PC and Music News

Musicrow is proud to announce the release of Vintage Strings MkIII, a virtual string machine that replicates the sound of analog string ensemble keyboards from the 70's, like the arp solina and the crumar multiman.

Vintage Strings MkIII can produce a wide range of rich warm string pads, and other beautiful atmospheric sounds. It make no use samples, so any of its presets can be tweaked, and new ones can be easily created.

Main Features :

- Super realistic emulation of vintage string machines.
- Two separate string sections with beautiful string sound.
- Chorus section that accurately emulates the chorus effect on vintage string machines.
- Advanced reverb section with a smooth studio reverb and authentic spring reverb.
- Analog and regular envelope modes.

Vintage Strings MkIII is now available as a VST instrument for Windows and costs €59. Existing users of Vintage Strings MkII can upgrade to the new MkIII version for €19. A trial version and demo sounds are available on Musicrow site.

Do you remenber Reactable, the tangible modular synthesizer from Barcelona ?

Well it seems that this incredible instrument from Universitat Pompeu Fabra is about to be released as a commercial product !! After 2 years of development, it is now in the hands of a dedicated company, Reactable Systems, with the same people working on it.

Watch this space, it's worth keeping an eye on...

Discover Reactable on 440tv !!

Blue Cat Audio has released its audio analysis plugins for the Mac platform in Audio Unit format. The DirectX and VST for PC and VST for Mac versions of the six plugins have also been updated for this occasion, including several fixes and improvements.

These audio analysis plugins offering original interaction capabilities are available as a single bundle (Blue Cat's Analysis Pack) or separately. The bundle consists in a versatile audio level meter, spectrum and stereo field analyzers as well as a multiple tracks oscilloscope. While the "Multi" series propose simultaneous multiple tracks analysis with multiple instances linking support, the "Pro" series let you extract parameters from the incoming audio signal and record them as automation curves or send them as MIDI CC messages. Typical applications are the creation of unique side chaining effects or external signal based hardware control.

Plug-ins List :

- Blue Cat's Digital Peak Meter Pro (peak and RMS meter).
- Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst Pro (spectrum analyzer)
- Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst Multi (multiple instances spectrum analyzer)
- Blue Cat's StereoScope Pro (stereo field analyzer)
- Blue Cat's StereoScope Multi (multiple instances stereo field analyzer)

To celebrate the support of this new format, the company proposes a 15% price reduction on the Blue Cat's Analysis Pack bundle, and the upgrade is free for existing customers. Demo versions and available for download, and the site offers many tutorials to get started with these plugins.


Pricing :
Blue Cat's Analysis Pack: 196.94 EUR (instead of 229 EUR) or $257.14 (instead of $299)

Hinking about setting up a project studio but don't know where to start ? Want to learn valuable techniques for recording and producing music? Overdub by M-Audio takes you through the process of building your studio—from choosing the right gear to fine-tuning your current system. Available online or through your local retailer, Overdub covers the all the basics plus advanced tips and tricks.

Overdub Volume 2 : All about Audio Interfaces covers everything you've always wanted to know about interfaces, including :

- The difference between USB and FireWire
- What makes a good preamp?
- Analog and digital I/O
- Sample rate and bit depth explained
- Solving the latency problem

Toontrack Music announces the first SDX expansion pack for Superior Drummer 2.0.

The very first SDX expansion pack dedicated to Superior Drummer 2.0, Vol.2 of the NY Studio Legacy Series, contains unique sample recordings from two legendary New York Studios - Hit Factory NY and Allaire Studios.

"The New York Studio Legacy Series Vol.2" altogether feature kits recorded with seven kick drums, thirteen snares and a wide variety of cymbals sampled in extreme detail to work Superior Drummer® 2.0.

The recordings at Hit Factory NY were the starting point for Toontrack in developing
Superior Drummer 2.0 and the decision to record samples at Allaire was a result of
wanting to capture the best studio rooms in New York.

Sadly, for the music and recording industry both studios are now closed. Thus the sub title "The Lost New York Studios". Toontrack is privileged to have been given the opportunity to record these great rooms in collaboration with the world class recording team of engineer and producer Pat Thrall (Glenn Hughes, Black Crowes, Beyoncé etc), producer Neil Dorfsman (Kiss, Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straits and Sting) and drummer Nir Z (Genesis, Joss Stone and Chris Cornell).

"The New York Studio Legacy Series Vol.2 SDX" will be available world wide at the end of March 2009 with an MSRP of $179 / €139. Note that audio examples are already available at :

Steinberg is pleased to announce a new update for its HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST instrument that provides support for 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, as well as new 'light' programs for customers using 32-bit versions of Windows. HALion Symphonic Orchestra is the latest Steinberg product to be made available in a 64-bit version, coming after the release of Cubase 5 for 64-bit Vista. Cubase 5 and HALion Symphonic Orchestra fully support VST Expressions, a new technology that offers dramatically enhanced handling of large sample libraries.

The update also includes a new soundbank featuring 'light' versions of each instrument. Specially engineered to use less memory than the full versions, it allows customers running 32-bit systems to employ even more articulations and instruments.
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