Sonic Foundry ACID Pro

ACID PRO 2.0 is a revolutionary loop-based music production tool that offers musicians unprecedented creative flexibility. ACID PRO 2.0 allows you to preview any loop before adding it to your mix, automatically matching the tempo and key in real time. Click-and-drag to easily add or delete loops. ACID PRO 2.0 allows real-time changes to pitch and tempo to unlimited tracks. Control the volume, pan, and effect envelopes for each track to create a perfect mix between loops.

ACID PRO blurs the boundaries between sampling, arranging, recording, and editing. ACID PRO creates an entirely new breed of application - part instrument, part arranger, and part recorder. Nothing is like ACID.

Creamware Pulsar / SCOPE Family

Creamware's Pulsar / SCOPE product family is based on the Analog Devices SHARC DSP. Pulsar is an integrated audio interface featuring 4 SHARC DSPs per card, while SCOPE offers an amazing 15 DSPs per card for an astonishing 2.7 GFLOPs of processing power. Unlike other DSP systems, Creamware SCOPE is based on an open, scalable architecture.

Pulsar offers 16 channels of 24 bit ADAT I/O, 2 channels of analog I/O, 2 channels of S/PDIF I/O, and MIDI I/O. The SCOPE system offers 24 channels of ADAT I/O and 2 MIDI I/Os.

Available software includes a huge array of software synthesizers and samplers, a powerful audio mixer, and a wide array of DSP-based audio effects. The SRB add-on card for Pulsar / SCOPE systems add DSPs in groups of either 4 or 15 for a total of up to 45 DSPs in a fully loaded system for incomparable DSP power.

• Get more info! Read our review here.

Antares Auto-Tune

The Auto-Tune is a plugin that corrects intonation problems of vocals and other solo recordings in real time. The quality of the output is spectacular: Even audiophiles cannot tell a sound has been processed, except that it is perfectly in-tune. Auto-Tune's accuracy is exceptional. If the user desires, Auto-Tune is capable of correcting pitch to within .01 cents of the standard pitch.

Auto-Tune is capable of continuously identifying and correcting pitch in realtime. Major, minor, chromatic and 26 historical, ethnic and microtonal scales provide unprecedented control of the output tonality. Auto-Tune is so fast that it is capable of removing vibrato if desired. A graphical mode allows more flexible control over pitch scoops and shifts.

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Mackie Digital 8-Bus

The Digital 8•Bus (d8b) is a 72-channel digital mixer with 24 faders, massive onboard DSP, a true workstation-class 32-bit Pentium-compatible CPU processor, support for SVGA monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and an open plugin architecture.

The d8b boasts over one billion instructions per second of DSP supporting automated functions such as EQ, gating and compression on forty-eight channels simultaneously. Full MMC control is provided. The d8b has 12 onboard mic preamps, 24 bit digital conversion, 24-channel meter bridge, and built-in UV22. A dedicated transport control surface including jog shuttle is provided.

The d8b uses a fully software based operating system allowing all of its internal features to be upgraded with periodic software updates.

Nemesys Gigasampler

GigaSampler™ is the only music software product to stream samples - in real-time - directly from the hard disk when played via a keyboard controller or other MIDI device. By leveraging the hard disk for instrument playback, instead of RAM (as in conventional samplers), GigaSampler™ is capable of delivering complex, ultra-dynamic replicas of world-class instruments that load in seconds, not minutes.

Because Gigasampler is capable of streaming samples directly from disk, each sample can include the instrument's entire decay, enabling astonishingly accurate images of acoustic instruments.

• Get more info! Read our review here.