Arturia announces that the Analog Experience 'The Factory' is now shipping.

Analog Experience 'The Factory' - with 32 keys (previously named "Analog Factory Experience") this adds a dedicated keyboard to the Analog Factory software, allowing all sounds to be dramatically modified instantaneously.

Main Features

• Hybrid synthesizer based on advanced Software/Hardware combination:
- New Analog Factory 2.5 inside the box
- 32 Universal MIDI keyboard with velocity and channel aftertouch
- Plug and play: the Hardware and Software instantly recognize each other and offer perfect integration.

• Analog Factory 2.5:
- 3500 synthesizer sounds that have shaped modern music production
- All presets are carefully selected from the Arturia Classic Synths: the Minimoog V, the Prophet V, the ARP 2600V, the Moog Modular V, the CS-80V and the new Jupiter-8V

Max For Live opens new doors in Ableton for interesting, unique content to step through. Max Fuel, the First is Puremagnetik's initial foray into this new world. These 10 end-user devices are ready to work in Live immediately to give you new range in your own Live sets or sparking new ideas for your next step. While each member of this bundle is like a plug-in, you haven't seen plug-ins in Live like these.

• Drop is a multiband device where each band receives a percentage chance of being heard.
• el Effo is a versatile low frequency oscillator/step sequencer for manipulating any plug-in you already have.
• Jumble is an audio processor with the same delay/feedback portion as Bump.
• Side Chainer is a robust converter of any audio signal into a modulation signal for ...

XILS-lab has released a cost-conscious (€30) so- called 'Limited Edition' (full-featured, 'frozen' version) of its XILS 3 soft synth plug-in.

The XILS 3 LE is a limited edition of the XILS 3 synthesizer, it features the complete first version of this software but don't bring the new features added with the 1.1.0 version (two new envelopes, LFO, S&H, sequencer editing, new matrix connections, ...)

The XILS 3 LE is an exciting new matrix style virtual modular synthesizer. Based on the architecture of the legendary EMS VCS3 synth, the XILS 3 is capable of creating both 'classic' sounds and totally new ones.

The XILS 3's matrix design is capable of more than 450 connection permutations, offering more routing p ...

SPL opens a new communication channel with its users – The SPL Blog

It was not conceived as a commercial tool, but rather as a way for SPL to get closer to its users. The German audio manufacturer has chosen the Blog as the platform to communicate with the outside world.

In order to have the most varied and exciting exchange of ideas, SPL decided to launch a multilingual Blog – available in English, German, French, and Japanese. The content is currently divided in different categories, including Global and Local News, Hardware and Software R&D articles, as well as highlights of selected SPL Users. An essential part of the Blog is that all posts can be commented upon and discussed by visitors. Eventually the Blog will include more special services.

As a result of the combination ...

Between two hysterical iPod and iPhone product launchouts, Apple finally decided to bring "new" MacPro and iMac product lines to their loyal computer based customers. That certainly is an event that should enthusiastically be mentioned here if it is that... These "revolutionary" computers are so "un-exiting" that Apple themselves, didn't even bother announcing them via press releases. Some even say that these "new" products are simply there to create diversion against the iPhone 4 "AntennaGate" propaganda...

Lets have a quick look at these amazing "new" computers : The "new" MacPro has the exact same design as its predecessors and has the same mother board. It still features a cheap graphic card (that simply replaces the previous discontinued one?) and still interfaces with old USB2 (while high-end PCs are from now on equipped with USB3) and Firewire 800 connectors (while Apple co-developped Firewire 1600/3200 standards). The "new" MacPro doesn't have eSata or Light Peak interfaces and no, it still doesn't have a BlueRay CDR burner...

The "new" MacPro also features a quad core processor (that can be compared to the double dual core processors launched in 2006...) and up to a dual 6 cores processor... Apple proudly provides 2,5' adapters to fit up to 4 SSD drives in the 3,5 internal bays. Let's just hope the next OS system will support TRIM command (for SSD)... The "new" MacPros should be available in August. The cool thing is that MacPro's only costs 3 times more than the equivalent technology on PC. That makes us so happy to buy Mac Towers, doesn't it ?

Apple also launched "new" iMac computers that from now on feature i3 to i7 processors with "amazing" new graphic cards... Isn't that a trill ? Again, the only exiting thing there is that we might just see the price go up (at least in Europe) as it happened for the MacMini :-/