PC and Music News

Native Instruments today introduced a new collection of high-end effects, capturing the warm, natural sound of tube-driven hardware. PREMIUM TUBE SERIES is made up of three individual effects:

PASSIVE EQ, VARI COMP and ENHANCED EQ, available either individually or as a high-value bundle. PREMIUM TUBE SERIES makes these effects available for the first time as native plug-ins that run individually within a DAW in VST, AU, RTAS or AAX format. The effects are modeled by Softube, the renowned team behind Native Instruments' VINTAGE COMPRESSORS.

Apple has launched new iPhone 5 during the lastest keynote in San Fransisco.
This smartphone is not Not really revolutionary but some features are interesting.

Audio
- Audio formats supported: AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
- User-configurable maximum volume limit

Video:
- Retina display
- 4-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
- 1136-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi
- 800:1 contrast ratio (typical)
- 500 cd/m2 max brightness (typical)
- 8-megapixel iSight camera
- Panorama
- Video recording, HD (1080p) up to 30 frames per second with audio
- FaceTime HD camera with 1.2MP photos and HD video (720p) up to 30 frames per second
- Autofocus

The Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 is a 2 in / 4 out USB recording interface.

Scarlett 2i4 has four outputs and a separate headphone socket so you can connect it to speakers and send a separate signal to a recording musician.

If you are DJing with a laptop you can send one stereo signal to the mixer and cue up your next track on headphones via the other stereo channel. 2i4 also has MIDI in /out ports which will allow you to connect your MIDI keyboard or digital piano to your music software.

Create youth-inspired soundscapes for any purpose with one of one hundred professionally-designed patch presets, like Lunchbox Lead, Unicorn Tears, Peanut Butter Nap, Mood Ring, and Candy from Strangers. Alternatively, open up the Sound Library's toy box of audio samples and discover over two hundred new sounds to manipulate within Iris, including wooden blocks, laser guns, dollhouses, wind-up cars, squeak-toys and xylophones.

Nurtured from a diverse selection of childhood favorites, Toys is the perfect sound set for those looking to add professional playfulness to their sound design work. Whether scoring for a blockbuster film or just playing around, Toys will keep you occupied for hours of audio mischief.

A lot of modern music stems from gospel. It's a melting pot of root music. It has the melancholy of the blues, the heartache of soul, the subtlety of jazz and the uplifting joy of the boogie - all encapsulated in the power of praise.

That's why a gospel foundation combined with the creative and inspiring tools in EZkeys is a great combination. Mix, match and create - make heartfelt ballads, uptempo boogie, subtle jazz or classic RnB. This pack is literally a scorching hot kettle of inspiration, oozing with ideas for your future hits!

Allen & Heath has introduced a brand new product to its range, the ICE-16, a 16 In/16 Out audio interface allowing performers and audio engineers to easily capture high quality multi-track recordings direct to a USB drive or interface to a computer.

Fitted into a compact 1U rack design, ICE-16 is capable of studio quality interfacing, converting and bi-directional streaming of 16 channels over high-speed USB or FireWire at 24 bit, 96kHz resolution.