The audio specialists at TC Works have announced updates to several of their products for Mac-using musicians.
TC Works’ Spark XL 2.7, coming next month, will add complete mastering from input to delivery to the audio processing application. Spark adds direct CD-Burning from inside the play list; Crossfades and pauses are taken from the play list; and Track indexes may be activated or deactivated per region, so several regions can be used to create one track without the need for any rendering.
Spark XL 2.7 is first version to exclusively support Mac OS X; Mac OS 9 support is no longer offered. Also, Apple AudioUnit Plug-In support will be part of a free maintenance release later this spring.
Users of Spark XL 2.6 will be able to update to version 2.7 free of charge; for others, Spark XL 2.7 will cost US$599.
Also, TC Works is shipping Assimilator for PowerCore; it processes the EQ-curve of any reference mix onto any target material. With it, you can analyze the EQ-curve of any reference material and apply it to your own target material in real-time.
PowerCore includes the TC Tools special effects package that features technology from TC Electronic’s high-end hardware products like the M5000 Reverb, TC1210 Modulation FX and Finalizer EQ Section. Assimilator is designed for use with any application from sound design to mastering. Its processing is phase-linear and employs FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) to achieve results that are purportedly comparable to thousands of common equalization bands running
Assimilator’s Morph page allows mixing complete sets of curves, enabling a change from one extreme setting to another by moving one automatable fader. The Assimilator for PowerCore costs $299. Requirements are a Power Mac G3 or better and Mac OS 8.6-9.1 (there’s no Mac OS X version).
However, TC Works has announced a Mac OS X driver for the PowerCore DSP card. This update also adds Apple AudioUnit Plug-In support and enhanced system performance. All users of Emagic’s Logic Audio, Steinberg’s Cubase SX, or other applications with VST or AudioUnit Plug-In support can take advantage of the new driver. A version for MOTU will follow later this spring.
PowerCore 1.7 for Mac OS X will be available in March as a free download from TC Works’ Web site for registered users; for new users, the cost is $1,199.