Expanding on the legacy of the legendary MPC series, Akai introduces the MPD16 USB/MIDI Pad Control Surface. If you’ve spent time programming drums from your keyboard controller, you’ll appreciate the inspiration that will come from the MPD16. The MPD16 is a self-contained unit that connects via USB and/or MIDI to computers and sound engines such as the new Akai Z4 and Z8 samplers. It sports 16 velocity sensitivity pads so you can “tap” in your percussion programs the way nature intended rather than using keys. The MPD16 also comes with drivers for Mac and PC and set up software for PC (Mac set up software is soon to follow).
Sweetwater is giving away one of the most popular microphone preamps on the market for our July Web Prize. The Focusrite Octopre is an 8-channel class A preamp featuring a compressor/limiter on each channel and 24-bit, 96 kHz digital audio outputs. Register to win yours at the Contests page of the Sweetwater website.
Steinberg is now shipping version 1.6 of their flagship program, Nuendo. While Steinberg has fixed many of the important issues users had with the previous version of Nuendo, the addition of a few interesting new features is the real story. VST System Link provides a way to synchronize two or more computer systems allowing, among other things, the ability to share processor load across several CPU’s. Additionally, 192 kHz support and full screen video viewing (PC only) is also available.