Monday 24 December 2018

Dune3 - Synapse Audio

The new and improved Dune 3 is now even better than previous versions. Not onl;y sounding superior but now with a great wavetable editor and dual filters. The FX section has also been expanded with many excellent presets and fantastic EQ's. Nice also to see a dual arpeggiator. Only thing missing really is still no drag and drop modulation and the choice of colored skins has dissapeared. All in all though this is a formidable synth with superlative fat lush sounds.

DUNE 3 builds on the award-winning DUNE 2 synthesizer, adding frequently requested features and innovative ideas, to create the best DUNE experience ever!

DUNE 3 comes with many new patches crafted by expert sound designers. Since DUNE 3 is fully patch-compatible with DUNE 2, it includes its presets as well,
doubling the factory library size to more than 1000 patches.

The revised filter section in Dune 3 now sports a dual multimode filter plus an insert effect. Different routing modes like serial/parallel and seamless blend via the Balance knob allow for unlimited creative input! New filter types have been added as well, and include zero-delay feedback filters derived from our latest analog modeling technology. For creative applications, new insert effects like the formant/vowel filter or phaser greatly increase the range of sound design possibilities.

Dual Arpeggiator

Two arpeggiator units instead of just one greatly increase the sound design capabilities of DUNE 3. The Arpeggiators can be programmed independently and support both classic Up/Down arps, as well as playing back different sequences or even MIDI files. Furthermore, new features like the Random mode or programmable Arp Hold make the arpeggiator more powerful than ever before!

Improved oscillators

At the heart of DUNE 3 are its powerful oscillator blocks. DUNE 3 supports VA, FM and Wavetable synthesis. With a maximum reserve of 8320 oscillators at full polyphony, DUNE 3 is a true unison monster, unlikely to ever run out of oscillators.

New in DUNE 3 is the "Swarm" mode, an evolution of the classic Supersaw oscillator.
Each oscillator gets its own subtle modulation in this mode, breathing a lot more life into the sound than possible previously!

New effects algorithms

DUNE 3 offers many new effect algorithms in all categories like Distortion, Chorus, Phaser, EQ, Delay and Reverb.


One of the most important additions is the new Equalizer, which sports technology from our GQ-7 Graphic Equalizer rack extension.


Designed as a professional mixing and mastering equalizer, the new EQ offers four bands with high-quality parametric and shelving EQs, plus two additional low- and high cut filters with variable slopes. All filters in the EQ are designed to handle modulation without artifacts, such that the EQ can be used for creative purposes outside the realm of traditional EQ applications.


Another great new effect algorithm is the new Shimmer Hall, an exclusive feature of DUNE 3 - ideal for lush ambient sounds, wonderful pads and leads!

Wavetable Editor

The new Wavetable editor introduced in DUNE 3 is one of the most powerful around. Waveforms can be created via free-hand drawing, segments, a dedicated partial editor or by entering formulas. A variety of functions like morphing, fade in/out, normalize, DC remove, Invert/Reverse make creating new wavetables a breeze. Waveforms and Wavetables can be imported and exported in WAV format and are thus compatible with a wide range of third party software.

Friday 16 November 2018

Riff Generator Pro 2 - Audiomodern


A simple but VERY effective riff generator which is quite easy to use compared to others , as this one does not have to be routed out to a different midi track. For getting ideas down quickly, this does a really excellent job, and the generated midi data can also be written to your track!

Random Riff Generator is a midi tool that generates sequences for you, these midi sequences/riffs can be sent to any synth, software or hardware, sampler, drum machine.. and basically anything that accepts a midi signal.

It is literally a swiss army knife for creating random melodies, sequences and musical riffs on the spot and it goes as far as your imagination can.

You can use Random Riff Generator PRO with any kind of software or hardware synth, sampler, drum machine and so on. You’ll be surprised about its incredible flexibility in producing so inspirational results.

Random Riff Generator PRO has been designed to promote music creation both in studio and live with a simple and convenient user interface.


Friday 19 October 2018

Gladiator 3 - Tone 2


Often quoted as 'the only synth you will ever need' and quite justifiably so. With it's now resizable interface and a plethora of added content 'Gladiator' is now better than ever. Based around it's own concept of Advanced Harmonic Content Morphing (HCM) Synthesis.Tone2's Gladiator is real workhorse of a synth if ever there was one!

The award-winning Gladiator is a popular synthesizer, which is used for a large number of professional productions. It offers a groundbreaking approach to sound generation. It's exclusive HCM-synthesis covers a new and unique aural territory.

The update to v3.0 is a major update, which is available for free for all Gladiator2 users. It includes a larger and resizable GUI, a patch browser, enhanced sound quality, a bigger sonic range, a more user-friendly interface and many new features. Gladiator3 is downward compatible. Existing song-projects and patches can be loaded without any further steps necessary. They will benefit from the enhanced sound quality.

New features:

Created a new interface, which is nearly twice as large
By clicking on 'EDITOR SIZE' you can select from four different interface sizes
Added a comfortable, new patch browser
New sound-quality mode 'high-end'
18 additional unison modes with a diverse selection of chords
Added context sensitive tooltips with detailed descriptions for all controls
The patches can be ranked by clicking on the stars in the patch browser
The patch rankings are stored within the file "Ranking.rnk"
6 additional lfo waveforms: "Stair 4 up","Stair 8 up","Stair 4 down","Stair 8 down","Stair 4 up/down","Stair 8 up/down"
Added manuals in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian to the new help menu
New loop mode "Noise", which jumps to a random section
New loop mode "/50%", which ping-pong-loops 50% of the spectrum
New loop mode "/25%", which ping-pong-loops 25% of the spectrum
3 additional phase-modifiers "Zzzap", which sound like a laser
3 additional phase-modifiers "Boing", which sound like a reverse laser
2 additional phase-modifiers "Odd noise" and "Even noise", which noisify the spectrum
2 additional phase-modifiers "Odd 90" and "Even 90", which sound like a sub-oscillator
Information tags about the patches are shown in the patch browser
Extended halftone-range for the arpeggiator from -23 to +23
Added cross-product-compatibility: Save->'Export...' exports the sound of osc1 as an Icarus compatible wavetable in wav format
Video tutorials can be shown from the help menu
Updates and additional sounds can be accessed directly from the help menu
176 additional patches

Enhancements in sound:

More linear frequency response for oscillators playing below 100Hz
More precise timing for all sample-rates
Replaced all micro-tuning algorithms with a better ones. The new ones are more subtle and sounds less 'detuned'.
The late-reverb-tail of 'Reverb small' sounds less detuned
The late-reverb-tail of 'Reverb large' sounds less detuned
The late-reverb-tail of 'Reverb ultra' sounds less detuned
All effects do come with default settings now and are more useable
Reworked factory patches

Enhancements for the interface:

Re-rendered the old GUI with sharper texts
The envelope's attack, decay, and release time is displayed in seconds
Registration screen is now also available in German
Renaming a preset is more straightforward
The version number now can be also shown from within help menu
The updated credits can be shown by clicking on help menu
The parameter info display is able to show longer texts now
Mousewheel support for knobs and list selectors
Double-clicking a knob or slider resets it to the default value
More detailed spectrum display
Manuals on the Mac now can be opened from within the plugin
Better init patch
Enhanced graphics
After loading patch names are derived from the fxp file name
Program name and file name are synced after saving a patch
Added messages boxes with info for some possible errors
Step speed is set to 1/1 BPM after initializing a patch
English manual has been updated
Many smaller enhancements
Patches are now in alphabetical order

Changes:

Loading and saving banks can now be accessed with a new menu called 'load' and 'save'
Renamed some parameters to be more consistent with the industry standards
The envelope's fade parameter now works as expected with long attack times
Manuals in PDF format and Gladiatorskin.txt have been moved to Gladiator3_data
On the Mac support files are now stored in /Library/Application Support/Tone2/Gladiator3_data

Updated some texts
Enhanced hardware compatibility for midi program changes
Some sound categories have been renamed

Fixes:

The timing in 44Khz and 48Khz could have been out-of-sync if large block-sizes were used
Fixed some typos
Fixed a couple of wrong pixels
Fixed a possible bug with 'static' loop mode
Compatibility fix for the 'm' key
Fixed a possible crash when the splash-screen was opened during closing

Monday 15 October 2018

Acid Pro 8 - Magix

Acid Pro has been around for as long as i can remember and has always been a very intuitive and easy to use DAW with its paintable loops etc. It has been though,and stiil is,  left behind by far more capable DAWs such as Ableton and Stdio One. The recent update doesn't really add anything new to the table, except it's now 64 bit and cosmetic wise it is now a lot more pleasing on the eye. Still a great DAW (especially for beginners) if still  a tad dated though, compared to the competition.

ACID Pro 8 is the creative DAW for all music producers. Behind its slick new interface lies a powerful, 64-bit music production powerhouse. It combines ACID's famous easy workflow with pro-level features, over $1000 worth of new instruments, loops and effects, and 9 GB of all-new ACIDized loops. ACID has a world-class, 20-year heritage and, with VST3 support coming soon in a free update, ACID Pro 8 is very much the creative DAW for today's forward-thinking artists

Meet your new creative partner in crime ACID Pro 8 is a powerful 64-bit DAW that has ACID's famous innovative audio looping, powerful multitrack recording and hi-end audio and MIDI features, all set within an easy-to-use interface to help artists of all levels create their dreams. With a brand new GUI, but the same, famous ACID ease of use, this is an immensely creative music production environment. ACID Pro 8 also adds 64-bit processing, no less than 16 new instruments, 13 new effect plug-ins, 9 GB of new ACIDized loops, and there's VST3 support coming soon in a free update giving you access to thousands of third party plug-ins.

New powerful 64-bit architecture
Take advantage of all the power of your 64-bit operating system for creating complex projects with tons of loops, demanding plug-ins and lots of tracks and real-time effects. Power for your music.

Refreshed User Interface
Inspired to inspire! The completely refreshed user interface is designed for the special needs of musicians. Precise mixing, creative composing or professional recording – all at lightning speed.

More instruments. More sounds. More effects.
An incredible suite of 16 instruments including the DN-e1 analogue synth and Vita Sampler. 13 stunning effects: from the Analogue Modelling Suite to Vandal guitar effects, plus an amazing 9 GB of new ACIDized content and free VST3 support coming soon!

Friday 5 October 2018

Kontakt 6

Don't think Kontakt needs too much of an introduction and with this new updated version it seems song creation has reached an entirely new level with a wealth of deep editing and new  instruments!

With KONTAKT 6, you can sound like a snare drum, a symphony orchestra, or anything in between, from a universe of sampled instruments. It’s a simple sampler when you want it to be, and a deep sonic scripting laboratory when you need something more. The next generation of the world’s favorite sampling platform gives you new instruments and new features under the hood – so you can layer, link, stretch, and shape your sounds any way you can imagine.

What's new?
Over two decades, KONTAKT has become a highly-developed engine for creating and playing sampled instruments. KONTAKT 6 offers more for players and builders alike:

Introducing KONTAKT Play Series: Three new instruments for the KONTAKT library, offering pristine, contemporary sound in a creative and streamlined interface

Wavetable synthesis module: Build hybrid instruments for entirely new sounds

Enhanced effects: Even more effects for your creations, for greater expression and realism

Creator Tools: New standalone application dedicated to improving the library creation and editing process.

THREE NEW INSTRUMENTS
KONTAKT 6 introduces the KONTAKT Play Series: Sonically rich sample libraries that combine powerful sound design with simple playability. Each offers eight intelligently mapped macro knobs giving you a wide-sweeping, intuitive range of control. They all showcase KONTAKT’s new wavetable module, each offering two blendable sound sources and a unique take on a speciality style.

ANALOG DREAMS
Iconic 20th century hardware synthesizers captured with an intricate level of detail, and creatively processed with seminal outboard effects. This hybrid analog/digital instrument utilizes blendable sound sources to deliver a modern take on classic electro and synthwave, which have seen a resurgence in recent cinema.

ETHEREAL EARTH
Hybrid organic/electronic instrument that takes myriad acoustic instruments from around the world, and combines it with digital synthesis, organic foley layers, and effects processing. The result fuses traditional and digital, with basses, strings (bowed and plucked), wind instruments, tuned percussion, bells/metals, pads/drones, leads, and textural ambiences.

HYBRID KEYS
A contemporary, creative, and ultimately new take on keys and piano sounds. HYBRID KEYS moves away from conventional sampling processes and instead focuses on inventive techniques such as re-amping, creative mic positioning in interesting spaces, and vari-speed experiments with tape.

NEW FEATURES FOR BUILDERS
KONTAKT has long since grown beyond its origins as a software sampler, and now provides a solid foundation for building advanced sample-based instruments. We’ve been supporting this platform, and the people who use it, with continuous updates to KONTAKT 5, and KONTAKT 6 builds on this strategy with some big additions for you builders out there.

NEW EFFECTS

Replika Delay: Based on the dedicated Native Instruments plug-in REPLIKA XT, it offers multiple delay modes, each with a vastly different sound character.
Room Reverb: A new high-quality algorithmic room reverb that offers options for real time modulation.
Hall Reverb: Another high-quality algorithmic reverb, tuned for hall sounds.
Plate Reverb: Emulates a plate reverberator for for classic vintage metallic sounds.
Cry Wah: Wah-wah effect module, based on the most popular wah pedal of all time.

WAVETABLE MODULE
The latest version of KONTAKT adds wavetable synthesis to the ever expanding KONTAKT toolset. All three of the new Play Series instruments incorporate this new module, and we’re looking forward to hearing what you create with this powerful new building block.

CREATOR TOOLS
Creator Tools is a standalone application designed to improve the workflows of library builders and instrument creators. It consists of two elements: A Debugger, for identifying and fixing problems in KONTAKT script, and an Instrument Editor, which can load and run Lua scripts to automap samples, duplicate and batch rename groups, and copy settings from one part of an instrument to another.

Tuesday 18 September 2018

Tone2 - Electra2

One of the most underrated companys, Tone2 have always created exceptionally great sounding and innovative plugins. Electra2 is another fine example and with the recent updates, it's now even better. One of the stand out features of Electra2 is the layering of oscillators , of which contains in essence 4 synths with three independent layers within themselves. This makes for massive sound design mixing, even more so, with the ability to import your own samples which can be edited in various interesting ways. Oh! and i should mention Electra2 each has its own arpeggiator section, per synth, (that's 4 arps going at the same time) which sadly even Synapses Dune2 does not have, although that one has 8 layers but that's another story.

 As in Icarus, and especially so here, check out the semireal presets which has some brilliantly sounding authentic acoustic guitars and flutes etc. 


Electra2 - the only synth you need to create a hit!

Many people say that Electra2 is the most powerful synthesizer on the market. This is a bold claim, but why is it true? Electra2 breathes new life into the term "synthesizer workstation". With its powerful and sonically versatile approach to audio production, it provides you with truly outstanding new sounds.

The instrument is equipped with a high-end quality sound engine with multi-layer support and a wide range of music production features. It's friendly, easy to use interface allows first-timers to easily create sounds and enables experts to delve into sound-design as deeply as they want to. With Tone2's high-end technology at its core, you're not only working with the best sound quality possible, but also a lower CPU usage and larger palette for creating original sounds than with any other type of workstation.
Electra2 comes with an astounding collection of over 1300 production-ready sounds by professional sound designers. A smart patch browser gives you an instant overview of all the available categories and sounds. Just pick the sound you want - it's that easy.

Changes in Electra v2.6:

New synthesis mode: Analog oscillators (Saw, Square, Triangle, Sine, Half Sine, Comb, Pulse 25%).
New synthesis mode: Soft sync (is active if the target oscillator is analog; works well with triangle).
New synthesis mode: Analog pulsewidth modulation (select Analog->’Pulse PW’; PW knob controls the pulsewidth).
New effect: ‘Gated Reverb’ which syncs to the BPM rate.
New effect: ‘Gated Reverb Echo’ is Gated Reverb with a delay which syncs to BPM.
New effect: ‘Reverse Reverb’ which syncs to the BPM rate.
New effect: ‘Stereo Width’ allows to spread the panorama from mono to surround.
New effect: ‘Laser Punch’ adds additional punch. Use it with a sawtooth to gereate a zzapping ‘Rubber Bass’ sound.
New effect: ‘Stereo flanger’.
New effect: ‘Surround pan’ with dolby prologic compatible surround encoding.
New filter: ‘LP Butter’ is an analog modeled butterworth filter with 24dB. The analog knob controls the noisyness.
New filter: ‘LP Tone2’ is an analog modeled leapfrog filter with 24dB. The analog knob controls non-linearity.
New filter: ‘LP Elliptic’ is a digital filter with 40dB slope.
The patch browser shows a scrollbar if more than 26 categories exist.
Doubleclick on a knob resets it to the default value.
Custom Wave->’Load wave’ now shows a popup menu with all available waveforms in ElectraX_wavetables.
Custom waveforms can quickly be selected with the mouswheel.
Custom Wave->’Random wave’ generates a random waveform.
‘Save Wave’ exports a wav file with the oscillator’s waveform.
New Sample effect: ‘Phase shifter’ creates a very similar sounding sample. It can be used for ‘sample clearing’, since it is difficult to proove the origin of the sample.
New halftone mode for the arpeggiator: 3/4 selects a minor or major third which depends on the root key .
‘Natural scrolling’ support for the mousewheel on Mac.
List selectors now have checkmarks.
40 additional patches.
Enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Hall’, especially for for small sizes.
Enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Room’ for small sizes.
Enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Cathedral’.
Slightly enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Big’ with reduced low frequency rumble.
Slightly enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Infinity’ with reduced low frequency rumble.
A hand symbol is shown for text-style parameters which can be altered with the mouse.
More detailed description for some tooltips.
If tooltips are hidden the info boxes for the knobs are also hidden.
Better default settings for Chorus.
Better default settings for Ensemble.
Mousewheel on PC has a more aggressive focus.
No more clipping in the waveform displays.
More clean sound of PWM modulation on ‘custom wave’.
Filter frequency response display is more precise.
Higher precision of triangle, square and saw LFO at high frequencies.
More linear frequency response of ‘Dynamic loud’, ‘Bright’ and ‘Loudness’.
Init->’Reset All’ sets Pitchwheel to +-12.
Cleaned up some tooltips.
Several small enhancements.
More smooth looking waveform displays.
Reworked some ‘init patch’ templates.
Fixed: The timing in 44kHz and 48 kHz samplerate was incorrect .
Fixed: One some PC hosts the mouse cursor showed a wait circle when a knob was moved.
Fixed: LFO ‘Fade’ did not work with some waveforms.
Fixed: The checkmark ‘Multilayer edit’ was not shown after closing and opening the GUI.
Fixed: Fixed a denormal in the Reverb effect.
Fixed: Fixed a click that could be audible when volume envelope sustain was set to 0.
Fixed: Monophonic arpeggiators sometimes did not play if keys were hit while loading a patch.
Fixed: ‘Hold’ time in the envelope section was displayed incorrectly.
Fixed: LFO speed text did display a mouse up/down arrow on mouseover.
Fixed: STEP Lfo speed display was incorrect.
Fixed: Modulation depth of knobs could have been incorrect if matrix target was switched.
Text-style parameters do not longer display a “*”.

Tuesday 4 September 2018

Midi Madness 3



The original Midi Madness was a great tool for creating random ideas and this updated third version has much improvements. Very similar to the original but with several great new features , such as a new cleaner GUI and wth the ability to create chords and chord progressions. The macros are also a nice addition and the CC mapping is now much easier. One of the best new features though, is that one doesn't now have to route Midi Madness to your selected VST, they are now hosted within the plugin. I always thought Midi Madness was a fantaastic tool for creating new ideas that one would not necassarily come up with by ones self. The best just got BETTER!

Saturday 14 July 2018

Late Replies - Blue Cat



More than just a delay plugin, late replies is capable of much more. Hosting of it's own and third party plugins takes this to completely another level. With its excellent reverb effects , looping echoes and feedback controls ( not to mention the ducking feature) there's plenty of scope here for sound designers  which all sounds just fantastic! It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be! The presets are really excellent and the use of locks is great!

Blue Cat's Late Replies is a powerful delay and multi effects plug-in that can be indefinitely extended by hosting third party VST, VST3 or AU plug-ins anywhere in the signal path.

With its unique topology, the plug-in is a full-featured delay machine with unlimited powers: both the 8 taps pattern module and the two nested feedback loops include plug-in slots that can host built-in effects or third party plug-ins.

With its unique topology, the plug-in is a full-featured delay machine with unlimited powers: both the 8 taps pattern module and the two nested feedback loops include plug-in slots that can host built-in effects or third party plug-ins.

So it's not just about delays! The plug-in includes 25 built-in effects to further manipulate the delay lines: modulation effects, EQ and filters, dynamics processors, pitch and frequency shifters, wave shaper...

With the integrated ducker and its side chain input, ducking delays or reverbs has never been so easy.

Blue Cat's Late Replies is delivered with hundreds of presets producing many kinds of audio effects: classic delays, rhythmic or melodic patterns, reverbs, vintage echoes, shimmer effects, sci-fi sounds...

Main Features

- Powerful delay with built-in effects and third party plug-ins support.
- 8 taps pattern section with integrated mixer and plug-ins slots.
- 2 feedback loops with crossfeed and plug-ins slots.
- 25 built-in effects: EQ, filters, pitch & frequency shifter, delays, modulation effects, compressor, - gate, bit crusher, wave shaper and more.
- Supports third party VST, VST3 and Audio Unit plug-ins, with latency compensation.
- Tempo/Host Synchronization.
- Global stereo spread control.
- Several hundreds of fully editable presets.
- Integrated ducking, with internal and external side chain.
- Comprehensive visual feedback with detailed impulse response display.
- Protect your ears with the included feedback and output brickwall limiters.

Monday 9 July 2018

Go2 - Rob Papen



Go2 is primarily aimed at being a beginners synth which is easier to programme with a more simplistic layout . The features of which are all layed out in front of you with no sub menus.Go2 is certainly not simplistic though as under the surface Go2 can create some very complex patches which goes far beyond the only one oscillator setting. Highlights are its morphing ability and a great sequencer/arp section which incorpoarates chords. Not as analogue sounding as say Diva , Blue or Zebra but still really good overall and well worth auditioning!

In the Rob Papen world of synthesis there was one type of synthesizer missing…
A synthesizer that has all of the controls and features available visually all at once.

The current Rob Papen collection holds synthesizers which contain many features and types of synthesis which sometimes can be daunting to the average user.
But there is always something tempting and fun in something that is so simple!

Look at the 1980's, in which we had top synthesizers like the Roland Jupiter-8, but also at the other end of the spectrum the simpler but fantastic synths like the SH-101. And yes, both became classic synthesizers.
Compare it also whilst making music, very often less is more and this is also can be applied whilst using synthesizers. Sure, with a heavily featured synthesizer, you can also be less complex in a patch. But this often still takes more time to achieve.

And yes, Go2 has all of the controls visual at the same time but still has some unique features and sound for sure… which makes sure that it will boldly go to where no other synth in this category went before.

Friday 29 June 2018

Tal-Mod - Togu Audioline




For anyone new to modular synthesis Tal-Mod makes it much easier to get to grips with than most. A myriad of routing posibilities , patching cables etc is much more simply laid out  here , which can to say the least become extremely complex . Not he best looking GUI but does have custom color skins available, orange is pretty cool. Great sounding synth and well worth getting into!

TAL-Mod is a virtual analog synthesizer with an exceptional sound and almost unlimited modulation possiblities. Its special oscillator model is able to create a wide range of sounds, from classic mono to rich stereo leads, effects and pads.

Routings can be done with virtual patch cables. Just connect a modulation output with a modulation target. After that it's possible to adjust the intensity of the modulation. You don't need to be a modular expert. The plug-in is suitable for beginners and experts!

Features
3 oscillators with optional saw, pulse, triangle and sine waveforms.
1 additional noise oscillator with adjustable color.
2 high quality analog sounding resonance filters with different modes (LP, HP, Notch, All Pass, BP).
Different filter routing possiblities (parallel and serial). With the possiblity to choose the oscillator sources.
Full stereo signal path.
FM / RingMode support.
2 oscillators support hard sync for saw, pulse, triangle waveforms.
Create stereo sounds and rich harmonics with additional oscillators (up to 7 sound generators per oscillator for osc I and osc II).
2 lfo's with different waveforms, sync, trigger, unipolar modes and the possibility to modulate the rate.
3 adsr's.
Modulation envelope with spline or optional step mode. Trigger and host sync mode.
Almost unlimited modulation possibilities with patch cable routing.
Optional sequencer or arpeggiator.
Basic effects: high pass filter, chorus, eq, reverb and delay.
Mono and polyphonic mode.
Microtuning support.
Resizable UI.
You choose your favorite UI colors.
And a lot more...

Saturday 14 April 2018

Scaler - Plugin Boutique



An incrediblely intuitive tool for not only learning scales and chords but how they work together. Beautifully designed and essential for anyone who is not versed in musical theory. The drag and drop feature which places the midi notes inside your DAW is fantastic as is the dragging of chord tiles from your selected scale into the arranger. One of a kind and probably the best and easiest out there, especially when compared to the likes of 'Instachord'.

Scaler is a unique and inspirational MIDI effect that makes finding chords and progressions intuitive and fun! With note detection, scale selection and chord suggestions, Scaler is a comprehensive but easy-to-use toolbox that will help anyone make better music.

A first of its kind, Scaler can determine what key and scale you’re in and suggest chords that match your music, or it can inspire a tune from scratch by providing a set of initial chords in an unexplored key. With the onboard bank of 1,728 scales and modes including genre and artist presets, there’s more than enough to keep the juices flowing.

Once you’ve determined a scale, Scaler lays out basic diatonic chords for you to audition, and lets you take things further with dozens of chord variations and voicings to try out. Theory buffs can also get an insight into each chord’s harmonic function.

Ready to put together a progression? Simply drag and drop chords into Scaler’s sequencer, change up octaves and inversions, and record or drag the progression into your DAW.

Benefits

•Discover your music’s key and explore alternative scales and chord sets
•Choose from hundreds of keys, and get the harmonic flavours of pro artists
•Easily audition chords and find alternative voicings and common substitutions
•Quickly build intelligent progressions by dragging chords into Scaler’s chord sequencer
•Drag chords and progressions from anywhere in the plugin out to your DAW

Detect

•Discover your track’s current scale with MIDI keyboard or piano roll note detection
•Get an insight into the emotional content of matching scales
•12 keys across 12 scales and modes giving you a total of 144 options to choose from
•12 unique voicing types giving you a potential 1,728 Scales and modes
•Over 50 artist chord sets from the likes of Carl Cox, MJ Cole, CeCe Rogers and Mike Huckaby
•Over 50 genre and mood-based chord sets such as Chill, Drum & Bass, Jazz, Soundtrack, EDM…
•Check how closely a given scale matches your detected input

Keyboard

•Keep an eye on notes and chords going through Scaler with real-time visual feedback
•Visualise the chosen scale as highlighted notes on Scaler’s piano keyboard
•Audition chords from your chosen scale with a choice of four sounds
•Play and record one-finger chords using Scaler’s Bind MIDI function
•Assign any VST / AU instrument to Scaler to control your favourite synths

Explore

•See the basic diatonic chords that can be built from your chosen scale
•Browse Chord Variations for each note to get suspended chords, extended chords, dominant sevenths and jazz chords
•Quickly get a sense of each chord’s harmonic function in progressions
•Discover chord substitutions that lend variety to your progressions
•Experiment with different chord voicings to spread notes across the keyboard
•Mix and match from hundreds of artist and genre-based chord sets

Build

•Drag and drop chords from your palette into Scaler’s Progression Builder
•Transpose and invert chords for even more voicing styles
•Audition your progressions and make changes with drag-and-drop
•Save your own chord sets to the preset bank for later use
•Export MIDI to your DAW simply by dragging and dropping

New Features in Version 1.2

•Humanise Velocities: the velocity of each note within chords is randomised to provide a more natural playing style.
•MIDI Export Length: select length of MIDI notes for export and drag and drop.
•Improved Progression Builder: Now handles up to 16 chords & chord progression is now played at DAW tempo.
•21 New ChordSets: Classical (8), K-Pop / J-Pop (6), Neo Soul (6)
•11 New Scales: Lydian augmented scale, Acoustic scale, Major locrian scale, Ukrainian dorian scale, Hungarian gipsy scale, Melodic minor scale (asc), Half-diminished scale, Phrygian dominant scale, Persian scale, Neapolitan major scale, Neapolitan minor scale

Tuesday 27 March 2018

Heavier7Strings - Three Body Tech

I have not auditioned every guitar emulator out there but  as far as i have heard this one comes as close to perfection as one could get. Extremely realistic sounding guitars that, only an experienced guitarist might be able to tell the difference.Not only are the heavy metal guitars spot on though, the clean ones are also surprisingly excellent too. A great preset library is included ( note: seperate download required of almost 6GB!) which includes everything from epic riffs - rock - ambient clean. Its all very well featured with effects racks all built in and drag and drop MIDI patterns inside your DAW. An essential piece of kit to have whether your an experienced guitar player or not!
Heavier7Strings is a metal guitar emulation virtual instrument based on a guitar sample library, made by Three Body Tech developers from China. As soon as I heard a demo, I knew that I’d like to try it. Having been a guitar player for almost 30 years, it is not so easy to fool me with some “wanna-be” guitar sounds, but this one sounds quite real, not to mention the fact that it comes with over 200 MIDI clips that can be loaded into your sequencer for further manipulation. After installing this 9 GB beast I spent some time glancing through the quite-detailed manual, along with browsing for some video tutorials, as it proves not to be a “first try – first success” sort of plug-in, or to put it simply, I was not able to get immediate results. Of course, when I finally figured out how everything worked, everything seemed so logical, easy and well-placed.
Finally, after all the tutorials and manuals, I was on the road to making my own riffs. If you listen to Heavier7Strings in isolation, you may notice some tiny moments that can give you a clue that this is not a real guitar played by a guitarist, but, at least in my opinion, they are so small that only a skilled guitar player can hear the difference. This is definitely not the case with any other guitar library/instrument that I’ve tried before. Most of them sound quite solid in a full arrangement, but sounds obviously fake in isolation, mainly because the attack was too prominent causing the whole thing to sound more like a harpsichord and not like a guitar at all. Next thing with all other guitar emulations is the issue with the transitions between riffs, or even between some notes in solo phrases, that sounded a bit off, unnatural. Those are only two of the main reasons, but truth be told there are also all sorts of other, maybe not so prominent, smaller guitar misbehaviors comes with all other guitar emulation software, that can be spotted even by non-guitar players. So, thumbs up, my dear China friends. This one comes quite close even in isolation.
As soon as you put virtual drums and virtual bass alongside Heavier7Strings, everything becomes absolutely real and wild. You need to be a really, really picky guitar expert to notice the difference (and trust me, it is better to have good fake guitar than a bad live guitar player). Riffs and even lead lines sound very authentic. Of course, my dear keyboard playing friends, it would not hurt if you know at least the basics about how harmonies are played on guitar, or at least know how to recreate a few basic heavy guitar riffs. Even if you are somewhat barefoot in this field, there are those aforementioned 200 preprogrammed MIDI patterns that should serve as a good starting point.

    My first attempt with Heavier7Strings.


Menu

Let’s go through some details. Top left is the main menu, with five buttons. First two are reserved for load or save options where you can store specific settings for the whole instrument. Last button is reserved for Settings, where I have set Zoom to 125% as the main window was a bit small for my taste. Of course, this is not the only thing that you can set there.
The most interesting parts of the menu, at least for me, are Patterns and Effects buttons, opening new windows with this two parts. For a better understanding, we should explain that the main structure or base for the whole instrument is clean sounding electric guitar samples that are processed later through a quite impressive and detailed effects rack. So, in the effects section you can drag various effects into the rack directly from the left side menu. Also, you can simply load some ready made effects rack combinations from the right menu with the browser, where you can select one of many effects combinations, choosing between Ambients, Clean, Epic Riffs, Metal Riffs, Overdriven, Rock Riffs, Solo or Strumming group. There is also a set of options here to save, delete, create a new group or separate presets within a group.
The next one is the Pattern window, offering quite similar groups as can be found in the Effects section, offering three additional groups along with all the aforementioned ones. These are Demo Songs, Noises and Ultra Low. Every group comes with quite a nice number of patterns, offering a star rating system for every pattern. You can also preview a pattern being perfectly in sync with your host. All patterns come with predefined settings for the Effects section, along with settings that are preselected for that pattern in the main window. The one you like can easily be dragged into the arrangement window. Of course, there is a problem that every new added pattern changes the whole settings, so it would be nice to have some option to drag a MIDI clip only once when you first load MIDI in your arrangement, preventing that all further clips will change your settings. The good thing is that you can make your own Groups and add new patterns simply by dragging your MIDI clips inside the Pattern main window, having them for further usage in some other projects. This works in Cubase, but at the moment unfortunately doesn’t work inside Studio One. Hope this would be fixed in a future update.

Main Window

All controllers are set around a big black guitar picture. In the upper part we find level sliders for all six strings along with modulation and sustain buttons. Of course there are still a zillion other controllers, so you can totally go into detail regarding your sound, but I will only go through those that change the sound quite generally. So, at the bottom you can find a nice number of buttons for various functions. One Key Fifth button, for adding a fifth interval to the note you currently playing. Play Octaves adds an octave to a lower key when you press two notes. Simple Chord makes a proper guitar chord out of your three notes. All these changes are visible on a guitar neck as small dots with names of all played and added notes visible on a guitar neck. There is also Legato Mode, Unison Bend and Auto Slide buttons for exactly those things they are named for. As mentioned before, a few other are also there, but for me the most sweet and useful one is Vel Muting, which plays palm mute notes on lower velocities and open, normal notes on higher velocities. The whole system is set that at the highest velocities we get pitch harmonics that are very specific for any metal music. Hammer-on/Pull-Off is triggered on velocities under 28.
There are a few ways to control your playing. One is with velocity. Also, almost everything is controllable through CC controllers. The modulation wheel switches between palm mute and normal legato notes. There is also a nice number of key-switches for all sorts of functions – again my favorite is the Repeat function where some keys repeat muted notes that you hold higher on the keyboard range, while other Repeat keys repeat open notes. It allows you to go wild, changing chords with the right hand and banging rhythms with right hand just by changing between Mute-Repeat and Open-Repeat keys. In the upper keyboard range we also find an octave with harmonic control. It is very nice addition, being able to reach some functions and articulations in different ways, leaving the final choice to the user, not being so determined by the developer’s choice. Specifically regarding those palm mutes: open note combinations are on some occasions not so easy to control just by velocity, and it is far easier to achieve this through the mod wheel or simply by drawing some controllers in the CC controller editor.

Conclusions

Once I had gotten a grip on it, Heavier7Strings has been one of the most joyful instruments that I’ve used lately. It is not just a tool for creating angry metal riffs, but also for playing mad metal solo lines, sounding absolutely realistic with all the elements that you hear in most metal songs. I didn’t elaborate on this part, but according to some third party demo clips, with some keyboard playing skills and a few CC/key-switch changes, it can be done perfectly. Playing chords and melodies with clean sounds is also quite enjoyable and surprisingly realistic. Some clean presets sound a bit 80’s, but otherwise very impressive.
It’s one of the best heavy guitar recreations that I’ve heard and tried in the last decade – and I’ve heard and tried quite a few of them. Even if you are a guitar player, sometimes it is quite a bit easier to use such an instrument. And if you are not, and you are looking for such an addition to your sound arsenal, then this is a must.
More info and some additional video and audio clips at:


Thursday 15 March 2018

The Legend - Synapse Audio



Really excellent mini moog emulator which ranks among the best such as Monark. Perfect for basslines and there's also some great string/lead sounds too!

Developed in cooperation with vintage synth specialist Bigtone Studios, The Legend is designed to faithfully emulate one of the most famous vintage analog synths. Moreover, numerous innovative enhancements greatly increase its versatility.

Uprecedented precision

Every component, ranging from the voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), voltage-controlled filter (VCF) and voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA), have been modeled to an accuracy never seen before in software. The snappy filter and amplifier envelopes have been meticulously modeled, as well as the massive bottom end - even the most marginal effects like temperature drift or effects originating from the power supply have been taken into account.

The most significant additions are the Unison and Polyphonic modes, allowing for thick stereo sounds, as well as enabling polyphonic play. Built around a vectorized core, The Legend is capable of synthesizing four voices for the cost of little more than a single voice, making it a highly efficient analog-modeling synthesizer plug-in.

The back panel of The Legend allows to switch between two revisions modeled, Early and Late. Moreover, extra options allow to fine-tune the analog simulation and account for part tolerances typically found in hardware. The key parameter ranges can be adjusted as well as tuning, drift or saturation.

Another bonus feature of The Legend is its on-board effects, comprising a high-quality delay and reverb unit. Both effects are tailored to the synthesizer, and offer just the right sound with only a few parameters each.

The Legend comes with 480 patches crafted by leading sound designers and sorted into categories like Bass, Lead, SFX, etc.

The Legend features summary

- Accurate circuit simulation
- Two Revisions modeled, Early and Late
- 8x Oversampled engine
- Vectorized core with Unison, Mono and four-voice Polyphony modes
- 480 patches included
- Available as VST, Audio Unit and Rack Extension


Tuesday 6 March 2018

NCH WavePad -Sound Editor Masters Edition


Another one of the best sound editors out there!

This audio editing software is a full featured professional audio and music editor for Windows and Mac OS X. It lets you record and edit music, voice and other audio recordings. When editing audio files you can cut, copy and paste parts of recordings then add effects like echo, amplification and noise reduction.

Audio Editor Features
Sound editing functions include cut, copy, paste, delete, insert, silence, autotrim and more
Audio effects include, amplify, normalize, equaliser, envelope, reverb, echo, reverse and many more
Integrated VST plugin support gives professionals access to thousands of additional tools and effects
Recommended Free VST Plugin Effects
Includes free sound effect and music library
Supports almost all audio and music file formats including mp3, wav, vox, gsm, wma, au, aif, flac, real audio, ogg, aac, m4a, mid, amr and many more
Batch processing allows you to apply effects and/or convert thousands of files as a single function
Tools include spectral analysis (FFT), speech synthesis (text-to-speech) and voice changer
Audio restoration features including noise reduction and click pop removal
Supports sample rates from 6 to 196kHz, stereo or mono, 8, 16, 24 or 32 bits
Includes its own CD ripper with 'ultrafast' rip mode and cddb music database lookup
Works directly with MixPad multi-track audio mixing, Zulu DJ software and Express Burn CD Recorder.
Easy to use interface will have you editing in minutes

Typical Audio Editing Applications
Software audio editing for studios and professional journalists.
Edit sound files to broadcast over the internet with the BroadWave Streaming Audio Server
Normalizing the level of audio files during mastering before burning to CD.
Editing mp3 files for your iPod, PSP or other portable device.
As a music editor (includes ringtones creator formats).
Music editing and recording to produce mp3 files.
Voice editing for multimedia productions (use with our Video Editor).
Restoration of audio files including removing excess noise such as hiss and hums.


Tuesday 27 February 2018

Axis - SoundSpot



Very cool all in one multiband compresser/imager/mastering plugin. Quite easy to get to grips with and a nice user friendly interface. Great to have all of these controls rolled into one!

 When you’re mixing or mastering music, sometimes you may find yourself in a situation where you need to manipulate the audio in a way that falls outside the realms of what a conventional plugin can do, and with this in mind SoundSpot set out to create a plugin that can solve this problem. Introducing the Axis... The Axis is a combination of two of their most popular plugins, the MSW1 & Propane with the addition of a brand new upwards and downwards compressor that is capable of dual directional compression which can be both subtle and brutal. But it doesn’t end there! We’ve made the whole unit multiband, for complete control over the incoming signal, allowing you to manipulate the audio to get punch, clarity, groove or sparkle without the need to load up a huge number of individual plugins. The Axis linear phase has been made to be lightweight, so go wild... The only limit is your imagination. Features: + Intuitive, easy to navigate user interface. + Designed to work flawlessly with touch controllers such as the Raven by Slate Media. + Multiband Layout + Individual Compressor, Imager & Metering module per band + Simultaneous Upwards & Downward compression + Parallel Compression mixing + Mid Side Panning + Mono Maker + Stereo Widener + Individual Band Anti Pop Bypass + Individual Band Isolation Mode + Preset Manager with new preset scrub through feature home page



Wednesday 21 February 2018

Wavetable - Ableton Live 10 Instrument


Many wavetable synths out there such as 'Serum' etc but lives is a particularly nice one with full screen graphics and complemented by a much easier to use interface. I found myself diving deeper here than in others.No integration as yet to import your own waveforms but that is probably on the horizon.

Thursday 15 February 2018

Echo - Ableton Live 10 Device


'Echo' is such a formidibal sounding tape delay/echo device it deserves a place here all of its own,even though it's only available in 'Live'

If you’re a fan of old-school tape delays like we are, you’re definitely going to enjoy messing around with Echo. As you’ll see in our accompanying video, there are a lot of options to twiddle.

We particularly like its raging feedback; the strange metallic and tonal effects you can achieve with short delay times; and you can also use Echo as a pseudo ‘retroiser’ using its Noise section. It might not replace your favourite third-party delay plugin, but it’s definitely useful to have as a bundled device inside Live.

We leave no stone unturned in this huge walkthrough on Echo.
Step 1: Let’s take Ableton Live 10’s new Echo device for a spin. Live’s other onboard delay devices are rather utilitarian – except for Grain Delay, which is especially ‘out there’) – so it’s nice to see a substantial new delay to rival third-party options. Seeing as the device is a creative dub-style echo effect, we’ll load a new instance over a dry reggae ‘skank’ sound.
Step 2: Like any delay plugin, Echo’s Dry/Wet governs the balance of dry signal to delayed signal. We’ll keep that at around 50%. Up in Echo’s top left, you’ve got separate Left and Right controls to set delay time for the left and right channels. Sweep these around for tape-style repitching effects as the echoes spring to their new values.

Step 3: Left and Right times are locked together by default, but you can decouple them by detoggling the yellow Link button that sits between. Both Left and Right times are synced to host tempo – detoggle one of the Sync buttons if you want to set delay time in milliseconds.
Step 4: Below the Sync buttons sit dropdown menus, where you click and choose one of four beat-synced modes. Under that, increase or decrease values in the boxes to offset either delay earlier or later by a few milliseconds. This is useful if the Left and Right delays are set to identical speeds, as you can create width. These work independently even when the delay times are locked.
Step 5: As you’d expect, you can crank up the Feedback knob to feed the delay outputs back into the inputs for more and more repeats. After the dial is pushed past around the 12 o’clock point, the feedback starts to self-oscillate, for those wild dub-style delay effects. This is definitely a fun, tweaker’s delay!
Step 6: Next, we’ll back down the Output and crank up the Input, which will distort the delay signal. Toggling the D button causes the input gain to also distort the dry signal – set the Dry/Wet to 0% to hear this more clearly. The Polarity button inverts the feedback’s polarity, and noticeably changes the delay’s character, especially with short delay settings.
Step 7: In true Space Echo style, there’s also a simple Reverb onboard. Mix it in with the Reverb knob, and shape its length with the Decay slider. With the dropdown underneath, you can select where the reverb is placed in the signal path – Pre, Post or Feedback, with the latter getting pretty wild when settings are pushed.
Step 8: Flanking the reverb is a Stereo knob. Setting it to 0% monos the wet signal, 100% leaves the original width, and 200% gives maximum widening. Under that are three delay modes: there’s the default Stereo mode; Ping Pong is left-to-right as expected; and there’s a Mid/Side mode – when selected, the Left time becomes Mid, and the Right becomes Side.
Step 9: At the bottom of Echo’s black centre section are controls for shaping the tone of the delay repeats with resonant high- and low-pass filters. HP and LP controls set the frequency of either filter, with Res boosting a peak around that frequency. Click the small arrow to pop out the filter display, where you can drag the filter nodes for more intuitive tweaking.
Step 10: Now to the Modulation tab, where you can modulate delay time and filter frequency with an LFO. The yellow and blue lines represent LFO shape for the left and right channels – click an icon to choose one of six LFO waves – and the relationship of these lines represents phase between L and R, altered with the Phase amount below.
Step 11: Sync switches modulation between clocked and free-running. Increase or decrease Mod > Delay to apply LFO modulation to the delay time and wobble pitch. Use Mod > Filter to modulate cutoff. Set the LFO’s Rate amount or punch the x4 toggle to scale that up by a factor of four. Push up Env to blend the LFO modulation with an envelope follower – 100% is envelope follower only.
Step 12: Over in the Character section, you can alter the delay’s dynamics and flavour. Ducking does exactly as the name implies: it pulls down the wet signal when the input is triggered, a bit like sidechain compression. Pulling down the Threshold induces gain reduction, and Release sets how long it takes before the wet signal comes back up again. Time this with your song’s tempo for groovy pumping effects.
Step 13: Gate cuts any input signal below its Threshold value. Noise dials in grunge and fizz to simulate a noisy analogue delay – you can Morph between different types of noise. Wobble randomly wiggles delay time, and its Morph control sweeps between different mod types. The Repitch button at the bottom prevents the delays from changing pitch when delay times are altered.
Step 14: Just like with Wavetable, Echo’s visual feedback is particularly useful. Ableton call this centre dome-like display the Echo Tunnel: circular lines represent the repeats, the distance between lines is Time, and the density shows you Feedback.Review from Musicradar

Friday 9 February 2018

Ableton Live 10.0.1



This  super major update gives Live a new lease of life and the Push 2 controller too. Better graphics and smoother workflow are now much better integrated and there's a plethora of small enhancements. The new 'ECHO' audio effect is just brilliant, reminding me of the Waves H-Delay ,but this thing can do so much more! The new instrument  'WAVETABLE' is a very advanced synth with many sonic capabilities under it's hood. In my opinion the best just got better!


Create bolder sounds with Live’s new devices. Stay in the flow with a multitude of workflow improvements. Do even more away from the computer with Push. Build your sound with a curated library. And get the unlimited potential of Max for Live, seamlessly built in.

Create with new devices
Meet Wavetable, Echo, Drum Buss and Pedal: new devices that mean colorful new sounds are possible with Live’s instruments and effects.

Wavetable
Immediately playable, infinitely capable, Wavetable is a new synthesizer built by Ableton. Shape, stretch and morph sounds using wavetables derived from analog synths, and a range of other instruments and sounds. Start sculpting sounds right away—even without a deep knowledge of synthesis—or explore its rich palette and potential through an intuitive interface.

Echo
Echo brings together the sound of classic analog and digital hardware delays in a single device—your new go-to delay. Drive and shape sounds with its analog-modeled filters, turn up the noise and wobble for vintage imperfections, or add modulation and reverb to create diffuse soundscapes, wailing feedback and more.

Drum Buss
Drum Buss is a one-stop workstation for drums, capable of adding subtle character or bending and breaking drums to your will. Add warmth and distortion with drive and crunch, take control of dynamics with compression and transient shaping, dial in and tune boom and control bass decay with the dedicated low end section.

Pedal
With separate circuit-level models of overdrive, distortion and fuzz guitar pedals, Pedal brings the character of analog stomp boxes to Live. The effect goes all the way from subtle to reckless—it excels at warming up vocals and other instruments, driving synth sounds or completely smashing drums. And of course, it sounds great with guitars.

Stay in the flow
You’ll find improvements to Live that help you stay in the flow at every stage of your creative process, whether you’re getting ideas down, organizing your setup or editing the details of your music.

Do even more from Push
Live 10 brings new functionality and new high-res visualizations to Push. Now you’ll spend even less time with the computer—whether you’re composing ideas, editing MIDI or shaping and mixing sounds.

New melodic step sequencing layout
Simultaneously sequence notes and play them in from the same pad layout – the bottom half of the layout allows you to play notes in real time while the top half lets you sequence them.

Advanced Device visualization

See Wavetable or Echo in rich detail on Push as you play. When mixing, you’ll see spectrum analysis on EQ Eight, as well as advanced Mid/Side and Left/Right EQ modes. Get real-time audio visualizations from Live's Compressor: see threshold settings and compressor activity, plus set up sidechain routing.

MIDI note view
Navigate and refine the notes of your pattern in context directly on the Push display. Press and hold a step in your sequence to zoom in and use the on-screen control to adjust velocity, note position and length.

New library of sound
With new collections of Packs, Live 10 has more sounds that are ready for finished music, right out of the box. They’re set up for tweaking to your needs or taking in different directions. Plus the library has been reorganized to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.