PC and Music News

Chicago based Cool Bear Studios today announces Cosmic Top 1.3, an update to the toy top that buzzes with sci-fi sounds and glows with limitless, colorful shapes.

Cosmic Top is an audiovisual physics-based simulation of a spinning, wobbling, and sometimes morphing top. The new version brings full graphics support for 4-inch Retina displays, a new variety of color flow tops and glowing textures, and zoom button control for both the iPhone and iPod touch.

SSL announces the groundbreaking A-FADA automation system and the release of a new 'Pro-Station' version of their Duality console.

Duality Pro-Station is a new version of the industry-leading SSL Duality large-format console, which expands the available range of options. Pro-Station offers all of the benefits of SSL's hybrid workflow, combining the sonic advantages of a classic SSL SuperAnalogue mixing console with integrated hands-on hardware control over the DAW environment.

The Lyra family of audio interfaces offers Prism Sound performance at its most affordable ever.

They are based on the Orpheus audio path and clock circuitry, but in a smaller package for those who don't need eight channels of analogue I/O. There are two models Lyra 1 and Lyra 2.

- Class compliant (UAC2) USB interface
- ASIO and WDM drivers for Windows (32 and 64bit)
- Native CORE AUDIO on Mac OS X
- UAC2 operation on Linux (no control panel support)
- Ethernet interface with low-latency AVB capability
- Two Prism Sound premium-quality AD channels.

The Sound of Piano One comes from the Yamaha C7 concert grand, a true workhorse in the professional piano world, appearing on famous concert stages, in international competitions and in prestigious music events throughout the world.

By utilizing the Sound Magic Hybrid Modeling Engine, Piano One offers both the Realistic Sound of Sampling and the Playability of Modeling. Hybrid Modeling provides an instantaneous feeling - no delay - and a truer and richer sound than canbe created with either sampling or modeling alone. What's more, Piano One utilizes only 160MB, which is quite a small footprint, making Piano One usable even on older PCs. There is no waiting time when loading and the CPU usage is so small that it's virtually unnoticeable.

East Coast Hip-Hop Volume 1 packs the history of East-side Hip Hop into its bag of musical swag! Ever since the "Golden Era" of the 1990s, Hip Hop has owed a large part of its fame and fortune to East Coast producers and rhymers.

With New York as its headquarters, East Coast Hip Hop emphasizes a harder, darker, more alert sound, as well as lyrical and rhythmic dexterity.

Sibelius Academy today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Tempo Primer LE 1.1, its revolutionary music app which helps musicians master the instrument.

Where most metronome applications show only a certain tempo independent of what is being played, Tempo Primer LE teaches to understand timing in music. The basic functionality of the app is that of a regular metronome - user can set up the tempo choosing from seven different types of beat patterns and six different metronome sounds. It also includes the most common time signatures.