Steinberg Hypersonic 2

Steinberg Media today announced , an update to its music workstation software application, designed for musicians, producers, sound designers and composers looking for a range of sounds for most every music genre--from pop to classical. Combining the best of Steinberg’s sound generation technology with premium sample content, Hypersonic 2 features an improved graphical interface, 1.7GB sound library and four specially engineered synthesizer engines. It offers over 1800 factory presets for a wide range of premium sounds that cover the full range of modern and classical instruments and sound sources, including pianos and keyboards, strings and wind instruments, drums and percussion, guitars and basses, drum loops, sound FX and more. Hypersonic 2 supports Mac OS X 10.4 only (as a standalone application) as well as supports VST, DXi, ReWire (for Pro Tools integration), and AU standards. It is due later this month (pricing not available).

Hyersonic 2 also offers 800 new high-fidelity patches as well as 1000 revised factory patches. It also features new and improved Drumkits, new XXL instrument versions, a full patch editor, a Hyperphrase (polyphonic arpeggiator) with 200 categorized phrases (along with MIDI file import), and five new effect types: high quality reverb, reverse reverb, diffuser delay, bi-phaser, tube drive.

"This update extends the strengths of the Hypersonic concept considerably by adding even more quality sounds and more creative potential while still being exceedingly resource-efficient," comments Helge Vogt, Steinberg's Product Manager for Virtual Instruments. "Hypersonic 2 should prove a great asset to musicians, composers and producers who are looking for an all-round musical content and sound source that is easy to use and allows the free flow of musical ideas while playing and composing."

The company says that Hypersonic 2 has been engineered to run at maximum CPU efficiency, and features a unique, lossless playback engine that provides significant performance advantages. Up to 1024-voice polyphony across a maximum of 32 outputs is available per instance, with further "under-the-hood" enhancements providing very low CPU load, RAM usage and patch loading times.

Hypersonic 2 also incorporates a range of features to help users edit the large range of sounds included. The mixer panel provides full control for panning, output channel and FX levels per patch, while the new patch editor allows speedy access to every sound-shaping parameter. Hyperphrase, a new polyphonic arpeggiator with MIDI file import, is also included, further extending the creative options available. Hypersonic 2 also features the HyperKnobs editing concept first seen in Hypersonic 1, offering tailored controls for each patch that allow quick, effective sound tweaking for the most important parameters.

Hypersonic 2 also includes exciting new features for live keyboarders using its immense sonic palette on stage. A new live play mode allows the dynamic loading of patch sets into memory whilst another set is being played. Because the patch change can be triggered with any MIDI controller such as the Mod Wheel or any key, keyboarders playing Hypersonic 2 live can swiftly and dynamically integrate new sounds directly into their performance without even having to look at the computer screen.

by MacNN Staff