Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH today announced that its latest VSTi product, Virtual Bassist, is now shipping worldwide. Based on real performances by studio bass players, Virtual Bassist offers a range of bass phrases, grooves and styles and covers musical styles ranging through rock, pop, reggae, metal and hip hop to name but a few.
TerraTec Producer is poised to unveil PHASE X24 FW, the professional version of PHASE 24 FW. Featuring a range of connection options and sophisticated FireWire technology housed in a stand-alone aluminum chassis, this device is built to convince. Sporting two analog inputs (line, hi-Z or mic in with 48V phantom power), four outputs, digital I/O, MIDI I/O, insert jacks and gain knobs, PHASE X24 FW is the all-round studio interface for discerning users.
The String Studio synthesizer trades the traditional oscillator, filter, and envelopes for real-life string instrument components. At the core of String Studio lies cutting edge string models interacting with picks, bows, hammers, fingers, frets, dampers, and soundboards. Through this direct approach, String Studio delivers stunning guitars, basses, harps, clavinets, bowed instruments, percussion as well as rich and animated tones that blend the warmth, naturalness, and density of real-life with unique and innovative timbres from yet unheard instruments.
Digidesign is pleased to introduce six ICON Integrated Console configurations that enable audio professionals to quickly attain end-to-end control over projects while enjoying the tremendous value of pre-configured packages. ICON Integrated Consoles include essential ICON system components in several different configurations that are optimized for music and post production workflows and designed to fit operators rooms and budgets.
Korg USA and Karma Lab have posted a Flash-based OASYS Virtual GUI, an online demo that allows users to explore a virtual replica of the graphic user interface of the Korg OASYS Open Architecture Synthesis Studio. This full-blown simulator provides an interactive, in-depth tour of the OASYS interface in a way that gives a true feel for the logic, layout and capabilities of OASYS. It was co-developed by Karma developer Stephen Kay and avid OASYS enthusiast Bob VanDamme, in partnership with KORG USA.
FabFilter has released FabFilter Volcano version 1.01 which contains an important bug fix. A serious flaw caused FabFilter Volcano to load its filter sound characteristics ‘Smooth’,
‘Raw’, ‘Hollow’ and ‘Hard’ incorrectly. The 1.01 update fixes this issue, so
the different beautiful filter sound characteristics that make FabFilter
Volcano stand out will now sound as intended.
Ableton is proud to announce the release of Live 5, the team’s biggest development effort since the initial release of Live in 2001. The version 5 feature set extends each aspect of Live-from creation to production to performance-while making the program easier and even more fun to use.
MixDream XP – After introducing the MixDream 2384 analog summing and insert box last year, SPL launches the MixDream XP this year as a straight 16 in 2 summing box. Without inserts and processing stages, price and space requirements are reduced remarkably while the active summing stages are identical to deliver the same outstanding quality like its BIG BROTHER.
The MixDream XP is ideally suited as a pure DAW summing extension or to expand the MixDream with 16 further channels.
Waves Ltd., a leader in audio processing, has announced two hardware accelerators that let users easily run multiples of the companies most CPU-demanding plug-ins. The APA products offer a new paradigm that uses Ethernet connections and switches to enable stacking several APA units together and even sharing them among several DAW workstations. There are two models of APA. The APA32 is a 1U rack-mount unit, while the APA44-M, a half-rack unit that features up to 30% more processing power and nearly silent operation, is ideal for mobile use. A kit enables two APA44-M units to be mounted in a 1U rack space. The APA units are connected to the host computer via a standard Ethernet port. Up to eight units can be used together with an Ethernet switch. The units can also be shared among several DAW workstations via a suitable V-LAN configuration, with each workstation accessing up to eight APA units.
Propellerhead Reason guru James Bernard (USA) demonstrate all the new features of Reason 3 plus a lot of other interesting possibilities and solutions around Reason. Ever thought about using Reason as your main software workstation or as mastering suite? Of course James will show also new Reason 3 features like The Combinator, M-Class Mastering Suite, Line-Mix 6:2, Remote Control and the new Reason browser etc. etc. On top of that you can hear the outstanding sonic-quality of Reason3.
BOSS is proud to announce the BR-1200CD
Studio is now shipping. From guitar pick to compact disc, the BR-1200CD can turn ideas into pro-quality songs with power and ease. Packed with great COSM effects and amp models derived from BOSS’s GT-6-series multi-effects processors, plus a great-sounding bass and drum programmer for instant backing tracks, the BR-1200CD is the friendliest and most comprehensive 12-tracker on the market.
On the 28th May 2005 at the 118th AES Convention, Steinberg announced that it will be issuing a free update for all Nuendo 3 users to Nuendo 3.1 this summer. Accordingly, we’re also very pleased to announce an update for all Cubase SX/SL 3 users free of charge to Cubase SX/SL 3.1, which will be available as a download on there website.
TC Electronic announces the Restoration Suite 2.0 update, which includes the new DeThump plug-in. Restoration Suite for PowerCore offers all of the key-components required to restore vintage or otherwise damaged recordings, from broadband noise reduction to click or scratch removal. With the new 2.0 update, Restoration Suite includes five real-time plug-ins: DeScratch, DeNoise, DeClick, DeCrackle, and now DeThump, which can be used with any VST, AU or RTAS* compatible audio system. Restoration Suite 2.0 will be available in June 2005 at EUR 1495 retail ex. VAT. The upgrade will be free of charge for existing users via the TC web site.
TASCAM is pleased to announce Version 3.10, a free upgrade to the GigaStudio 3 sampling software, adding many features and functions and increasing the functionality of this already-powerful sampling package. GigaStudio version 3.10 adds new iMIDI templates, making it easier to use iMIDI rules for adding life to instrument sounds, and a host of new iMIDI rules and features. The Stack Instrument Selection feature allows you to quickly assign keyswitches to swap sounds on a MIDI channel during a performance effectively shattering previous limits on the number of Dimensions possible. Version 3.10 also adds drag & drop creation of GigaPulse presets, user interface enhancements, new comprehensive keyboard shortcuts and a list of other improvements designed to improve your workflow in GigaStudio. The release will be available for download at www.tascamgiga.com in early June.
Free to all registered Reason 3.0 users, the Electromechanical 2.0 ReFill features a wide selection of brand new combination instruments, all created for Reason’s new Combinator device. Fully compatible with song files created in ElectroMechanical 1.0, the new version is still loaded with multisamples, patches and song files designed to bring the sound of those hard-to-find, easy-to-love vintage keyboards into your Reason rack.