PC and Music News

The M-Audio Venom 49-key synthesizer combines the character of classic analog synths with modern digital processing to deliver an aggressive, infectious new sound. Whet your appetite with the included presets, then sink your teeth into creating original sounds—from atmospheric and subtle, to angry and downright nasty.

Some features
- 512 single-sound patches and 256 layered patches
- 49-key, full-size, synth-action keyboard
- 3 osc per voice
- Resonant multimode filter features 12dB/octave (2-pole) and 24dB/octave (4-pole)
- Vyzex software editor included
- USB MIDI and Audio interface

With eight velocity-sensitive drum pads, kick and hi-hat inputs and over 500 multi-sampled Dynamic Articulation sounds, the PerformancePad Pro is an all-in-one drum station. It even has inputs for kick and hi-hat triggers.

The PerformancePad Pro contains the sequencing engine from Alesis' best-selling drum machines. This three-part sequencer enables you to program drum, percussion, and accompaniment parts for creating complete tracks or playing along with loops.
The PerformancePad Pro also contains powerful Alesis studio effects including Reverb, EQ and Compression for customizing sounds to perfection.

BOSS celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Loop Station with a dynamic new lineup of RC-series loopers. Introducing the RC-3 and RC-30 … portable, powerful pedals with super-sized internal memory that captures up to three hours of stereo looping! The RC-3 is a one-track stereo Looper housed in a compact pedal; the RC-30 is the two-track version in twin-pedal format. No matter what instrument you play or noises you make, the new RC series is ready to loop it. Plug in your instrument of choice, even a microphone; the RC-30 has an XLR input, complete with phantom power. Both pedals are equipped with USB 2.0 ports that let you save your loops externally, as well as import and export WAV files.

Spectrasonics' flagship virtual synth has received a major new update that includes a wealth of new features and additions, the most prominent being the inclusion of a fantastic new interactive interface called "The Orb" which delivers real-time synthesis manipulation capabilities.

The update also includes many features that have been requested by users since Omnisphere's release back in 2009 including the new 5-Column Browser view and support for polyphonic aftertouch. The new version also integrates a significant update to the factory patch library, taking advantage of all the new sound design capabilities and bringing the total number of included sounds to a whopping 8,000!. Avalaible around February 15th

Cubase 6 and Cubase Artist 6 offer enhanced workflow features within the Project window. The newly introduced Track Edit Groups option** refines the work with multitrack recordings, allowing related events on multiple tracks to be grouped and edited simultaneously, while the new Lane Track offers convenient multitake comping for selecting and consolidating audio parts to form the perfect take. The redesigned transient and automatic tempo detection, phase-accurate audio quantization and drum replacement functions incorporated in Cubase 6 help to smooth out any glitches in live-recorded drum tracks.

The Key Editor has further been enhanced with an Inspector panel and the groundbreaking Note Expression feature for creating and editing multiple controller values on a single-note level. Also included is the new Dynamics Lane, which allows real-time listening of dynamic changes while automatically in sync with dynamic notations from the Score Editor

Karma-Lab announces the development and upcoming release of "KARMA Motif Software" for the PC/Mac ($199 direct from Karma-Lab).

This brand-new entry in their line of software applications brings the award-winning and patented KARMA algorithmic music technology, previously only available for Korg workstations, to the Yamaha Motif XS and the new Yamaha Motif XF platforms.
Some features in Karma V3:
- 8-track design (6 KARMA Modules, 2 Keyboard Layers) per Performance
- Per-track Volume and Mute stored in each of the 32 Scenes - individually adjust the mix of all parts in each scene, and which parts are playing
- Velocity Response Curves - individually tailor the velocity response for the left hand keyboard, the right hand keyboard, the input to KARMA from the keyboard, and the Chord Triggers (pads), without editing the Motif's programs or songs.
- Fill/Stop Feature - use one or more modules as a melodic or drum fill, with the ability to stop and start other modules automatically
- Advanced Stutter Feature - rapidly "stutter" (retrigger) the entire groove at different rhythmic resolutions, providing an effect similar to how it would sound if you sampled the entire KARMA groove and then replicated small slices of the beginning of the sample in your DAW. From machine-gun like stutters to slow triplet hits, it adds a completely new dimension to a KARMA Performance.
- Master Transpose - play in one key, generate output in another, switchable in real-time.
- Chord Triggers (Pads) - Individual Vel. Sensitivity and Transpose...