Brainworx has announced the release of bx_cleansweep V2. This freebie Hi-Pass filter and Lo-Pass filter plug-in features their "Anti Crush Technology" and offers analog-style filter curves, without the typical Nyquist problems, in a filter design taken from Brainworx's pro mastering EQ bx_digital V2. First order filters (6 dB) guarantee a musically sounding filter set and unique joystick control (taken from bx_hybrid) gives you fast and intuitive control.

Clever shortcuts (Alt/Shift/Ctrl) allow for detailed control over the X-axis and Y-axis of the joystick, and the EQ knobs can be set to precision mode by shift-click as well.

Brainworx claims that bx_cleansweep is the plug-in that should go into every mix channel as the first plug-in. This way you can filter out any unwanted hi-end and lo-end and the result is a clean and tight mix.

bx_cleansweep V2 is now available for Windows and Mac OS X in VST, VST3, AU and RTAS plug-in formats.

"Ethnic Bagpipe" is a sampler instrument, made from an authentic Baltic bagpipe.

Main features:

• Two tonalities - C and D.
• Diapason: one octave + drone.
• Two articulations, selectable by keyboard velocity.
• Recorded multiple samples to recreate natural feel of the instrument. Each note of the articulation presented has 9 variations. Every time you press a single note, you will hear a different variation. There are 193 samples total recorded.
• As bagpipe can play continuously, all samples in this instrument are precisely looped.
• The sound is pure - you can add your favorite reverb or other preferable effects.
• Dedicated to: folk, neo-folk music composers, movie, theatre soundtrack producers and composers with special needs to add something unordinary and extra natural to their creations.

"Ethnic Bagpipe" is available for samplers EXS24 and Kontakt. Sample format - 24-bit/44.1 kHz @ aiff.

It costs €19.99 but is available for the introductory price of €9.99 until the end of March.

MOTU's Ethno Instrument 2 is now shipping. The Version 2 upgrade more than doubles the size of Ethno's included sound library of instruments, loops and phrases. Significant new features have also been added, including preset searching, microtonal scales, state-of-the-art time stretching, and much more.

To help users quickly find sounds in this 21 GB library, Ethno 2 lets users browse presets by geographic region or instrument category, or by a new search feature: users type in an instrument name or other text phrase and all presets with that text in their name instantly appear in the browser list. Users then simply click to audition sounds, without having to close the browser, for fast previewing and loading of sounds into separate parts. Version 2 now supports unlimited parts, so user ...

Moog Music has set up a dedicated microsite for the new Taurus 3 Bass pedals.

The Microsite will be a gathering place for (future) owners of the Taurus 3, where you can find information from Moog but also other Taurus 3 users. Check the Taurus 3 Bullpen for educational videos, audio files, and other cool content straight from the Moog factory.

Here is a great news from BigTick : except for their virtual synth Rhino (which has just been updated to v2.05), all other previously commercial BigTick products are now freeware. It includes the following plug-ins :

• Angelina
• EP-Station
• EP-Phazer
• Rainbow

Note that registration on BigTick's website is required to access the downloads.