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.

They write: “Ultimately, the portability advantages of Studio To Go will be constrained by the quality and Linux-compatibility of the PC hardware that you have access to. The price-to-storage ratio of USB memory sticks tends to make the combination of Studio To Go and one of these more suitable for MIDI work than lengthy multitrack audio sessions, and I suspect most people who want to use the software seriously will take the step of installing it permanently to a hard disk. However, running Studio To Go from the CD-ROM is a quick, easy and reasonably priced way of taking a look at Linux music software, or testing the suitability of your PC for running it.”

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.

A lot of software is included on the CD; the website has the full list. Here are some of the highlights.

• Rosegarden 1.2 (Fervent build) audio and MIDI sequencer and score editor, including audio multitracking
• LilyPond score typesetter for creating notation output
• JACK Audio infrastructure
• Mixers: QAMix, HDSPMixer, envy24control
• Audacity audio editor (Fervent build with JACK support)
• Rezound audio file editor
• Sweep (plus jackasyn for JACK support)
• Ardour hard disk recorder
• JACK Time Machine
• K3b CD/DVD burning
• KAudioCreator
• Effects boxes – Creox, JACK Rack, FreqTweak, QMidiArp
• Softsynths, FluidSynth-DSSI, QSynth, TiMidity++
• Hydrogen — drum machine
• Hexter DX7 Modeling Synth
• Sound drivers
• Lots of effects
• Hundreds of plugins

I knew there is a lot of decent music software in the Linux world. Interesting how this package brings this software to the PC world. I haven’t really used much of this software (except Audacity), so it would be interesting to try it out.

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.

The beta version has a few limitations:

• The system language cannot be set to Japanese.
• The skin can only be set to the default.
• Only a limited set of presets, samples, Live Sets and lessons is included.
• Beta versions cannot be used after a certain date (depends on the beta version)

The website says that no manual is included, but actually there is a PDF manual in the package. Clearly, the lack of Japanese won’t be a problem if you’re reading this website, and you can probably live without a funky skin. The smaller number of presets, etc., won’t stop you from getting a good feel for the program though. Best to jump in and try out the new features now, before the beta program ends.

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.

The Native Instruments website says: Kontakt Experience is the perfect complement to Kontakt 2. This essential expansion pack is far more than just an arbitrary collection of samples. Using the new features of Kontakt 2, like scripting, convolution, surround, its new filters as well as beat-, tone- and time-machine, Kontakt Experience reveals a world of creativity that fully exploits the potential within this immensely powerful sampler. This exquisite sample library reproduces the characteristics of some of the most popular contemporary hardware synthesizers and offers a wide range of new scripts, loops, sounds and drum kits.

Kontakt Experience includes a total of 128 unique instruments divided into ten categories. All instruments have been expertly crafted by renowned artists and professional sound designers covering a wide range of musical styles. The instruments are structured so that they are all highly intuitive and easy to use. New Kontakt scripts such as the loop designer and the drum computer afford incredible flexibility and inject new life into standard instruments. Specialized vocal sounds, animated drum kits, arpeggiated and modern lead synths as well as intricate construction kits form an inspirational collection of new sounds.

Top Features

• Next generation sample library
• 128 highly versatile KONTAKT 2 instruments
• Sophisticated sound design utilizing brand new Kontakt 2 features such as script processing, convolution, new filters and other sound shaping features
• 10 different instrument categories
• 10 new scripts for the Kontakt Script Processor
• Over 1.3 GB of content
• Quick Edit controller assignment on every instrument
• Sounds created by professional sound designers and artists

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.

The Ableton website has the proud new announcement: Ableton is proud to announce the release of Live 5, the team’s biggest development effort since the initial release of Live in 2001. The version 5 feature set extends each aspect of Live — from creation to production to performance — while making the program easier and even more fun to use.

DAW Features. Live 5 includes advanced and creative DAW features to satisfy any audio professional. Read more about clip Freeze, plug-in delay compensation, launchable Arrangement locators and Mackie Control support

Remix Features. Get ready to remix! Live 5 includes a host of new remix-minded features, assuring instant remix and mash-up gratification. MP3 support, automatic tempo-matching, Complex Warp Mode and the new clip transport make remixing a breeze.

Organizational Tools. Never lose ideas again! Live 5 features simple tools for saving, previewing and accessing any idea on your hard drive. Explore the new “Live Clip” file format, better browsing, new preset management, Device Groups and the new library.

Instruments and Effects. Live 5 introduces a selection of innovative new devices, bringing even more creative possibilities. Check out Beat Repeat, Phaser, Flanger, Auto Pan, Saturator, Arpeggiator and the updated Simpler.

Live 5 also brings countless improvements to existing features; for instance, you can change the properties of multiple clips at once, resize and minimize the width of tracks in the Session View, use right-click context menus for most functions and use a count-in for recording. Version 5 is even easier to learn thanks to a new set of lessons and an improved lesson reader.

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.”

There are many other features, too. The Pattern Gate Plug-in is like a drum programming environment for programming complex, rhythmc gates. (And it looks nice too.) There are improvements to the way instruments and effects are managed, and lots of new features relating to film scoring. And there are many other little tweks. My favourite is the Audio Click feature: you can now use any sound you like for the click track (metronome), rather than having the standard boring click. This could really get out of hand — when the click track gets complicated enough, you can probably dispense with the actual music and just program click tracks.

Or maybe I’m just being silly.

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.

Wusik say that Wusikstation comes with a 400 MB set of general synth sounds called “Famous Keys”, and 512 ready-to-use presets. The sounds included come from classic instruments like: ARP, Chroma Polaris, Elka, EML, Juno, Roland Modular, Matrix 12, Oscar, Waldorf, Roland 202, Hammond B3, Casio CZ, Alesis D4, JP6, Mellotron, Micro XT, MiniKorg, Moog Basses, Moog Source, Oberheim, Odyssey, Arp Omni (3 sounds), 3 Piano sounds, Polaris Ominous, Pro 52 Saws, 2 Rhodes and many more… Very 80’s Digital.

Version 2 has many new features, as you would probably expect. From the Wusikstation web page:

• Better File/Preset dialog browser. Now you can organize your files the way you want to. This is a BIG change, as now you can organize very LARGE libraries using any number of level-down sub-directories. This covers SoundSets, Sounds and Presets.
• Categorization of Presets now possible, thanks to the new File dialog above.
• Comes with the DigiOne SoundSet for an extra 114 HQ presets.
• MicroTuning support via Scala .TUN files
• MouseWheel and Keyboard support for all hosts. Copy and Paste of Layers.
• File-Search for when a SoundSet/Sound is not found.

Be careful though — some users have reported problems with this new version. Keep an eye on the support forums on the website for more information and updates.

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.

They’re releasing upgrades and I haven’t even started playing with Reason 3 yet. Maybe it’s the interface that I find daunting — they have done a fantastic job of making Reason look like a real music rack — but aren’t computers supposed to make things simpler? Anyway, I’d better have a look at it before Reason 4 comes out.

The website has a full description of all the bug fixes and enhancements. Here’s what they say about the new features: This is a maintenance update for Reason 3.0 users that brings enhanced performance and stability and a few new additions.

Additions in Reason 3.0.3

• Added Remote support for the Frontier Design Group TranzPort wireless controller
• Added Remote support for the M-Audio Ozonic
• Track mute and solo for selected track now controllable from Remote

An upgrade to Steinberg’s Cubase music production system will be available as a free download in August. The update will be for Cubase SX and Cubase SL. Steinberg say there are more than 50 new features in the 3.1 release. This includes better integration with Yamaha hardware, more sound encoding support, and the usual editing tweaks and bells and whisltes.

The Steinberg press release says this: Among the new features coming to Cubase SX with the 3.1 update is the latest stage of the ongoing Studio Connections collaboration between Steinberg and Yamaha. This innovative technology allows the seamless integration of Yamaha hardware in Steinberg host applications. Studio Connections II: Audio Integration allows convenient monitoring and mixing of Studio Manager devices just like VST instruments in the Cubase SX VST audio mixer. Other external instruments not supported by Studio Connections can be integrated just as easily. Also new to Cubase SX 3.1 is the ability to control external hardware effects via MIDI, giving full control over external effects hardware from within Cubase SX.

Cubase SX 3.1 now includes support for Steinberg’s optional Dolby Digital and DTS Encoder plug-ins, opening these world-standard formats to all Cubase SX users. Additional processor optimization means that Cubase SX/SL 3.1 supports not only Mac and PC multiprocessor systems but also the latest AMD and Intel DualCore processors as well as Hyperthreading and DualCore over dual processors. This puts the considerable performance increases these technologies allow fully within the grasp of professional musicians and producers using Cubase SX and SL.

Further additional new mixing features in Cubase SX and Cubase SL include a new “Equal Power” panner, a new set of mixer key commands and extended copy functions for mixer channels. MIDI output delay compensation means that proper timing is maintained even when using external MIDI instruments that are mixed through the VST audio mixer. “Freezing” of MIDI track playback parameters allows quick and easy rendering of playback parameters into MIDI data.

HALion Player is a new software sampler from Steinberg. It’s a cut-down and simplified version of their HALion 3 engine — more like a ROM-based sampler than a flexible software sampler. But it’s much cheaper than the full HALion 3.

The website has more details: Tailored to newcomers to virtual sampling, HALion Player puts many of the next-generation technologies available on the HALion sampling platform behind a sleek, no-frills interface. HALion Player is the perfect choice for any User searching for a stable, easy to use and affordable sample content playback module for VST, DXi2, AU and any Rewire environment. It provides a low-cost yet high-quality way of playing any of the hundreds of commercially available HALion libraries as well as Wav / Aif / Rex / Rex2 / Zgr and LM4 instrument files.

HALion Player includes the full HALion 3 sound library, consisting of a broad selection of highest quality instrument and drum sounds, and utilizes the award-winning, surround-capable HALion 3 playback engine. HALion Player also offers the outstanding Waldorf filters and disk-streaming power that have helped establish HALion 3 as one of the top virtual samplers available today in terms of both sound quality and performance.

The unique Q-Control concept introduced in the new HALion 3.1 version provides HALion Player with an adaptable set of sound-shaping controls. All HALion libraries include predefined Q-Controls which have been assigned to a certain set of parameters by the content creator and are chosen to ideally suit shaping and forming sound for that program. This allows a high degree of flexibility in altering and shaping sounds with HALion Player, while keeping functional clutter to a minimum.

The advanced HALion Player program loading facilities unify finding, selecting and loading a sound for quick, no-hassle access to even the largest HALion sample libraries. HALion Player also offers 256-voice polyphony delivering pristine 32-bit audio to up to 256 audio outputs into the mixer of the host application.

Features

• Award-winning HALion 3 technology at a very affordable price
• Ultra easy user interface, clean, handy and easy to understand even for beginners, simply can’t misused
• Includes the full HALion 3 sound library, consisting of a broad selection of highest quality instrument and drum sounds
• Loads and plays back any HALion HSB, fxp and fxb Content
• Allows import and keyboard mapping of Wav / Aif / Rex / Rex2 / ZGR and LM4 files
• Q-Controls – 8 Content pre-defined Sound shaping parameters per program allows instant fun while tweaking without the need to understand the complex architecture creating the Sound. Remote controllable with the all new set & forget MIDI learn mode.
• Sound Category System support, no difference between finding, selecting and loading a Sound
• 256 Voices polyphony and a maximum of 256 audio outputs, 16 sounds on 16 MIDI channels simultaneously per instance
• Connects to everything: VST, DXi2, AU, Rewire and standalone