Ilio is now distributing products by Vital Arts beginning with Plectrum (Win; $299), the company's new virtual instrument library.

Plectrum features 185 original acoustic instruments powered by Tascam''s GVI streaming sample playback engine. Created by Geoffrey Gee (pianist, composer, and former Senior Soundware Engineer at Kurzweil Music Systems), Plectrum's instruments are comprised of sounds made by plucking, strumming, tapping, scraping, and flicking a range of stringed instruments and found objects. Collecting thousands of 96kHz, 24-bit samples, Gee voiced and tuned the sounds into keyboard instruments.

The 7.5 GB library's interface presents those instruments in nine categories based on the following sound sources: strummed strings, struck strings, plucked strings, and string harmonics; glass, ceramics, metals, and found objects; and habitats.

Plectrum is being released as a PC version (VSTi, RTAS, standalone) now, with Mac support expected in September, 2007.

Learn more at www.ilio.com and www.vitalartsmedia.com.