STEINBERG CUBASE 4.5 ONWARD, UPWARD, UPGRADE
THE PITCH Several important upgrades to Cubase 4, available as a free download for registered Cubase 4 owners.
THE BIG DEAL Full support for Steinberg’s MR816 audio interfaces and CC121 control surface, even tighter integration with Yamaha Motif XS keyboards, new VSTSound media database system, and 1.6GB of new instruments and loops from Sonic Reality and Big Fish Audio.www.steinberg.net
BEHRINGER UMA25S MINI MIDI KEYBOARD, MINI PRICE
THE PITCHAn ultra-slim 25-note MIDI controller with a built-in USB audio interface at a helluva price.
THE BIG DEALComes with a bunch of stuff, including a lite version of EnergyXT2 recording software, tons of free soft synths and effects, headphones with built-in boom mic, and gig bag
WE THINK At this price, get one for every room in the house. $189.99 list, www.behringer.com
ZERO-G PHAEDRA AMPLE ANALOG ATTITUDE
THE PITCH Kontakt Player 2 serves as the platform to give you a huge sampled collection of rare analog synths. Long-loop samples preserve the organic, analog sound quality.
WHAT SYNTHS? Minimoog, Yamaha CS5, CS15, and CS30, Korg Mono/Poly, and MS-20, Studio Electronics SE-1, Roland SH-101, Crumar Multiman, Akai AX-73, and Ensoniq ESQ-1, for starters. HOW HUGE? WHAT FORMATS? Over 4GB. Runs in AU, DX, RTAS, and VST hosts, and supports ASIO and CoreAudio for playing standalone on PC and Mac. $199.95, www.zero-g.co.uk, dist. by East West, www.soundsonline.com
Want to see all the press releases we Keyboard editors see about new gear, as soon as we see ’em? Go to www.keyboardmag.com and click on the “Latest News” link!
KORG M50 DON’T CALL IT “LITE”
THE PITCH The sound of Korg’s M3 in a more affordable and very giggable package.
THE BIG DEAL 256MB of sounds, including a new triple-strike grand piano with sustain resonance and new vintage electric pianos. Tons of effects: five inserts, two masters, and one global. Drum track with over 600 grooves. Editor software lets you run the M50 as a plug-in from your DAW. Polyphonic arpeggiator can kick out seriously complex patterns.
THE BIGGEST DEAL It has a touchscreen — a first in a mid-priced keyboard.
COMPETES WITH Other “entry-level” ROMpler/workstations . . . like Usain Bolt competes with other runners.
WE THINK This is some bad-ass bang for buck. 61 keys: $1,499 list/$1,199 street; 88 keys: $2,499 list/$1,799 street, www.korg.com.
NATIVE INSTRUMENTS KORE2 SOFTWARE EDITION SOFT SYNTH SMORGASBORD
THE PITCH Now you don’t need Kore hardware to run NI’s Kore 2 software. The version with the hardware is cheaper now, too.
THE BIG DEAL Kore 2 organizes your plug-ins in a taggable database, and lets you create monstrous multi-plug-in instruments. It comes with sound engines from many of NI’s soft synths so you can make big noise right out of the box.
WE THINK Smart move — as cool as that little silver wedge is, some people don’t need yet another hardware box, and they shouldn’t be shut out of the cool stuff Kore can do.
WHY DIDN’T THEY Call ’em “SoftKore” and “HardKore?” This is gear porn, after all. $229; Hardware Edition: $449, www.native-instruments.com.
CAKEWALK BY ROLAND V-STUDIO 700 SWEET SONAR SYSTEM
THE PITCH You get Sonar 8. You get a control surface with motorized faders. You get a honkin’ I/O box. You add a PC (or Intel Mac running Windows XP/Vista under Boot Camp or Parallels), and you have a turnkey music production studio.
THE BIG DEAL Controller is super-integrated with Sonar, and looks like the weapons console from the Death Star. T-shaped “wiper” defaults to fading plug-in windows up and down, but you can set it for anything — imagine riding automation with this baby. I/O box has eight mic inputs, ADAT lightpipe, a Roland Fantom-G sound engine in it that takes one ARX sound expansion board, and you can chain two boxes together.
ALTERNATIVE TO Putting together some DAW software, a control surface, and an audio interface piecemeal.
WE THINK Need to go bigger than, say, a Digi-003, but without stepping into the five-figure league? This could be the right fit. Will it convert any diehard Mac users? Actually, maybe a few. $4,995 list/$3,995 street, www.cakewalk.com.
TANAGER SONGFRAME WRITER’S BLOCK BUSTER FOR TUNESMITHS
THE PITCH Your DAW is a great environment for recording and producing songs, but an uninspiring one for writing them. This “pre-DAW” gets your ideas flowing.
THE BIG DEAL SongFrame suggests chords, helps you work out chord progressions, contains over 500 starter rhythm parts, and integrates with web Wikis that help you find the right word. Export everything to your DAW when you’re ready for studio production.
THE FORMAT Windows XP/Vista; works under BootCamp or Parallels on Intel Macs. Native Mac version? Late ’08.
WE THINK Anyone writing the great American novel should have a thesaurus, and anyone writing songs should have this. $179.99 direct, www.tanageraudioworks.com.
