Key Rig, Drum and Bass Rig Virtual Instruments Now Shipping
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Key Rig
(Click for a close-up) |
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Drum & Bass Rig
(Click for a close-up) |
March 29, 2005
First announced at Winter NAMM, M-Audio has now released the first in 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
Key Rig covers all the basic needs for today's keyboardist in a
single virtual rack housing four separate 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. Owing
to a dual effects section, each preset also has its own effect settings
including delay, chorus, phaser and more.
The MS-2 Polyphonic Synthesizer delivers a new, easy 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 from there as desired.
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 glassy jazz chords to smoking rock leads.
The GM-4 General MIDI Module delivers 128 GM instruments plus a great GM
drum kit. It instantly plays GM-compatible standard MIDI files from host
applications and provides an easy way of sequencing additional
backing tracks.
Drum and Bass Rig
Built on the same engine as Key Rig, Drum and Bass Rig delivers a
wide variety of bass and drum sounds in a single virtual rack. Drum and Bass
Rig also includes four modules for creating backing tracks
in both authentic and electronic styles.
The LC-5 Loop Creator offers a pool of 250 source loops that can be freely combined and manipulated by
options 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 vast
range of real-time controls for dynamic playing/arranging.
The BL-6 Bassline module is a monophonic bass synthesizer combined with a
arpeggiator/step sequencer. Synth controls are straightforward and
immediately accessible. An onscreen keyboard provides a familiar step-entry
interface pioneered on vintage gear in this genre.
The RD-7 Real Drums module features a comprehensive library of drum kits and
individual drums in all styles, with control over tuning, tone, decay,
panorama and level. Each kit also has adjustable overheads, room ambience
and effects. All kits are GM-compatible and contain an additional standard
percussion set.
The EB-8 Electric Bass module produces the sounds of electric bass guitars. This extensive collection includes a large selection
of finger, pick, slap and fretless sounds featuring slides, dead notes and
harmonics. The EB-8 also includes a built-in bass amp emulation with drive
and tone controls, as well as an effects section for creative options.
Common Features
Key Rig and Drum and Bass Rig are built on the same engine
and therefore share some common features. The master MIDI/Mixer section of
Key Rig and Drum and Bass Rig lets you route, split, layer and mix each set
of four powerful modules in whatever way best suits users' performance and
recording needs. A master effects section even allows for adding a common
effect in addition to the individual effect section included with each
instrument.
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).
Minimum system requirements for Windows are: Pentium III 500 MHz or AMD7
(P4 / Athlon 1 GHz or faster recommended), 256 MB RAM, 1GB free hard disk
space, Windows XP, VST 2.0-compatible host software, MIDI interface, CD-ROM
drive for installation and Internet connection (on any computer) for
software activation.
Minimum system requirements for Macintosh are G3 500 MHz (G4 or faster
recommended), 256 MB RAM, 1GB free hard disk space, Mac OS X 10.3, VST 2.0,
AU or RTAS compatible host software, MIDI interface, CD-ROM drive for
installation, Internet connection (on any computer) for software
certification.
Key Rig and Drum and Bass Rig are now shipping at an MSRP of USD $129.95
each.
For more information, visit their web site at www.m-audio.com. | 
