PC and Music News

Propellerhead today released new versions of their award-winning music making platform: Reason 6.5 and Reason Essentials 1.5.

New in these versions is the introduction of Rack Extensions—a groundbreaking new technology from Propellerhead that opens up the rack to third parties, enabling developers to create their own instruments and effects for Reason and allowing users to expand their collection of instruments and effects with the Reason devices they want.
Reason EUR €405 / USD $449
Reason Essentials EUR €120 / USD $129

Apple iOS 6, New MacBook Pro and OSX Mountain Lion Announced... And what about musicians? See the new MacBook Pro 13" and 15"!

iOS 6:
iOS 6 gives you more features to make the things you do every day even better. It's coming this fall, and it's free and easy to upgrade wirelessly on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

New MacBook (the best for mobile studios):
The 15-inch MacBook Pro features the new 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processors with 6MB of shared L3 cache and Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.6GHz. And you can configure it to be even faster. Choose the 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 8MB of cache and Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.7GHz. And go for the new 512GB third-generation SATA solid-state drive, which is up to 4x faster than a traditional hard drive. To increase storage, upgrade to a 1TB hard drive.

The 13-inch model also speeds things up with either the 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 or the 2.9GHz Intel Core i7 — the fastest mobile dual-core processor available. With Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.6GHz, these processors bring more power to everything you do.

A MacBook Pro Retina is also avalaible with a Retina display with 5.1 million pixels and 2880-by-1800 resolution. An all-flash architecture. Quad-core Intel Core i7 processors. In a design that's just 0.71 inch thin and 4.46 pounds. But where is the FW 800 bus?

OSX Mountain Lion (= iOs in the future?):
OS X Mountain Lion brings a lot of great things from iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to the Mac. You can send iMessages. Get your Mac in on Game Center. Receive notifications. And more. And with iCloud, now your Mac works even better with your iOS devices.
New MacPro will come around 2013, not before!

Updated Voxengo Beeper v2.5, Voxengo Latency Delay
v2.2, Voxengo MSED v2.4, Voxengo Sound Delay v1.4 freeware audio plug-ins are now available for download.

These plug-ins are available in AudioUnit and VST plug-in formats (including native 64-bit support), for Mac OS X (v10.5 and later), and Windows computers.

The presets are perfectly suited for the full on Progressive House sound but also fit in perfectly with Electro House, Complextro, Progressive Trance and Trance. Each Sylenth preset has been crafted from the ground up and is suited for all peak time, full on music productions.

The progressive house leads are soaring, pads are euphoric melting, sequences are tight and beautiful, fx are right to the point and basses are deep, pushy and warm as hell. This really is a preset pack that suits producers who don't shy away from making their synth sounds blast!

Hal Leonard Books, the musician‚s source of books on the music business, audio technology, instrument history, and more, has published Mixing & Mastering ($39.99) by Bill Gibson.

This updated second edition is Book 6 of The Hal Leonard Recording Method. It is designed to help the reader complete the recording process by crafting powerful and compelling musical works ready for release.

Alloy Essential Mixing Tools – price drop
The world of DAWs doesn't need another channel strip but what it does need is a better way of working with the essential tools you require for all of your tracks and busses. That's why iZotope designed Alloy. 99£ (regular price: 169£).

Ozone 5 Advanced Upgrade – save £70!
Towards the end of last year, iZotope updated their critically acclaimed mastering plug-in Ozone to version 5 with a fresh new interface and refined DSP. What's more, for the first time, the innovative developers also released an Advanced version with extended features for audio professionals.