PC and Music News

Pianoteq STAGE (formerly known as Pianoteq PLAY) is based on the award winning physical model, offered in Pianoteq 4 Standard and PRO, praised by many musicians for its close intimacy and responsiveness.

Pianoteq STAGE includes the same instruments, sounds and playability. It is the choice of budget-minded musicians who do not need to modify the sound. The new stunning Grand Piano D4 is included as well as several new features such as convolution reverb and a set of new effects.

The main goal while designing DC8C was to get a very clean compressor action without unwanted and often almost unevitable artefacts/distortion. This way you can achieve almost invisible compression for your most demanding mastering sessions, when you want to avoid coloration.
If you aim for colour you can choose between two saturation models.
From opto style, peak compression, external sidechaining, RMS compression, Feedback, Feedforward compression (and everything inbetween) to negative ratios, zero latency brickwall limiting, from snappy transient treatment to smooth transient rounding - everything is possible.

New in V 1.2:

- VST3 support on OSX and WIN 32 & 64bit
- Zero latency switch removed
- Fixed: MIX knob in easy mode is working now as expected.
- External sidechaining in EASY mode.

Alva, a partner of RME, Announces Nanoface.

The analog gains for the four inputs, all output levels and special features, like phantom power and hardware monitoring will be controlled with the big silver rotary encoder directly on the Nanoface.

All mixing, channel routing and digital levels will be controlled by your individual audio software.


What can be controlled with the Encoder:

- Output 1/2: gain
- Output 3/4 (Phones): gain
- Route output 1/2 to Phones output
- Output 1/2 on Phones output: gain
- Input 1/2: gain (mic/instr. preamps)
- Input 3/4: gain
- 48V for inputs 1 and/or 2
- Switch input 2 to Hi-Z input
- Hardware monitoring for inputs 1/2
- Reset to default values

Voxengo CurveEQ update version 3.1 is now available
for download. Voxengo CurveEQ, available in AudioUnit and VST plug-in formats (including native 64-bit support), for Mac OS X (v10.5 and later), and Windows computers, is a spline equalizer plugin for professional music and audio production applications.

Version 3.1 update includes the following changes:

- Spectrum matching is now working correctly in all groups.
- The "Load CSV" and "Save CSV" text file functions added.

A music box (also musical box) is a 19th/20th century automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinderor disc so as to pluck the tuned teeth (or lamellae) of a steel comb.

They sampled this music box in stereo with a matched pair of mics AKG 414.

This instrument is free.

For Kontakt 3.5 or superior. Full version required.

Native Instruments announces give-away of a trip to Sónar festival to meet Mostly Robot.

Native Instruments is offering a chance to win a trip for two people to witness the debut performance of Mostly Robot on June 14th at Sónar Barcelona. The lottery is open to everyone, and the winners will enjoy a four day break in Barcelona - featuring flights, accommodation, two full festival passes and a tapas meal with the band.

Mostly Robot is a band conceived by Native Instruments, featuring five exceptional musicians who each represent a different area of the company's musical expertise. The artists - Jamie Lidell, Tim Exile, Jeremy Ellis, Mr Jimmy and DJ Shiftee - will perform in a truly 'live' format, with each musician playing independently of the other, synced only by the human element. The music will be accompanied by an inventive visual concept from Berlin's design collective Pfadfinderei.