PC and Music News

Following the release of Sonar 7, Cakewalk has announced the launch of new academic versions of Sonar 7 Producer and Sonar 7 Studio Editions. This latest version is a music and audio production tool for students in both secondary and further/higher education. Included is Sonar Music Projects, a set of materials aimed at secondary school Music classes up to GCSE. The 10 projects introduce some of SONAR's easy-to-use features and help students develop a range of musical and technical skills. Each project contains teacher notes and student project sheets in PDF format, along with Sonar files. A Sonar Skills Guide provides easy reference to the program features used in the projects. The Sonar Music Projects CD-ROM also includes a "starter" set of audio clips to inspire ideas.

Cakewalk's UK distributor, Edirol Europe, has also made Sonar Music Projects available separately on a free CD-Sonar that includes the current trial version of Sonar. This enables teachers to explore some program basics in the context of actual lesson material, before deciding to purchase. To request a CD, contact education[at]edirol.co.uk.

Apple updates today QuickTime to 7.3 and iTunes to 7.5. The last requires the 7.3 version of QuickTime. iTunes 7.5 brings support for iPhone activation anywhere it's available and for a musical game on the iPod nano, classic, and 5G, plus bug fixes and performance enhancements.

We strongly suggest not to update in a pro environment or if you're using Pro Tools or Logic with sound to image jobs on the go. At least until the road is known to be safe, that is.

"About QuickTime 7.3 for Leopard
QuickTime 7.3 addresses critical security issues and delivers:
- Support for iTunes 7.5
- Updated support for creating iPhone-compatible web content
- Updated JavaScript support in the QuickTime Web Plug-in
- Numerous bug fixes

This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users."

If you purchase Linplug Octopus Dual-Matrix synthesizer until the end of November from Linplug webshop, you will receive the Summa Signature soundset (250 patches) for free. it's a 49 euros/ $59 give-away. You can hear the soundset from linpug website here

Octopus is VST and AU, for Mac and windows and costs 129 Euros/$149