Redwood City, Calif.-based U&I Software on Monday released MetaSynth 4 and MetaSynth 4 Pro, new versions of the company’s sound design tool. The developer noted so much has changed that it decided to bypass version 3 when updating version 2.7, the last one released. In addition to a revamped user interface, the software offers such new real-time capabilities as real-time stereo previews and capture-to-disk, along with the ability to create and play music on the fly in the Image Synth and Effects “rooms.”
MetaSynth 4 features six “rooms” — Effects, Image Synth, Image Filter, Spectrum Synth, Sequencer and Montage — that offer different ways to create and manipulate music. Image Synth now supports layers and includes a built-in graphic equalizer. In the Effects room, users can employ envelope control of effects parameters and new effects while taking advantage of improved fidelity.
Four of the rooms are new: Image Filter, in which users can create dynamic stereo filters with MetaSynth’s image-to-sound capability; Spectrum Synth, which uses granular spectral synthesis for creating music by analyzing, editing and rearranging the harmonics of other sounds; Sequencer, a non-MIDI single-track sequencer with single- and multi-oscillator instruments; and Montage, which replaces the previous MetaTrack utility and offers 16-track mixing.
The regular version of MetaSynth 4 opens and saves sounds in 16-bit format while Pro employs 24-bit format and includes a recording feature in the Montage room. U&I Software said that current MetaSynth users should receive an email regarding discounted upgrades from previous versions; check the product page for more information if you didn’t receive one. The regular version of the software is US$499 while the Pro edition is $599. System requirements were not provided.