At this year's Winter NAMM Show, the Vienna Symphonic Library team have announced that they will be presenting a wealth of innovations at its largest booth in the history of the company. The revelation of the long-awaited Vienna MIR reverb software, the Vienna Suite audio plug-ins, as well as the current update of Vienna Ensemble 3 are giving the company enough reasons to travel with its massive sound proof Presentation Cube, which will appear at their booth, #7101 in Lobby A.

Furthermore, the largest virtual piano ever seen, the Vienna Imperial, will be presented along with other Vienna Instruments by the biggest NAMM team the company has ever brought to the United States.

Vienna MIR
After years of theoretical and applied research, technological changes, hardcore software develop ...

Max for Live is a new product, co-developed by Ableton and Cycling '74. Quite simply, it puts the power and potential of Max/MSP inside Live. With Max for Live, it's possible to create completely new instruments, effects and extensions that go beyond the common and predictable and transcend the limits that conventional tools impose. The possibilities
are virtually endless, from completely unique synths and effects, algorithmic composition tools or radical, new music machines fusing Live and controller hardware. Max for Live is a chance to join a society of makers and share ingenuity.
Max for Live will be available from Ableton later this year. No price available yet.

Spectrasonics announced and previewed their brand new virtual instrument Trilian, the long-awaited successor to their Trilogy bass module. The new instrument has a much larger core library and features highly-detailed new acoustic, electric and synth basses - as well as enhanced versions of the classic Trilogy sounds. Sporting a brand new user interface with numerous software innovations, Trilian is the first 64-bit native software based on Spectrasonics STEAM Engine and is the first virtual instrument to feature full library integration with the company's flagship Omnisphere synthesizer.

Trilian is set to be released May 18, 2009, the MSRP is $299US/€229Euro. All Trilogy customers can upgrade to Trilian for $99US. There is also a special FREE upgrade offer for Trilogy customers on the Intel-Mac platform and for customers who purchase Trilogy in 2009. Upgrades will be available exclusively through Spectrasonics online techshop.

Arturia has also announced that Brass, their award-winning software recreation of three wind instruments - a trumpet, a saxophone and a trombone –, is now coming in version 2. All the characteristics of the real instruments have been analysed and modelled by Ircam
Paris through mathematical algorithms, to offer extreme realism and expressivity.

In version 2.0, Brass offers an entirely redesigned interface with major new features and improvements :

- New physical modelling of the saxophone
- Two new Saxophone mouthpieces
- Possibility to play four instruments at a time using a new Harmonization
module.
- Advanced spatialization possibilities
- Improved MIDI control
- Better integration into DAW software.
- Entirely redesigned interface

This upgrade will be free for all registered users.

Winter NAMM 2009 sees the launch of Focusrite's first Guitar FX VST/AU Plug-in suite; the result of a collaboration between Focusrite and Overloud.

The Focusrite Guitar FX Suite provides eleven VST/AU plug-ins which include five of the world's finest guitar amp models and four distortion pedal effects, all courtesy of bespoke Italian software company 'Overloud'; experts in the field of accurate Guitar Amp modeling. An attractive 'Hot Tuna' guitar tuner and 'Smart Hum Remover' are also provided.

The amp models include plug-ins based on the Vox AC30, Marshall JCM900, Fender Twin, MESA Boogie Rectifier and the Fender Bassman. The pedal models include plug-ins based on the Boss DS-1, the Ibanez Tube Screamer, the Electro Harmonix Big Muff and the Dunlop Fuzz Face.

The new Focusrite Guitar FX Suite will be available worldwide in January 2009 from a selection of pro audio retailers worldwide. Contact your local distributor for further details.