PC and Music News

Focusrite launches the online 'Liquid Mix Challenge'. This challenge provides ten different excerpts; each features a dry sample, followed by two processed samples, A and B. One of these is processed through the original vintage or classic hardware, the other through a Liquid Mix emulation of the same unit. The question is, 'which is which?'

For each excerpt, the user must decide which sample has been processed through the Liquid Mix, as well as decide which sample they liked the most. Your score is displayed at the end of the short test, alongside an aggregate of the world's scores to date.

Fancy yourself as a bit of an audiophile? Think you can you hear the difference? Then take the online 'Liquid Mix Challenge' now and have a chance to win a new Liquid 4PRE.

Today Jazzmutant announces Dual Mode capability for their multi-touch controllers Lemur and Dexter.

Jazzmutant's hands-on, multi-touch controllers have revolutionized the way we interface with our computers, putting stylish, futuristic and – most importantly – ultimate functional control into creative environments everywhere.

But which controller is right for you? The Lemur, perhaps, that can be set up exactly to suit your needs, allowing for intuitive multi-touch control of instrument and effect parameters, mixer channels or anything else you need critical hands-on control of? Or perhaps Dexter is for you, hard-wir ...

Addictive Drums is updated to v1.1, thus allowing use of multiple outputs in Logic8, offering selectable backdrops, fixing minor bugs and above all adding support for ADpaks.
Users have been waiting for some sound extensions, and here is the first : Retro. It features three classic Ludwig kits from the 60s and 70s, with cymbals from Paiste and Sabian. It also includes cowbells, tambourines and hand claps.
1300 MIDI loops and 70 presets will "get you groovin' in Motown, banging your head to booming heavy Rock, and tunin' out to psychedelic Rock'n'Roll" as claimed by the editor.

Update already available, Retro will be from mid-december.

Spectrasonics has released Stylus RMX Xpanded, which includes Stylus RMX with all five S.A.G.E. Xpanders: Backbeat, Retro Funk, Metamorphosis, Burning Grooves and Liquid Grooves.
This new package is priced at $399US/349Euro and offers a saving of almost $400US off the combined price. The Xpanders libraries will add 5.5 GB of grooves and sounds to the current Stylus RMX's 7.4 GB remix-oriented core library.

Fully compatible with PPC and Intel Macs, and Windows PC (including Vista).

The PMD620 is Marantz Professional's newest and smallest handheld portable recorder. It offers direct-to-MP3 recording in three quality levels, as well as fully uncompressed, CD-quality 44.1/48 kHz .wav format in 16 or 24-bit resolution. Sound quality is enhanced by the inclusion of two condenser microphones as well as line and external mic inputs, and an external mic output. The new PMD620 also utilizes the SD flash memory card for data storage (up to 2-TB or 2048 gigabytes), a first for the PMD Series of recorders.

Arturia has announced that version 2.0 of its Analog Factory software is now available worldwide.

New Features :

- Includes 3500 sounds instead of 2000
- Now includes presets from Jupiter-8V
- Improved effects management
- Vst 2.4 \ Cubase 4 ready

Main Bug Fixes :

- Preset switching has been improved to avoid any problems whilst browsing presets and playing simultaneously
- Improved loading time
- Hanging notes have been eradicated when used within a sequencer
- The preset database has been updated to avoid presets with same name and/or sound
- Fixed a bug in the minimoog engine: on mac intel, some preset parameters could go out of range and cause a bad sound
- The GUI (Graphical User Interface) has been improved
- Preferences are now saved automatically after each change to avoid any loss of midi configuration or snapshots

Analog Factory v2.0 is available now at a retail price of $249 / €199. Note that this update is free for all registered owners.

M-Audio has announced the availability of Pro Tools M-Powered 7.4 software for Mac OS X and Windows. This version offers numerous new music features and workflow enhancements including a powerful, multifaceted new music composition and production tool called Elastic Time which allows users to easily change the tempo and timing of loops, music, dialog and other sound files in real time without cutting up audio tracks.

Pro Tools M-Powered 7.4 software is now available for Windows XP-, Windows Vista- and Mac OS X (Tiger)-based Pro Tools M-Powered systems. Expanded Windows Vista and OS X (Leopard) support will be announced later. The standard upgrade cost is $75; the cost of upgrading from Pro Tools M-Powered 7.3 is $49.

Note that Customers who have purchased a new Pro Tools M-Powered system or upgrade on or after October 1, 2007 will be eligible for a free software upgrade.

Sugar Bytes has just released WOW, a filter-box with 10 Filtertypes, including Vowel Mode, Overdrive and a modulation system. WOW offers a good collection of filter types : High, Band and Lowpass (each 12 or 24dB), Comb Filter, Band Reject, Band and LF Crusher.
The Vowel mode seems to come from their Unique synthesizer (which is worth a try) : 2 Vowels (U, UE, O, OE, A, A:, AE, E, I.) can be mixed via Cutoff, with all available filter types.
The modulators, Envelope Follower, LFO and Step Sequencer, can be mixed in the parameters right-click menus and can modulate each other.

WOW is available as VST and AU Plugin, for Mac and PC and cost 99 dollars (79 euros).
Note that there is a demo version.

Today Sims Audio unveils the INFRASONIC Quartet PCI recording interface, a 4X4 audio interface which uses an extremely stable PCI connection to connect with your computer and is capable of samples rates up to 192 kHz ADC with full 24-bit recording.

The Quartet features a high quality microphone preamp with +48v phantom power and a low pass filter. Additional input/output options include: line level I/O, digital I/O, MIDI I/O, and word clock I/O. Also included in the package is SIMS Audio's mixer software which allows the user to connect the Quartet to every part of your computer's I/O settings.

The Quartet has a MSRP of $199 USD and will be available in the 1st quarter of 2008.

Flying Haggis: a rare and much sought-after Scottish creature. Those lucky enough to spot this shy little animal are filled with a sense of pride and happiness. Not a coincidence if this legend became the inspiration for db audioware's latest and finest virtual guitar amp, which is said to produce similar feelings in those who play it.

The Flying Haggis will be landing imminently. From 3rd December, registered owners of any previous db audioware guitar amps (including Quantum FX) can download Flying Haggis beta version by logging into their personal support page. More info coming soon...

Sims Audio has announced the INFRA-SONIC Blow5d digital monitors. The BLOW5D studio monitors feature on-board D/A converters that are constructed with Burr Brown op amps. They support up to a 24-bit/192kHz sample format and have a dynamic range of 123dB and can accept a wide variety of inputs including: SPDIF, RCA, AES/EBU, XLR, TRS, or TS. They also feature room compensation controls and a bass response switch. The room compensation controls (accessible via a switch on the back of the unit) allow the user to alter the frequency response of the monitors to better suit any room. The bass reduction switch allows bass frequencies to be reduced to better accommodate the use of a subwoofer or a bass heavy mixing environment.

The BLOW5D monitors have an MSRP of $550 USD and will be available 1st quarter of 2008.

EXPANSE is a collection of multi-sampled 24bit waveforms that can be played as instruments, used as drones, or to create tonal beds. Some touching on the traditional, others exploring the surreal or etherial, but never too close to the mundane, and never too far away that they loose the listeners connection.

All patches are programmed with modulation wheel support. 1 gigabyte of 24bit multisamples make up the 128 Instrument Patches and 79 Multi Patches. All instrument patches are broken down into the categories: Fast Attack - Pads - String Hybrids - Vocal - Weird. Multi Patches are sorted as either Fast Attack, or Slow Attack.

Now available for the introductory price of $79 until January 1st 2008. Note that additional patches utilizing Kontakt 3 features and fixes (modulation sync) will be available, free of charge to registed users, 1st quarter 2008.