M-Audio, a provider of creative tools for computer-centric musicians, announced the debut of its own brand of software. The first two products are Key Rig, a virtual keyboard rack, and Drum and Bass Rig, a virtual bass and drums rack. Both products work in Mac and PC environments in either stand-alone mode or with most popular sequencing hosts.
Key Rig was designed to meet the basic needs for today’s keyboardist in a single virtual rack that houses four modules. The SP-1 Stage Piano module serves up grand pianos, Wurlitzer, classic electric pianos, FM, clavinet and more. Each preset can hold a combination of two instruments with individual settings for Mix, Octave, Detune, Velocity and Tone. A dual-effects section features its own effect settings, including delay, chorus, phaser and more.
The MS-2 Polyphonic Synthesizer delivers a new way to call up and edit great synth sounds. Each preset consists of sub-presets for each major section: filter, amp, mod and FX. Creating new sounds is as simple as combining these sub-presets in different ways and tweaking any associated parameters.
The MB-3 Electromagnetic Organ emulates the classic Hammond sound, complete with rotary speaker. Standard features include nine drawbars that are pre-mapped to M-Audio brand USB MIDI controllers, percussion and variable key click, three chorus and three vibrato settings. Rotary speaker emulation includes tube overdrive, speed and tone controls to yield everything from jazz chords to rock leads.
The GM-4 General MIDI Module delivers 128 GM instruments plus a GM drum kit. It instantly plays GM-compatible standard MIDI files from host applications and provides an easy way to sequence additional backing tracks.
Drum and Bass Rig delivers a wide variety of bass and drum sounds in a single virtual rack. Drum and Bass Rig delivers four modules ideal for creating backing tracks in both authentic and electronic styles. The LC-5 Loop Creator is an efficient and creative tool available for working with loops. Its pool of 250 source loops can be combined using functions such as slice reordering, slice muting or group muting of ranges of slices. The LC-5 Loop Creator is designed for people who want their own loops but find it hard to create them from scratch. It also offers a range of real-time controls for dynamic playing/arranging.
Both modules operate in stand-alone and hosted mode on Mac and PC platforms, with compatibility including AU (Mac), VST (Win/Mac) and RTAS (Win/Mac). This allows them to work with Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase and most other music software.
“In addition to our own hardware, M-Audio is known for representing some of the industry’s best software, and we’re very excited to release our own software line,” says Adam Castillo, marketing director at M-Audio. “Our new software products sound incredible, and are presented in extremely useful combinations of modules that appeal to the average player. In keeping with M-Audio philosophy, they’re also being offered at a price that sets new value precedents in the industry.”
Key Rig and Drum and Bass Rig are currently shipping, and cost $129.95 each.
For more information, please go to www.m-audio.com.
