June, 2006 archive

Music software and soundware vendor Virtuasonic has released Synesthesia, an unusual collection of more than 1,000 impulse response files. Synesthesia transforms nearly any standard convolution reverb program into a general-purpose spectral processor.
Convolution reverbs are well-established as an easy and powerful way for musicians and sound designers to add realistic emulations of acoustic spaces to their [...]

It’s too early to know if this will be a trend or not, but Cakewalk is has launched a MySpace.com page to stay in touch with customers, reach new musicians, and help promote their music.
The page also provides an easy way for customers and musician’s to stay informed of Cakewalk Events, product announcements, and participate [...]

sE Electronics has announced a new acoustic treatment product range, Ghost Acoustics.
The Ghost range will feature 5 products in a choice of 2 colours, Charcoal Grey, and Light Grey. The central building block for the range is a 2’x2’ absorber built around a steel inner frame. The construction is layers of highly compressed glass fibre [...]

sE Electronics is now shipping the Reflexion Filter, described as a portable vocal booth. According to the company, it allows you to record vocals, guitars and other instruments with a ‘drier’ sound without having to have an acoustically treated room.
The Reflexion Filter is basically a portable device for recording live sources with reduced room ambience. [...]

MPC Sounds has introduced a new sample library for Akai MPC, Vinyl Scratchez.
Description:
True to the roots of Hip Hop, MPCsounds’ new Vinyl Scratchezlibrary turns the Akai MPC drum machine into a classic hip hop turntable featuring up to 1,536 authentic vinyl kick & cymbal scratches performed by professional DJ’s. Available in all Akai MPC1000/2000/XL/2500/3000/LE/4000 formats, [...]

Ableton has announced a free upgrade to Live Lite 5 Enhanced Edition for current Live Lite Digidesign Edition and all Ableton Live Lite M-Audio versions.
Live Lite 5 Enhanced Edition offers many features found in Live 5, including Plug-in Delay Compensation, MIDI remote control, full ReWire support, high-definition recording and rendering (up to 32-bit), Mackie Control [...]

Beta Monkey has introduced Pure Country II: Acoustic Drum Loops for Classic and Contemporary Songwriting.
Description: A versatile combination of contempory and traditional country grooves in 12 Groove Sets — featuring more than 700 drum loops - main grooves, groove variations, fills, one shot endings, intros and more. Like all of our products, Country & Crossover [...]

Mackie has announced that the C4 Commander virtual MIDI and hardware control software is now available as a free download.
Mackie C4 Commander software brings the world of the Mackie Control C4 rotary control surface to your Mac or PC-allowing you to control vintage MIDI hardware from the convenience of your mix position. Over 180 [...]

Sacred Skies is the second “best of” collection from AD Music, a  UK label that specializes in melodic electronica. Their artists vary from new age to electronic world music to new age.
AD’s first “best of” collection, Ocean of Light, managed to introduce listeners to a wide range of artists, but the tracks were effectively selected [...]

Balance 010 is a new massive 3-CD DJ compilation from Jimmy Van M.
Balance 010 explores a different world of electronica with each CD. Disc 1 explores ambient and downtempo tracks; Disc 2 picks things up a little with midtempo tracks; finally, Disc 3 moves into uptempo progressive electronica.
Throughout the sets, Van M does a great [...]

DJ/electronica producer Paul Oakenfold will be touring in North American to support his new studio album, A Lively Mind, which was released Tuesday.
Currently touring Europe, he will hit eight North American cities, beginning July 7 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Among the stops is the Giant Village festival on July 22 in Los Angeles, which will also feature [...]

Audiofile Engineering has introduced Spectre version 1.0.0, a multi-instrument real-time audio analyzer for Mac OS X.
Designed in Cocoa from the ground up, Spectre takes advantage of Quartz, OpenGL, CoreAudio and other solid OS X interface features. Spectre is now available for an introductory price of $88.
The essential audio analysis tool for Mac OS X, Spectre [...]

Lectrosonics has introduced the DMPA12, a digital, 12-channel, power amplifier and DSP processor in a single-rackspace enclosure.
Audio inputs are taken from the final mix bus via the Digital Audio Network Interface (DANI) bus, which is an integral part of the DM Series processors using LecNet2 protocol. These final mix signals are then processed individually at [...]

The Pink Noise Sessions, an EP from punk/electropop band A Kiss Could Be Deadly, reworks the eighties sounds of bands like Berlin but throws in punk and even goth elements to create something new.
The group, made up of Lauren Baird - Vocals, Chris Qualls - Synthesizers, Programming, Tim Floyd - Guitar, Kelly Cairns - Bass [...]

Jean-Jacques Perrey, electro-pop/lounge Moog pioneer, has a MySpace page.
Not much to it yet, but he’s alive and kicking and working on a tour:
“I love the “X-Files” and collect Sci-Fi comics! I am serious about humour as seriousness must be taken humorously. I am currently working on a New record in the MIX stage with my [...]