Project 5 hasn't always gotten the credit it deserves as a pattern-based synth workstation, despite some celebrity endorsements from Grammy nominees Joey P. and Rambro Ramsey to South Park's D.A. Young. Version 2.0 could change all that, with an interface overhaul and lots of new features, including: Streamlined user interface: Some were confused by version […]

Lee Sherman has been covering the NAMM show from Anaheim, CA all week. He's picked out his take on all the highlights of Winter NAMM 2005. Enjoy — and now back to making music! Best new software Ableton Operator FM Synthesis made simple at last. Best new synth Access Virus TI Pointing the way forward […]

IK Multimedia has "completely redesigned" its popular guitar processing package AmpliTube. The new software has a new look and sound that should feel comfortable to guitar players: there's an even bigger bundle of analog-modeled amps and stomp and rack effects than before with a new, still more-vintage look. Microphone placement for modeling amp mic-ing is […]

Sure, guitar modeling is nothing new, but for the first time bass amps get their own software model. If you want any more evidence that software and hardware are converging, software developer IK Multimedia has partnered directly with Ampeg, the legendary bass amp folks. (Ampeg engineers hand-tuned the presets, says IK.) This partnership is set […]

Italy makes great coffee. Modena-based IK Multimedia has been drinking lots and lots of that great coffee, judging by their NAMM lineup. Studiophonik – Virtual Band: Computer music has been the domain of electronica lovers for a long time, but an entirely new product from IK aims to give you a full band. This uber-plugin […]

The Lemur interactive digital touchscreen for music and multimedia is moving closer to production, and some of the technical details are becoming clearer. First, the hardware is looking a little more finished (check out the new black color), and we're seeing new screenshots of the editor software (pictured). Check out US distributor Cycling 74's site […]

NOT seen at NAMM this week: a MIDI trumpet AND a full roundup of MIDI bagpipes, both blogged by the inimitable Tom Whitwell at Music Thing. Tom, see if you agree with me on this: we need an alternative NAMM for all the really cool stuff. (And strangely, now everything will look incredibly cheap to […]

GMEDIA Music dusted off former Yes man Rick Wakeman to intro its Minimonsta minimoog clone. Wakeman played a blistering set in M-Audio's booth at NAMM and the software looked and sounded fantastic. It is fully programmable, ships with over 2500 presets, and you can even morph between presets. Arturia, maker of the competing minimoog V, […]

Native Instruments' sampler Kontakt just got a whole lot deeper — maybe not revolutionary in a "redefining a sampler" sort of way so much as more profoundly sophisticated in that "how advanced can this get?" way. Here are the new features that get my attention, listed in the order in which I think they're significant […]

Ableton Live didn't get a significant update as expected yesterday (4.1 proves to be a bug fix release only), but the company did introduce its first sold-separately product, the Operator synth. First, the good news (plenty more info over on Ableton's site, but these are the things that get me excited): FM synthesis is made […]