M-Audio is perhaps best known for their line of musical instruments and accessories for musicians who use computers in their work, but the company has just introduced its own line of software. The line debuts with Key Rig, a virtual keyboard rack, and Drum and Bass Rig, a virtual drum and bass rack. Both software apps have been developed to work on the Mac and PC and operate either as standalone software or as plug-ins for popular sequencing software. Each costs US$129.95.
Key Rig features the SP-1 Stage Piano, which emulates grand pianos, Wurlitzers, electric pianos and more; the MS-2 Polyphonic Synthesizer, which features presets that let you set up filter, amp, mod and FX sounds; MB-3 Electromagnetic Organ — a Hammond Organ-like rotary speaker synth; and the GM-4 General MIDI module, with 128 General MIDI instruments.
Based on the same engine as Key Rig, Drum and Bass Rig features the LC-5 Loop Creator, which helps musicians make their own loops using functions like slice-reordering, slice muting and group muting; the BL-6 Bassline module, a monophonic bass synthesizer combined with an arpeggiator/step seqeuencer; the RD-7 Real Drums module, a combination of drum kits and individual drums with control over tuning, tone, decay, panorama and level; and the EB-8 Electric Bass module, which has finger, pick, slap and fretless electric bass guitar sounds, complete with slides, dead notes and harmonics.
Key Rig and Drum and Bass Rig are plug-in compatible with Audio Units on Mac OS X, VST and RTAS and can also work as standalone applications. System requirements call for G3/500MH or faster, 256MB RAM, 1GB free hard disk space, Mac OS X v10.3 and VST 2.0, AU or RTAS-compatible host software.