Week of December 19, 2004 Tuesday, December 21 2004 | dmac Spectrasonics Releases First Four S.A.G.E Xpanders for Stylus RMX Spectrasonics has now released a series of four new expansion libraries called "S.A.G.E. Xpanders" to enhance the variety of choices for their recently released Stylus RMX virtual groove instrument. The four Groove Control activated Xpanders are based on the company's Backbeat, Retro Funk, Liquid Grooves, and Metamorphosis collections. A fifth library, Burning Grooves is due to be released in January 2005. Each Xpander comes on a DVD-ROM and is priced at $99US. The new Xpander libraries are easily added to Stylus RMX's already massive core library. Spectrasonics' number one user request from their previous Classic Stylus virtual instrument was for more acoustic grooves. With Stylus RMX and the S.A.G.E. Xpanders, users can add literally thousands of acoustic drum and percussion grooves from BackBeat, Retro Funk Liquid, Grooves and Burning Grooves. Each new Spectrasonics S.A.G.E. Xpander has a special bonus section which has hundreds of grooves from Spectrasonics' Vocal Planet, Bizarre Guitar and Distorted Reality sound libraries. Every Xpander also includes a unique set of creative Stylus RMX Multi patches that take advantage of the incredible S.A.G.E. (Spectrasonics Advanced Groove Engine) features of Stylus RMX and show the potential of Xpanders when used in combinations with the RMX Core Library and the Bonus section. For more information, visit their web site at spectrasonics.net. Tuesday, December 21 2004 | dmac Tripp Lead Guitar Controlled VST Synth Released Fretted Synth Audio announced Tripp Lead for Windows, the newest in their line of guitar/audio triggered synths designed for lead-type synth sounds. Instead of using MIDI to control this VST plug-in, audio is the control signal so you can create synth sounds using an instrument you are familiar and comfortable with, rather than a MIDI keyboard. Features: New tracking design for faster response and more control over velocity tracking Two virtual analog oscillators, square suboscillator, and a noise oscillator. Modulation with host sync and an envelope generator with choice of destination Two Moog-style filters configurable in series or parallel Overdrive and distortion Auto pan synced to half, quarter, and eighth notes of the BPM setting. Can be applied to the main oscillator and delay independently. Mono delay with modulation and low pass filter, synced to tempo Reverb with limited controls Audio trigger section with two control knobs 128 presets Tripp Lead is priced at $39. Fretted Synth Audio has also updated both GCBS (Guitar Controlled Bass Synth) and String Sculptor with the same tracking algorithm used in Tripp Lead, as well as other changes and bug fixes. All three plugins may now be purchased together as FS Bundle 1 for US $89.00, a savings of over 20% off the price if purchased separately. Demo versions are available and are fully functional with the exception that they will mute periodically. Demo presets may be shared with the full versions. For more information, visit their web site at frettedsynth.com. Tuesday, December 21 2004 | dmac Tascam has updated GigaStudio to v3.0.4 Main Application Enhancements: More improvements with Hyper Threading compatibility have been made, particularly with USB audio interfaces. This includes dual processor machines. Note: GigaStudio is coded to provide performance benefits on Hyper Threading enabled PCs in the following ways: Projects with heavy VST usage will benefit. HT may provide more polyphony than nonHT systems. Many improvements to the QuickSound database engine have been implemented to speed up searches. Also fixes were implemented to address apparent system hangs when using search delimiters such as "NOT". Compatibility with the UAD1 DSP card has been added. Further improvements have been made to MIDI Mixer mute behavior when used with stacked instruments. Now stack masters act as mute masters without affecting the mute state of the stack members. Also the bright/dim illumination state of the buttons has been given greater contrast. The stack master continues to function as a solo macro, clearing any/all stack member solos when double clicked. Main Application Maintenance: Fixed: Aux send levels would always restore to inf if they were saved OFF. Collapsed/expanded state of existing stacked instruments will be retained when loading further .gsi files that are also stacked instruments. Fixed: Some GigaPulse content would come up cut off at 3 seconds until Tail Model was clicked off then back on. Incompatibilities between some MIDI keyboard controllers and iMIDI rules have been fixed. When opening an Accelerated Wave instrument in Quick Edit, it is necessary to click the wave display area to cause the engine to draw the waveform. This is to optimize processor usage when drawing an accelerated waveform. Problems with 16bit GSIF2 audio input have been corrected. Fixed: Instruments with 256 Dimensions could previously cause a system crash. Audio will now be muted when loading an instrument to prevent unwanted sounds being triggered by extraneous MIDI input. Fixed: When opening a stack member instrument in the Full Editor, the stack would not be loaded upon closing the Editor & returning to GigaStudio. Problems loading projects containing VST plugins have been corrected. After updating to 3.04, it is necessary to rescan the system for VST plugins. MIDI Mixer output assignments are now saved with a custom .gsp performance when certain settings are checked. The "Save Performance as Default" check box in the File|Save dialog is now functioning correctly. FX UI problems when docking a floated DSP Station window have been fixed. Fixed: EQ and Compressor settings on Group Channels were not saved with a performance. Issues when installing content only over a patch installer have been corrected. Fixed: Group Aux Sends set to Pre would only send to the left side of GigaPulse. Editor Changes: When opening an Accelerated Wave instrument in the Full Editor, it is necessary to click the wave display area to cause the engine to draw the waveform. This is due to processor requirements when drawing an accelerated waveform. Fixed: Opening an instrument in the Editor where not all regions have the same number of splits could crash the system. Fixed: When proportional drag mode was selected and multiple splits were selected, the Editor may have set some splits to incorrect values. More @ tascamgiga.com.