PC Plus reviews Sony Acid Pro 5 and write: “This new version aims to keep the upgrade momentum going. But if that’s the theory, the reality doesn’t quite match it.” VST and ReWire support are welcome but overdue, they say, and they are disappointed with the new Groove Mapping feature: “In practice, this is something of a toy feature that has its uses – some of the funk grooves sound excellent on funk-style loops, but doesn’t live up to its full potential.”

The new timestretching and beat mapping tools are “worth playing with” — “Acid remains a fantastic demo and song sketching tool, and it’s exceptionally good at both,” but the sound quality is “a notch or two down from what would be needed to put together an entire song if you were trying to work at a high professional level.”

Overall, they think the upgrade is “something of a missed opportunity. Ableton-style live arranging, playback and a general spruce up in the sonic department would have been very welcome, but unfortunately the changes on offer here are rather less adventurous.” It’s true that the startling advances made by previous Acid upgrades are missing in Acid Pro 5. They conclude their rather lukewarm review by saying the upgrade is not really worth it, but Acid Pro 5 is still a good program for beginners: “if VST compatibility doesn’t matter to you, there’s no hugely compelling reason to trade up from version 4. … But for beginners who want the sheer joy of putting together something that sounds almost as good as a radio hit, and for anyone else who enjoys dabbling with music making, Acid will provide months of entertainment.”

Computer Music reviews Cakewalk Project5 Version 2 in their May issue (old, but good). They gave it a very good review, rating it nine out of ten. They’re impressed by the many changes in this new version, and they think all of the changes have improved an already useful program. Actually, the only change they didn’t like about version 2 is that the box it comes in doesn’t look as nice!

They say the most striking alteration is the total abolition of the SYN.OPS window., which was used to display the interface of the select instrument of effect. The entire window has been replaced with a “stylish” left-hand oriented “inspector”. This leaves the bottom half of the main screen free. “This is a major workflow alteration from version 1, and after just a few hours with the program, you begin to see the logic behind this change. Everything you need is now available from just the one screen.”

The new Groove Matrix feature has attracted a lot of comment. It’s a grid of cells into which you can drag and drop any pattern, sample or groove. You can then trigger them either by hitting the Groove header at the top of each column or by triggering via MIDI remote control. This is similar to Ableton Live’s Session View and they say its “a fantastic tool for live performance or fast, experimental on-the-fly song arrangement.”

The new instrument, the Dimension sampling synth, gets an ecstatic thumbs-up. They call it an “incredible addition to Cakewalk’s studio” and say, “The presets are excellent, and with its innovative synthesis options, Dimension brings a new twist to the soft-sampling scene. It’s so good that we almost gave it a review of its own.”

Overall, the reviewers note that the Project5 engine looks and feels much slicker, and uses much less CPU than previously. The audio engine is also much smoother. The whole thing is a huge improvement over version 1: “P5 2 raises the bar significantly in comparison to its predecessor, yet still has an incredibly low price tag.” Their final recommendation speaks for itself: “This is one hell of an update. Improved workflow, a glitch-free and ultimately more reliable audio engine, better instruments, stacks of new features … and a fresh new look make it an essential purchase for users of version 1.” And for people who weren’t happy with version 1: “It’s time to re-try the demo.”

Wave Editor is a new audio editor for Mac OS X. It’s the second product from Audiofile Engineering, makers of the Sample Manager batch audio processor. The main special feature seems to be its handling of fades — they are non-destructive and can be applied as various bezier curves rather than simple linear or sine curves. You can try it out for yourself — their website offers a free 15-day trial version.

There’s more information on the website and in their press release. They say: Wave Editor is the essential audio editor for Mac OS X. Designed in Cocoa from the ground up, Wave Editor proudly takes advantage of CoreAudio, Quartz Extreme, and other core features within Mac OS X. Wave Editor takes over where Peak and Spark left off, incorporating the standard audio editing features you’re used to while bringing you up-to-date with the latest advances in interface design, speed and stability.

Wave Editor introduces the concept of “layered audio”. It allows audio professionals to layer audio of any rate, bit depth, and number of channels, add Audio Units and fades on top of each other, edit them, then flatten the resulting file, a process that takes much longer with legacy editors.

Wave Editor’s application of fades is new to audio editors: fades as “overlays” on top of the audio that can be adjusted in real-time before they are applied. And, for the first time in any audio editor, you can use quadratic or cubic bezier curves to shape the fades to obtain the smoothest natural effect.

Wave Editor also includes an advanced inspector, statistical analyzer, standard audio processing features, three advanced meters, full support for Audio Units, support for MP3 and AAC, and much more.

Mix magazine reviews the Tascam GigaStudio 3 software sampler. “GigaStudio 3 addresses previous versions’ shortcomings while adding some great new features” such as the GigaPulse convolution reverb. This feature adds a lot of processor overhead, but “even with Giga 2, you could get a lot of mileage out of a single computer loaded with 1.5 to 2 GB of RAM. … Giga 3’s memory access has improved considerably.” A good thing too, because the convolution impulse processor is used extensively: “for example, the new GigaPiano 2 uses impulses instead of piano samples to create the pedal-down and release/staccato resonance effects.”

In fact, the reviewer is very impressed with the way the convolution processor is used in GigaStudio. Tascam cleverly wring the maximum out of the CPU to get the best-sounding effect — “these programs are just terrific”.

“The original GigaSampler revolutionized sampling, and Giga 3’s integrated convolution processor, GigaPulse, has opened up a whole new set of creative possibilities. In addition to being an efficient engine for running multiple path surround reverb programs, it can simulate anything that produces an impulse response — effects, spaces, instrument bodies, mics, amps and more — and those impulses can be integrated right into the sample programs.” Clearly, it’s the GigaPulse core that makes GigaStudio what it is.

They also go through all the incremental improvements over the previous version — basically, GigaStudio 3 has more of everything. The review concludes with a resounding recommendation: “In short, it’s the current state-of-the-art in sampling. GigaStudio 3 took a long time coming, but it was well-worth waiting for.”

Computer Music reviews Cubase SL 3, the “lite” version of Steinberg’s sequencer and music production package. The standout new feature is the Audio Warp, which they say enables powerful timestretching and pitch shifting capabilities. Just like Acid. And it now supports the Acid file format. Interesting.

Another whizbang new feature, they say, is the Play Order track. “This allows you to divide your tune up into sections and arrange it using a pattern-based layout system.” There’s also the Audio prerecord, feature — this is great. It’s close to the Holy Grail of recording software — recording everything you do all the time, so that great, spontaneous take won’t be lost.

Now, this is the reduced version of the full Cubase SX package, so there are limitations. “If you rely heavily on virtual instruments, you may find that 32 slots (as opposed to SX’s 64) is too few. Cubase SL also lacks SX’s expandable mixer, which “gives easy access to EQ, inserts and sends.”

In the end, they give Cubase SL 3 a rating of 8 out of 10 — solid, but not outstanding, especially by comparison to the big SX. Still, they say, “Cubase SL 3 offers most of the key functionality of its bigger brother, and as such should be more than enough for many musicians.”

PC Plus reviews Nuendo 3, Steinberg’s high-end music media production application. I was never really clear on the difference between Nuendo and Cubase, but now I know the main difference: price. Nuendo is very expensive. In fact, it’s out of the Laptop Studio league. Nonetheless, it’s interesting to find out what all that extra cash buys you.

First of all, “Steinberg has at last tidied up all of the dangling loose ends that afflicted earlier versions.” Sounds good so far. Nuendo 3 apparently has broader functionality in general. For example, it supports every sound format you’ve heard of and many you haven’t, and it has excellent support for a networked environment. These are the sorts of thing that a professional user would need, rather than the typical Laptop Studio user.

The conclusion agrees with this: “Unless you’re a home studio buff, Nuendo will almost certainly be too much for you, if only because of the inflated price. But if you’re serious about music, or you work with it professionally, it’s a more plausible option, especially in a sound-to-video context.”

VideoSystems review Acid Pro 5: “if you are looking for some cool new features that will make you think about using the program in new ways, then Acid Pro 5 dishes up some interesting surprises.” One such surprise is Groove Mapping, which looks to be their favourite new feature. With Groove Mapping, you can alter the “feel” of a track, rather than just the pitch or tempo. It works by automatically making tiny adjustments to the tempo all the way through a track or song, based on another track. So you can create a straight 4/4 song, and quickly use Groove Mapping to give it “the live sway of jazz or the immediate kerbump of hip hop”. Very nice.

They also especially appreciate the new media manager, and recommend investigating Sony’s loop CD collections. I can agree with that — I especially like all of the distorted, industrial sounds on CDs like Electronic Point-Blank, Extremely Abrasive Beats and Electrocution. Nowadays they sell ’em in packs like their Electronica Pack 1. They also talk about the acidplanet.com community, which features work by many Acid users around the world. Including me!

On the downside, Acid Pro 5 does not export to MP3 out of the box — you have to pay more money for this. They also think the interface wastes too much space. But overall they really like this new version: “It has a few new killer additions that keep it the powerhouse it has been, as well as lots of little touches that users have been asking for. … It’s the king for a very good reason. The program is smart and makes it very easy to be creative. Acid continues to be the leader in loop scoring. I highly recommend it for a first purchase, and the upgrade price is low enough to make it a no-brainer.”

Remix magazine reviews Cakewalk Project5 Version 2. They say, “this latest incarnation of Project5 is designed to be a complete recording, composition and performance platform that will work right out of the box with essentially infinite expansion possibilities.” The review runs through the features of this program and says that Project5 is excellent: it’s intuitive and easy to use, yet it’s very powerful and sounds great.

The only real problem they noticed is that there were performance problems running on a slower PC: “If you wish to run Project5 Version 2, you should absolutely heed the package’s advice on minimum system requirements and avoid running it on a Celeron.”

They like the interface, which is clean and efficient and allows for a smooth workflow. They also rate the MIDI implementation highly, calling it “deep and responsive”. Every area of Project5 receives praise, and the conclusion is overwhelmingly positive: “Project5 is easy to learn yet feature-deep, the instruments and effects sound rich and original, the user interface is well-laid-out and intuitive, and its stability and expandability are to be commended. However, it is like an old hot rod: It sports a large engine and consumes a lot of gas (CPU cycles). Project5 is definitely not for wimpy computers. But if you have a powerful PC workstation and want a one-size-fits-all MIDI and audio composition, synthesis, sound-design and live-performance tool, Cakewalk’s Project5 is a great way to fit the bill.”

PC Plus reviews Propellerhead Reason 3 and rate it as an excellent 87%. “Still the king of the softsynths, this is a package to be reckoned with.” They note the new Combinator, which allows instruments to be combined into, well, a combination. They also mention the new mastering tools and the improved hardware controller support. They have some issues with the sequencer (who doesn’t?) and the sound quality, as well at the unique “rack” interface, but they don’t consider them to be showstoppers. Reliability is still very good.

Overall they do like this program: “For Reason’s core home studio market, it’s a fantastic product exploding with creative potential and capable of results that can more than hold their own against much pricier musical toys at almost any level. It’s also a lot of fun. For the price, you really can’t go wrong.”

The Ray Gun line of noise filter plugins from Arboretum systems now includes an Audio Units version for Mac OS X. Aside from the cool name, the plugins have a number of noise removal features. These are the features of the Pro version (from the website) — reduced versions are also available.

Intelligent Search Function Ray Gun finds and eliminates noise, all by itself. Fine-tune the processing using Ray Gun’s simple Attenuation, Threshold and Sensitivity controls.

Noise Reduction Ray Gun uses fast spectral analysis, a downward expansion function and special search-and-destroy noise busting technology to reduce or eliminate broadband noise, including fan sound and tape hiss.

Pop/Click Removal Ray Gun finds the spikes, clicks and pops in your file, and seamlessly removes them from your audio.

Filtering Get rid of pesky 60-cycle hum and low-end rumble. For European electrical systems we’ve also included 50-cycle hum filtering.

Level Correction If the noise reduction you’ve selected is so extreme that the overall level is decreased, you can make up for the volume loss at the output stage.

Enhancement The Enhancements section of Ray Gun DirectX offers a classical bass/treble equalizer and a stereo enhancer.

Automation When used within a Mac OS X Audio Units plug-in host that supports this feature Ray Gun Pro AU parameter changes can be fully automated.