At MusikMesse, the Vienna Symphonic Library team unveiled Opus 2, which comprises basic articulations of instruments taken from other Horizon Series titles, such as Solo Strings, Epic Horns, French Oboe, or Woodwind Ensembles. Opus 2 is available in EXS24, GigaStudio, HALion and Kontakt formats.

Opus 2 includes 9.3 GB of data on 2 DVD-ROMs and retails for $495

Edirol annouces an innovative product - the CG-8 Visual Synthesizer. Just as synthesis in music prompted new waves of musical creativity so the CG-8 is set to do the same for the visual artist. In a musical context, a sampling synthesizer takes audio in or regenerates it from a wave generator and then modulates it with filters and amplifiers before outputting the sound.  In a similar fashion the CG-8 can take in still images, create motion pictures from these and then modulate them with Modifiers and Fade Controllers. Designed to enhance live performance in today's merging world of audio and visual, the CG-8 will allow DJ's, musicians and visual artists to create stunning visual patches.

The dark veil is still down on it (been on nerves for weeks), but we have already some hints of the next clavia instrument. As its feet were betraying it, it's a live oriented keyboard. The Stage will be a piano, organ and mono-oscillator synth with an effect section, reverbs, amplificator simulation, compressor, EQ… Lots of on hands control beside the pitch stick and mod wheel familiar to Clavia users, including a switch to jump to a different panel setting.

The 6 multitimbral voices of the instruments are :
- 2 voices for the piano: Rhodes Mark I, Clavinet D6, Wurli 200A, Electric Grand model G, Yamaha C7 Acoustic Grand and an upright piano for the fun.
- 2 (one for each manual) for the organ : farfisa, vox
- 2 voices for the synth : substractive synthesis, wavetables, filter 12 and 24 dB
Now we don't know the polyphony as price and availability…

[edit: the veil is up now ;)]

After one hint on the mailing list, Elektron confirmed today that they are working on Something Else, giving no details. Daniel has been very clear it'll be shown in London at the forthcoming Sounds Expo of the 14-16 of April.

Don't ask me, I don't know either… But coming from these guys, I expect the unexpectable.

Now what can UW mean… Ûber Wavetables? mhmmm (scratching tod of head)

Guitar Combos by Native Instruments is a series of three charismatic amp emulations that combine studio-grade sound quality with maximum ease of use. The Guitar Combos series consists of the Twang Combo, the AC Box Combo and the Plexi Combo. The Twang Combo is modelled after the Fender Twin Reverb and delivers a wide range of clean and crunch tones suitable for Pop, Jazz, Blues and Country styles. The AC Box Combo is modelled after the Vox AC-30 and delivers a wide range of clean and crunch sounds that lend itself to Pop, Rock, and Alternative styles. The Plexi Combo is modelled after the Marshall JMP50 and delivers a wide range of crunch and overdrive sounds, which makes it the first choice for various flavors of Rock, Metal and Psychedelic.

Guitar Combos will be available in May 2005 for $79 for each combo. Furthermore, a bundle version with all three combos will be available for $199.