Week of February 20, 2005 Friday, February 25 2005 | dmac Entire Classic Series updated by Kjaerhus Audio Kjaerhus Audio has updated the entire Classic Series of free plug-ins. Changes: Added Hyperlink from logo, quickly allowing a check for updates and new products. Solved issue where the GUI was invisible and / or wasn't repainted properly in some hosts and wrappers. Solved issue with wrongly reported I/O sampling rate. Solved issue where plug-in would report that no GUI was available when requested by the host. This caused one host to not open the GUI. Improved VU-meter update (EQ, Master Limiter & Auto Filter only). Improved LED update (Compressor only). More @ Kjaerhus Audio. Friday, February 25 2005 | dmac New Acid Pro 5 Tutorial Video from Digital Music Doctor The Digital Music Doctor announced the release of a new interactive video course, Acid Pro 5--Know It All!. This course contains almost 2 hours of interactive videos as well as sample projects covering aspects of audio and MIDI loop-based composing, recording, editing, and mixing using Sony Acid Pro 5. Acid Pro 5--Know It All! includes fourteen modules and is organized into five sections: There is an overview section which covers the features that are new to Acid Pro 5 and also provides an introductory tour of the Acid workspace. The second section is devoted to setup, editing and producing Acid projects. There are in-depth sections for both audio and MIDI which cover setting up, editing, mixing and producing using actual project examples. Finally there is a Tools & Techniques section which discusses Recording Techniques and 5.1 Surround Sound Mixing, as well as the use of the Chopper and the new Media Manager. Acid Pro 5--Know It All! is presented using Macromedia Flash and is available on CD-ROM for Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP. Acid Pro 5--Know It All! is available at the Digital Music Doctor website and Amazon.com as well as various online publishers and pro audio dealers. The Digital Music Doctor website also features demos of the course. For more information, visit their web site at digitalmusicdoctor.com. Thursday, February 24 2005 | dmac ConcreteFX have released two new products , Kubik2 and MicroDicer Kubik 2 is a completely revamped version of their PC VST wave-sequencing synth Kubik , with totally new sinkable graphics and lots of new features and improvements. Kubik is available for $90 / €75 / £50 and there is lots more information at concretefx.com/Kubik. MicroDicer is our PC VST beat-slicer. MicroDicer has been designed to be a simple and easy to use beat-slicer, it allows you to drag and drop samples into and midi out of MicroDicer , and can load in Rex2 format sample. MicroDicer is available for $40 / €30 / £21 and there is lots more information at concretefx.com/MicroDicer.   Also released SynthPack 6 , which contains Kubik , MicroDicer and our voice synth Vocal , this is $120 / €95 / £65, which is a saving of more than 30% on buying them separately , Lots more information about our stuff at concretefx.com. Thursday, February 24 2005 | dmac PS-1 Performance Synthesizer VSTi for Windows Released The PS-1 Performance Synthesizer is the result of an exciting collaboration between ProSounds and DASH Signature and has been designed with the advanced sound designer and electronic musician in mind, incorporating a large number of high-end features while still maintaining ease of use with its intuitive user interface. The PS-1 is a VST instrument plugin for Windows featuring four multi-featured oscillators, custom WAV file import (with over 80 waveforms included), a mixer, 2 resonant multimode filters (routable in both serial and parallel), two Low Frequency Oscillators (LFOs) and two ADSR envelope generators. The PS-1 also includes some advanced performance features, such as a powerful arpeggiator and trancegate, as well as an effects unit. The PS-1 also includes over 1000 designed factory presets covering a wide range of different sounds (basses, pads, leads, sound FX, arps etc.) and suitable for every genre. Some Features: Oscillators: 4 oscillators each with 12 different internal waveforms, and over 70 extra external waveforms (WAV files). All 4 oscillators have separate controls for volume, pitch (octave, semitone, fine) envelope amount, LFO amount, PWM amount, PWM mode (LFO, envelope, manual). Separate mixer section with oscillator volume, mod amount, ring modulation (oscillators 2 and 4), boost and a noise generation unit. All 4 oscillators can load custom waveforms (WAV files, 16 bits, 44.1khz, mono). True mono-legato mode with glide. Filters: Two resonant multimode filter units with low pass (12db, 24db), high pass, band pass, and notch filter types and automatic gain reduction. Both filter units operate in either parallel or serial modes (with mode selection and mix control). Optional keyboard tracking of cutoff frequency for each filter unit. Both filter units have separate controls for type, cutoff, resonance, envelope amount, LFO amount and keyboard tracking. Smooth filter option. Envelope Generators: 2 envelope generators each with attack, decay time, sustain level and release time (ADSR), as well as velocity control. Envelope 1 is dedicated to oscillator volume. Envelope 2 is used for filter cutoff, resonance, pitch and oscillator PWM. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS PC running Windows 98 or higher. 800 MHz processor (1000 MHz or higher is recommended for optimum performance). 256MB RAM (512MB RAM or higher is recommended for optimum performance). A VST compatible host. Pricing & Availability The PS-1 Performance Synthesizer is priced at EUR 119.00 and is available immediately from their online shop. For more information, visit their web site at pro-sounds.net. Thursday, February 24 2005 | dmac New vox'd Sound Set for Wusikstation Released Wusik.com and Back In Time Records have released "vox 'd" for the Wusikstation virtual instrument for PC, a 500 MB sound set of 1000+ voice and choir waves together with 96 presets. The joint development of the presets and samples has been especially produced and compiled for use in Wusikstation, the leading sample/wave-sequencing synthesiser. This new sound set encompasses vocal and voice samples and related waveforms produced with pop and classical music artists as well as designed synthetic choirs to new and unheard sounds. The samples used for the sound sets include Human Voice & Choir, Classical Solo Voice, Synthetic Voice & Choir, Physical Model Choir, 8-Bit Vox, Synthetic VoiceLayer, Instrument/Choir Layer, Synthetic VoiceChords, VoiceScenes, Repeat Voice FX, Vocal Phrase FX, Vocoder, Human Voice Percussion FX and processed Human Environs. 96 ready-to-use Presets are designed by sound creator Tim Conrardy. You'll find evolving vocal pads, big as a wall choir layers, movie sound atmospheres, human percussion and sound effects. More Presets created by several sounddesigners will follow. vox 'd costs $39.95 and is available as a download or on CD. For more information, visit their web site at wusik.com. Thursday, February 24 2005 | dmac Solo Performer Show Controller Updated to Version 2.0 Alien Apparatus Company has released Solo Performer Show Controller version 2.0, a system for controlling the background music, lyrics displays, MIDI effects, and light shows for musicians. The system consists of a six-button foot controller that connects to a computer via USB, and software that runs on Windows and Macintosh. Solo Performer Show Controller plays mp3 files, aiff files, wave files, and MIDI files. It can control MIDI effects units, lights that operate using the industry-standard DMX512 protocol, and can display lyrics on-screen in a karaoke-like manner. The software also includes a utility for stripping out unwanted tracks in MIDI files so that only the rhythm tracks play. In this new release, Solo Performer Show Controller can now send MIDI files to external MIDI devices, change MIDI effects settings automatically, send hotkey commands to control other running applications, and redefine the button functions on the foot controller. The Solo Performer Show Controller System is currently the only system available for controlling a show that seamlessly integrates audio, MIDI, and DMX512 lighting capabilities, according to the company. With its six-button foot controller, a guitar player could, for example, play a show in front of an audience and have all of the backing rhythm tracks play from the system while it controls the lights and changes the singer's vocal reverb during the choruses. Solo Performer Show Controller is available for both Windows and Macintosh computer systems. For more information, visit their web site at alienapparatus.com.