Week of September 3, 2006 Thursday, September 7 2006 | dmac NuGen Audio Releases Visualizer v1.0 beta 3 NuGen Audio has announced the release of Visualizer 1.0 beta 3, introducing more functionality and several fixes for the audio analysis tool. Available as a free download to anyone wishing to try. Users posting comments/suggestions to NuGen Audio will be entered into a prize draw to win the full release version. Changes since 1.0 beta2: - Snapshot views added - Dynamic snapshot memory added Level meter: - dB scale zoom and scroll implemented - 1dB, 0.5dB and 01.dB segments added at - appropriate zoom level - peak hold control enhanced Spectrum Analysers: - peak envelope colour selection now possible - peak hold control enhanced - Octave and 1/12 octave (chromatic) banding Spectrograms: - Octave, 1/3 octave and 1/12 octave (chromatic) Vectorscope: - Joined line option added to Lissajous view - Polar view implemented - Peak hold envelope control - Envelope and Grid colour selection - Freeze option - Stereometer added Correlation meter controls implemented: - History - Freeze - Response time - Colour spectrum picker Stats and Setup tab added: - FFT window selection - Weighting curves  and slopes made available - Right click tone option added - FFT window size parameter -  RMS window size parameter -  Pink noise generator (reduced file size in beta) - Clip counters and setup Fixes:Level meter - margin fixed to follow primary meter - RMS meter adjusted to give true reading Visualizer 1.0b3 is available now from www.nugenaudio.com. Wednesday, September 6 2006 | dmac New 'Urban Percussion Loops' for Akai MPC MPCsounds.com has just released 'Urban Percussion Loops', a new loop library featuring hip hop and urban percussion loops for the Akai MPC1000/2000/XL/2500/3000/LE/4000 drum samplers. Designed with hip hop producers in mind, the loops library is organized into 4 hip hop industry tempos: 87bpm, 92 bpm, 97bpm, & 102bpm. All 4 tempo groups contain 25 original percussion themes each, including 2 variation loops per theme: "Main" and "Fill". A variety world & ethnic instruments were used to produce all percussion loops including the agogo bell, berimbau, cabasa, cajon, chaker, chime, congas, cowbell, clave, djembe, doumbek, gankogui, guiro, nubell tree, pandeiro, rainstick, sleigh bell, talking drum, timbale, tombek, triangle, udu, plus more.   The 'Urban Percussion Loops' library contains 100 MPC PGM files for the MPC2000/3000/4000 versions that auto-load all 200 percussion loops included in the library. MPC1000/2500 versions feature easy sample loading via USB.   The loops library is available on MPC Zip Disk, MPC CD-ROM, & Download. Prices start at just $39.95.   For more information and audio demos, visit: mpcsounds.com. Wednesday, September 6 2006 | dmac Precisionsound Releases Owerland Guitar For SoundFont, HALion, And NI Kontakt The Owerland steel string guitar has been recorded with mono and stereo microphones and later mixed down, equalised and compressed for a discrete ready to use stereo sound suitable for melodic playing and arpeggios. This is a well treated guitar sound that works in a mix for a broad range of music styles. The Owerland Guitar SampleSet contains 182 Stereo WAV samples mapped in 4 velocity layers divided into 2 programs; "Owerland Picked" and "Owerland FX" The SampleSet contains: 2 programs for HALion/Kontakt versions (24bit 44.1 KHz) 2 programs for SoundFont version (16bit 44.1 KHz) The SoundFont versions are 100% compatible with all virtual samplers supporting the SoundFont format, like Gigastudio, HALion, Kontakt, EXS24, VSampler, NN-XT, Dimension, Sfz, Audigy and Emulator X. All formats are included when you buy Owerland Guitar so you can download whatever format you like or all of them. Owerland Guitar costs $29 (+$11 if you want it on CD). For more information, visit their web site at precisionsound.net. Wednesday, September 6 2006 | dmac The Musicrow Group Introduces The Crow Mix Pack For NI's Reaktor 5 The Musicrow Group releases Crow Mix Pack, 23 processor ensembles for Native Instruments Reaktor-5. Crow Gold Pack offers the NI Reaktor-5 user a massive collection of high quality ensembles for mixing, sound designing, and music making. The pack contains a variety of classic processor emulations along with fresh 21th century effects. The following ensembles are available with Crow Mix Pack: Plate Reverb - Plate reverb emulator Drive - Multi-band distortion Tape Echo - Tape delay emulator Osmosis - Advanced filter Green Tape - Analog tape-recorder emulator Magician - Multi-tap delay Tube Compressor - Analog compressor emulator Vintage Chorus - Vintage chorus emulator White FX - Special granular effect Mood Filter - Analog filer emulator Ultra Chorus - Chorus effect Ultraverb - High-end reverb GrainD Lay - Granular-delay effect Space-Boy - Space-locating effect Electroverb - Sci-fi reverb Preamp - Preamp emulator Vocal Modeler - Extreme vocal effect Ultra Phaser - Analog phaser emulator Crow DX3 - Delay effect Tape Flanger - Tape flanger emulator Gold Delay - Special multi-delay Graphic Equalizer - Equalizer Crow Tremolo - Tremolo & auto gate Crow Mix Pack is now available for $89. For more information, visit their web site at mcrow.net.