PC and Music News

The SoftStep foot controller is the alternative to bulky and limited footswitches used by musicians today. The latest innovation from Keith McMillen Instruments (KMI) weighs in at just over a pound, fits into many laptop cases, and boasts ten keys, each with 5 degrees of freedom.

MOTU has released BPM 1.05 and Electric keys 1.0.2.

If you own either one (or both), you can download the free updaters (for Mac or Windows). These maintenance updates introduce many enhancements, including 64-bit native operation under Windows 7 and Vista.

BPM 1.0.5 also introduces several exciting new features, such as a new arpeggiator, beat slice editing and performance optimizations.

For complete details about each update, refer to the download description and update Read Me documentation.

Camel Audio has updated their sample manipulation synthesizer Alchemy to v1.12 and released a new set of samples and presets for the Factory library as part of the Group Buy bonuses.

This update includes many new features and bug fixes including improved Cameleon preset import, playback position indicators for all editors, the performance octave switch remains active when changing presets for easy key switching between remix snapshots, equal power cross-fading between sources, increased zoom levels for some editors, improved skinning and numerous other improvements. This version of Alchemy no longer requires the main Alchemy key file as the users registration details are now encrypted and embedded directly in to the Alchemy binary file for improved security and protection.

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Brainworx has announced that version 2.0 of bx_control is now available for Windows and Mac OS X in VST, AU, RTAS and TDM plug-in formats.

bx_control V2 contains an all new and improved M/S matrix, stereo enhancer with mono maker, and it is a great control listening tool. Chain any other stereo plug-in into the Brainworx M/S matrix, or use bx_control V2 to check your mixes and speakers.

New features include:

• Individual panning for M & S (pan vocals and guitars/keys in final mixes).
• New dynamic range metering within the LED section.
• Solo in place for all solo modes.

bx_control V2 costs €99 (Native) / €149 (TDM incl. VENUE), plus VAT if applicable. A 25% discount is available in February. The upgrades for existing V1 users are €49 (Native or TDM). The 25% discount is valid for all upgrades.

Notion Music has released Notion SLE, a special version of their Notion3 scoring software that is customized for Vienna Symphonic Library's all-in-one orchestral collections, the Vienna Special Edition and the Special Edition PLUS.

Notion SLE features presets created for Vienna Instruments, Vienna Ensemble and Vienna Ensemble PRO that automatically handle all articulation changes in the background, allowing for very realistic playback directly out of the score.

Notion SLE is available now for download at a price of $89.

Applied Acoustics Systems releases the String Studio VS-1 v1.1.2 Update for Mac OS X and Windows. This is a maintenance update containing the following changes:

• Authorization now works with non-admin user accounts
• Fixed browser focus crash on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
• Fixed drag-and-drop in Logic 9 but now have a separate edit window
• Fixed MIDI Links behavior on On/Off buttons
• Fixed Termination module instability
• Fixed Recorder crash on Windows
• Fixed automation from plug-in window in Logic 8
• Fixed audio cuts when the plug-in window was displayed
• Fixed MIDI Link crash on "Default" channel
• Fixed Cubase 5 crash on Windows
• Now works with Cubase 5 64-bit VST Bridge
• Now works with Sonar 64-bit BitB ...