PC and Music News

Band-in-a-Box 2011 for Macintosh is here (and recently for Windows), with over 50 new features and enhancements! We′ve made big improvements to the sounds of the RealTracks, so that they sound more natural over a much wider range of tempos with the élastique Pro V2 time stretching engine by zplane.development; not only do they sound better, the audio fidelity is improved, and RealTracks are now smaller – you can even shrink the size of your existing RealTracks, and more…

PG also added a huge number of RealTracks with 101 great new Jazz, Pop, and Country Styles in RealTracks Sets 102-121.

FabFilter now introduces FabFilter Pro-G: a top-quality gate/expander plug-in with flexible side chain routing options and a streamlined, well-designed user interface. Equipped with linear-phase oversampling, mid/side processing and precise metering, Pro-G is an indispensable addition to the FabFilter tool kit.

FabFilter Pro-G offers five meticulously fine-tuned algorithms, including classic analog models and upward expansion, as well as specific designs for vocal and guitar processing. In combination with the adjustable threshold, ratio, range settings and attack, release, hold and look-ahead times, Pro-G will process your drum and vocal tracks smoothly and with character. At the same time, Pro-G is also the perfect tool to subtly and precisely restore lost dynamics while mastering.

Geist is a fast, intuitive software drum machine designed to create evolved beats and grooves, freeing you from the limits of pre-packaged loops and over-complicated DAWs. Geist fuses creative sample-sculpting tools with fast pattern step-sequencing and arrangement. Browse through sounds with lightning speed, slice and assign loops to pads with a single click; sample, resample and build beats in a slick unified environment.

Some new features:

- 64-bit support for MacOSX and Windows. When running a 64-bit host on a 64-bit operating system, Geist now appears as a native plugin so it is no longer necessary to use bit-bridges in such systems.
- Guru import improved – envelopes and tuning settings should be a lot closer now.
- Multiple spitters in a project should work correctly now.
- Dragging patterns out as midi should now give accurate results in so far as the graphs to CC's behaviour.
- Reverse and looping/gated modes now functioning correctly – with or without timestretch.

MOTU, a leading developer of video and audio I/O products, announced today that it is working closely with Apple and Intel to develop future products that take full advantage of Thunderbolt , the new, very high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity standard developed by Intel® and deployed by Apple® to worldwide markets on their latest generation MacBook Pro laptop computers.

"MOTU has often been the first to adopt new connectivity standards, such as FireWire, in our video and audio I/O products," said Jim Cooper, MOTU Director of Marketing. "We're excited about Thunderbolt because it clearly represents the future of professional I/O. MOTU's strong partnership with Apple and Intel lays the groundwork for exciting new possibilities for Thunderbolt-equipped MOTU products in the near future."

Rotten Ghetto Attack is a patch library full razorblade sharp leads and sequencer sounds, deep distorted basses and urban percussions. It is the swissknife for producers of Urban and Industrial tracks.

Rotten Ghetto Attack contains 75 patches for Native Instruments Massive. All patches are provided with attributes which can easily be found by the soundbrowser of Massive and also make excessive use of the six macro knobs where different parameters of Massive can easily be influenced.

Patchbanks & Sound Co. presents a sensational selection of 100 acoustic guitar loops for producers in search of sexy r&b/pop melodies. The sounds contain superb quality recordings of live steel and nylon guitars that were recorded in various ways—mic'd, pick-up and amplified to provide a better selection of beautiful tones. In addition, many of the loops have been layered with harmonies and over-dubs for more musical performance and sound quality. It's simply the sweetest collection we've ever released!

- Quantity: 100 Loops
- File Type: Wav
- Range: 60-92 Bpm
- Music Styles: R&B, Pop, Soul, Hip Hop