Software/DAW

Owners of iPhones and iPod touches can put their handheld device to work as a professional field recorder and Podcast publisher, thanks to Audiofile Engineering's new app, FiRe 1.3. In addition to its practical recording and editing features, the under $10 app incorporates iZotope-powered effects.  

DJs, sound designers, sound engineers, composers, and researchers would benefit from using the VRSonic VibeStudio Designer 2 audio authoring suite to create surround mixes, to spatialize instruments, and more.  

If you're intimidated by Cycling '74 Max / MSP, try out the new [BLOK] modular synthesis environment by Zephod. This Windows-only plugin provides the basic building blocks of audio synthesis, giving you prime opportunity to understand how instruments and connections work.  

With the new Orwell Digital Ultimate_Xpansion V2 sound collection, you can expand your Logic Pro patch library with 480 new patches, effects, and drum kits.  

When Max for Live steps beyond beta testing and is officially released, you'll be able to do the same creative device-making that you could do within Cycling '74 Max / MSP, but in the intuitive, more aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly environment of Ableton Live.  

Get what you absolutely need from Ableton Live at an easier-to-swallow price tag. The new Live Intro is the smaller but still power-packed version of Live, boasting 7 GB of material from the Live Suite, and all of the DAW's most essential music production features and tools.  

Drummer, composer, and producer extraordinaire Omar Hakim was enjoying the lush audio of the Adam Monitors presentations at their AES booth, so we totally barged in on his repose and were all like "hey, be on camera!" Lucky for us, Mr. Hakim was more than happy to oblige.  

Users of Logic Pro's EVOC 20 vocoder will have 50 new ways to make their own Beastie Boys brass monkey and process their audio, when they load the Voice Code preset collection into their DAW.  

All next month, Cakewalk product specialists will tour across the United States to demonstrate the new Cakewalk line of V-Studio products. IK Multimedia will tag along as well, to promote its mixing and mastering suite, T-RackS 3.  

The new audio editing software from iZotope, Music & Speech Cleaner, would be a nice companion to your video editing software. Use the scrubbing toolkit to perform quick cleanups on audio from home videos, as well as create multitrack files from your existing files.  

Version 3.3 of Novation Automap mapping software makes it easier than ever to interface with Apple Logic Pro 9, Digidesign Pro Tools, and Novation controller hardware. With this update, Automap fully supports Native plugins and software instruments, in addition to supporting the Launchpad controller, for the first time.  

Learn the ins and outs of Finale 2010 with MusicWorks Interactive's specialized video tutorial, The Finale 2010 Tutorial DVD-ROM. It's not 2010 yet, but the kind folks at MusicWorks are giving you a chance to learn and practice the notation software ahead of time.  

Achieve advanced-level Pro Tools 8 skills with the ASK Video Interactive Media Pro Tools 8 Level 3 tutorial DVD. Learn how to share sessions with other DAWs, correct audio at the sample level, and mix in surround.  

Mahler's Symphony No. 8 was nicknamed "The Symphony Of A Thousand" with its massive orchestral forces. Attempting to match that with just one computer seems like a daunting task. Recreating that with multiple computers is no joke either as synchronizing all of them pose problems. The Vienna Symphonic Library Vienna Ensemble PRO provides that mechanism to turn that grand vision into reality.  

The freedom and power that soundBlade users experience when performing audio editing, mixing, and mastering is akin to surgical precision. If you could double that capacity without any compromise of quality is a welcome addition to make work more efficient, and at the 127th AES, that's exactly what the new Sonic Studio soundBlade 1.3 will be all about.  

Ableton's Huston Singletary wraps up his Gearwire studio session with an introduction to some new instruments in both Live 8 and Suite 8, and a gentle reminder to ask for help when you need it. Luckily, Ableton makes all of these things a snap.  

Huston Singletary never actually had to LEARN Ableton, we think he just sort of came into the world knowing how to do it. We benefit from that zenlike confidence in this demo of warping in Live 8 and Suite 8.  

Ableton Rep Huston Singletary is back, making everything look easy with Live 8 and Suite 8. But actually, you know, this program does make your work kind of a snap. Don't believe me? Watch Huston go to town...  

Huston Singletary from Ableton knows how to work that product. After this series of demos, you're gonna think you were born knowing Ableton Live 8 and Suite 8. And how can you not like a guy who sounds just like Tom Bodett?  

This fact is very simple: Hiring an orchestra is expensive. Getting them on tour with you is even a much bigger headache. Unless you've got sanctioned funding and the right connections to get a real orchestra, Notion Music NOTION3 makes for a good substitute that doesn't complain, doesn't eat, and doesn't need money.  

In the pursuit of excellence, ifoundasound is continuing to develop the well appreciated VST host application LiveProfessor. By no means declared to be complete, ifoundasound LiveProfessor Beta 1 exhibits new features, takes away some known bugs, and most likely adds new ones too.  

The lack of equipment never stifles the creative and resourceful musician. If you’re a guitarist who uses a Mac, you can stretch your computer’s function as a DAW with MOTU Digital Performer 7.  

One of the most amazing and easy-to-use DAWs to have appeared in the history of computer music creation, FL Studio has gained legions of users awaiting the latest version. Their prayers have been answered as Image Line FL Studio 9 is now available.  

SoundSoap has made a lot of restoration and post-production engineers happy with its simple yet powerful operation. Guess what: BIAS SoundSoap Pro 2 is even better, and is now shipping via authorized dealers.  

Bad news, everyone: the public beta testing for Propellerhead Record is over. But wait, that means that Record is now officially available for purchase worldwide! Good news, everyone!  

Just this summer, Native Instruments went crazy on their promos with Komplete 5 being sold for only 399 USD. As Native Instruments Komplete 6 was announced and you've just bought Komplete 5 this summer, you might be thinking, "Hmm, what's in it for me?" Find out by reading on.  

Still on the phone with Steve Vai, Owen O'Malley turns the conversation toward mastery over one's craft. Audio production yeah, but did you know Steve Vai also works on the video end of his projects? Final Cut Pro should check this out for endorsements.  

New to the world of Cubase? Steinberg is now offering an introduction to this popular application with the Steinberg Cubase Essential 5.  

Band-In-A-Box sure is proud of proclaiming, "Look Ma, No MIDI!" Boasting of over 20 new features and enhancements, PG Music Band-In-A-Box 2009.5 is breaking out of it shell with MIDI-less accompaniment for you.  

The iPhone's unparalleled flexible architecture is being taken advantage of by pro audio and music application developers to take the iPhone and iPod Touch to new dimensions. The Novation AutoMap For iPhone and iPod Touch is one example to bind your DAW into a small handheld format.