PC and Music News

Korg puts the thrill of the analog synthesizer into everyone's hands, with the monotron, the monotron DUO, and the monotron DELAY

Go Anywhere Analog: That was the theme behind the remarkable battery-powered and palm-sized Korg analog synthesizer dubbed the monotron.

The powerful and fun-to-play monotron analog synthesizer has been joined by two siblings. The Dual Oscillator monotron DUO offers X-MOD capabilities for generating even more extreme sounds. The monotron DELAY features a Space Delay that can produce intense, analog-like echo effects. Best of all, they're a blast to play. Each is equipped with a ribbon keyboard and a live, ready-to-be tweaked front panel offering five knobs and a single switch. This simple operation and ease of use invites hours of enjoyment and musical exploration.

The sound designers at Puremagnetik had a rare opportunity to sample this magic beast and have now released the first in a series of B-System Micropaks, this one focusing primarily on the synthesizer's percussion generation capabilities.

Customized for Ableton Live, Kontakt & Logic

B-System Percussives for Ableton Live includes ten full 2 octave kits (over 650 individual samples from The Buchla 200e, modular analog synthesizer) programmed with advanced Macro integration and effects mapping. Utilizing multi-velocity zones for the ultimate in expression and playability each kit is sonically charged for instant electronic gratification! The Ableton Live version also includes 40 Live Clips of preprogrammed material, each one expertly tailored with effects racks and advanced Macro controls.

Created for both musical use and sound design, Fractured: Prepared Acoustic Guitar is an innovative new collection of instruments featuring creative and esoteric samples and manipulations of various acoustic guitars. Following the tradition begun by Violence, Vir2's virtual dismembering of a solo violin, Fractured features 2.3GB of compressed samples and more than one hundred new instruments with numerous variations and effects built into each. Each patch features the organic goodness of the acoustic guitar, but stretches its timbre in new directions to create previously unheard musical effects. Drum kits were made from such varied techniques as hitting the guitar with a mallet, scraping strings with fingernails, cardboard, or copper, and for one patch, rice was poured over the guitar. Lon ...

Hand-held field recorders have been hot commodities for musicians, recording engineers, and sound designers for years. Today, the mercury rises in this dynamic market with the debut of the game-changing R-26.

This innovative recorder is portable yet loaded with first-class, professional features, the likes of which the industry has not seen before. There are two types of stereo microphones built into the R-26, plus a pair of XLR/TRS combo inputs for external mics, and an input for a stereo plug-in powered mic.

Arturia announces the release Spark 1.4, a major update to their Spark Creative Drum Machine.

Version 1.4 brings 50 new kits / 448 instruments built by 5 contemporary electronic and hip hop producers. Ranging from deep electro house to the finest urban sounds, the expanded 1.4 library also integrates new faithful recreations of vintage drum machines.

To complete this arsenal, Spark embeds 5 new powerful FX's such as the Destroyer, the Space Pan and the earth shaking Sub Generator.

Until December 31th, get 40% off on the full Xils-lab Synthesizers : use CHRISTMAS2011 at the end of the checkout

XILS 3 : 89€40 instead of 149€, save 59€60 !
PolyKB II : 89€40 instead of 149€, save 59€60 !
Synthix : 101€40 instead of 169€, save 67€60 !

Synthax, the new Synthix soundsets is released. Until January 15th,get the two banks for only €29 (save €11).