Granted Software announced today the immediate availability of Rax 1.1 for Mac OS X. Rax turns your Mac into a virtual rig for live performance, slaving instruments and effects from another app or offloading DSP to a second computer. With its streamlined UI, this is the easiest way to play AudioUnit instruments and process live audio through your AudioUnit effects. This new version features : MIDI Mixer control, 24 bit recording, native sample rate recording (no longer limited to 16 bits at 44.1kHz).

Rax 1.1 is a free update for registered users.

It had been rumoured for some time now, and today it is made official : Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, won't present the ritual opening Keynote of the Apple Expo in Paris on August 31st. Steve Jobs, who suffers from pancreas cancer, has recently undergone a surgical operation and has therefore announced that he wanted to have a rest in August.

This keynote (or rather what will be left of it) will be presented by Philip Schiller (Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing).

Apple Expo, what a treat! Once again MacMusic will participate in European's largest Apple event that will be taking place from August 31 to September 4th at the "Parc des expositions de Paris". Your favorite site will be at booth C97, we have invited our friends from MacFr to share this space with us. During that week, if you want to rest your poor feet, to transpose the Open Bar into the real world, but most of all if you want to put a face (or anything else) on the familiar psedos (or for the more daring go and share a beer). The booth C97 (in french Stand C97) will be your privileged meeting point. Just looking at our grins on last year's picture should be enough to urge you to immediately ask for your 2004 Apple Expo badge !!

SimpleChord is a quick, handy reference to chords for musicians. It can aid in learning new chords, building progressions, transcribing, and other tasks. Dan Grover has released a new update (v.2.2.1) which features : fixed display bug with optional black notes under red (default) appearance and interface refinements.

Info on the MacMusic softwares section.

KTGranulator 1.2 is a delay line granulator in VST and AU fomrats for Mac OS X. It works like this: incoming (mono) sound is fed into a delay line from which small pieces of various durations and at different moments in the past are selected. Each of these pieces is then amplified, transposed and enveloped to form a "grain". This new version has a new parameter "split pitch" that when enabled will make the plugin choose either the maximum or minimum value for the pitch (and nothing in between). The AU version also had a few internal changes and a little bug fix.

Info and download from the MM Softwares section.