PC and Music News

Ableton is launching a special deal for the summer of 2009. Every customer who buys Ableton Live 8 before August 31st will get Sampler, Ableton's advanced sampling instrument, absolutely free.

Sampler, worth €99/$129, combines traditional sampling features with advanced sound design functions. Although perfectly well suited to handling multi-gigabyte instrument libraries, it's Sampler's sound design capabilities that make the instrument really unique.

For more details, please visit the link below :

NuGen Audio has updated the SEQ1 and SEQ2 Linear Phase mixing and mastering equalizers to version 1.2.5.

Changes :

• Several minor GUI fixes to both SEQ1 and SEQ2.
• A Plug-in Delay Compensation (PDC) issue that some users were experiencing with certain host/machine combinations has been fixed.

On top of that, the demo period has been reset for those wishing to re-trial the software.

Steinberg is pleased to announce that the new maintenance update for the Nuendo 4 advanced audio and post production system will be available for all registered Nuendo 4 users from July 31 as a free download from the Steinberg website. Version 4.3 mainly focuses on improving the overall stability of the program by addressing important issues like file import, surround and general session handling.

"This new update is also future proof by offering support for the eagerly awaited Nuendo SyncStation synchronizer by Steinberg," comments product marketing manager Timo Wildenhain. Furthermore, Nuendo 4.3 follows the cross-product policy of Steinberg by being able to open projects of the Cubase 5 advanced music production system.

The 'Electronic expansion' is a big preset and feature expansion pack for Gladiator 2, the hybrid virtual synthesizer by Tone2. Designed by the professional sound designers Markus Feil, Bryan 'Xenos' Lee and Bastiaan van Noord, 'Electronic' is a collection of more then 300 sounds and new add-on features.

Expansion highlights :

• 300+ inspiring, unique presets aimed at miscellaneous genres of electronic music. The additional sounds can be accessed directly from the interface.
• Stereo Trancegate: Featuring no less then 22 patterns for rhythmic gate effects
• Reverb Ultra: Reverb Ultra uses a new high-quality reverb algorithm, its soft and diffuse sound make it especially
suitable for larger rooms and sculpting the proper ambience.
• Three new early reflection effects: Early reflection, reverse reflection and gated reflection
• Aliaser: A LoFi retro-effect that works by mirroring the signal's spectrum at the cutoff frequency
• Stereo Enhance: A stereo width effect, equipped with a High-Shelf filter to expand the stereo field while keeping the lower frequencies intact.
• Three additional skins as free bonus content: Black, gold and red skin

Electronic Expansion costs €49 / $69.

Blue Cat Audio has launched education offers for all their audio plugins : it is now possible for students to purchase the plug-ins developed by the company with 25% reduction. A student card is necessary to access the offer.

For more information, please visit the link below :

Audio Ease today announces the release of Cabinet, a plug-in which contains the three features guitarists like best in Speakerphone :

• five guitar amp speaker cabinets
• a top class recording studio live room
• a classic spring reverb

The effects in Cabinet are convolution based and rely upon actual samples made of the speaker cabinets shown, a spring reverb and a top class recording studio live room. Cabinet and the 33 cabinets in its mother plug-in Speakerphone provide the ultimate real-world sounding final stage of your guitar tone: the speaker cabinet within a good studio live space.

Plug-in your favourite pre-amped signal from a real hardware amp, or your favourite pre-amp modeling plug-in and use Cabinet to put the real world into your tracks.

Cabinet is available for Windows and Mac OS X in VST, AU, RTAS and MAS plug-in formats at a price of $59 / €49. Demo versions are available.