New Gear Alert: Drawmer Power Amp, Eurorack Oscillator by Radikal Technologies, “NOVO: Modern Strings” Library from Heavyocity & More

Drawmer announces the MPA-90 two-channel class D power amplifier.

The MPA-90 by Drawmer offers 90W of power per channel or 180W bridged, as well as tabletop or rackmount compatibility.

The MPA-90’s small dual monoblock design, with tabletop or rack mountable footprint, houses guts capable of delivering 90W per channel (into 4 Ohms) or 180W bridged—all with no annoying fan. Its output is transparent, revealing the beauty (and the faults!) of whatever is run through it.

Switching the Drawmer MPA-90 from stereo to mono bridged is easily accomplished with the flick of a switch and use of the mono loudspeaker jack. Its inputs are either balanced XLR or unbalanced phono to cover the two universes of gear (pro versus semi-pro/consumer) that may feed it. It features thermal, overload, and power-up/power-down protection and front-panel standby, fault, and clip indicator LEDs. Its rugged steel chassis and brushed aluminum cover speaks to the Drawmer MPA-90’s design integrity and longevity.

The MPA-90 is priced at $695 and is now available for shipping.

Synthesizer developer Radikal Technologies is proud to announce availability of its RT-311 Swarm Oscillator.

The versatile RT-311 by Radikal Technologies features two oscillators, each of which can build up to 8 oscillator “clones” that are all capable of being treated differently.

The RT-311 Swarm Oscillator is an advanced, DSP-driven Eurorack-compatible oscillator module that goes beyond the realms of standard oscillator fare. The unit features two oscillators that can both build swarms of (up to eight) oscillator “clones” capable of being pitched in musical intervals, chords, clusters, or fat detunes, dutifully backed by having all parameter settings saveable as interpolatable snapshots.

When switched to its highest “Swarm” setting, the RT-311 sees a maximum of 16 oscillator clones running simultaneously. Users can build swarms of oscillator clones using both Oscillator 1 and Oscillator 2 banks’ specialized set of “Tune,” “Octaves,” “Density,” “Spread,” and “Detune” controls to create pitched musical intervals, chords, clusters, or fat detunes.

Now shipping, the RT-311 Swarm Oscillator is available for purchase from Radikal Technologies distributors at an MSRP of €598/$659.

Radial Engineering Ltd. announces the LX-2™ passive line splitter is now shipping.

Aside from simply splitting signals, the LX-2’s trim knob is especially useful in situations where attenuation is desired—users can drive preamps to the point of coloration without clipping their recording interface.

The Radial LX-2 allows you to easily send a single source to two different destinations at once without noise, and with the ability to attenuate the input signal and tame hot outputs from a mixing console or mic preamp.

The input of the LX-2 features an XLR/TRS combo jack, which allows you to connect balanced or unbalanced line level signals to be split to two different destinations. A premium Jensen™ transformer inside provides exceptional frequency response and phase coherency to ensure that the highest audio quality is maintained, while isolating the two outputs from each other to eliminate hum and buzz from ground loops. Ground lift switches on each of the two XLR outputs help to further reduce ground loop noise.

For situations where a level adjustment is required, the trim control on the LX-2 allows you to attenuate overly hot signals. This lets you drive your mic preamps hard to achieve coloration, while trimming the level at the LX-2 to avoid clipping the inputs of your recording interface. This trim control is activated by a recessed “set & forget” switch for live use or, in situations where attenuation is not needed, simply disengage this switch to prevent accidental and unwanted level adjustments.

The LX-2 is built with 14-gauge steel to ensure it continues to reliably perform night after night, even on the most demanding tours, while a book-end design protects the connections and switches.

The LX-2 is available for $219.99.

Just four weeks after the launch of Studio 2, Bitwig announces the next update: Bitwig Studio 2.1.

Come April 2017, Bitwig users can enjoy the addition of the “Amp” feature, as well as other new MIDI-related updates and a variety of loops and drum samples.

Bitwig Studio 2.1 brings a number of fixes and improvements on Bitwig Studio 2, as well as new features and devices.

“Amp” is a new feature that consists of pre and post sections with individual EQs, a drive section with 8 drive types and a cabinet simulation, offering advanced cabinet, coloring and mix settings.

The new MIDI Clock Slave functionality lets you sync up Bitwig Studio 2.1 to software and hardware clocks. Let your hardware sequencer control the Bitwig Studio clock and transport, or sync Bitwig Studio to other software, or run two instances of Bitwig Studio in perfect sync.

The new MIDI Channel Filter can filter out notes and data from specific MIDI channels, while the new MIDI Channel Mapper is a utility device capable of remapping MIDI channels.

User can get inspired by the “Irrupt Eurorack,” a new package of modular made sounds including an wide array of bass and melodic loops, plus 5 unique drum machine kits with modular drum one-shots.

The release of Bitwig Studio 2.1 is planned for end of April, 2017.

Heavyocity announces NOVO: Modern Strings sound library.

NOVO: Modern Strings is Heavyocity’s unique spin on a classic sound.

Recorded at Warner Bros Studios in Los Angeles, NOVO fuses superior orchestral strings with Heavyocity’s signature sound design. Beyond the almost 40GB of fully-customizable sound-designed string samples, NOVO enables composers to tweak, process, layer and sequence in a way that no virtual instrument has before by fusing superior orchestral strings with Heavyocity’s distinctive approach to sound design.

Armed with the sonic potential of a 50-piece orchestra, Heavyocity employed their unique sound design techniques: tweaking, processing, mangling and mashing in order to turn these pristine sources into the most inspired, most dynamic, and most evocative elements they’ve ever created.

NOVO is available for $549.

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