March, 2007 archive

Musikmesse: Mackie today announced the Mackie Control Pro control surface series, the next generation of the Mackie Control Universal line of controllers. Comprising Mackie Control Universal Pro, Mackie Control Extender Pro and Mackie Control C4 Pro, the series provides a complete feature set and software compatibility. Mackie Control Pro series controllers are designed to seamlessly [...]

Musicmesse: Modartt has announced Pianoteq version 2, offering a new soundboard model, a vastly improved piano sound, and a stand-alone version.
New features:

Stand-alone version
Microtuning
Lid position
Pan slider
Key release velocity
MIDI controllers assignment
Smooth adjustment of parameters during play
Two strings in the bass – PIANOTEQ makes everything possible

New soundboard model for greater realism:
With the newly developed soundboard model, the piano [...]

VirSyn has introduced Poseidon, a new virtual synthesizer. At first sight, Poseidon looks like a simple structured analog “Oscillator-Filter” synthesizer with all controls visible at once. This lets Poseidon offer ease of use, with nearly no learning curve.
The real power is working under the hood: The oscillator is nothing less than the spectral modelling sound [...]

 

 VirSyn Poseidon Demo [1:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Native Instruments today announced KORE 2, the second generation of its advanced multi-functional host system. The new version extends and refines the concepts introduced and established with KORE – seamless integration of any software instruments and effects into a unified architecture, powerful realtime parameter control, and comprehensive sound access functionality. At the same time, KORE [...]

Musikmesse: Ableton and Cycling ’74 today announced a strategic partnership. The two will join forces to create new software products for the creative community, leveraging their skills, technologies and combined thirty years of experience.
“We are excited to team up with our friends at Cycling ’74,” said Ableton CEO and cofounder Gerhard Behles. “David Zicarelli has [...]

Gaming company Electronic Arts today announced it has entered into a joint venture with Nettwerk One Music to form the new full-service music company, Artwerk. The initiative brings together Nettwerk’s management, publishing and digital delivery expertise with the global marketing power made of EA’s blockbuster games.
The Artwerk label will sign and develop both new and [...]

Musikmesse Update: Tronical has announced that its Powertune system is now in production.
The system automatically tunes guitars. While this may seem fairly trivial to keyboardists, creating a system that automatically keeps an electroacoustic mechanical instrument in tune isn’t trivial.
They system also expands the range of possibilities for guitarists, letting them automatically switch tunings.
Here’s Tronical’s video [...]

Musikmesse sees the release of Liquid Mix V2.0, a new software release for Liquid Mix, Focusrite’s DSP-powered dynamic convolution mix solution, delivering 32 channels of EQ and Compression simultaneously.
The new software release will be available for free to download early in April 2007 and delivers a number of improvements over the original software. The new [...]

It’s free electronic music month at Synthtopia.
All month, we’re going to help you kick the RIAA habit by highlighting great electronic music that’s available for free on the Internet.
Binary Mind is a French electronica group that has released several CDs of free music. Their tracks range from ambient to techno to industrial.
You can preview one [...]

 

 Naia [4:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Soniccouture have released Synthi AKS For EXS24, a library exploring the legendary sound of the vintage E.M.S. Synthi AKS from 1972.
Sampled at 24 bit throughout, the library features extensively detailed multi- samples, a huge selection of hits and effects patches, sequenced loops and convolution of the famous Synthi Spring reverb programmed for Logic’s Space Designer.
According [...]