PC and Music News

MOTU has introduced the 896mk3, a cross-platform FireWire audio interface with on-board effects and mixing.

Features include eight XLR/TRS "combo" style analog inputs with high-quality preamps, true hi-Z guitar inputs, a total of 28 inputs and 32 outputs, 192 kHz analog operation, signal overload protection, a 32-bit floating point DSP for digital mixing and effects processing, two banks of configurable optical I/O and much more.

Effects include :

- Classic Reverb with five different room types, three frequency shelves with adjustable crossover points, shelf filtering and reverb lengths up to 60-seconds
- compression/limiting with two forms of compression : a standard compressor with conventional threshold/ratio/attack/release/gain controls and the Leveler , an emulation of the legendary LA-2A optical compressor
- EQ with 7-band parametric EQ modeled after British analog console EQ's, featuring 4 filter styles (gain/Q profiles), LP and HP filters with slopes that range from 6 to 36 dB

The 896mk3 will ship this summer for a price of $1,295.

PeSonus has finally announced the avaibility of its FireStudio Lightpipe, a 32 input, 32 output, 24-bit/96k lightpipe to FireWire computer recording system for professional-quality digital audio recording.

Compatible with both Windows and Macintosh computer systems, the FireStudio Lightpipe allows you to convert up to 32 channels of ADAT or SMUX optical lightpipe input/output via FireWire providing a multi-channel computer interface for digital mixers, AD/DA converters or ADAT recorders.

Features :

- 24-bit/96K FireWire (IEEE 1394) interface
- Word Clock I/O
- MIDI I/O
- JetPLL Jitter Elimination Technology
- Balanced TRS Stereo main outputs with volume control
- Headphone amplifier with volume control
- Dual SMUX for 16 channels at 96k over ADAT
- Fast-acting LED input metering
- 34 x 4 mixer matrix
- Mac OSX, Windows XP and Vista32 compatible
- Works with Cubase, Logic, Nuendo, Sonar, Digital Performer and many others.

The FireStudio Lightpipe is available now at a list price of $699/€669.

Ohm Force has released updates for its entire plug-in range and announced the launch of a Video Tutorial Contest.

Updates details :

- Several minor bugs fixed (Mac/Windows).
- MIDI out disabled by default, fixed (Mac/Windows).
- Huge performance boost on all Mac versions (Mac/Windows).
- Some installation problems fixed (Mac).
- Unreadable presets problem, fixed (all RTAS versions for Mac).
- Bug in browser, fixed (Symptohm:Melohman - Mac/Windows).
- Mouse wheel scroll in browser added (Symptohm:Melohman - Windows).
- Bug on funky skin, fixed (Symptohm:Melohman - Mac).
- Problem recovering default presets locations when loading/saving (Ohmicide:Melohman - Mac/Windows).
- Some parameter names have changed to reflect its GUI labels (Ohmicide:Melohman - Mac/Windows).
- ...

This month Sweetwater's Giveaway is dedicated to Pro Tools : they are giving away a powerful Pro Tools setup to one lucky winner!

The package starts with the 003 Rack Factory which comes with industry-standard Pro Tools LE software, heaps of free plug-ins, and the massive Pro Tools Ignition Pack. The package also includes the following plug-ins : Transfuser, Eleven LE, Strike, Structure, Hybrid, Velvet, and Xpand.

To participate, you just have to answer a bunch of questions at the following address :

Intua announces BeatMaker which introduces a new generation of mobile instruments and music creation software. Inspired by hardware beatboxes, loop samplers and software sequencers, it combines them to turn your iPod Touch / iPhone into a unique, inspirational software instrument.

For more information, please follow the link below :

Seelake has just released the AudioStation, a Windows-based user-definable digital audio workstation (Hardware).

It features a mixer that embeds a VST/VSTi host with multiple slots per channel, independent MIDI routing engine per channel, independent Audio monitoring per channel, MIDI/WAV/MP3 player/recorder plus metronomic click. It can be controlled with the provided remote (and integral part of the device), and by any external MIDI controller. Plus it can control every parameter of VST and MIDI parameters of external MIDI devices. It also features a secondary partition with a dedicated OS, separated from the audio one, so it can be used as standard PC with no risk for the audio system.

Features :

- 20 channels with I/O Audio and MIDI.
- Microphone class A preamps with phantom ...