PC and Music News

Native Instruments has announced detailed information on the upcoming version 1.6 of Maschine, the groove production studio for PC and Mac.

Some specs:
- Plugin hosting for VST/AU instruments and effects.
- Increased number of effect slots (3 per Sound, 4 per Group, 4 on Master).
- New "Pad Link" function with 8 pad groups and Master/Slave option.
- Individual swing setting per sound.
* Clip naming.
- Sample renaming.
- Improved scene duplication.
- External audio input/output increased to 16 stereo channels.
- Improved Drag&Drop mapping for samples.
- Improved Drag&Drop from OS for Maschine files and audio files.
- Drag&Drop rearrangement of scenes and patterns.
- Snap-to-grid when moving events via mouse.
- VST plugin operation under Mac OS X 64bit.
- Rex import under Mac OS X 64bit.

ReFX has announced the release of 4 new expansions for Nexus, an instrument plug-in for Windows and Mac: Omicron 3, Future Arps 2, Classic Trance, and the free TV Movie Game

- Omicron 3 – DejaVu completes a hat trick with his third 128-pack of dead solid perfect sounds for trance and beyond. Majestic, cinematic leads, arp sequences, gated pads, and keys that will have your productions bursting with energy.
- Future Arps 2 – A full payload of devastating basslines, arps, sequences, even entire song structures at the touch of a key… Future Arps 2 is heavy artillery for your next club banger.
- Classic Trance – We've captured that unmistakable circa-2000 trance sound with Classic Trance: 128 presets including lush saw leads, detuned arps, and blissed-out pads. Breathtaking.
- TV Movie Game – Take a trip to the opening-theme bliss of old school television, movie, and video game music. It's all here: keys, arps, and basses, just begging to be used on that retro-pop masterpiece you've had bouncing around in your head. Attention: This is a free expansion created just for fun. The melodies may not be used in songs without permission of the copyright holders.

Steinberg has released a new, extensive maintenance update for its mastering solution, WaveLab 7.
The new update will further improve the stability and usability of WaveLab 7 in areas such as plug-ins, file handling, transport, Audio Montage, burning engine, Batch Processing, key commands, time-stretching and the graphical user interface.

This massive maintenance update is available (free of charge) on the Steinberg Web site.

Some bugs fixed and improvments on this new version of the acclaimed software from Cycling 74...

- vst~: fix for byte ordering issues saving and loading preset files.
- nodes: fixed memory leak with pictures.
- nodes: display properly default picture on windows.
- pattrstorage: new @fileusagemode - when 1, JSON/XML storage files will not be included in collectives and standalones. Default = 0 (include storage file).
- Table redraws after being recalled by pattrstorage.
- pattrstorage: no longer prompts for file saving when in parameter mode.
- pattrstorage: @paraminitmode is now properly/consistently visible in the inspector (Auto-Update Initial Value flag).

TAL-Reverb-II is a free stereo plate reverb. TAL-Reverb II is an improved version of the successfully TAL-Reverb I. Improvements in usablity and sound were made. Added a simple subtractive EQ section and a stereo input mode. Each control has its own label that shows the actual value. Version 1.50 goes with smoother sound, reduced hearable modulation.

Some features of Reverb-2:

- Plate reverb sound.
- Room size / decay length control.
- Predelay up to one second.
- 3 band subtractive EQ section.
- Stereo width control.
- Stereo input mode.
- 10 factory presets.

The McDSP v5 release includes Audio Unit (AU) support, the 6030 Ultimate Compressor and Classic Pack Next Generation. The McDSP v5 release will initially support Intel-Mac systems only running Mac OS 10.5.x (Leopard) and 10.6.x (Snow Leopard). A PowerPC version will be available in late December 2010, followed by a Windows version in Q1 of 2011. The PowerPC version will not support the Audio Unit (AU) plug-in format – it will be a Pro Tools only version.

McDSP will continue to offer two main product lines – HD and Native. HD versions support TDM, RTAS, Audiosuite and Audio Unit (AU) plug-in formats. Native versions support RTAS, Audiosuite, and Audio Unit (AU) plug-in formats.

Existing McDSP customers can upgrade each McDSP plug-in (HD or Native) to v5 for $29 per plug-in for a limited time.

McDSP Audio Unit (AU) support is provided across its entire product line, excluding Chrome Tone, Synthesizer One, and Project Studio. These products will continue to be available as Pro Tools only products.