Apogee made a slew of NAMM announcements last week, starting with Symphony Mobile, a new multichannel connector card for Apple MacBook Pro computers. MORE.
New plug-ins were this year's NAMM focus for Digidesign, which lifted the curtain on a set of analog-tape emulations called Reel Tape Suite ($495), as well as an RTAS sampler dubbed Structure (price TBD). MORE.
JazzMutant has released v. 1.6 of the Lemur multitouch surface controller. The update features the new JazzDaemon MIDI-routing and assignment application, internal module storage, a browser with project view and interface preview, a grid function, work-flow refinements, and more.
IK Multimedia last week unveiled Miroslav Philharmonik Classic Edition (Mac/Win; $249), an introductory version of the company's virtual orchestral instrument. Sampled in Prague's Dvorak Symphony Hall, the plug-in features 16-part multimbrality, 250 sounds drawing from 1.5 GB of sample material, 256 notes of polyphony, a master reverb, and multiple synth engines (including Stretch). Available in VST, AU, and RTAS formats, the instrument ships in February 2007.
Building upon its Mackie Control Universal line, Mackie announced the Mackie Control Pro series of controllers. Powered by USB, the Mackie Control Universal Pro (Mac/Win; $1,549.99) sports nine motorized, touch-sensitive Penny+Giles faders; eight V-Pots; and more than 50 master buttons. The Mackie Control Extender Pro ($899.99) enables users to add a max of 24 faders and V-Pot channels to the MCU Pro. Finally, the Mackie Control C4 Pro ($1,299.99) can control a total of 32 simultaneous parameters and operates in conjunction with the MCU Pro or standalone.
Vienna Symphonic Library has announced a trio of new virtual-instrument collections. First up is Appassionata Strings, which includes large ensembles of violins, violas, cellos, and basses. Bösendorfer Imperial is an eight-octave, 54 GB recreation of the Bösendorfer 290 Imperial and the company's first sampled grand piano. Finally, Vienna Konzerthaus Organ features 14 GB of stereo samples recorded at Vienna's Wiener Konzerthaus. Take heed: VSL is raising the U.S. prices of its collections by 10 percent effective February 15, 2007.
Hip-hop heads will no doubt be excited about Yamaha's new Motif XS synth line ($2,799-$3,999), not to mention the new MM6 ($699) "Mini Mo." MORE.
EM Cast!
The January 2007 issue of EM's monthly podcast offers a feature interview with New York-based producer/engineer Bob Power (Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, Me'shell N'degeOcello, the Roots, etc.), as well as product news, a preview of the February 2007 issue of EM, and much more.