Rain Recording Solstice Spider Edition DAW
This new audio workstation from Rain Recording features the AMD Phenom™ 9000 Series quad-core processor, ATI Radeon™ HD 3800 Series GPU and the AMD 7 Series chipset. The Solstice Spider Edition ($2,799.95) is housed in a crimson-anodized, aluminum chassis and features a 500GB, 7,200 rpm Ultra 300 SATA II system drive with 32MB buffer, identical streaming drive, dual-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW combo drive, 10 USB 2 ports, three FireWire 400 ports, four PCI Express x16 bus, two PCI slots, RAID-ready, two PS/2 ports, aluminum keyboard and Microsoft optical mouse. Free shipping and free third-party integration are standard.
www.rainrecording.com

Native Instruments Kore Player
This free software instrument player from Native Instruments is based on the KORE 2 host system using the same six integrated sound engines that, in effect, combine the sonic capabilities of Absynth, FM8, Guitar Rig, Kontakt, Massive and Reaktor within a straightforward, easy-to-use interface. It comes with a free software instrument that adds "ready-to-play" capabilities, in addition to the recently established line of KORE Soundpack libraries. KORE Player is now available as a free download for Windows and Mac OS X on the NI Website and includes a compact "get-started" KORE Sound library with instantly usable sounds. www.native-instruments.com

Numerical Sound Hollywood Impulse Libraries
Numerical Sound's Hollywood Impulse Responses (HIR, $129.95) were inspired by the ambience of 20 major Hollywood blockbuster films released from 1977 to 2006. Impulses were designed to change the perceived timbre of an individual instrument, ensemble or an entire orchestra. The user can adjust the tone of a track by selecting the appropriate dark, warm, flat, clear or bright impulse when mixing the wet signal in with the dry. Also included are six sets of IRs that are highpass-filtered at points of the frequency spectrum matching the range of acoustic instruments. These points are at the notes C2, G2, C3, G3, C4 and G4. For example, a solo violin tracking the IRs from the G3 set will exactly match the range of the instrument. Requirements include a program such as Altiverb, Pristine Space, Space Designer, IR-1, Acoustic Mirror, Perfect Space or SIR. Logic, Cakewalk, Samplitude, Seqoia and Nuendo all have convolution integrated into their program, so purchasing a plug-in is required. www.numericalsound.com

Lawo and Minnetonka Join Hands
In a common development effort, Lawo, Dolby and Minnetonka Audio Software announced the new Lawo SurCode for Dolby E real-time decoder plug-in that operates in the new Lawo Plug-In Server. A Dolby E encoder module will follow later this year. The Lawo SurCode for Dolby E plug-in functions as a VST plug-in that is controlled by a graphical user interface allowing for full control and recall on the fly, completely integrated into the Lawo production environment. The unique real-time integration allows one or more instances of the Dolby E decoder on the Lawo Plug-In Server to be used with existing Dolby E hardware products.
www.lawo.de

News You Can Use

'Rock Band' Reaches 6 Million Downloads in Four Months
Rock Band made a staggering 6 million downloads in just four month since its official launch, and continues to conquer the hearts of music and game fans by offering them an impressive selection of ‘best of the best’ songs to date. So far, the videogame went six-times Platinum and is not planning to stop just now. Read more.

'Grand Theft Auto' Pre-Sale Predictions Top $400 Million
The latest edition, which takes place in the concrete jungles of Liberty City, could fetch $400 million in the first week, according to pre-release predictions. That includes a first-week estimate from publisher Take-Two Interactive, owner of Rockstar Games. Read more.

Remix "Princess Bride" Theme
ACIDplanet.com has launched a contest to develop a new version of The Princess Bride's title theme song timed with a new downloadable videogame based on the 1987 film. Contestants can download the components from the Sony Creative Software ACIDplanet.com Website and remix their own title track from The Princess Bride Game (available at www.princessbridegame.com).

Touring Classical Music Videogame Makes Everyone an Orchestral Conductor
Wave the baton too slowly and the orchestra arrayed on the screen plays the "William Tell Overture" at a crawl. Wave it too fast and the music gallops away. But would-be Leonard Bernsteins who wave the remote control correctly as they try out "UBS Virtual Maestro" can experience a small part of what it's like to be a conductor. Read more.

Expo Adds Gaming to Lineup
Living Expositions announced the launch of "My Gaming Life," a specific zone that will be a part of Electronic Living Expo (ELX) Boston, which will showcase a large spectrum of videogaming experiences and products. As part of ELX Boston, to be held November 14-16, 2008, "My Gaming Life" will unite distinct videogame elements from the casual, mobile, console, interactive, music and PC-based gaming sectors. Find out more.

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'Rocky and Bullwinkle'
ZEN Studios' next title is Rocky & Bullwinkle for the Xbox LIVE Arcade. Players can blast, run, dodge and jump their way through each of the microgames, many of which can be played using a new gesture system with the Xbox LIVE Vision Camera. Also featured are Quick Games, where players can quickly get into the action, load up any of the 100 microgames and collect box tops, which can be traded in for gadgets that unlock Achievements and increase a player's overall gamer-score.
www.rockyandbullwinklegame.com