PC and Music News

PreSonus has just released a demo version of its long-awaited new music creation and production application for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista : Studio One.

This version will allow you to try Studio One Pro for a period of 30 days, after which the software will require purchase and activation to continue running. You will not be able to save documents or export audio in the Demo version. Otherwise, you will be able to explore all of the features Studio One Pro has to offer.

Please note that Studio One is still unavailable for purchase. You can make a request for the Demo version at :

Allen & Heath is proud to be shipping the new Xone:22, a 2-channel analog DJ mixer offering high quality audio and a professional feature set at a price of $399. The smallest and most affordable Xone mixer to date, the Xone:22 is equipped with Allen & Heath's characteristic sound and build quality, plus professional-grade features that would normally be found in the booth of a top-rated club.

At the heart of the feature set is a "lite" version of the analog Voltage Control Filter (VCF) system offering low-pass and high-pass filters, frequency sweep and 'mild to wild' resonance control. There is also a soft-switched effects loop to bring in external effects, which are routed back in through the filter system.

The new mixer has two stereo channels with dual phono/line inputs, and th ...

"Ethnic Horns" by Soundprovocation is a sampler instrument, made from sampled full set of ancient wooden Lithuanian horns. The main goal was to recreate natural sound and subtleties of these instruments.

The idea was successfully realized by recording 225 different samples total.
Each note of two recorded octaves has 9 variations of around five-second sample. Every time you press a single note, you will hear a different variation. This gives natural feel of the instrument.

"Ethnic Horns" is dedicated to movie, theatre soundtrack producers and composers with special needs to add something unordinary and extra natural to their creations.

"Ethnic Horns" is available for samplers EXS24 and Kontakt at an introductory price of €9.99 instead of €14.99. This offer is valid until the end of September.

The new Minimal Electro Soundset for Waldorf Largo from german sounddesigner Holger Steinbrink is now available in the Waldorf Webshop.

The soundset contains 128 single programs, created especially for the needs of electronic music producers. It was designed to provide crying leads, pulsating arpeggios and fat bass sounds for todays music production. The download package contains the soundset as FXB bank as well as all single sounds in FXB and AU preset format. VST3 presets for Steinberg Cubase 4 and 5 are also included plus a documentation sheet.

The Minimal Electro Soundset is priced at €30.

QuikQuak has updated its "crowd simulator" plug-in Crowd Chamber to version 2.0.
New features :

• New algorithm.
• The complex feedback system has now been replaced by simple global parameters.
• Global Spread dial stretches out each voice over time, used to create large crowds, or weird individual effects.
• Overall spectral shift control, for creating large global pitch effects.
• Huge reduction in CPU usage for large crowd simulations.
• Reduced initial delay for large crowds.
• Increased basic population value.
• Extra presets demonstrating new capabilities.
• Simplified GUI and clearer labeling.
• PDF manual added.

Available now for both Mac (AU/VST) and PC (VST) at a price of £15.

Novation is now proudly shipping the new SL Mk II range of Controller Keyboards featuring Automap 3 technology.

The SL Mk II features over 70 controls including touch-sensitive faders and ringlet rotaries, backlit switches, and pads all tightly linked to the DAW/Plugin/Instruments via Novation's exclusive Automap 3 Pro software. The SL Mk II lineup includes the 61, 49, and 25-key versions as well as a control surface only ZeRO SL Mk II with touch sensitive 60mm faders optimized for controlling DAW mixers in addition to plugins and software instruments.