PC and Music News

Taking a leap into 7 string mythology, Vigier, pioneers of carbon fibre technology, present the Excalibur Special 7.

Nothing but the finest French woods are used in the Alder body/Maple top construction and to add to the sonic sorcery, it is complete with the killswitch found on the Excalibur Bfoot and Kaos guitars.

MOTU, Inc. introduced the HDX-SDI with Thunderbolt technology, a professional video interface that turns a Thunderbolt technology enabled Mac or PC into a powerful HD/SD video production workstation equipped with all the video and audio I/O needed for professional capture and monitoring.

The HDX-SDI is housed in a rugged, one rack-space cast metal enclosure with removable brackets for convenient desktop operation.
The HDX-SDI with Thunderbolt technology will ship Spring, 2012.

KOMA is an analog sequenced bass synthesizer inspired by classic synths from the 1980s with a synthesis section with 256 sound presets and 256 patterns and a step sequencer section.

The synthesis section offers the possibility to mix 4 different waveforms (saw, square, sub, noise) for infinite modulations. The SUB DESYNC mode enables to desynchronize and to detune the SUB and the main oscillator for complex sounds. The filter is a 24 dB resonant low-pass filter. The LFO has 8 waveforms (triangle, ramp up, ramp down, square, random, digital noise, staircase up, staircase down) and can modulate the VCO, VCF or PWM.

The latest version features enhancements and bug fixes for all Serato ITCH users with 2.1 offering improved stability
and increased performance.
Key Features of ITCH 2.1

- Simple Sync mode added for two deck controllers. For quick and easy matching of the tempo and beats of two tracks playing simultaneously.
- SP-6 Hardware control. Increased SP-6 Sample Player power, with the addition of hardware controls for each ITCH controller to trigger samples with controller cue point buttons.

Available in 64- and 32-bit versions, Le Masque: Delay is a Mac (OS X 10.4 and later; Audio Unit, VST, RTAS — Pro Tools 7.0 and later) and PC (Windows XP, Vista, and 7; VST, RTAS — Pro Tools 7.0 and later).

Some features:
- True stereo signal path (with independent right and left delay).
- MIDI Sync and Stereo Link (delay modes).
- Sync grid zone (with up to eight custom masks, each with independent length and level).
- One multimode filter (zero-delay, self-oscillating, feedback design with drive).
- Two independent envelopes (loop-able ADSR and AR with three trigger modes).
- One synchronisable multi-waveform LFO (with three reset options).
- Snap-to-grid function (to quantise mask locators on musical values).
- Swap masked/unmasked function (in realtime).
- Four clock modes (DAW, FIX,TAP temp, IN).
- Realtime temp analysis function (for live performance).

Backbeat Books, publisher of books for performers and fans who are passionate about music, has published The Home Recording Handbook ($29.99) by Dave Hunter, and is now shipping to retailers and customers.

Gone are the days when home recording was limited to four tracks of tape hiss on a cassette porta-studio. Now, limitless digital multitrack recording and a vast array of outboard effects and processors are available to anyone with a computer. Add a few other essentials such as a microphone, some headphones and monitors, and anyone can have a home studio capable of making professional recordings worthy of airplay and release. What one might not have is the know-how to harness all that vast potential, which is where The Home Recording Handbook comes in.