News
News Roundup - March 2010
Submitted by robinv on 4 March, 2010 - 12:48
Since the terribly dull and disappointing NAMM show in January nothing much has woken from its winter slumber in terms of computer music technology. Everyone is probably having too much fun in the snow. There's some hope that the Musikmesse show at the end of March will reveal some interesting new products or developments but before then let's scour around to see if we can find anything remotely exciting in the last couple of months that's worth writing about........ hopefully.
Well there's a bunch of new synths and plug-ins, mostly from independents and cheap as chips - here's some:
Roger Linn Adrenalinn Sync Plug-in
Submitted by robinv on 5 November, 2009 - 12:20
Roger Linn's Adrenalinn III is one of the most creative and interesting guitar effects boxes in the world today. It's able to produce the most mind boggling delay and beat syncing effects all designed by the man who created the Linn drum machine back in 1979 which essentially gave birth to the sampled drum machine. Many moons later he re-emerged with this weird guitar effects box which also has built in guitar amp models and all sorts of wonderful jiggery pokery. I really fancied one but i'm not into hardware effects any more and there seemed to be loads of stuff in the box that I didn't need - i just wanted his amazing beat synced rhythms. Well, into my inbox this morning popped an email from Roger announcing the release of the plug-in version called Adrenalinn Sync which contains all the wonderfully delay stuff and none of the extras - perfect!
Coming Soon on PC Music Guru....
Submitted by robinv on 24 September, 2009 - 14:20
Things have been a little bit slow around here over the summer. As we head into the autumn we will be making a renewed effort to keep content fresh and interesting and to bring you our perspective on the world of computer music. We have a bunch of articles and reviews in the pipeline so make sure you follow us on Twitter to get all the latest updates. PC Music Guru is a little bit different to other news and reviews sites. If you're new to it then here's what we're about. We are into gear and making music - that's our starting point. We're not employed by a magazine or at the mercy of advertisers we're independent, opinionated users of the gear we're talking about and who also have regular day jobs. When we review something it gets used in real situations, not just a five minute overview.
Native Instruments Komplete Bonanza
Submitted by robinv on 8 September, 2009 - 11:14
October the 1st is a big date for Native Instruments as they launch a load of new versions of their range of software instruments and effects. Probably the most exciting thing is that their "Komplete" package which features all their main products bundled together has reached the dizzy heights of version 6 - but more importantly they are selling it for about half the original price. It used to retail for over a grand and now you can pick it up for 499€ or $599 - so that's under 500 quid to us Brits. It's astoundingly good value and you'd be an idiot not to pounce on this. I already own most of what's inside the bundle but the combined cost of upgrading Kontakt and Guitar Rig to the latest versions is more than it costs to upgrade to the whole package of Komplete 6 - mad!
Steinberg The Grand 3 - More piano than you can poke a stick at
Submitted by robinv on 22 June, 2009 - 20:50
Eight years after the first "The Grand" arrived Steinberg have reached version 3. There's a lot more competition around these days, with everyone having their own massive piano sample to tempt serious players, and The Grand 3 certainly brings Steinberg back into contention. Along with the Steinway D they've got a Yamaha C7 and the ubiquitous Bösendorfer 290 Imperial plus an electric piano, the Yamaha CP80 and an upright called the Nordiska Pianofabriken whatever the heck that is. It certainly brings along a wide palette of sounds in a single package of an alarmingly huge 88GB's of samples.
IK's StealthPedal Creeps into the Shops
Submitted by robinv on 9 June, 2009 - 16:32
If you're a guitarist wanting to use software guitar plug-ins then you'll want one of these. You can't fool yourself forever that you're content with a mouse and keyboard shortcuts - you need to get your foot into the action so you can actually play like a guitarist rather than a sound engineer who likes to tweak things after the event.
The strangely named StealthPedal (what - you can't see it or something?) is a nifty rugged metal wah pedal with a USB audio interface built in. Gives you a couple of guitar inputs into your computer and full expressive control over your software parameters - like, for instanse, perhaps, wah!
Reaper Reaches Version 3
Submitted by robinv on 1 June, 2009 - 14:30
Since 2004 Cockos have been offering Reaper as a viable alternative to the mainstream music making software such as Cubase or Sonar. Now in it's third incarnation can it really compete with the big names and provide a stable, professional recording environment for like $60? Yeah, pretty much.
FabFilter? Yes indeed!
Submitted by robinv on 26 May, 2009 - 22:34
FabFilter has just released "Timeless 2" a tape delay come modulation monster plug-in. It's the latest in a little flurry of releases and updates from the Dutch duo Floris Klinkert and Frederik Slijkerman. They haven't popped up on my radar since Fabfilter One a couple of years back, which is a half decent fat synth with a quite extraordinary quality of filter, so I thought it would be nice to have a look and see what they've been doing with themselves.
Sibelius 6 - The fastest, smartest, easiest way to write music
Submitted by robinv on 25 May, 2009 - 13:27
There's always a fear that when a software company gets bought out its key products will find themselves lost and unsupported in some windowless office somewhere. Thankfully, that's not so with Sibelius and Avid. Sibelius is and always has been the best score writing software available. It's style, ease of use and the way it sort of "flows" is unmatched but it's needed a good kick in the arse for a long time now and it looks like Avid have supplied that. Avid are the owners of Digidesign who make the Pro Tools recording software and have been long criticised for its lack of score editing facilities and so bolting Sibelius into the Pro Tools recording environment seemed like an obvious idea.
Band-In-A-Box makes it to Mac
Submitted by robinv on 25 May, 2009 - 11:53
It's somehow comforting for a program to remain largely unchanged for hundreds of years. Band-In-A-Box (BIAB) has been doing its thing since 1988 and I don't think there's ever been anything else to match it. In a nutshell it's an automatic accompaniment generator - it's a bit like a software version of a home keyboard such as a Technics or Yamaha. In what it does it's extremely powerful and now includes audio tracks and samples to compliment the MIDI arrangements. You can pick a style, a tempo, a key and off it goes - enter in a few chords and you have a whole band, ready to go. So, finally, after all this time, the poor old Mac user who's frustrated with the shallowness of Garage Band can delve into the wonders of BIAB and get some real automatically generated satisfaction.
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