Beta Monkey Music releases Classic Backbeats Plus, a two-CD collection of over 1,200 original drum loops with a decidedly classic and retro sound for today's rock and pop music. With grooves, groove variations, fills, one shots, and single hit samples, this collection of acoustic grooves is designed for any production looking to add the pure and unadulterated tones of an acoustic drum kit that sounds right out of your favorite small to medium-sized club.

The loops are suitable for all variants of the rock and pop genres, but are particularly for use in recording situations where only live, vibrant, acoustic drums will do. The drum loops are organized by BPM and style, ranging from 55 BPM half-time ballad grooves to up-tempo rock and pop grooves at 150+ BPM. All drums are sonically-matched (being from the same recording session) and are free of excessive processing.

Five 12 announce the future availability of Numerology. This next version of Numerology 1.3 will offer several new features, including a new clock module for live groove quantizing, a Matrix Sequencer / Arpeggiator suitable for both drum and polyphonic melody programming (wich was a highly requested item by Numerology users) , MIDI input and more.

Numerology 1.3 is currently in beta testing,. The final release is due on or around December 15th, and all registered users are allowed access to the beta. There will be no charge for the upgrade from 1.2, so if you buy now, you get the upgrade for free.

Was SampleTank released too early ? Is IK Multimedia without beta-testers ?
It's a good question : SampleTank 2 was available on november 3d, the first update came on november 18th and at last the very new update "2.0.2.R2 " is available now, november 28th !!

This new version has no new functionnality but fixes bugs : improved SampleCell convertion, fixed Reverb fx 96KHz bug, fixed multiple instances on multi processor systems and fixed crash on some child preset load.

The Wild Bits just released a new version of Ask The DJ, a $29 shareware which analyses beats to perform truly seamless transitions between tracks.

This new version improves the tracks browser by adding iTunes-like appearance. Columns can now be moved and the layout is saved accross sessions.

Like a real DJ, AskTheDJ matches beats and adapts tempos whenever needed so the music always flows, even when cross-fading between tracks with different bpms. Ask The DJ also cuts unrhythmical intros and outros, and levels volume. Better yet, all this is done automatically. You just need to click Play and dance. You can also export Ask The DJ's mix art to audio files, suitable for burning audio CDs. Ask The DJ requires MacOS X and plays files in MP3, AAC or AIFF format.

The "around the web" page has just got a major update. This page is compiling all the news headlines from several websites dedicated to Mac or music and this page is updated each 20 mn. You can browse headlines either by by day or by website.

Several websites have been added: Apple Presse - MacNN - Think Secret - KVR-Vst - MacUpdate 9 - MacUpdate X - VersionTracker X

to the previous websites listed: MacCentral - Harmony Central - Sonic State - ProSoundNews - VersionTracker 9

As a result no need anymore to surf on 10 different webites to watch the latest news or the latest rumors, updates, instruments, plug-ins, new products, software, and even cooking recipes ;-).

Pleace also notice that these headlines are stored in our database allowing you to browse in the past days and to gloabally search headlines and news using the search form located at the bottom of the news index page.