Steinberg release Hypersonic 2

Steinberg Hypersonic 2 comes out later this month, and features 1.7GB of sounds, 1800 factory presets and four sound generation engines.

Hypersonic 2's massive range of sounds covers 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 effects and more.

The new version is designed to use CPU resources efficiently, and features a loss-less playback engine that is said to provide significant performance improvements. Up to 1024-voice polyphony across a maximum of 32 outputs is available per instance, with low CPU load, RAM usage and patch loading times.

The mixer panel provides full control over panning, output channel and effects levels for each patch, while the new patch editor (pictured above) allows speedy access to every sound-shaping parameter. Hyperphrase — a new polyphonic arpeggiator with MIDI file import — is also included.

Elsewhere, the live play mode allows users to load a patch set into memory whilst another set is being played. Because patch changes can be triggered with any MIDI controller, keyboardists playing Hypersonic 2 live can swiftly change patch without having to look at the computer screen.

Hypersonic 2 will be available for Windows XP and Mac OS X in VST, Direct X, Audio Units and Rewire formats. A stand-alone version is also provided. It costs £279.99, and the upgrade from version 1 is £89.99.