Milk for your Mac

A desk space that only adds to the class and contemporary image of your mac products? A space that is ergonomical tidy and minimal? Yep, i have found the desk of all desks for your mac/audio gear and it starts with the Danish design house ‘Milk’

The designers go as far to say ‘Its like the lamborghini of desks, exept that its danish’, or ‘its the best bed youve ever slept in, its the best car youve ever driven, the best house youve ever lived in…ah….except its a desk’…..

All a bit much all for just a desk? Yeh probably. I have to admit the ‘Milk’ is a very well thought design incorporating quality materials that match modern tech gear and Mac ware taboot.

With a vertical height adjustment, three models and nifty hidden pleasures…this is an expensive  treat well worth a thought.

A picture tells a thousand words so heres a few 🙂

http://www.milk.dk/

John Bowen Solaris Synth

Ive been searching for a new hardware synth that is a breakout from the parade of monotonous machines out there and may very well have found my new sound toy.

The love child of John Bowen, who started out with Moog Music in 1973, eventually became an integral part of the Sequential Circuits team, and then going to Yamaha for a very brief stint before landing up at Korg, where he headed up the Wavestation series of products, and was involved with the original earlier version of the OASYS keyboard and PCI card.

Drawing on years of experience, John Bowen has crafted his new masterpiece – Solaris. Here are a few features:

• Solaris is as flexible as a modular system, but easier to use – with five 2 x 40 character display sections, one 240 x 64 graphic display, and 40 knobs, the Solaris is capable of great depth in sound manipulation, but designed to be as easy to use as the vintage synths of the past for which John Bowen is known.
• Sound quality is paramount – newly created synthesis algorithms provide unparalleled quality; signal processing handled by SHARC floating-point processors. Internal processing is done at 96 kHz; audio rate modulation provided with sample-accurate precision.
• The Solaris is a purchase which will last for years, through new algorithm “expansion packs” and OS updates.

All processing inside Solaris is digital (and very high quality, running at 32 bit, 96kHz). The software code implements highly accurate models of the components of some (highly desireable) vintage analog synthesizers.

This Solaris in my opinion is a definite standout in the world of current and past Virtual Analog/Analog instruments. My ears pricked when listening to the audio samples, the layout of the hardware looks similar to modern soft synth panels (which is a good thing) simple, innovative and spread out without the need to digg through menus.

If you were to have a synthesizer custom-designed for you, would you want it to have the oscillators from a MiniMoog or a Prophet 5? Or to re-visit another synthesizer favorites from yesteryear, perhaps you would like to have oscillators with all the waveforms from the Prophet VS that gave its sounds such a distinctive edge? How about re-living those unique wavetable sweeps that came from the esoteric old PPG Wave and Waldorf Microwaves? Would you rather depend on sample playback capability for a wide range of sounds or as a concession to newer technology, choose the double saw waveshape available on some of the current virtual analog synthesizers?

With the versatility of the Solaris synthesizer, you don’t have to limit yourself to just one kind of these oscillators. Yes, you can have them all. In fact, each Solaris program has four (!) oscillators that you can set to any of these types.

In short the the Solaris synthesizer is to implement something like a giant wall-sized modular system entirely in software where you can select among several completely different types of oscillators and filters, exquisitely modelled after the components culled from a variety of legendary vintage synthesizers of yesteryear and even some current virtual analog innovations of today

If interested, indicate your desire to place a deposit. A $1000/800EUR deposit will reserve a Solaris (total price $3899.00 + tax&shipping) to info@johnbowen.com

Looking for a lush, high end sonic machine?

Do yourself a favor and head over to http://www.johnbowen.com/ for more.

Logic 9 IS HERE!!!

Finally the newest addition to Apple Logic has hit the shelves. Without being a cut and paste of the Apple site i’ll just mention the new production tools look freaking amazing, and i reckon will increase productivity a hell of a lot when it comes to the fundamental elements of editing. A new ‘Effects type bundle’ for guitarists, similar to what you would find in waves gtr or NI guitar rig etc. Logic comes bundled with Mainstage 2, new synths, new plug ins, production tools and with Snow leopard it will be 64 bit music making goodness. Its here, its sweet check it out

http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/

Full Version – us $499.00

Upgrade from Logic Pro or Logic Studio – us $299.00

Upgrade from Logic Express – us $199.00

Recover your stolen mac – “undercover style”

My younger brother had been out galavanting within the precinct of Prahran Melbourne one weeknight, nothing unusual here. As anyone, he was basking in the overt conversations that flowed from the busy bars thus sending a feeling of reassurance that his fathers car parked one block away would be safe. It was not the car that he was so friggin pissed off about, it was not his sore knuckles from punching an unassuming fence in anger….it was the fact that when he peered through the mass gape in the rear car window now only a slight frame of broken glass he noticed his brand new macbook had been stolen with all of his uni assignments, logic files and other prized personal artifacts. The feeling after a mac has been taken from you is a feeling only you can describe, especially when it is on interest free with no insurance!! and when you do receive insurance it is not even close to what the computer was worth. I think i was more angry than my brother perhaps still in a state after having my new iphone lost after the first week. I scoured the web for answers hoping there was some sort of homing device built in…..in fact i was sure there was such a thing in the new macs. To my disappointment there was no such thing even after my rant and rave starting something along the lines of ‘well in this day and age’…….I kept searching the net and eventually found the perfect weapon for when you have your baby taken from you or unfortunately  lost. The holy grail of Mac recovery is a tiny little piece of software created by Belgium developers ‘Orbicule’ dubbed ‘Undercover’. I love it partly because it will actually put an identity on the thief….hopefully.

Orbicule states that  if your Mac has a built-in or external iSight, Undercover will transmit pictures of the thief and his surroundings every 6 minutes, making it even easier to identify the current user. It’s like having a private detective working for you. They go on to state ‘Undercover is the world’s first theft-recovery software that will send screenshots of your stolen Mac at regular intervals. These screenshots will sooner or later reveal the thief’s identity (e.g. when chatting, reading and writing emails,…) making it much easier to work with law enforcement in order to recover your Mac.

Undercover uses advanced technology developed by Skyhook Wireless to locate your Mac based on Wi-Fi positioning. In addition, Undercover transmits network information, enabling our recovery center to accurately track and locate your stolen Mac within a range of 10-20 meters. Now if this isnt enough to satisfy you and asking ‘what if these measures fail’ Undercover has an ingenious plan B. It will simulate a hardware failure by gradually making the screen darker until it becomes unusable within 30′, even when the Mac is not online. This erratic behaviour should urge the thief to either sell the Mac (e.g. on eBay) or bring it to an authorized Apple reseller. Because we continuously monitor the network settings of a stolen Mac, we can easily detect when the Mac is sold or returned to a Mac shop.

These are some of the key selling points for me, however there are more on the Orbicule site. Unfortunately it was too late for my brother,  but after seeing what he went through my 17″ macbook pro had undercover installed within minutes.

If you love you mac and the contents within it just as much i suggest you check out ;

http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/mac/

Oh and they also provide similar protection for iPhones, which would have come in handy for me last month…..oh well.

“THE” Ultimate plug in?

Nebula for Mac.

Acustica Audio has developed a truly unique plug-in that is capable of emulating numerous types of audio equipment; ranging from equalisers, filters, microphones, preamps, compressors, and reverbs. Acustica However states the list of the types of emulatable equipment is considerably larger than the aforementioned listing. Nebula2 is capable of replicating anything from generic time-variant processors and effects such as flangers, phasers, through to choruses.

Nebula arrives with a 6GB convolution library emulating several hundred items of vintage gear such as preamps, tape machines, compressors and chorus/flanging effects along with the more usual equalizers, filters and reverbs

Nebula captures the dynamics of non-linear devices such as compressors, but also ‘time-variant’ processors such as chorus, flangers and phasers. Apparently, non-linear convolution was only available on hardware products such as Focusrite’s Liquid Mix, while, time-variant devices have never before been captured using this method.

Nebula’s convolution technique is based on ‘Diagonal Volterra Kernels’; in effect, tiny instantaneous snapshots of real-world effects. It processes lots of these kernels at once, and then, rather like a wavetable synth, can scroll through an array of slightly different waveforms to morph them, using a ‘vector engine’ controlled by LFOs, envelopes and so on. For instance, by mapping the input level of the signal to the position in the kernel array, you can reproduce level-dependent processes such as compression or distortion, while scrolling backwards and forwards through a kernel array using an LFO reproduces cyclic sounds such as chorusing and flanging.

It could be possible to have just about any high-end equipment you’ve dreamt of within your DAW.

Now im no tech head but im assuming they run their convolution technique through say – a Neve 1073 – and after some sort of code writing etc a new highly usable Neve 1073 patch is available as a piece of software goodness within Nebulas interface. Now i know companies such as UAD and Waves have been emulating high end gear for a long while now, but in my eyes haven’t got the versatility of the Nebula and they charge a packet. Quantity vs. quality I may hear you say though? This is a new method of re creating the essence of a piece of hardware and may be just as good if not better. Nebula 3 which was PC only (now with Nebula 4 for Mac) coming soon is only 80 euro which includes 60 pre amps, 40 equalizers, 15 compressors, 20 Tapes, 30 Filters, 100 Reverbs, and 80 TMV effects; chorus, flanger etc. The option does sound very sweet. You can apparently emulate ‘your’ own gear to create a custom Nebula!!

As augmentation to your purchase Acustica hosts ‘Nebula-programs.com’ a community for sharing user sampled Nebula programs which his sounds like alot of fun to me! I’ll upload my Rode NT2A and download a Neumann u87! At a very quick glance on the Nebula-Programs site I viewed an API 550b EQ and an API, but im telling you there are hundreds of unique, vintage and plain good sounding emulations in there.

So 1 single multi-effect plug in that comes packed with 6gb standard and the ability to emulate anything from your own bedroom gear to a rack full of vintage gear. And then being able to share with other users….a patch database that is in constant flux is a nice little extra for me as im never satisfied!

Now the Nebula has been a Win only product until now. With the streaming demand from Mac users and rightfully so, the team at Acustica Audio have taken upon a new endeavor to get out an Audio Unit ‘soon’ but with no immediate release date. My personal guess is around Nov-Dec judging by their progress via The Acustica thread.

I will DEFINITELY be purchasing as soon as it is available!!!!

You can check out the manufacturers site;

http://www.acusticaudio.net/

Or the official ‘thread’ – Nebula on MAC OSX

http://www.acusticaudio.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=803&highlight=nebula+mac+osx

Myspace

http://www.myspace.com/acusticaudio

SONART AUDIO – ‘VIRUS VIRTUAL V.2’

Sonart Audio ‘VIRUS VIRTUAL V.2’ – Featuring over 10,160 24bit samples including over 1250 instruments! More than 8 Gb of New Virus Sounds!!!

The virus contains more than 1250 patches of legendary synthesizer. This virtual sound module is ideal for music styles such as: Electro, trance styles, DnB, House, Electro House, Minimal, Techno, RnB, Hip Hop, Jump, hardcore, breakbeat and more!!!

***Contains programs for Kontakt 1 & 2.1, EXS24, Giga 2 | 3 and HALion***

http://sonart.cc/shop/product_info.php?products_id=178

Want a Virus Ti? here is a wicked collection from Sonart Audio. This was tricky to find but here it is. Enjoy

Korg Kontrol 49 Scene Templates / LC XMU for logic users

KORG KONTROL 49+ LIBRARIAN 🙂 /

Ok i admit im pretty lazy when it comes to learning software with midi equiptment when the equiptment is so friggin complicated to use, especially when your a logic 8/k49 as i am. So wouldn’t it be nice if we all shared templates? 🙂 if you do have any templates you would like to share please do so 🙂

KORG KONTROL + LOGIC 8 PRO = 😦

The day i received my korg kontrol 49 i remember being quite excited (my first midi controller woohoo!) im a guitarist…anyway, what happened when i paired my new toy with logic was a series of hand to head scratches and page turning nonsense. I love technology and puzzles, im intelligent and quite switched on….but for the life of me i could not get the modulation wheel to respond with any plug in, nor get any of the logic ’emagic’ templates to correspond with their apparent pre partnered  audio units. Being new to logic ‘coming from cubase’ and new to midi this was a pain. I was aching to produce. I found out Logic ‘took over when the midi interface was present and automatically assigned my controller to the fundamentals of the DAW instead of its plug ins. This meant  i had a controller for logics main vol, track panning and other such mundane daw actions, though no functionality for using my mod wheel, pads rotary encoders or vector on a newly purchased omnishpere. After some light research i came across the program LC XMU. It somehow bridged a gap between my midi controller and logic allowing for modulation and full control over AU’S and plug ins. I dont know how it works…..i might look into it one day, but for now i can just be creative, make music and get on with mixing, mastering and other such pleasures without trying to learn something i ‘just get fidgety about’ Never the less, If you own a midi controller and daw and are experiencing some sort of communication barrier, i suggest trying this program and maybe leaving some comments as to how you went if you do go ahead and give it a go!

LCXMU APP SITE;

http://www.opuslocus.com/lcxmu/

FOR

• Using the following DAW’s;
• Apple/Emagic Logic Audio/Gold/Platinum/Express/Pro 5.3 or higher

• Ableton Live 5.0 or higher
• Apple Final Cut Pro 5.0 or higher
• Apple Soundtrack Pro 1.0 or higher
• Apple/Emagic Logic Audio/Gold/Platinum/Express/Pro 5.3 or higher
• Propellerheads Reason 3.0 or higher
• RME TotalMix 2.01 or higher
• Steinberg Cubase SX/Nuendo 3.0 or higher

Top audio warez sites – Dates for free signup etc.

Over a period of searching i have been using the sites below the most for ‘checking out’ audio units. There are so many more out there but these are my faves in no particular order!

1>Audionews.ru

http://forum.audionews.ru/

Huge selection of Au’s Rtas Vsti Video Tutorial etc.

Registration will be available from 2/8/2009 till 4/8/2009

2>Audiozone Torrents

http://audiozonetorrents.com/signup.php

-request an Invite 🙂

3>Demonoid

www.demonoid.com

-request an invite:)

4>Magesy Back UP!!!

http://www.magesy.us/Descargar/mac-ub-plugins

5> Audiopirate

Alot of warez, tad skimpy on the mac side of things though. Still good site

http://audiopirate.blogspot.com/

6>VSTclub

www.vstclub.com

To my knowledge the creme de la creme on this site is pay for only 😦 – Still hosts large library such as EWQL symphonic orchestra/s etc.

Thats all for now! If you know of any others that are usesful for Audio units please share!