Steinberg will soon release Cubase SE3, the new version of its entry-level music production and sequencing software. This upgrade brings in some of the features from the professional Cubase SX3 package, such as delay compensation. Steinberg’s view is that “Cubase SE3 is ideal for anyone working on a tight budget but who can’t do without professional technologies in their home recording, project or pre-production environment.” (more…)

SampleRobot is an “automatic sampler” from German sound design people Skylife. It’s a quick way of getting all the sounds from your big clunky old synth modules into your shiny laptop studio — it actually plays your hardware snyth and records the results for playback through its software sampler. Skylife call it “the missing link between sound source and software sampler.” (more…)

Traktor DJ Studio 3 will be the next version of Native Instruments’ software DJ mixing system when it arrives in November. This version features no fewer than four virtual decks — just try that with Technics 1200s. It also has several tempo-synced effects and an emulated 4-channel mixer to put it all together. If Ableton Live feels too much like a computer program to you, try Traktor for live performance to get that old-skool vibe going. (more…)

FuzzPlus 2 is a fuzzbox plugin from Audio Damage, makers of the mighty dubonic DubStation plugin. FuzzPlus is a fuzzbox plugin with the same fun cartoon interface and very simple controls. The basis of this plugin is a transform model of “a famous vintage fuzz pedal,” though they don’t say which one. And importantly, it’s not just cheap — it’s free. (more…)

Harmony Central has a very, very long and episodic review of Ableton Live 5. It’s quite thorough — they even look at a very useful feature that doesn’t get enough attention — the tutorials. “Turns out they’re actually pretty useful and quite well done. The “Tour” loads an example file, then takes you through all the main operations: clips, scenes, mixing, and the like. If you’re new to Live, this would be extremely helpful. The Tour tutorial has 27 pages and includes a fair amount of material, but not so much as to be overwhelming.” (more…)

n-Track Studio 4 is the latest version of the audio & MIDI digital multitrack recording software from Italy’s FASoft. Starting from the initial idea of being a souped-up multitrack recorder, it’s added many features over the years and now supports plugins, ReWire, surround sound mixing and a whole lot of other goodies, as the website says: You can record, playback, overdub just like with a tape multitrack recorder, but you can exploit the flexibility and power of today’s PCs for applying effects, realtime input processing, automated aux channels sends and returns, destructive and non-destructive wave editing. The program supports 24bit-192 khz recording, multiple channels soundcards, live input processing, CD burning, MP3 encoding and much more. (more…)

Synful Orchestra is an orchestra instrument plugin. It sounds like a fantastic idea: most orchestral instrument plugins will respond to key velocity and modulation — Synful Orchestra responds as a whole, in a complex way, to a full range of expressive gestures such as staccato notes and portamento. It’s almost as if you are conducting an orchestra rather than playing an instrument. Synful, the makers, put it this way: “Synful Orchestra responds to the performer. When you play a phrase with legato and detached notes, with accents, and pedal nuances, Synful Orchestra responds with realistic sounding slurs, tonguing, and bowing. No laborious editing of performances to select from a limited set of articulations in a sample library.” (more…)

Acoustica is an audio editing program from Acon Digital Media. Acon version 3.3 has been released, adding quality enhancement of old LP or tape recordings, effects chaining and many other tweaks. Acon say that Acoustica’s audio editing engine allows unlimited undo and redo levels, fast non-destructive editing and 24 or 32 bit editing with up to 192 kHz sampling rate. You can import tracks from audio CDs and create audio CDs with your edited material without leaving the program. Acoustica reads and writes Ogg-Vorbis, Wave Audio, Windows Media Audio, MP3 and Sun Audio files, and imports audio tracks from MPEG Video AVI and WMV files. It seems to have decent features for such an inexpensive program. (more…)

Computer Music magazine reviews Key Rig, the first virtual instrument from M-Audio. They note its easy-to-use interface, clearly designed for keyboard players rather than hardcore programmers. The most important module of the four included is the Stage Piano module, which contains various pianos and synth pads. Strangely, the reviewers say that this module does not include any clavinets, but M-Audio’s website explicitly says that this module contains “grand pianos, Wurlitzer, classic electric pianos, FM, clavinet and more” (my emphasis). If your heart is set on a clavinet, you’d better check this first. Apart from this, they rate the Stage Piano module sounds as “serviceable” — if you want the best piano sounds then you should look elsewhere (and probably pay more). This is the price you pay for Key Rig’s simplicity and convenience. (more…)

Wave Arts have released MultiDynamics 5 as part of a major upgrade across their plug-in line. MultiDynamics is a multiband dynamics processor useful for mastering, noise reduction, volume maximization, sound design, and more. It’s one of five plug-ins in their upcoming PowerSuite 5 bundle; once all five plug-ins have been upgraded, PowerSuite 5 will leave the building. (more…)