PC and Music News

Toontrack wanted to capture the essence of the Americana genre; the raw, untamed and no frills sound that defined the music that rose out of rebelling the mainstream country and rock establishment in the 1990s. Where better to do this than in its very stronghold, Austin, TX, and through the guidance of seasoned engineer Mark Hallman (Carole King, Dan Fogelberg)?

Recorded in great detail at renowned The Congress House Studio, Toontrack is proud to present one of the most genre defining products in the history of the company: Americana EZX.

Black, fast and toxic - this is the best description for the rackmounted monophonic true analog MAM MB33 synthesizer which was released in the 90's. Black Mamba is the replica of this little synth combined with the powerful Instrument Racks of Ableton Live.

Orignially released as TB303 clone by MAM (Music and More) from Germany the MB33 got due its cheap and affordable price very fast popular to recreate the typical 303 bass lines. The MB33 had a true analog single VCO with two basic waveforms - square and saw. As the MB33 got the possibility to morph those waveforms it was able to create more tones than the TB303. Black Mamba has been chromatically sampled in 24bit/96khz with high end Apogee A/D converters.

Voxengo PHA-979 version 2.3 update is now
available for download. Voxengo PHA-979 is a track phase and time alignment audio plug-in, available in AudioUnit and VST plug-in formats (including native 64-bit support), for Mac OS X (v10.5 and later), and Windows computers.

Note that on Mac, PHA-979 now supports Mac OS X v10.5 and higher only, running on Intel processors. Mac PowerPC support is not available.

Kong Audio have just officially released ChineeGuZheng Classic as freeware for all, in the same vein of the highly praised Mini DiZi and Mini ErHu, as the third freeware instrument released by Kong Audio.

ChineeGuZheng Classic is superseded by ChineeGuZheng II, hence the former is turned into freeware, and it is now equipped with QIN engine, giving it more possibilities than before.

Blue Microphones now offers a second, bonus capsule with the purchase of the Bottle Rocket Stage Two tube microphone, in addition to the included B8 capsule.

Designed with a compact form factor, the Bottle Rocket Stage Two offers Blue's vacuum tube microphone with an interchangeable bayonet-mount capsule system. Effective November 7 the new bundle with an updated SSP of €2,249, includes the Bottle Rocket Stage Two and a bonus capsule in addition to the B8 capsule.

Released in November 2011, UAD Software v6.1 brings new creative tools to the UAD Powered Plug-Ins platform.

- Specifically, UAD v6.1 features the new MXR® Flanger/Doubler and Little Labs® Voice of God (VOG) plug-ins, as well as enhancements to UAD / Pro Tools workflow and the Ampex® ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder plug-in.