MusikMesse has closed last week-end, it is time for a little summary of this edition.

Here at MacMusic we have been nicely surprised specially regards to the deceiving last NAMM show. Some great initiatives have raised for our contentment, like the products from SM Pro Audio giving "freedom" to our plugin in a live context for instance, or also Circle from FAW, this virtual synthetizer which simplicity and ease of use are really appreciated. We've also enjoyed to see again the Artist Series from Euphonix, already seen at NAMM.

But overall the biggest surprise was Direct Note Access by Celemony... a real revolution which could well change our view on processing the sonic universe... the Team is unanimous to celebrate this fantastic product which is for sure The discovery of this MusikMesse 2008.

What about you ? what did you noticed at the MM ?

IK Multimedia and NOTION Music inc. are pleased to announce the integration of AmpliTube 2 DUO software with PROGRESSION software. AmpliTube 2 DUO, a special version of AmpliTube 2, will automatically install with all new copies of PROGRESSION guitar composition software. NOTION Music's PROGRESSION is an easy-to-use guitar application for creating, learning, and distributing music.

Purchasing PROGRESSION qualifies users for special discounted prices on the AmpliTube 2 upgrade and also on discounted crossgrades across the entire range of IK Multimedia products. Existing customers of PROGRESSION can upgrade to the new version that includes AmpliTube 2 DUO at no charge by visiting NOTION Music's web site.

Antares Audio Technologies has announced AVOX 2, the second generation of the Antares Vocal Toolkit.

Not only this new version includes the original AVOX plug-ins but it also adds an additional five state-of-the-art vocal processing modules, including the recently released Harmony Engine Vocal Modeling Harmony Generator.

New plug-ins :

- Harmony Engine Vocal Modeling Harmony Generator: a real-time harmony generating plug-in
- MUTATOR Extreme Voice Designer: it provides a combination of tools for creating unusual, weird, or downright wacky voices
- ARTICULATOR Vocal Formant and Amplitude Modeler: a modern-day version of the venerable talk box, ARTICULATOR lets a user extract the formant and amplitude information from a vocal (or other dynamic source) and apply it to any other audio track.
- WARM Tube Saturation Generator: based on Antares' Tube plug-in, WARM warms up vocals while being so processing-efficient that it can be used on every track in a project with negligible impact on CPU usage.
- ASPIRE Aspiration Noise Processor: a tool for modifying a voice's breathiness independently of its harmonic content.

AVOX 2 will be available in April for Mac OS X and Windows in AU/VST/RTAS formats at a price of $599 (which represents a greater than 60% savings over the MSRPs of the individual plug-ins). Upgrades will also be available to owners of Harmony Engine and the original AVOX bundle.

As part of its commitment to providing end users with ongoing enhancements for its flagship music workstation the M3, Korg has recently created 512 additional Programs which are now available as a free download from Korg's website. Created in direct response to customer feedback around the world, the new Programs cover a number of essential sounds, such as classic keyboards, guitars, basses, brass, woodwinds and more.

These new Programs double the internal EDS Programs available on the M3, from the current 512 Programs to 1024, increasing functionality, versatility and creative options. Included are a number of nuanced pianos; vintage electric pianos, reed pianos and clavinets; acoustic strings and vintage string keyboard sounds; brass and woodwinds, featuring new multi-instrument combinations; realistic guitar sounds modeled after a wide variety of amp types and sizes; and classic analog synths.

Also released is a collection of 128 Combinations which blends the EXB-RADIAS synthesis option with the onboard EDS Programs. It covers a wide assortment of sounds, from playable splits and layers, to imaginative soundscapes, to examples of triggering the RADIAS vocoder with drum grooves from KARMA.

Synful Orchestra has been updated to v2.4.4.

Changes :

- Fixed an important bug that occasionally caused users to lose their Synful Orchestra Control - Panel setups when they saved a project file.
- Fixed a problem that sometimes caused the challenge/response authorization window to freeze up so that it was not possible to paste in a response code.