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| 09-28-08 / 06:24 PM : iDrum and IR-909 for iPhone (cjed) |
 On the music area, we can find at the AppStore two new well designed applications (not free but cheap) : iDrum (4,99$) allows to create visually new ryhtmic patterns from provided loops and kits, and IR-909 (4,99 $ also) is a virtual drum box that features a Roland TR like step editing interface (it provides samples from TR-909, 808, 707 and 606, and two additional kits. A 2.0 version is being developed. A demo video is available at Youtube). |
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| 09-23-08 / 10:42 PM : Chris Hein Horns Vol. 1.5 - Solo Instruments (cjed) |
| More than 3 years after the first edition, Best Service presents Chris Hein Horns Vol. 1.5 - Solo Instruments, whose patches have been completely re-programmed for Kontakt 2 (player). We find new controls (Key-Switch Presets, Hot-Keys, Key-Vibrato and Real-Vibrato , Legato- and Glide-Mode, Growl-Control, Air-Control, Keys-Control, Spit-Control, Dirty-Notes, Breath Release-Trigger), DSP effects and 21 convolution reverbs, 20 velocity levels and 38 different playing techniques. A G5 or Intel mac is required this time. It is priced 360$ and audio demos are available. |
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| 09-17-08 / 12:21 AM : Spectrasonics Omnisphere available (cjed) |
 As expected Spectrasonics released Omnisphere yesterday, priced 499$. The description page brings new details : 40Gb of samples (includes, besides the new samples from psychoacoustic sound design, the original samples from Atmosphere, and also a best of from Spectrasonics samples libraries), 8 multitimbral parts, a new audio engine that covers all kinds of synthesis (subtractive, FM, granular, waveshaping), up to 10 oscillators per patch (can be of synth type or be samples), 6 LFOs per patch, 32 effects racks (up to 12 effects per patch).A new video presents the software interface. A G5 or Intel mac at 2Ghz is required (also 2Gb of ram and 50Gb of disk space). |
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| 09-14-08 / 06:26 PM : Roland RD GX / Fantom G / Motif XS review (cjed) |
| The Salon de la musique 2008 (Paris) also allowed us to check new Roland, Yamaha and Kurzweil : the Roland RD-300GX provides - at only 1450$, a good keyboard and great piano sounds (the same samples set as with the older RD700-SX - that is the same two pianos). The converters seem great and the sound is much more powerful than the SRX11 Complete Piano put in XV5050. The new RD700-GX provides a third piano (besides the previous two pianos) with a piano panel setting modelisation, and a far more better keyboard (PHA II Ivory Feel with escaping). At 2200$ it will be a good choice for those who don't own an XV or Fantom, as it provides two SRX slots, besides including the new SuperNATURAL electric piano, a better touch, an arpeggiator, XLR outputs, and probably even greater converters. The Fantom G provides stunning evolving/sequenced pads sounds (even better than the ones in the V-Synth GT), and the demoed ARX-01 Super Natural Drums expansion sounded great (much more realistic and powerful than virtual drum softwares). The new Yamaha Motif XS bring some really interesting sounds (basse, drums, great saxophones and solo violins, very realistic and expressive) and also stunning arpeggiator programs : guitar riffs that cover all the styles. However the XS is still much more expensive than the new Korg M50. Finally the new Kurzweil (PC3/PC3X and SP2X) were somewhat deceiving (a bit muddy sound, short samples, despite a good low end power). Globally the electric guitar sounds found on these workstations aren't so much greater than the ones found on the old XV with COSM effects (shipped in 2000). The orchestral sounds can't catch up with dedicated samples libraries (the patchs found on the syhths are full and expressive, but they lack realism in the high end an provide very few articulations). Only Motif XS solo vilolins are really convincing. On the ethnic area the synths have made great progress : the sounds are very expressive and much more various (Ehru, etc.) - notably on the XS and M50. s |
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| 09-13-08 / 02:49 PM : Audio engine : realtime, latency, best practices (cjed) |
| This thread at OSdir gives very useful advices on programming a realtime audio engine, in order to avoid contention/lock from calls to low priority threads (GUI funcitons, etc.), that can lead to latency problems : Most developers seems to do so, they are just too lazy to think about the constraints that real time programming imposes. They believe they can make full use of the operating system, call any system calls they like, C++ constructors, malloc()s etc, accesss to mutexes locked by low priority GUI threads and then after wonder why their application does not work with low latencies or why there are sporadic dropouts they cannot get rid of. These advices are probably to compare with the statements about the reliability of the Logic audio engine. |
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| 09-13-08 / 01:25 PM : MOR latency problem / crackle on PPC fixed (cjed) |
| Since version 1.0.083 of PLAY, performances of Ministry of Rock are far more better on PowerPC (G4 1,25 Ghz), thanks to some optimizing in the audio engine (better use of CPU resources) : the drum kits do not produce anymore CPU peaks, and the Telecaster Lead also benefits from the engine performance enhancements made by EastWest. The user interface is less demanding (in particular the vu-meters). The reverb still produces core audio overload after a few seconds, still randomly as with the previous versions (doesn't seem to be completely tied with CPU power, perhaps more likely to a latency problem... that is a bit more complex). However it is acceptable from a G4, as the reverb algorithm is outstanding (and so very complex). The main problem, audio crackles (and clicks on some samples) with Telecaster patchs (Lead and Chords), had to be fixed by two other means : - first I received from EastWest support team (that I thank) new Telecaster Instruments patchs (that is mapping, not samples), that fixed the clicks problem on the notes I reported (some alternate samples from D#3, E3 et E4 on Telecaster Lead, etc.). In fact they simply excluded the wrong samples from the mapping, using samples from upper (or lower) half tone. A new MOR Instruments update (including these files) is planned, but there is still to know if it will only include Instruments patchs, or also new samples files (was the case for the first MOR update, that included new samples, and weighted 700Mb). However it would probably require new recordings (if clicks cannot be removed easily) and would then cost a lot (and would require the same recording conditions, not easy). - secondly, after many new try, I noted that the persistant crackles that appear randomly (on various notes) when playing many notes simultaneously weren't defects on alternate samples, but were more likely due to a latency problem. The CPU load wasn't very high so I remembered what I reported in the soundsonline forums. I finally noticed that setting the sampling rate (playback) frequency to 48Khz or higher fixed completely the crackles problem (only appears at 44,1Khz). That is using the same audio buffer length (512 samples), in Tiger or Leopard, in standalone or AU mode. In a host such as Logic, the playback frequency can be set through the File->Project settings->audio menu (Options button in standalone PLAY). As explained here and at Apple support page about latency under Logic, setting the frequency higher leads to a lower latency (duration). In fact the audio buffer length (in samples count) remains the same, but each samples is shorter (in duration) due to the higher playback frequency rate. We could also read an interesting article at Sound on Sound stating that the audio buffer length isn't the sole parameter to consider in the latency management. Setting the frequency higher puts more load to the CPU, but not that much from 44,1 to 48Khz, and the better latency achieved seems to have fixed the crackles problem in MOR (that is with the Echo MIA audio card and its current core audio driver version). These tests tend to confirm that the MOR DVDs weren't defective. |
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| 09-11-08 / 10:09 PM : Best Service Xsample Chamber Ensemble (cjed) |
 Soundsonline presents Xsample Chamber Ensemble from Best Service. This library (based on the Kontakt Player 2) provides 9 Gb samples of orchestral solo instruments : Solo Strings (Violin, Viola, Violoncello, Doublebass), Woodwinds 1 (Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon), Woodwinds 2 (Piccolo, English Horn, Bassclarinet, Contrabassoon), Woodwinds 3 (Bassflute, Oboe d’amore, Bassethorn), Harp & Keys (Concert Harp, Steinway B, Celesta, Spinet, Clavichord, Toy Piano), Mallets (Marimbaphone, Xylophone, Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Crotales) as well as many percussions (ran cassa, sidedrum, cymbals, cymbals bowed, cymbals muted, tam-tam, triangle, tambourine, claves, woodblocks, castanets, bar chimes, wind chimes, tom-toms, watergongs, rattle, scraper, steel plates, small anvil, hand bell, tibet bowl, maracas, cabasa, rainmaker, hi hat, bongos, conga, diatonic steeldrum, “frog”, horn, trainpipe, “bird”, metronom, kazoo, lotosflute, jew's harps, kalimba, friction drums, talk drum).It is priced 715$ and audio demos are available. A 2Ghz G4 (doesn't existe... so a dual 1Ghz G4) is required. |
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| 09-11-08 / 09:44 PM : Puremagnetik Blip : Atari 2600 samples (cjed) |
 Puremagnetik added a new samples collection at their download subscription service, Blip. It includes 100Mb of samples (Kontakt, Logic EXS and Live formats) from the Atari 2600 ! An audio demo is available. |
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| 09-09-08 / 11:09 PM : Roland free Workshop Booklets (cjed) |
| Roland provides free PDFs, the Workshop Booklets, that are tutorials on various use themes of their instruments. About Fantom G are available Workshop 01 : The Fantom-G Possibilities, Workshop 02: Power User Control and Workshop 03: Power User Control 2: The Pads. |
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| 09-02-08 / 10:59 PM : Kore 2 Software Edition/ELECTRONIC EXPERIENCE (cjed) |
 NI presents Kore 2 Software Edition (without audio and remote control interface), priced 229$. It includes 500 sounds.They also introduced a new library extension, KORE ELECTRONIC EXPERIENCE, that is a selection of sounds from many Kore Soundpacks, and that is also priced 229$. It includes 800 synth sounds (from FM8 TRANSIENT ATTACKS, MASSIVE EXPANSION VOL. 1, BEST OF ABSYNTH and BEST OF REAKTOR VOL. 1 soundpacks), 150 effects (from DEEP TRANSFORMATIONS), and 8 electronic drumkits (from SYNTHETIC DRUMS RELOADED). Audio demos are available. |
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| 09-01-08 / 11:07 PM : iTouchMidi : iPhone as a Wifi Midi controller (cjed) |
| iTouchMidi provides a Midi software suite for iPhone, in fact applications that allow to transform the iPhone into a Midi controller, through wifi ! The iTouchMidi OSX application (downloadable here for free) has to be installed on the mac where reside the sequencers (the managed audio/Midi softwares are Ableton Live, Garageband, Logic Pro and Express, Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Cubase, Finale, and Sibelius), and the iTM MidiLab application has to be installed on the iPhone (downloadable from the AppStore for free). This is a limited version of the full software suite applications : iTM Keys, iTM Matrix, iTM XYPad, iTM MCU. It however provides a great selection of control features : Button Matrix (4X4, 8X8) with Midi Feedback, Midi keyboard (C-2 -> C8) with pitchbend, XY Pad, sending CC 18 & 19 with spring switches. |
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