PC and Music News

The Filter, a personalized content filtering system which had been hanging around in beta status since sometime in 2006 has finally opened its doors to everyone and officially launched. The service was pioneered by musician Peter Gabriel and, at its beginning, was not much more than a playlist creation tool for iTunes. Today, The Filter has morphed into a larger recommendation system that finds not just music, but also movies, TV, and internet videos, customized to your personal tastes.

Some systems make recommendations based on your actions and history where others leverage the power of the crowd to find the best content, but The Filter combines both methods and uses data learned in one area to augment the other.

When you first sign up at The Filter, you begin by stepping through a brief profiling wizard in order for the site to establish an initial set of recommendations. As you begin to use the site, you can continue to personalize your recommendations in a way that's very much reminiscent of Amazon's "Recommended for You" section. On Amazon, items are rated with starts but The Filter uses a + / - sliding scale instead. However, like Amazon, you can mark items you own so they won't be recommended to you again while also helping the system get to know you better.

A second part to discovering your personalized tastes comes from "The Filter" which you download. This tool is a plugin application that works with either Windows Media Player, Winamp, and, of course, iTunes. Unlike other music player plugins like iLike, this piece of The Filter's system is not designed for social sharing, but actively collects data from your computer and sends it back to The Filter's servers. Where iLike uses the data it collects to help you discover friends of similar taste, The Filter solely uses that data for the purpose of improving recommendations.

Softube has just announced the release of Metal Amp Room, a new vrtual guitar amps plug-in designed "to bring you the most brutal, evil and aggressive sound that is possible to squeeze out of your DAW".

Focusing on usability and sound quality, this is a plug-in that is proud not to include a gazillion amps, effects racks, patch cords, or a blow-dryer. Just two channels, two cabinets, two mics per cabinet, and a wickedly fast noise gate for palm mute galore.

Features :

- Program-dependent guitar noise gate.
- Two cabs with two mics per cabinet.
- Easy to use balancing stereo mic preamp for balancing the two mics.
- Flexible & continuous click-and-drag mic positioning.
- Fully automatable parameters.
- 3-D rendered photo-realistic user interface.
- Compatible with all effects that work with real amps.

Metal Amp Room is available now for Mac OS X and Windows in VST, AU and RTAS formats at a retail price of $179 (excl. VAT). Note that a fully-functional 10-day demo version is also available for download.

Toontrack has just announced that its long awaited Superior Drummer 2.0, Vol.1 of the "New York Studio Legacy Series", can now be pre ordered from the Toontrack Music webshop or from any of the Toontrack distributor, sub-distributor or dealer sites listed below.

Superior Drummer 2.0 is due to ship at the end of June.

The much-anticipated and much-talked-about Moog Guitar will debut at Summer NAMM in Nashville.

According to Moog Music President Mike Adams, the Moog Guitar opens the guitarist to a whole new musical vocabulary: "It's not a guitar synthesizer; not a MIDI guitar; not an effects processor," Adams said. "The guitarist is intimately connected to The Moog Guitar because it works its magic on the strings themselves."

The Moog Guitar offers three unique modes...Sustain, Mute and Controlled Sustain. In the Sustain mode, it provides infinite, powerful sustain on every string and at every fret position; Mute removes energy from the strings, resulting in a variety of staccato effects; Controlled Sustain allows the musician to play sustained, single-note or even polyphonic lines with strong sustain and effortless clarity. In this mode, the Moog Guitar sustains the notes being played while actively muting the notes not being played.

For the month of June, McDSP offers a great special on the all new FutzBox Native to any and all users for $295. FutzBox is a distortion and noise generator plug-in for creating low fidelity versions of audio signals. The McDSP Native product line supports RTAS and AudioSuite formats, and operates on Pro Tools HD, LE, and M-Powered.

McDSP FutzBox Native special is offered only for the month of June. Please note that FutzBox HD is also available individually for $495 and in the Emerald Pack HD bundle. Apart from the June Special, FutzBox Native can only be purchased within the Emerald Pack Native bundle.

IK Multimedia is proud to announce the release of the StompIO upgrade, a reduced price, hardware-only version of StompIO available to all registered users of AmpliTube 2, AmpliTube 2 Live, Ampeg SVX, AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix or AmpliTube Metal. Thanks to the included AmpliTube X-GEAR in StompIO upgrade, these "Powered by AmpliTube" users will be able to immediately control their software live and in the studio.

Together with the launch of the StompIO upgrade, an enhanced assortment of software has been bundled in the full version of StompIO that now includes all five IK "Powered by AmpliTube" software packages out of the box : AmpliTube 2, Ampeg SVX, AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix, AmpliTube Metal (formerly only for previously registered AmpliTube 2 users) and AmpliTube X-GEAR (for over $1,400/ € 1,000 worth of software included).

The new StompIO upgrade costs €599.99 / $799.99 (exc. taxes). Note that for a limited time only, customers who purchase the StompIO upgrade will also receive a free downloadable version of AmpliTube Metal (worth $269.99/ € 199.99), the newly released metal distortion powerhouse.

Weiss announces the AFI1, a 24 channel FireWire interface with 8 channels of bidirectional AES/EBU interfaces and 16 channels of bidirectional ADAT interfaces.

The AFI1 simultaneously supports the following conversions :

- Firewire to AES/EBU (8 channels)
- AES/EBU to Firewire (8 channels)
- Firewire to ADAT ( 16 channels max.)
- ADAT to Firewire ( 16 channels max.)

Features :

- Inputs : Digital Audio inputs on Firewire (two connectors), XLR (AES/EBU), Toslink (ADAT, two connectors).
- Outputs : Digital Audio outputs on Firewire (two connectors), XLR (AES/EBU), Toslink (ADAT, two connectors).
- Sampling Rates : 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192 kHz. Number of ADAT channels at 44.1/48: 16, at 88.2/96: 8, at 176.4/192: 4.
- Software : Drivers for Windows and OSX operating systems.
- Power Supply : Supply range: 100..240V. Power consumption 10VA max.

Kompoz is a social workspace for musicians and songwriters. You can use it to compose new music with other artists around the world. Got an idea for a song? Record a track. Upload it. Then invite others to add drums, bass, vocals or anything else!

Kompoz makes it easy to collaborate with others. You start by creating a project workspace, then add one or more tracks. You can upload MP3, WMA, or WAV files to your project quickly and easily. As new files are added, the previous files are given a version number so that you can easily keep track of the history and progress of the work. Your project workspace will include a discussion forum where you can post your ideas for the song, lyrics, chord charts, and more. Others can post questions and replies.

On the other hand, you can also search for an existing project and lend a hand! You can search for projects by genre, by artist (other members), keywords and tags, and license type.

For more information, please visit the link below :

Kensington unveils its new Dual Monitor Adapter which allows you to add a second computer screen with just a USB connection.

Features :

- Double your visual workspace for multi-tasking ease
- Add up to six monitors to your computer, one for each Kensington Dual Monitor Adapter unit.
- Simple set-up. Connect monitor cable to the Kensington Dual Monitor Adapter, then plug into USB port of your computer
- DVI digital video output for sharpness and clarity
- Works with any monitor - regular or widescreen, with DVI or VGA input. (VGA / DVI cable sold separately)
- Video modes: Mirrored desktop, extended desktop, primary display (Vista only)
- Supports widescreen monitors up to 1440 x 1050 pixels; and standard monitors up to 1280 x 1024 pixels in 32 bit color
- Video output: DVI-I (female connector), VGA (female connector)
- VGA adapter & USB cable included
- Windows XP and Vista compatible; works with Intel based Mac OSX 10.4.11 or later computers via Mac Beta driver

The Kensington Dual Monitor is available now at a retail price of $120.

The Guitar Rig family is growing, Native Instruments has just released Guitar Rig Session and Guitar Rig 3 XE.

Guitar Rig 3 XE :

Guitar Rig 3 XE is a new declination of the Guitar Rig software which offers a selection of five "true-to-life" tube amplifier models and 12 cabinet types, as well as 21 stomp boxes and effect units. All components can be freely combined in the virtual Guitar Rig rack. A library with over 150 instantly playable tones from different musical eras and genres is included, together with several helpful tools including dual tape-decks, metronome, tuner, and a dedicated Live View.

Guitar Rig Session :

Guitar Rig Session is a new recording solution for guitarists, bass players and songwriters which combines the new Guitar Rig 3 XE software with a specially designed audio interface and additional recording software.

The crucial link between the instrument

Following their ongoing Edition Beurmann, German sample manufacturer realsamples brings another piano of the renowned collection of Professor Andreas E. Beurmann, offering 32 velocity layers.

The Early Pianoforte library offers the unique sound of a historical pianoforte by Johann Andreas Stein built in Augsburg in 1793. Clearly showing influences of harpsichords of that time, the instrument sports an uncommon piano sound: Svelte, present and with courtly elegance.

For great dynamics and feel, realsamples captured 32 velocity layers of each note. Furthermore, 8 varitions of each key release sound were recorded to complete the experience of this instrument. The sample library contains more than 2500 single samples. For the challenging task of recording the historical pianoforte, vintage Neumann TLM-170®microphones were used in conjunction with Crane Song Flamingo® preamps and Universal Audio 2192® digital converters.

The virtual Stein Pianoforte is available in 44.1/48 khz, 96 khz and 192 khz resolution, starting at $159.95, and can be used with samplers like HAlion®, Kontakt®, EXS24®, Independence®, MachFive®, VSampler3® and GigaStudio®, amongst others. Note that audio examples are available on the following web page :

Native Instruments has launched "Komplete Your DAW", a time-limited special offer that allows owners of selected professional music sequencers to purchase the Komplete 5 bundle with a discount of 30% from June 2nd to July 31st, 2008.

Komplete 5 includes the following softwares : KONTAKT 3, GUITAR RIG 3 Software Edition, MASSIVE, REAKTOR 5, ABSYNTH 4, BATTERY 3, AKOUSTIK PIANO, ELEKTRIK PIANO, B4 II, FM8, PRO-53.

Products that qualify for the "Komplete Your DAW" special offer include Ableton Live, Apple Logic Pro, Cakewalk Sonar Producer, Digidesign Pro Tools LE/HD, Magix Samplitude Pro, MOTU Digital Performer as well as Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo.

The "Komplete Your DAW" offer will be available from authorized dealers and in the NI Online Shop for a suggested retail price of $779/€699 from June 2nd to July 31st.

In commemoration of its 20th anniversary, M-Audio releases the Midiman MIDISPORT 4x4 Anniversary Edition and the Midiman MIDISPORT 2x2 Anniversary Edition.

The Midiman MIDISPORT 4x4 Anniversary Edition gives the popular multi-port USB MIDI interface an updated new look. MIDISPORT 4x4 Anniversary Edition addresses a total of 64x64 discrete channels of MIDI I/O via USB, allowing you to simultaneously connect a variety of MIDI devices. Bus-powered architecture provides the option of totally mobile operation.

The Midiman MIDISPORT 2x2 Anniversary Edition multi-port USB MIDI interface delivers a new look and enhanced functionality. The compact interface addresses 32 x 32 discrete channels of MIDI I/O via USB, making it ideal for simultaneously connecting multiple MIDI devices to your computer, as well as eliminating delays associated with long MIDI THRU chains. Standalone functionality also gives you MIDI throughput and merge capabilities. Bus-powered architecture provides the option of totally mobile operation.

Pricing :

- Midiman MIDISPORT 4x4 Anniversary Edition : $199.95
- Midiman MIDISPORT 2x2 Anniversary Edition : $89.95

Jeroen Breebaart has announced Barricade Pro - a multi-factor limiter operating in four domains simultaneously. It allows waveform limiting, envelope limiting, loudness limiting, and cross-correlation limiting. Barricade Pro builds upon the free Barricade limiter plugin. It extends the freeware version with new functionality, and full control of all its parameters.

Features :

- each section for waveform, envelope, loudness and correlation limiting is fully customizable in terms of time constants, amount of processing, and alike.
- professional signal level meters according to the Katz metering system. Metering includes digital peak, peak hold, RMS and correlation levels. Meters can be switched between K12, K14 and K20 scales.
- supports processing of 64 bits audio data.
- output bit-depth can be reduced using dithering and perceptual noise shaping.
- sample rates are supported of up to 196 kHz

A pre-release demo version of Barricade Pro is available now as a VST effect plug-in for Windows. The final release is planned for this summer.