Results for MOTU

Symbolic Sound Corporation has expanded the list of real-time controllers and software that can communicate with its Kyma sound design environment by adding support for Open Sound Control (OSC) to its Paca(rana) sound engine.

By connecting a Paca or Pacarana to the Ethernet, sound designers, musicians, and researchers using Kyma on Windows or Macintosh computers can establish bi-directional communication with OSC-enabled devices and software on the network to control parameters of Kyma sound synthesis and processing algorithms. Open Sound Control (http://opensoundcontrol.org/introduction-osc) is an open communications protocol that delivers higher speeds, greater resolution, and more flexibility than is afforded by the standard MIDI protocol. (For a partial list of software and hardware currently supporting the OSC protocol, please see http://opensoundcontrol.org/implementations).

Doug Kraul, CEO of Harmony Systems, Inc. is enthusiastic about Kyma’s new OSC technology. “OSC is a brilliant addition to the already stellar Kyma sound design workstation”, said Kraul. “It immediately enables exciting new ways to use Kyma on stage or in the studio. But the true impact of this forward looking technology is the new, innovative controllers and applications that OSC makes possible for the Kyma platform”.

Symbolic Sound Paca(rana) with ethernet port on the back panel

Bidirectional MIDI streams over OSC is available for those who don’t have any OSC-enabled devices or software yet.

Symbolic Sound has announce that several third-party development partners are concurrently announcing new software that supports bi-directional communication with Kyma over OSC:

• OSCulator: Known as the Rosetta Stone of music controllers, Camille Troillard’s Mac OS X application OSCulator (http://osculator.net) is already familiar to Kyma users who utilize it for sending individual MIDI controls, OSC, and HID control data over FireWire to Kyma. Now, in OSCulator 2.9.2, you can also send OSC messages directly to the Paca(rana) over the network. OSCulator 2.9.2 also implements Symbolic Sound’s Bi-Directional-MIDI-streams-over-OSC protocol, enabling you to send streams of MIDI events from your software directly to Kyma without need for a MIDI interface on your computer and without having to map each controller individually in OSCulator.
• vM2 and PacaMidi: Harmony Systems, Inc. is offering two new Mac OS X applications in its Delora product line, vM2 and PacaMidi, that incorporate Kyma’s new “MIDI-over-OSC” technology to further enhance and facilitate real-time interaction with Kyma. vM2, a “virtual MotorMix”, enables JazzMutant Lemur owners to enjoy automatic, fully integrated tactile control over Kyma’s Virtual Control Surface. Recently updated to include several exciting new features, vM2 2.0 employs “MIDI-over-OSC” to eliminate the complication of physical MIDI cables and interfaces. PacaMidi, Harmony’s newest product, uses “MIDI-over-OSC” to create a “virtual MIDI interface and patchbay” that adds three merged MIDI inputs and one MIDI output to a Paca(rana). This expands Kyma’s connectivity options, while saving you the expense and complexity of using physical MIDI interfaces, hardware mergers, and numerous cables. For more information see http://www.delora.com.
• Max & M4L: If you are one of the many artists using Kyma in conjunction with Ableton’s Live and/or Cycling74’s Max, you’ll be happy to hear that Andrew Capon has written a Max external for bidirectional MIDI communication over OSC that works with both Max and Max For Live. For more details, please see: http://www.symbolicsound.com/Learn/AndyCaponMaxExternalOSC

OSC-enabled Kyma X.74 is a free software update for registered Kyma X owners. OSC communication requires the Paca or Pacarana sound engine.

Kyma X.74 also comes with additional features, including an 11-times speedup in the Virtual Control Surface, support for the MOTU UltraLite Hybrid mk3, TC Electronic Impact Twin, and Prism Audio Orpheus converters, track-pad compatible menus, refinements to the Tau resynthesis, and more.

More information: Symbolic Sound

MOTU has released version 1.0.5 of urban rhythm instrument BPM, and version 1.0.2 of Electric Keys, a virtual electric piano instrument.

These maintenance updates introduce many enhancements, including 64-bit native operation under Windows 7 and Vista. BPM 1.0.5 also introduces several exciting new features, such as a new arpeggiator, beat slice editing and performance optimizations.

New in BPM v1.0.5

• Native 64-bit Windows support.
• Arpeggiator: Each rack part now has an independent arpeggiator.
• Enhanced loop slicing: You can now add and edit slices in the Clip window.
• Mono option in BPMSampler application: Previously, the BPMSampler standalone application always supplied a stereo signal. A Configuration menu now provides the option to use mono or stereo.
• Improvements, optimizations, and refinements can be found in the following areas:
  • Performance: various CPU optimizations.
  • Loading: locating missing samples.
  • Racks: scrolling to newly created parts.

More information: MOTU

MOTU has announced it is now shipping Digital Performer 7.1, the audio workstation software with MIDI sequencing for Mac.

Version 7.1 adds dozens of new features and enhancements, including a new Tuner plug-in, improvements to track folders, Auto-Save, and much more.

Changes in Digital Performer v7.1

• DP 7.1’s new Tuner plug-in can be used to tune a guitar, bass, sax, or any other pitched instrument. Advanced features include adjustable tuning reference (400 to 480 Hz) and test-tone generation. In addition, the animated metering indicates the harmonic complexity of the input signal and therefore the certainty of the pitch.
• New Auto-Save preferences allow users to save their original document automatically at a chosen time interval, or auto-save to an auxiliary document in the background. The latter option allows the user to choose when they want to save their original document, while always maintaining a separate backup at all times.
• New Custom ‘59 power amp models — four new power amp models produce guitar tones with extra punch: preamp, vintage, classic, and modern.
• Guitar tone presets — dozens of guitar tone effects chains are now provided as convenient presets.
• Track folder overview — users can now inspect the contents of collapsed track folders at a glance, including track color and type of data.
• Track folder editing — users can select, cut, copy, paste and otherwise edit the contents of collapsed track folders, just like individual tracks.
• Track folder controls — track folders now have play-enable, solo-exempt, lock, and other track controls, just like individual tracks.
• Channel strip presets — users can save, recall, and manage plug-in effects chains as single presets, including guitar effects chains and virtual instrument chains that include effects. Many presets are provided for drums, guitar, bass, vocals and more.
• Automatic addition of inserts — when a user fills the last channel insert in the Mixing Board, or loads a new multi-insert preset, extra insert slots are automatically added as needed.
• More plug-in presets — many new plug-in presets have been added, especially for DP7’s guitar effects plug-ins.
• New Trim tool for automation — users can scale, flatten, or offset MIDI or audio automation data within a selected time range in one simple step.
• Auto-check for updates — users get immediate notification about about new available updates as soon as they launch DP7.
• Fine-tune control — users can now make fine-tuned adjustments for many controls in DP7 by holding down the command key.
• More keyboard shortcuts — users will speed their workflow with new shortcuts for controlling the QuickFilter, nudging MIDI notes up/down, zooming, and other features.
• Core Audio file format support — users can now import Core Audio (.caf) files via simple drag and drop.
• Pro Tools 8.03 compatibility — Digital Performer is fully qualified for operation with DAE version 8.0 to 8.0.3.

Digital Performer 7.1 is now shipping, priced at $795 USD, and available for immediate download as a free update for registered DP7 users.

More information: MOTU / Digital Performer

MOTU has announced Ethno 2, a major upgrade to its popular world/ethnic virtual instrument software for Mac and Windows.

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.

New in Ethno 2

• New sounds abound in Version 2 from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Balkans, the British Isles, Latin America, Australia, and many other locations around the globe. Featured sounds include taiko drums, large African drums, thirty new instruments from India, hundreds of urban India loops (in they style of Slumdog Millionaire), Balkanish voices, Arabic voices, Persian voices, an extensive new collection of gongs and bells, extended cymbalum, and much more.
• To help users quickly find sounds in this massive 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 users can quickly build ensembles of instrument sounds, loops and phrases, with no limits on the size of the ensemble.
• Ethno 2 gives users access to the rich and exotic world of non-western tuning and scales. Users can browse dozens of microtuning presets from all over the world, organized by world region or by scale type, and then play authentic non-western tempered scales of any size (from five tones to 24 tones) via any standard MIDI controller. The supplied microtonal presets were developed by a world expert in micro-tuning and conform to the Scala open file standard (.scl) for microtuning. Users can visit the scala web site, http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/, browse thousands of microtuning files, download them for free, and simply drag and drop them into Ethno 2 to add them as user presets. Scales can be freely applied to any instrument presets, allowing users to mix and match microtuning scales with sounds from anywhere around the globe. For example, a microtuning scale from Thailand could be applied to a Celtic harp sound from Ireland.
• Since its first release, Ethno has been recognized for its extensive tempo-matching features. Loops always play in time with each other and the host application, when running as a plug-in. Version 2 extends these time-stretching capabilities with enhanced, state-of-the-art audio processing technology licensed from the famed IRCAM institute for advanced research in Paris. Users can speed up, slow down, or match tempos of loops and phrases with unprecedented audio quality, even with extreme changes in speed, either faster or slower. Time stretching presets are provided for various types of material (vocals, percussive, etc.) to further maintain excellent sound quality at all tempos.
• Enhanced effects processing — includes new modeled analog EQ, CPU-optimized convolution reverb and eight new analog modeled filters (rez, comb, analog and more).
• Keyswitch presets — dozens of new, richly-layered keyswitch (KS) presets in all categories for ultra-expressive performance.
• Version 1 compatibility — Ethno 2’s new sound library is compatible with Version 1, so music programmed with Version 1 presets can be loaded and played with Version 2.
• Latest-generation UVI Engine — provides state-of-the-art virtual instrument performance, 64-bit native operation and robust compatibility with the latest Mac OS X and Windows operating systems, plus the latest DAW hosts.

Ethno 2 will ship in Q1 of 2010, priced at $395 USD. An upgrade path will be offered for Ethno Version 1 users.

More information: MOTU / Ethno

MOTU has announced it is now shipping the ZBox, a guitar pickup adapter that matches the output impedance of a guitar with instrument inputs on audio interfaces or other devices.

Guitar inputs on audio interfaces, mixers, PAs, wireless transmitters and other similar devices (often labeled “instrument”) usually have impedance levels that differ significantly from those typically found on guitar amp inputs. This mismatch can make a guitar sound unnatural (too bright, thin and brittle). In addition, the guitar may not “feel right” while played through software- or DSP-driven amp models.

By providing the proper impedance levels, ZBox restores natural guitar tone that would otherwise be lost through a non-amp input.

ZBox features

• Restores natural guitar tone
• No extra cables required
• No power required
• No software or drivers required
• Simple to use
• Plug and play operation with any guitar
• Sturdy, lightweight metal housing (1 x 1.75 x 2.5 inches)
• Built-in 16-inch cable with quarter-inch plug for connection to any guitar input
• Authentic matching circuits that emulate two-jack switching networks on classic guitar amps
• Works with audio interfaces equipped with preamps (Mac or PC)
• Works with other devices with guitar (“instrument”) inputs (wireless transmitters, mixers, etc.)
• Two-year warranty

ZBox is now shipping for $39.95 USD.

More information: MOTU / ZBox

MOTU has released an updated version of Digital Performer’s Custom ‘59, an amplifier effect plug-in.

MOTU Custom ‘59 Amp

The update adds new power amp models that deliver even more punch, crunch and drive for your DP7 guitar tones. The update includes a newly optimized version of Live Room | G with improved performance.

Three new power amp models have been added: Vintage, Classic and Modern. Each provides unique characteristics. Additionally, a new Presence control provides progressive high-frequency shelf filtering.

The Custom ‘59 Amp update is now available as a free download to all registered DP7 owners.

More information: MOTU / Custom ‘59