Native Instruments remains the unchallenged heavyweight of instruments and effects. Apple’s Logic Studio 8 recently got a formidable upgrade and a big price drop (US$499), but its bundled instruments and effects, behind cosmetic improvements, are largely unchanged from previous versions. Cakewalk, Digidesign and others have also gotten in the ring, but no one can match up to the insanely massive collection of sound production and mangling in NI’s software. So, when NI offers an upgrade, we notice. I’ll be meeting up with NI next week at the AES show for a full preview of the new KOMPLETE kitchen-sink bundle and updated individual apps (plus KORE 2, due in November), but here’s a quick look.

• New Sampler: KONTAKT 3 is the latest version of NI’s flagship sampler, and in terms of raw breadth and depth of features, Kontakt appears to remain at the top of the heap. New in this version: a 1000-instrument, 33 GB sample library, a new looping/slicing/syncing Wave Editor, new envelopes, new amp and cabinet emulations, better browsing, and more. I’m curious to see how the Performance View and the updated KORE stack up to OnStage in Logic 8 (or even what it’s like using both together).
• New Guitar Effects: GUITAR RIG 3 adds new amp models, new matched cabinets, new effects (tape echo and ring mod!), and more. Guitar effects competition is brisk, but Guitar Rig’s edge to me has been its range of sound possibilities, straight out to the bizarre/experimental.
• Addition of Massive: MASSIVE is NI’s latest soft synth, especially geared for “sonic impact” (read, great basses and leads), with drag-and-drop, semi-modular sound creation.
• Lots of updates: Refreshed versions of previous synths include Absynth 4, Akoustik Piano, Battery 3, B4 II, Elektrik Piano, FM8, PRO-53, and Reaktor 5. With the exception of Reaktor, most of these have gotten feature improvements lately, and all have been updated for Vista and Intel Macs.

Deckadance, the DJ software from Fruity Loops creators Image Line, has only just come out and already has its first update. 1.10 is a big jump. Updates to the Ms. Pinky SDK support means it can now support absolute mode timecode (so you can needle drop anywhere you like), not only for Ms. Pinky vinyl but also M-Audio Torq and PCDJ, both of which are based on Ms. Pinky. There’s also an adjusted interface and updated playlist, among other bugfixes and enhancements.

The most interesting addition, though: it now natively supports the Wii remote from Nintendo. WiiJ, anyone?

Of course, you don’t need Deckadance to DJ with a Wii remote. On Windows, you can use GlovePIE, allowing for custom scripting. And on Mac, the most elegant solution is probably OSCulator, which translates to OpenSoundControl data, MIDI, and keystrokes. (Traktor, for one, supports both OSC and MIDI, though I haven’t yet tried OSCulator with it; I did have some issues using NI’s OSC implementation in Reaktor when I tried it. Update: you could use OSCulator and MIDI if OSC isn’t your cup of tea — more below.) For MIDI compatibility only, there’s also WiitoMIDI.

But I think built-in support in Deckadance is an interesting development. I’ve heard rumblings about Wii controller support showing up in other applications, as well, including VJ software. That means the Wii remote won’t be so much of a novelty in performance — meaning we’ll all have to actually learn to play with the thing skillfully. But maybe that’s a very good thing.

Thanks to Alexandre Guillet in Paris for the tip!

Updated: OSCulator the best choice for Mac MIDI, too? I erroneously implied OSCulator was for OSC only and not MIDI; if you’re on the Mac and wanting to use a Wii remote, see my separate note about OSCulator.

As for the Deckadance implementation itself, Wiij.com isn’t so impressed. I hope Image Line takes him up on his offer of help.

Native Instruments today made a statement on compatibility and performance under Windows Vista for their full product line. They’ve been doing what sounds like some fairly extensive testing, so these answers should be interesting even in regards to products you use from other vendors.

Native Instruments: Windows Vista Compatibility statement

They have to weigh their words; I don’t. So here’s the executive summary:

For those of you who missed the fireworks, Native Instruments recently left its partner Stanton Magnetics (makers of Final Scratch) to pursue its own DJ strategy, which it unveiled at NAMM as (coincidentally named, I’m sure) Traktor Scratch. As with any breakup, that raised questions about support.

Here’s where the first bad news hits: the existing Final Scratch software is incompatible with Intel Macs. And that combined with other compatibility issues could mean the big losers here are Final Scratch customers, who are likely to be really unhappy when they learn the “solution” means buying new products, whether from NI, Stanton, or a third party.

Meanwhile, with NI dropping support for the software end of Final Scratch, Stanton is in the unenviable position of trying to keep their user base from leaving altogether.

Those of you who’ve gotten your hands on Live 6 may have stumbled upon a nasty bug that makes Live lose track of some third-party samples and even some of the factory Simpler presets. The problem can be fixed, and should be addressed by a forthcoming update to the included sound library, but the easiest way to avoid it is to back up your Live library before you upgrade. What? You ignored that dialog box and dove right in anyway? Yeah, me, too. (Hey, I don’t always behave myself.)

Here’s the Cliff Notes version of the story, followed by more resources and (for a much more enjoyable Live 6 tip) some tricks with drums and racks:

Today’s Apple announcement was mostly as-expected, and ho-hum for music listeners. Wait, what’s that? John Lennon on iTunes! Fantasti— uh, sorry. That’s John Legend. Never mind. (One of these artists is not like the other.)

Apple did offer improved iPods, long-awaited movie service and high-resolution TV shows, an upcoming video and audio streaming device for US$300, and two features I think music lovers will enjoy:

First, the new “AlbumFlow” feature in fact comes direct from CoverFlow, the homemade app that created gorgeous 3D versions of album art and let you flip through them. Apple can’t be accused of stealing from the Mac developer community in this case: they purchased the technology outright, as can be seen on the CoverFlow site’s announcement today. (Thanks, Lee!) Microsoft recently added a ripped-off version of this look in Windows Media Player 11 beta’s album view and URGE music store, but the iTunes version — in both the store and library — looks much better.

Even if you just use iTunes to store music and never buy from the iTunes Music Store, the new album display will work with your music; Apple will download album art for you. (And, as always, you can copy-and-paste custom artwork into an album if it’s, say, your own music.)

The other minor announcement you may have missed is that Apple is now rolling out seamless audio playback across all its players, from iTunes to iPods. That’s a small detail, but it makes a big difference for listening to music, especially if you’re a classical lover. Now if we could just get OGG/FLAC playback in iTunes.

It’d be nice to see more on the pro music side of things from Apple, but I expect that’ll come soon, especially with AES around the corner.