BandmateLoops.com is proud to unveil two new loop collections today. Bandmates Drummer - Jazz Drums features premium acoustic drum loops suitable for jazz and other compositions. Bandmates Synth Player - Bass Freq offers synthetic bass lines and effects for building out the “low end” in dance, hip-hop and electro-style projects. Both collections are available in Apple Loop, Acidized Wave, Rex2 and ReFill formats.

BMT-027 Bandmates Drummer - Jazz Drums

Seriously cool jazz is the hallmark of legends and Bandmates Drummer - Jazz Drums has got the rhythm and style to make it happen. Pristine acoustic performances cover a generous range of light to medium riffs. Jazz Drums features a live, balanced sound that is suitable for most jazz applications. Tempos range between 80 and 130 bpm.

BMT-027 Bandmates Drummer - Jazz Drums is available now via electronic delivery for $11.95 USD.

Available formats: Apple Loop, Acidized Wave, Rex2 and ReFill.

BMT-029 Bandmates Synth Player - Bass Freq

Build a better, more powerful low-end for dance, hip-hop and electronica with Bandmates Bass Freq. Get ready for a tantalizing array of rich synth bass lines and accents designed for maximum groove flexibility. Bass Freq’s well-balanced tone also allows for excellent layering effects.

BMT-029 Bandmates Synth Player - Bass Freq is available now via electronic delivery for $15.95 USD.

Available formats: Apple Loop, Acidized Wave, Rex2 and ReFill.

For more information, visit their web site at www.bandmateloops.com.

Posted in Loops, Recording, Samples

Magix announced today a new version of its award-winning music creation software, MAGIX Music Studio 11 deluxe, featuring powerful new compositional aids, including “JamSession Mode,” “Mastering Suite,” and “Sample Player,” which makes creating music a snap. MAGIX Music Studio 11 deluxe is available immediately in stores and online at www.magix.com for $79.99.

MAGIX Music Studio 11 deluxe, the best-selling music creation software for the PC worldwide1, has surpassed its already extensive feature list with exciting new features:

• JamSession Mode: with advances in recording automation, people recording at home can now simply start jamming and rely on the software to choose the instruments and effects. In addition, for the first time, the famous sample player, “Sample Tank MX” from the renowned software house IK Multimedia, is included.
• Mastering Suite: delivers music studio sound at the touch of a button. Give your recordings a professional, impressive sound at home. The software incorporates experience and feedback provided by international music studio professionals, who have used the product throughout the last 10 years. It also offers powerful studio sound with four mastering effects.
• New effects: include the parametric 4-band equalizer for perfect tuning and VariVerb for excellent stereo reverb, which provide a well-tempered sound. The BitMachine, free when registering your product, lets you mix in old-style lo-fi sounds from the early days of music into your songs.

Task Assistant Makes Music Studio 11 deluxe Easy to Use

Even with all the advanced features, MAGIX Music Studio 11 deluxe is still extremely easy to use. The Task Assistant quickly walks you through the basics of the program, explaining the most important functions through short videos.

Although easy enough for home users and amateur musicians, Music Studio 11 deLuxe is advanced enough for semi-professional and professional movie and video producers, who take advantage of the power of the software to create perfect soundtracks employing MAGIX’s new advanced features, such as professional sound overdubbing.

Available immediately, Magix Music Studio 11 deluxe is priced at $79.99 available through the retail channel and online at www.magix.com.

For more information, visit their web site at www.magix.net.

Posted in Computer, Recording, Software, Technology

Fixed Noise, Inc. is pleased to announce its debut software release, OTTO. OTTO is a sound library designed by renowned Miami musician / producer Otto Von Schirach. OTTO offers over 4GB of instruments, and is one of the first libraries to utilize Native Instruments’ new Kontakt 2 Player.

OTTO caters to musicians and producers in the IDM, industrial, and electronica genres. OTTO provides over 600 instruments that include construction, loops, sequences, and surround. Von Schirach created the library as the single answer for music makers who require maximum efficiency (loops and sequences), and maximum flexibility (construction and surround).

OTTO will be distributed by GSF Agency and will be available at musical products retailers as well as record stores and nontraditional audio software dealers. OTTO has a MSRP of $199.99 and ships on September 15th.

Otto Von Schirach recently released “Maxipad Detention” on Ipecac Recordings. He is currently working on collaborations with Skinny Puppy, Venetian Snares, Doormouse, Gut, and Ebola.

For more information, visit their web site at www.fixednoise.com.

Posted in Loops, Recording, Samples

Demonstrating its commitment to customers worldwide, Roland is proud to announce extensive editor and driver updates for the new SH-201 Synthesizer.

Roland Product Manager Vince LaDuca relates, “We’re now offering our SH-201 users support for the Apple® Audio Units plug-in format. This new feature allows the SH-201 editor to be accessed from within Logic, Digital Performer, Live, Garage Band, and other Audio Units-compatible DAWs.”

The Audio Units, or AU plug-in can be downloaded from www.rolandus.com.

Additionally, the SH-201 driver has also be updated to support the new Intel-based Macintosh computers. This adds the SH-201 to the ever-growing list of over 50 Roland products that have Universal Binary support.

In addition to these extensive updates, Roland is also offering a collection of patches for the SH-201 from a global roster of artists.

Available now at www.rolandus.com:

• SH-201 Editor Version 1.10 Macintosh OS X
Roland’s latest version of the SH-201 Editor / Librarian is now available.This install contains the stand-alone, the VSTi, and the AU versions of the Editor.

• SH-201 Macintosh OS X USB Driver Version 1.10
Used to connect the SH-201 to a Macintosh computer running OS X, this version of the driver adds support for Intel-based Macintosh computers.

Both Windows XP/2000 and Macintosh OS X installs contain custom patches from Jean Michel Jarre, Jordan Rudess, Richard Barbieri, and Hisashi Saito.

Also Available:

• SH-201 Windows USB Driver Version 1.01 for connecting the SH-201 to PCs running Windows XP or 2000.

•SH-201 Editor Version 1.10 Windows XP/2000

For more information, visit their web site at www.rolandus.com.

Posted in Computer, Recording, Software, Synth, Technology

PC Publishing has announced the Third Edition of PC Music - The Easy Guide. Completely updated with new sections on the MP3 revolution, the PC as a complete Media Center and the realisation of your PC as a recording studio, this new edition of PC Music - The Easy Guide, will show you what can be done, what it all means, and what you will need to start creating and enjoying your own music on your PC.

It’s an easy read, fully illustrated and it will help you understand how a computer can be used as a creative and entertaining musical tool.

Topics covered:

• How do I make music with my PC?
• How do I plug a guitar into my PC?
• Can I record music onto my PC?
• What’s a sequencer?
• What’s sampling?
• How can I get my PC to print a music?
• What sort of a soundcard do I need?
• What hardware and software do I need?
• How do I connect a keyboard to my PC?
• What sort of computer do I need?
• Can I get pro results on my PC?

The book covers soundcards, recording music with sequencers, hard disk digital audio recording and editing, plug-ins, mixing, printing scores with notation software, using your PC as a synthesiser or a sampler, making beats and noises, sorting out the hardware, getting sound into and out of the computer, getting music onto and off the internet, bringing the PC into the living room as an entertainment system, using and understanding Windows and it suggests sample PC music set-ups and discusses computer technology in the simplest terms.

With special sections for guitarists and electronic music fans, it’s all rounded off with advice on the musical hardware and software that you’ll need, and a list of invaluable industry contacts.

Contents:
1 Introduction
2 What can a PC do?
3 Getting deeper into soundcards
4 MIDI sequencing
5 Hard disk recording
6 Sample/wave editing
7 Plug-ins and mixing
8 Notation and score writing
9 Software synthesis and sampling
10 The MP3 Revolution
11 Tackling Windows XP
12 Example PC music set-ups
13 The electronic music appendium
14 The guitarist’s appendium
15 The Media Center PC appendium
16 Product roundup
Glossary
General MIDI

For more information, visit their web site at www.pc-publishing.com.

Posted in Computer, Education, Recording

SKYLIFE introduces the SampleRobot Premium Samples online library.

Starting with Game Sound Effects created on famous synthesizers like the Roland SH-101 and Hartmann Neuron the new SampleRobot Premium Samples series offers unique and extraordinary sample resources for musicians and sound designers. The library is continuously growing and will cover special interest sounds for music and media production.

Due to the possibilities of SampleRobot the SampleRobot Premium Samples library includes all sound nuances and dynamics of the original instruments. And, all sounds are instantly playable via common software samplers. The library is accessible worldwide online.

The following libraries are available at the moment:
Neuron Game Sound Effects 1
SH-101 Game Sound Effects 1
SH-101 Game Sound Effects 2

The MSRPs for the SampleRobot Premium Samples - Game Sound Effects:
EU: each 9.90 EUR (incl. VAT)
US and World: each 11.90 USD (incl. VAT)

For more information, visit their web site at www.samplerobot.com.

Posted in Loops, Recording, Samples

Pianoteq is the very first truly modelled piano, available for the VST and AudioUnit platforms.

Being a truly modelled piano, the sound is created in real time from scratch through a very sophisticated mathematical model, simulating an acoustic piano. It is responding to how the pianist is striking each key and how strings are interacting, just like a real piano does. The result is a remarkably expressive and vivid instrument.

The first generation of pianos began with Cristofori’s pianoforte in 1698 which came to maturity at the end of the 19th century with the acoustic grand pianos. It was followed in the 20th century by the second generation electro-acoustic pianos and the third generation sampled pianos where each note is a recording of how it sounded during a specific moment in time, not taking into account the complexity of the instrument.

Pianoteq is the first and only piano belonging to the fourth generation, developed to go beyond the limitations of the third generation and to become a versatile and innovating tool.

Simulating acoustic pianos: Everything that characterizes an acoustic piano is there: the mechanic noises (optional), the complexity of pedals and strings in interaction, the percussion impact on staccato play, and of course the most important, the beauty of the piano sound.

New possibilities: The unique adjustable parameters result in great realism and even allow going beyond the material constraints of an acoustic piano, thus being able to create new instruments and sounds.

System friendly: Pianoteq adapts its CPU consumption dynamically to the resources available on your computer. It holds more than easily in the computer memory, and its installation is fast and easy. It can be successfully used on a modern laptop.

The current piano presets are the first instruments of a collection which will grow in the near future. Pianoteq customers are invited to exchange their best settings through the FXP corner of the Pianoteq website.

Being modelled, Pianoteq allows parameters to be stretched as long as the model permits, resulting not only in new performance styles but also in new piano sounds. The sound comes from 32-bit floating audio computation without any quantization noise, not even with the softest pianissimos. Expressivity is superior as it can handle all the 127 MIDI velocities for each note.

The high quality sound can be easily processed in a virtual studio for professional use.

For more information, visit their web site at www.pianoteq.com.

Posted in Audio, Computer, Plug-Ins, Recording, Software, Technology, VST

After announcing its inception at this year’s Winter NAMM tradeshow in Anaheim, California, Cortex (now a part of GCI Technologies) will begin shipping its patent-pending USB host-controller based digital music manipulation platform to musical instrument retailers on September 15th.

“With the rise of portable media players and mass storage devices being a source for storing and playing music Cortex developed the HDC-1000 to utilize this technology and bring it to the DJ realm,” explains CEO Artie Cabasso. “The HDC-1000 will be the first unit in the world to manipulate music files from an external USB device and will make the DJ think differently about how they will transport their music collection.”

Using USB compatibility to give DJs the power to cue up, play, pitch, manipulate, scratch and search digital music files like never before, HDC-1000 users can access their music collections utilizing a wide array of storage devices including the iPod®, external USB hard-drives and flash drives, CD-ROM, and even DVD-ROM drives. DJ’s can even connect and access multiple storage devices with the HDC’s device selection option.

Providing DJ’s with a higher platform of performance, the HDC-1000 offers an ‘intelligent music database management’ system where databases of tracks are built and stored on each compatible storage device to allow the user to find any track lightning fast, regardless of the number of tracks on the device, and displaying all the essentials on its bright LCD playback screen including artist, track title, time elapsed, and time remaining.

Its unique cataloging system gives you a number of browsing options when searching a database, including Search by Artist, Song Title and Genre. With the String Search function, users can even search by a certain word or phrase to find tracks, even if they’re not completely sure of the name. You can also get information on any track in the database showing everything from artist and track title to the file format, genre, or length of the track.

In addition, the unit is equipped with ultra-precise pitch resolution (up to +/-24), front and rear USB ports with device selection menu and multifunction navigation keys.

For more information, visit their web site at www.cortex-pro.com.

Posted in Computer, Digital, Recording, Software, Technology

Peace Love Productions (PLP) has announced the release of Trance Mutation.

This collection of loops and samples was designed specically for Hard Trance, Ambient Trance, Euro Club, Hard House, and Techno.

PLP Trance Mutation consists of:

• 530+ 16-bit/44.1kHz Stereo ACIDized .wav files
• 247 Synths
• 44 Basses
• 164 Drums (including Breakbeat, Trance Beats, Percussion, Snare and Kick Build ups, Kicks, Snares, Hi Hats, and more)
• 7 Breakdown FX
• 5 DJ Scratches
• 53 SFX
• 13 MIDI files

Trance Mutation is available as a download and CD for the price of $19.99 and can be purchased direct from www.peaceloveproductions.com.

Peace Love Productions’ loops and sound samples are royalty free pro-quality sound files optimized for use with popular software applications such as Apple Soundtrack™, Sony ACID™, Cakewalk Sonar™, and Ableton Live™.

For more information, visit their web site at www.peaceloveproductions.com.

Posted in Loops, Recording, Samples

Perimeter Sound Arts and Contralogic Productions have released the Feldspar Special Edition Multi-FX VST plug-in.

This Special Edition of the Feldspar Multi FX VST is a slightly altered version of the original with a few notable changes: It has one envelope and settings instead of 2, and 4 modulation routings in the matrix instead of 6. A reverb effect has been added, the cpu usage has gone down by about 1/3, and the number of patches has doubled.

Main features:

• A 3 mode sequenced envelope, with rate control, as well as ADSR and amp controls
• A 4X modulation routing matrix, with the usual source & destination settings as well as mix level. Modulation sources include S&H, as well as LFO + and -, and Envelope + and -, and can be sent to filter, ring, and reverb controls for even more varied modulations
• Delay/Echo with LP/HP filtering, and L-R, R-L, and Straight settings for the echos
• 2 assignable LFO’s for various tempo-synched modulation possibilities, with 16 different wave types to choose from, rate control, and FM and AM controls for frequency and level modulation control
• A ring modulator with level and pitch controls
• Unique dual filters, with bleed control, and 4 filter types to choose from
• A reverb effect with dampening control
• Width control in the master out section, for enhanced stereo sound
• Low to moderate cpu usage, and 31 presets included

Feldspar Special Edition is available now to all loop sample customers at www.perimetersound.com at no charge, it is a gift included with loop sample purchases.

It should be noted that Apple and Garageband customers are welcome to receive this plug in, in case they run a new dual boot Mac and want to use it that way, or if they have a PC-using, music-making friend they want to give it to. It is not available in Mac format, but Perimeter Sound Arts would certainly not wish to exclude anyone on the basis of what kind of computer they have.

For more information, visit their web site at www.perimetersound.com.

Posted in Computer, Plug-Ins, Recording, Software, Technology