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.

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.

It’s a shame they didn’t release The Hand That Feeds in more formats — that track really needed some work. Only is one of my favourite tracks from the album; in fact, I am listening to it as I write this. My copy of Acid is playing up these days, so I may have a go with the Ableton Live version.

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

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.

The press release from ART (Applied Research and Technology) says: The USB Phono Plus, (Formerly named the “USB Micro•PRE”) acts as an interface between your computer and a wide variety of analog and digital sources. The analog inputs are switchable between Phono and Line level signals and a low cut filter removes rumble and wind noise while leaving the audio pristine. The front gain trim control and signal/clip LED allow you to optimize the A/D for a wide range of input sources. The front panel USB monitor/headphone jack and the optical output on the rear panel can monitor audio output from your computer. The built-in low noise Phono preamp circuit is highly accurate and precisely conforms to the RIAA standard. The Line Output jacks are always connected to the input preamps signal for source monitoring.

Housed in an all aluminum black anodized case, the USB Phono Plus can be powered by either an external power source or directly off the USB port so remote recording is a snap. Optical TOSLINK inputs and outputs as well as S/PDIF inputs let you use the USB Phono Plus as a digital audio to USB interface as well. The USB Phono Plus is fully compliant with the USB 1.1 specification and uses USB adaptive mode for playback and USB asynchronous mode for record. It will work with the USB audio device drivers built into Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP or Macs with native USB support OS9.1 or greater or OSX. No special drivers are needed.

Upgrade your portable or desktop audio interface in one quick and easy step. The MSRP on the USB Phono Plus is $119.00 and will be available at music specialty stores Worldwide in August 2005.

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.

Sometimes you hear (or write) a piece of music and think, “it’s good, but it just seems to lack a certain something.” Well, finally there is a clever piece of audio engineering that can add that “certain something” to your music!

Rane Corporation, ever the innovaters, have created the PI 14 Pseudoacoustic Infector. This revolutionary sonic enhancement product is just the thing to add zip, vim and vigour to any recording project.

Have you ever wanted to add just a bit of this or a tad of that to your sound? Have you ever wondered what was available to allow it? So have we. The PI 14 gives you the ability to add bits of this and dashes of that, with continuously variable breadth and depth. How much would you pay for this flexibility? But wait. Before you answer that, there’s also the ability to pan from here to there and if you lose your way, there’s a switch to get you back again.

Unfortunately, this marvellous device is currently unavailable due to a parts shortage (perhaps this is related to another of its innovations, the anti-vibration all-concrete chassis). Whenever the PI 14 Pseudoacoustic Infector starts rolling off the production lines, it will be a must-have for every studio. We eagerly await a VST plug-in version.

If you have difficulty maintaining a musical idea for the length of an entire song, why not consider a career as a ringtone composer? The New York Times reports that artists are composing short pieces for mobile phone ringtones.

“We definitely see a market for original content,” said Andy Volanakis, president and chief officer of Zingy, a ringtone provider that has released an album by the producer Timbaland.

When combined with technology that allows them to sound like music instead of its tinny shadow, and programs that allow anyone to make, mix or otherwise devise his or her own ringtones, the seven songs on the Timbaland album — among the first meant to be played on a phone, not a radio or CD player — suggest that ring tones are not merely a new money-maker; they are a new art form.

And here’s that Timbaland “album” in full. It’s not that bad. Better than the Crazy Frog anyway.