $399.95 and $499.95 respectively.