Digital Music Reviews

Korg has announced the microSTATION, described as a Micro Synthesizer with Sequencer. Designed to satisfy the beginning musician or the accomplished keyboardist, the microSTATION offers portability, the sound of Korg's EDS-i synth engine, effects, plus new and easy-to-use sequencing tools. Audition riffs make finding just the right sound a breeze. Features: Lightweight, compact, and equipped with 61 mini-keys, the microSTATION travels easily and fits into any home, stage, or studio workspace. EDS-i (Enhanced Definition Synthesis-integrated) sound engine delivers high-quality sound in the tradition of KORG's flagship synthesizers. Enjoy 480 ready-to-use sounds - including keyboard sounds, synth sounds, drums, leads, basses, etc. Tweak, edit, create and save up to 512 sound Programs. 256 dynamic Combinations place different sounds on different areas of the keyboard, or layer multiple sounds together for exciting performances - right out of the box. Find the right sound fast with

Summary of changes from v6.0.8 to v6.0.9: New nVocal plugin. Support (with ready made preset) for Behringer BCF2000 hardware control surface. Support for Waves v7 VST and VST3 plugins. Support for MMC transport commands in Settings/MIDI Control box. Improved disk write buffering during recording, enabled by default in Settings/Buffering box. Fixed part not updating when holding Shift and selecting. Many bug fixes.

Soniccouture has teamed up with Mikael Jorgensen of the band Wilco for the release of RMI Rocksichord, a full Kontakt-format rendering of the 1960s 'electric harpsichord'. Mikael started sampling his ancient Rocksichord keyboard, but hadn't the time to finish the looping and programming. Soniccouture asked him how he would feel if they finished the job and offered it as a free download from the Soniccouture site (he said yes, obviously). The Rocksichord is a big, blue, chunky sounding beast that has been used by a huge number of musicians over the years, including The Beach Boys (on Sunflower), Genesis, Dr. John, John Lennon, Stereolab (on Sound-Dust), Sun Ra, Terry Riley (on A Rainbow in Curved Air), Rick Wakeman (solo and with Yes), and Wilco (on A Ghost is Born). RMI Rocksichord is currently only available in Kontakt format (3 or 4), and is a free download from www.soniccouture.com

Blue Cat Audio has released new versions of Blue Cat's Freeware Pack and Blue Cat's Analysis Pack. These are maintenance releases that fix several issues and also improves the demo version of commercial plug-ins. What's new: Fixes random crashes with "Multi" series user interfaces. Demo versions improvement: demo popup window now only appears once per session, and only when opening the user interface. Mac: fixes a crash with demo versions in Ableton Live 8.1. Mac: fixes multiple screens issues with free plugins. Win x64: fixes issues with several hosts not recognizing plug-ins or not showing the settings window properly. Misc other bug fixes (more details available in the release logs for each plug-in). MORE INFO