Audio Ease has announced the release of version 6.3 of Altiverb, a fairly major update that greatly enhances efficiency, and ensures Pro Tools 8 and Pyramix Mascore compatibility. It is the result of ongoing extensive optimizations under the hood, from which all digital audio platforms will benefit.

"On a 5 year old very modest Dell PC that I often use for testing I have seen plug-in counts in Nuendo and Pro Tools almost double" says Arjen of Audio Ease. "If I keep inserting plug-ins on that machine I can get up to 30 Altiverb concert halls without problems."

Furthermore Altiverb 6.3 features significantly increased integration with Pyramix systems including their Mascore technology, and it also ensures ProTools 8 compatibility.

"More than with any of our other products Altiverb seems to require our constant attention." says Arjen. "There are carefully balanced algorithms inside that over the course of Altiverb's life have been bombarded with technologies like OSX, Intel, multicore CPUs and TDM, and more recently Leopard, Vista, Pro Tools 8, and Mascore. We've been back to the drawing board so often, it sees us coming from a mile."

"Over the past 9 years, we've seen computers grow fatter and fatter while Altiverb just got leaner and leaner. Also on our site (audioease.com/ir) you can see the results of 9 years of traveling to record acoustics of spaces. December 17 we'll release samples of Paramount Scoring stage M in LA, which sadly has just closed down. That's where Bernard Hermann did Psycho. I guess in a way Altiverb is growing fatter and leaner at the same time."

The Altiverb 6.3 update, and the monthly Impulse Responses are free of charge.

Changes:

• Extensive optimization resulted in reduced CPU loads.
• Major rewrites have enhanced overall stability of Altiverb.
• When run in sessions higher than 48 kHz, when applying delays in early refs and tail errors in assembling the final IR could occur. This is fixed.
• Fixed problem in the naming of Altiverb presets.
• [PT] flatter cpu load within Pro Tools systems, reducing "CPU held off too long" messages.
• [PT] fixed problem when using automation presets.
• [TDM] Improper load of settings removed.
• [PT PC] Altiverb TDM instances now map properly to Altiverb Regular counterparts when no XL authorization is found.
• [MAS] when "Reset All Parameters" is on, a song load does not delete all settings anymore.
• [AU] After "rescan IR folder" Altiverbs interface remains functioning properly.
• [PC] compatibility with Sequoia, Samplitude and Sonar improved.
• [PC Pyramix] silence at start of non-realtime mixdowns fixed.
• [PC Pyramix] surround mapping of output channels is now compatible.
• [PC Pyramix] integration with mascore completed.
• [VST] fixed mono-mono IR selection problem.