Week of February 6, 2005 Tuesday, February 8 2005 | dmac Xphraze 1.2 Update, New Xpansions Released Xphraze 1.0 Wizoo has unveiled the first five Xpansions for Xphraze, as well as the official release of version 1.2. Xphraze now supports AU for Logic 7 users. All Xpansions include Xphraze 1.2 but the new version can also be downloaded separately from Wizoo's web site for free. All five expansions contain new phrases, styles and combis recorded and programmed by professional sound designers and musicians from all over the globe. Designed to cover a range of styles from movie scores to Industrial, each expansion offers a rich selection of new and amazing samples and sounds that let you instantly increase the possibilities of your Xphraze. Xphraze Xpansions: Analog Impact by Christian Halten and Jörg Hüttner - From Mr. Nice Guy to Dirty Gabba Analog Impact serves up pulsing riffs and floating pads that are perfect for Ambient, Drum and Bass and Industrial music. 105 Combis and over 200 patches featuring deluxe samples of synthesizer classics such as Jupiter 8, Korg MS20, Prophet VS, Prophet 5, Yamaha CS01 and more. All of the Combis are preprogrammed with special Modwheel, Pitchbend and Aftertouch variations and offer a lot of fun and variety. Chronic Beatz by LA Riot - Rolling with the funky phrases and big rocking beats you will explore the field of Nu Hip Hop and R'n'B. 50 Combis, and 334 patches and phrases from California's Nu Hip Hop Sound Designers. Mad Synth Explosion by Matthias Klag - These 100 Combis, 209 Patches and 87 Phrazes are full of unexpected morphing and vector sounds, lively synth patches- and basslines and some seriously cranked up FX. Every Combi is ready to plug and play, from distorted FX to melodic patterns, an invitation to compose and arrange your music. This Xpansion also contains high end drum recordings and samples from a speech synthesizer allowing you to create your own rhythmic sentences. At The Club by Cem Oral aka Jammin' Unit - An Xpansion built for electro, funky techno and house essentials. Made by producers from the clubscene, featuring samples from hi end studio sessions and prooves how versatile Xphraze can be. A tool box for producers of electronic dance music featuring 80 Combis. Trance Explosion by Pop - This Xpansion features 121 Combis consisting of the samples of analog equipment that made trance what it is today. Brand new soundbanks arming you with brand new tools for trance, goa, hardcore and relatives. Pricing and Availability: Priced at USD 49.00 each, Xphraze Xpansions are available directly at wizoosounds.com (online) or via the Wizoo mail order service (USA: 1-800-579-4832; Europe: +49-421-701870). In addition, Wizoo is offering a package of all five Xpansions for a limited time only for USD 199.00. The Xphraze 1.2 update is available as a free download. For more information, visit their web site at wizoo.com. Sunday, February 6 2005 | dmac US Edition of Studio to Go! Live Linux CD Released Fervent Software's Live Linux CD music product "Studio to Go!" is now available in a US edition. Studio to Go! provides a selection of music composition and recording software based around an innovative Linux Live CD that configures out of the box without installation on an existing Windows PC. All Studio to Go! products include switchable worldwide keyboard layouts, as well as selectable language support for US and UK English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Welsh languages. The package includes the Rosegarden MUSIC sequencer and scoring package, Ardour DAW software, the JAMin mastering tool, Hydrogen drum machine and a large selection of audio plugins and virtual instruments along with CD ripping and burning software. Studio..to go! also allows you to make use of any existing VSTs and Soundfonts that you may already have installed on your system. Studio to Go! 49.99GBP including worldwide shipping and support. For more information, visit their web site at ferventsoftware.com. Sunday, February 6 2005 | dmac VSamp for Mac OS Updated to Version 3.5 VSamp Application VSamp as an AudioUnit Version 3.5 of VSamp, a virtual sample player, has been released. The package includes an application for creating and playing banks of samples plus AudioUnits and VST format plug-ins for playing the virtual sample banks from within compatible sequencers. VSamp's features includes 128 voice polyphony, 24-bit/192kHz support, resonant lowpass filters with realtime control, low frequency oscillators to modulate pitch and filters, a CPU-efficient audio engine, the ability to import SampleCell and SoundFont samples and keymaps, support for MacOS X including CoreMIDI Services, VST and AudioUnits Version 3.5 is a major release adding the following: Support for WAVE files Support for 32-bit samples Banks now respond to MIDI bank and patch change messages Import SoundFont banks Instruments can now contain up to 1000 (variable) samples Banks can now contain up to 140 (variable) instruments Reduced CPU load Optional new amplitude model for instruments adds constant dB pan, constant dB-rate envelopes (improves compatibility with SoundFonts) and greater variety of note velocity responses Minor interface changes including general speed increase and better onscreen keyboard VSamp 3.5 is a free upgrade for registered users. Registration costs $39. For more information, visit their web site at vsamp.com. Sunday, February 6 2005 | dmac Anwida Soft Introduces Spazio 1.0 DirectX Reverb Plug-In The latest plug-in from Anwida Soft look to fill your reverberation needs, offering acoustic space simulation, plate reverb, and special reverb effects like gated and reverse reverbs. It is offering DirectX format. Anwida developed what they call Hybrid Acoustic Image (HAI) technology for Spazio, allowing you to model the spatial image, the resonances and the modal and echo densities of a real room. Main features: Room, hall, plate, gate, inverse algorithms True stereo reverbs that will not affect stereo imaging High resolution controls 64-bit internal precision Highly optimized DSP code Full MIDI automation support for all controls (including preset change) Audio output is consistent and glitch free during parameter changes Factory presets Built-in preset manager A/B comparison The value of control parameters can be entered manually Stereo output (mono->stereo, stereo->stereo) Requirements: Any DirectX compatible audio host application 200 MHz Pentium processor or 100% equivalent Microsoft Windows 9x/Me/NT4/2000/XP Microsoft's DirectX Media 5.2 or higher At least 128MB RAM A free demo is available for download. The full version costs $199. For more information, visit their web site at anwida.com.