EXCLUSIVES

July 2004

Name: SoundExtractor
Cost: Shareware, $5
What: Opening a file in SoundExtractor, or dragging a file icon (such as a game file icon) on top of the SoundExtractor icon on your desktop will create a separate folder containing the file's sounds in System 7 format, playable in the Finder and many editing programs.
URL: http://www.riccisoft.com/soundextractor/

Name: Wormhole
Cost: $25
What: "Hyper space travel for audio." Designed to allow you to send audio between applications on one machine, or between multiple computers on a LAN, over TCP/IP with 32-bit audio, according to apulSoft. It works with any network interface such as Ethernet, Firewire or Airport and with VST hosts such as Logic.
URL: http://www.apulsoft.ch/wormhole/index.php

Name: iDrum
Cost: $129
What: Glaresoft's iDrum is a digital beatbox/drum machine, but unlike many plug-ins it's not an emulator of an analog beatbox, which some users might prefer. On the other hand, like many beatboxes, it allows you to to create beats in a range of genres and export them into a variety of file formats. It will run alone, or as a plug-in for Apple's GarageBand, Soundtrack or Logic. It also comes with prefab samples and patterns and even allows you to tap out beats on a regular or a MIDI keyboard and save them. (Comes with over 100 parts presets.)
URL: http://www.glaresoft.com/products/idrum

Name: iStory Creator
Cost: Free
What: Allows you to create text-based games (quiz games, adventure games) for the iPod without bothering with any coding. After creating a text file you save it to the notes folder and navigate through a game's plot line, for example, using the scroll wheel. iPod Soft has a number of user submitted files available for free download. Also check out their iPod Agent, which lets Outlook users transfer mail to their iPods and even download RSS feeds from news-readers (Requires .Net Framework 1.1).
URL: http://www.ipodsoft.com/iCreator.aspx

Name: Soundscape
Cost: $5, Shareware
What: Sound Scape is a visualization plug-in that converts a song's waveform into a fly-over landscape while you listen in iTunes. The graphics are reminiscent of an early Amiga flight simulator with day light scenery.
URL: http://homepage.mac.com/haveblue/soundscape

Name: BombFactory Plug-ins
Cost: Free
What: Bomb Factory is offering seven plug-ins for OS X for free download and without iLok copy protection for ProTools TDM and LE systems. According to Bomb Factory, BF76 is a digital emulation of the vintage 1176 Peak Limiter. BF Essentials Clip Remover is a tool for repairing clipped audio recordings. BF Essentials Correlation Meter is a tool for troubleshooting phase coherency on stereo tracks or stereo sub-mixes. BF Essentials Meter Bridge is for RMS and Peak VU metering with calibration on any channel, with minimal impact on DSP resources. BF Essentials Noise Meter consists of a weighted noise meter, a Robinson-Dadson equal-loudness meter, and a VU meter with 100 dB of visual range. BF Essentials Tuner: is a fast-tracking instrument tuner. Finally, "Funk Logic Mastererizer, is a lo-fi sound effects plug-in." These plugins support HTDM, RTAS and AudioSuite (BF 76 supports TDM, rather than HDTM). DigiDesign also offers a limited version of ProTools for free download that supports the BF plug-ins.
URL: http://www.digidesign.com/bombfactory/

Name: Vintage Warmer
Cost: $149 (free demo)
What: Professional Sound Product's Vintage Warmer is an analog simulator of a single band compressor/limiter for mixing and mastering. It combines warm analog sound with a GUI in emulation of an analog control panel. The plug-in processor can be used for both single and multi-band compression, as well as brick wall limiting, says PSP. Basically it can generate saturation effects typical of analog tape recorders.
URL: http://www.pspaudioware.com/indexen.html

Name: iPod Rip
Cost: $9, (Free trial)
What: Allows you to rip the contents of your iPod to your iTunes library in the event that your hard drive gets wiped out. If you lose your hard drive and reinstall iTunes and try to synch up your iPod, it will ask to erase its contents and doing the same with your normal user on your Mac will immediately erase the contents of your iPod. iPod Rip could be used to rip the contents of any iPod to a user's library.
URL: www.thelittleappfactory.com

Name: MatrixJam
What: iTunes visualization software featuring showers and waves of characters standing in for data and changing speed according to the audio waveform. This is an interesting addition to iTunes visuals with its shimmering curtains of alphanumeric symbols and streams, especially if you prefer vertigo inducing movement.
URL: http://www.geocities.com/muukke/matrixjam.htm

Name: Vortex
Cost: Freeware
What: The first in a series of iTunes visuals from Trinity Software. "This Visual Plug-in draws a series of concentric or offset circles that gradually increase in diameter, simulating a vortex. Each circle's color represents a state of the audio being played. You can change the point from which the vortex starts, the number of vortexes, the depth of the vortex, the spacing between the circles in the vortex, and other settings via the Options window or the keyboard."
URL: http://www.trinfinitysoftware.com

Name: Sound Studio
Cost: CD Price: $59.99 - ESD $49.99 (Free 14 - day trial)
What: Felt Tip's Sound Studio is a Mac OS X audio application for recording and editing two-channel audio. It allows you to digitize vinyl records and tapes, live performances, and then build mixes with digital effects, supporting a range of standard file formats (MP3, Quicktime, System 7).
URL: http://www.felttip.com/products/soundstudio/

Name: Ray Gun
Cost: $99 OS X
What: Arboretum's Ray Gun is an audio refining, archival (or restoration) plug-in for clarifying old vinyl and tape recordings by removing hum, hiss, pops and other unwanted noise. A few simple controls allow you to fine tune the results, and Ray Gun features, "pop and click detection with complex spectral analysis, downward expansion notch filtering and an intelligent 'search' function," says Arboretum.
URL: http://www.arboretum.com