PC and Music News

Last year's Toontrack Metal Month went down a storm and it's back again for 2011 sounding more fierce and ferocious than ever before with eight new metal-related products. To kick things off, Toontrack have released a brand new EZX expansion pack 'Metal Machine'.

Metal Machine bears the unmistakable seal of British producer/engineer Andy Sneap who has worked with the likes of Testament, Megadeth, Arch Enemy, Exodus and Devildriver and has had an instrumental role in shaping the sound of metal music as we know it in the new millennium.

the Metal Machine EZX lacks none of the metal traits you'd expect: the thunderous bass-drums, the ferocious in-your-face snares and the toms that will cut through your mixes with a crystal clear tone to die for.
Requires EZdrummer or Superior Drummer
Available now as a download or boxed product
RRP: £54.95 / €65.95

Fostex Releases AR-4i Audio Interface Dock and App for Apple iPhone 4 AR-4i is an audio interface for iPhone4 dock connector. The high quality stereo microphone inputs with AD converter improve the audio quality of iPhone4's video recording, video streaming via Ustream, LiveStream etc. as well as recording of live performance and ENG.

Main Features
- 3 microphone inputs with plug-in power for vertical or horizontal use.
- Input level control and EQ can be done using the dedicated App.
- 2 x cardioid plug-in microphones come as standard.
- Third-party microphones can be used.
- LED Level Meter for input level monitoring,
- Microphone gain control.
- Headphone jack for input monitoring.
- 2 x AAA batteries for more than 10 hours operation.
- External power can be fed via USB. •Ergonomic design for secure holding.
- Screw hole provided for optional camera gears such as tripod, grip etc.

Analog Experience THE LABORATORY 61 is a 61-note MIDI keyboard with velocity and aftertouch-sensitive keys that is designed to easily integrate into any studio and stage environment.

Packaged with the Analog Laboratory software, it also offers straightforward control over 3500 of the world's finest analog sounds, 330 drum loops and 200 scenes. As a matter of fact, the workflow is the same as on a traditional hardware synthesizer, but at better value and with better integration in the studio environment.
Price: 499$

Image-Line Update Groove Machine to V 1.01. Groove Machine has proved to be hugely popular and with all the eager grooving and loooping this has shaken out a few bugs that are squashed with the latest version


Some new features:

- CPU optimizations for low-latency audio.
- Fixed stutter crash that occurred in some cases.
- Fixed stutter freezes that occurred in some cases.
- Sample loading now remembers recent folder and opens from there.
- AIFF format waves now load.

Three of the world's most visited Pro Tools sites, ProToolerBlog.com, The AIR Users Blog and Pro Tools For Media have entered into a strategic partnership to create a new online community 'Pro Tools Expert', that will create the biggest independent Pro Tools community on the web.

The aim of the partnership is to bring together their expertise and influence for the benefit of the Pro Tools Community in both music and post and to offer manufactures and distributors a single point of access to the huge community this will create.

Cycling '74 has released Version 6.0 of its Max media development tools. Enhancements to Max 6 include extensive user interface improvements, higher-quality audio, extended multi-processor support, organization tools for projects, and improved OpenGL animation and rendering tools.

Cycling '74 also released Gen, a high-performance new patching domain that lets you create powerful audio, video, or Jitter matrix objects without leaving the comfort of Max.