EastWest has released "The Dark Side", a new virtual instrument created and produced by Doug Rogers and David Fridmann.

The Dark Side is an unconventional, hip and exciting collection of virtual instruments, some dark and eerie, and some which have been purposely—and skillfully—mangled, distorted, or effected out of all recognition.

The Dark Side includes a vast, 40 Gigabyte collection, including dark and eerie instruments, and highly processed drums and percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboard, strings, and effected instruments, all organized into instrumental groups so you can create complete tracks.

The Dark Side includes EastWest's Play 2 software, which can operate standalone or as a plug-in inside popular DAW hosts that support VST, Audio Units, and RTAS. The Dark Side is available for Mac OS X and Windows for $395 MSRP.

Wacom today announces the launch of the second generation of Nextbeat – a wireless interface device aimed at professional DJs.

Nextbeat MK2 is a fully integrated professional DJ system, incorporating intuitive touch sensor controls and innovative live performance functions.

Its wireless portable control unit enables performers to move free from the main device, resulting in more dynamic and energetic live performances, contrasting to the traditional style of DJs performing inside booths.

New Features :

• BPM Sync, Nextbeat MK2 makes the mix easier thanks to a function which provides automatic BPM matching of the 2 tracks playing.
• 16GB Storage capacity
• Nextbeat MK2 allows the DJ to store thousands of tracks.
• Multi-format
• Nextbeat MK2 fully supports WAV, AIFF, MP3 and AAC-LC music file formats.

Nextbeat MK2 will be available soon and will be priced at 999€ (£869) including VAT. It comes with a two-year warranty.

The Acoustic Panels and Bass Traps specialist GIK Acoustics has just anoounced that they had such a great success with the free shipping in Europe (orders over £1000) that they have decided to make it standard.

Propellerhead Software has announced the release of Record 1.5 and Reason 5. These highly anticipated upgrades introduce new instruments, effects, sequencing, sounds, patches and more for composing, beatmaking, loop-mangling, vocal treatment, songwriting, remixing and music production.

Reason Record Duo feature highlights :

• Introducing Kong Drum Designer (Reason): Load, sculpt, build and tweak your sounds with your choice of drum synthesis, sampling, REX loops, physical modeling and custom-made effect modules for percussion on Kong's 16 pads.
• Dr. REX octuples into Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player (Reason): No matter how you use it—as a pattern sequencer for loops, or to completely mangle your REX'ed audio – it is "guaranteed to inspire".
• New Neptune Pitch Adjuster and ...

HALion Sonic, the successor to Hypersonic 2, is Steinberg's premier VST Workstation, featuring the latest sampling and synthesis technologies, a world-class library and an intelligent user interface that excels in the studio as well as on stage.

Features :

• Easy-to-use yet powerful premier music and production workstation
• Next-generation audio and synth engine
• Outstanding library including over 1,200 instrument sounds
• Unique morphing filters; FlexPhraser module for driving beats, arpeggios and complex tonal phrases
• Wide range of audio effects, including REVerence convolution reverb
• Integrated MediaBay sound management system
• Made to be played live: tweaking sounds on stage has never been faster
• Full VST Expression support for smart articulation editing
• Cross platform: Windows (VST3, VST2.4) and Mac OS X (VST3, VST2.4, AU) plug-in support

Pricing : €249