Sound on Sound review the Studio to Go! 1.5 music suite bootable CD. They like the simplicity of setup and the fact that technical support is included, and the range of software is pretty good. They warn that you need a fast PC for it run smoothly, and there can be some hardware incompatibilities that mean you’ll be using that tech support. (more…)

Fervent Software has released version 1.50 of their music creation suite Studio to Go! This software is a bit unusual: it runs off a bootable CD, so you can carry the CD around and use it anywhere, without installing it. It only runs on Windows PCs, but it actually boots into Linux, and all the software (I think) is open source. (more…)

Ableton Live version 5 will be out very soon. They have a public beta testing program running, so you can have a look at the new Live and try out some of the new features. (more…)

Native Instruments have released Kontakt Experience, a sample collection specifically designed for their Kontakt 2 workstation software. It’s actually more like an expansion pack than a simple library, as it includes scripts as well, which act as mini-plugins. (more…)

Ableton Live 5 will be released later this month. That was quick — didn’t Live 4 only come out a little while ago? Anyway, version 5 has many nifty new tricks. MP3 support, tempo matching, better sampler, and plugin delay compensation are some of the more notable ones. There are also some new effects. It all sounds good and should make a great program even better. (more…)

Digital Performer 4.6 is now available as a free download to users of version 4.5. This upgrade’s big new whiz-bang feature is Pitch Automation. DP detects the pitch of your audio track, and lets you simply draw in pitch correction (with or without formant shifting), drag sections to change notes, transpose, convert audio to MIDI, and various other pitch tricks. On their website they say, “this allows you to manipulate pitch non-destructively in real time using Digital Performer’s standard track-based automation features. From simple pitch correction using the pencil tool, to individual note transposition, to wholesale transposing of an entire audio track, you have unprecedented control over the pitch of your audio tracks.” (more…)

The Wusikstation V2 VSTi is a hybrid synth and sampler VST plugin. It uses ordinary subtractive synthesis, but you can use any sample as the waveform instead of the usual sine wave, sawtooth, etc. Reviews of the first version have been generally very favourable, and Wusik have now released version 2. (more…)

Nine Inch Nails have released their upcoming single Only in several remix-friendly formats. The previous single The Hand That Feeds came with a GarageBand project, but you can download Only in four formats: GarageBand, Ableton Live, Acid, and even Pro Tools. The Pro Tools session has extra tracks containing alternative takes. (more…)

Propellerheads have released a minor update of Reason, version 3.0.3, available for download on their website. This maintenance release has many bug fixes (about 20), some performance improvements, and more support for remote controllers. (more…)

The USB Phono Plus is a USB audio interface with a standalone Phono preamplifier. This looks really useful for plugging your turntable into your computer, and since it’s also a regular audio interface it will have more general use too. I need one of these so I can finally do something digital with my small but perfectly formed 12″ vinyl collection. (more…)