http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCYhtB-H_Vc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdTJP7eDb1A
Here’s a plug-in from German developer Vengeance called Metrum. It’s for Mac/PC, costs $200 and gives you a computer generated sub-oscillator, mixes it with a few sample layers and has a mod-matrix and randomizer solely for creating kick drums. For those all ITB (in the box) it could be good however I think your money is better spent on a Jomox MBase 11.
“Kick Synthesizer VSTi / over 330 Kick Drum Presets / over 1800 Attack Sample Presets / over 150 Sine Oscillator Presets / ability to integrate own WAV samples / realtime & smooth graphic envelopes / flexible pitch & velocity routings / play tonal kicks! / huge mod matrix with every parameter / every presets comes with assigned modwheel and 3 GUI controls / GUI control knobs freely re-nameable / 6 high quality effects built in / 2 filters for every layer / 3 drive distortion models / 2 band parametric EQ / randomizer function / all parameters automatable / output limiter (you can turn it off if wanted) / 100% timing accurate and click free.” – vengeance-sound.de/eng/VPSMetrum.html
For more info: vengeance-sound.de/eng/VPSMetrum.html
This entry was written by , posted on March 27, 2010 at 4:15 am, filed under plug-ins and tagged bass drum, drum machine, kick, kick drum, Metrum, plug-in, Vengeance. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxbx-fvvsGI
There are similar products to Xfer’s Nerve yet I am still interested. Mac/PC VST/AU. $199. What do you think? Is there something unique to Nerve that should be mentioned?
“Nerve is a software drum machine which brings powerful beat creation and manipulation to your Host Sequencer. Nerve runs as a VSTi or AudioUnit plugin. Nerve was designed and coded by veteran dance music producers, with a diverse sample library included from many of todays top sound designers. Create your own beats entirely from scratch using sounds you already have (AIF/WAV/REX/RX2/AKAI .SND), or utilize the factory-included Drum Kits, Presets, Patterns, and Sounds.” – xferrecords.com
For more info: xferrecords.com
This entry was written by , posted on February 27, 2010 at 10:33 am, filed under plug-ins and tagged audio unit, drum machine, Nerve, plug-in, vst, Xfer. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I believe melody is hardwired into human’s brains in a way different than hearing just sounds. We remember notes as they hum up and down scales. Every time I leave The Gap I end up singing whatever song was playing over and over in my head for hours. So I always say piano lessons beat a new Apogee interface for making your tunes better. I really like helper applications like Harmony Navigator or even something like Microsoft SongSmith. Harmony Improvisator is a new plug-in from Germany in the same vain. The cochleor website says videos and a demo download are coming soon. It’s Mac/PC VST for 99 EUR.
Improvisator is a programmable chorder and sequencer VST plugin which outputs chords as MIDI data or sound from an internal synthesizer. It can be controlled via MIDI input or by clicking the harmonic functions of the graphical user interface. The first thing in the process of working with Improvisator is to click chords with the mouse which you hear immediately. – www.cochleor.de
For more info: www.cochleor.de
This entry was written by , posted on December 9, 2009 at 6:30 am, filed under plug-ins, song writing and tagged chords, generator, harmonies, Improvisator, plug-in, vst. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
http://www.youtube.com/v/_sJrZ1nHBOo?hl=en_US&fs=1
I like almost all the plug-ins from Berlin based Sugar Bytes. I can see thier new plug-in Consequence being really useful. Sometimes it’s good to have a virtual helper in the room. You know the scenario: You’re in the studio and you hit middle C, next it’s D# and up to G. You can’t seem to hit any new keys. Your melodies are your melodies and you can’t seem to go anywhere else. Consequence can help by having it’s “Sound Generators” spit out sequences, chorus, envelope curves, etc… It can’t hurt right?
http://www.youtube.com/v/0bO_8-G6stQ?hl=en_US&fs=1
“The word Synquencer describes the combination of a powerful synthesizer and complex step sequencer which creates pitch-, modulation-, and trigger data. Consequence uses 16 chords to play them in sequence, extract melodies to trigger a unique sound section with lots of available instrument sounds and intelligent trigger interpretation. The Consequence VST plugin sends MIDI data, so all kinds of MIDI-compatible gear can be controlled by Consequence.” – Sugar Bytes
There is a demo version available. Consequence is $199.
For more info: sugar-bytes.de
This entry was written by , posted on December 4, 2009 at 6:28 am, filed under plug-ins and tagged Berlin, Consequence, plug-in, sequencer, software, Sugar Bytes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I don’t know how to pronounce D16′s new synth Shioitor. However, I clearly know how to say Roland SH-101 (Wikipedia link) and that’s the target of the Polish crew this time. I used to own a red Roland SH-101 with a handle and it was always the first thing anyone made a comment about when they entered my studio. A few months ago D16 asked me to make some presets for Shioitor so I’ve heard this synth in action. If you liked the original you won’t be disappointed.
“D16 spent many hours analysing analogue synthesisers and creating DSP code to replicate the hardware in software. As a result, Shioitor has a very true sounding analogue filter with constant Q and a very warm character. Resonance is constant across the whole frequency domain which makes the filter sound totally authentic – especially when controlled using envelopes or an LFO. Turning resonance to maximum and turning off all oscillator volumes will produce a pure analogue sine wave as the filter self-resonates. Innovative oscillator algorithms developed by D16 make Shioitor sound like the hardware synth which inspired it. There is no aliasing in the oscillators – even at 22kHz from the note’s base frequency. The level of aliasing around the highest produced frequency is about -70dB.” – d16.pl
Besides presets you get a few niceties the original didn’t have including arpeggiator shuffle, polyphony and key zones. You also can choose your favorite color!
For more info: www.d16.pl/shioitor
This entry was written by , posted on September 17, 2009 at 5:46 am, filed under synthesizer and tagged d16, plug-in, roland, SH-101, Shioitor, synthesizer. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SbRSHlJVyE
Here’s a video preview of a new software modular synthesizer from Urs Heckmann called Bazille. He’s the Berliner known for the acclaimed Zebra and Filterscape plug-ins. Bazille definitely adds something new sonically to the software landscape. For an example, take a listen at 1:06 to the when he uses an Oscillator on the Filter Resonance. In case you were wondering Bazille is the German word for bacteria.
“This synth combines FM-Synthesis, Phase Distortion and subtractive in a rack-like appearance. Here are some early examples for unusual patches. Note that the sound quality here is really bad, but I guess you catch the drift. No fx used of course, just raw output of the synth.” – UrsHeckmann
A few more videos of Bazille are on the UrsHeckmann YouTube channel: click here
For more info: www.u-he.com
This entry was written by , posted on August 6, 2009 at 1:30 pm, filed under plug-ins, synthesizer and tagged Berlin, modular, plug-in, software, synthesizer, Urs Heckmann. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDQUpSJGrKg
A few years back a new high-profile software synthesizer was being released every week. That digital transition has cooled off a bit so I get excited when one of my favorite companies releases a new version of one of their sound making toys.
“A short introduction to FabFilter Twin 2, a great sounding and innovative software synthesizer for vst, rtas and audio units.” – Fabfilter
1500 presets, 3 OCS, 2 Multi-mode filters, 2 delay lines, 2 more filters, fun to use futuristic GUI and modulation section.
More info: fabfilter.com
This entry was written by , posted on February 3, 2009 at 8:09 am, filed under plug-ins, synthesizer and tagged fabfilter, plug-in, synthesizer, Twin 2. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Sonic Charge, the makers of the well loved µTonic (MicroTonic) have released their new creation Synplant. I would describe Synplant as a Generative music plug-in. The results from Synplant don’t sound like random 
bleeps though. I was checking out some of the audio demos on the Sonic Charge site and at first I thought they were human created songs. Peter Kirn at Create Digital Music has been testing the plug-in and is also working on a video walkthrough. Here’s his post: click here
Synplant is a software synthesizer with a genetic approach to sound creation. Instead of creating patches the conventional way by turning dials and knobs, Synplant lets you explore a world of organic sounds by planting seeds that grow into synth patches. The purpose of this product is to move focus away from the sometimes intricate and difficult process of sound synthesis and instead let you develop sounds by simply using your ears. – soniccharge.com
Synplant is $89. 3 week fully working demo: click here
This entry was written by , posted on November 10, 2008 at 12:25 am, filed under plug-ins and tagged plug-in, Sonic Charge, Synplant. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Chris Randall from Audio Damage gave us a teaser of what the next version of BigSeq will look like. On his always fun to read blog Analog Industries he says:
“Development on BigSeq2 is proceeding at a break-neck pace; We’ve got the UI mostly done, and the sequencers themselves are mostly done. All the hard shit is done, essentially. Now it’s just a matter of putting things together, “tuning” all the DSP, then doing the ports. Click the image above for a full-sized version. Note that many of the placements are off, and this isn’t a done final UI. But since we’ve been fairly open about this particular product from the beginning of design, I thought I’d just go ahead and show you where we’re at.” – www.analogindustries.com
Do you ever consider putting a plug-in like this on your master before you even start a creating a song? It can really help you create a song that’s quite different than your normal material.
Follow Chris Randall at Twitter: click here
This entry was written by , posted on October 31, 2008 at 2:45 am, filed under plug-ins and tagged Analog Industries, Audio Damage, BigSeq, BigSeq2, plug-in. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Vintage color is the special sauce audio producers crave when producing. We want the sound of Mic pres from the 70s, spring reverbs and even that classic sampler sound. Decimort is a new plug-in from the ever impressive Polish software freaks D16. There are a host of bit crushers on the market but Decimort specializes in recreating the effect of old EMU Emulators and Ensoniq samplers.
“Electronic music producers (especially in Hip-Hop) have always been aware that classic samplers (such as early Akai and EMU units) had a character and sound of their own. They added a “grit” and “colour” to the samples and loops they played back which made them sound “Fat” and sit well in a mix. This sound colouration was due to the encoding techniques, lower sample rates, lower bit rate and conversion circuits which these early samplers used. Decimort recreates this colouration and adds the vintage sampler magic to any loop, bass line or sound played through it. It also acts as the perfect bit crusher with filter.” – D16.pl
You can hear some very good Decimort samples in the context of full songs on the D16 site: click here However, below I recorded and posted some straight forward clips. Each clip starts with the dry sound then I click on Decimort:
A choir sequence from the basic Reason soundbank. I chose the choir samples because you could find very similar samples in The Fairlight CMI:
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A computerized vocal which I think shows off Decimort quiet nicely:
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A simple Roland TR-808 loop through some Decimort presets:
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One thing I really like about Decimort is that is has a wet/dry knob, something I wish all plug-ins had! Also, automating the Frequency in Decimort sounds very potent. Overall it’s a nice plug-in that I could see using many instances of. I like to try using filters and bit-crusher before I’ll grab an eq.
Decimort is Mac/PC AU/Vst for 35€. Demo available: click here
photo credit: Johnrpenner
This entry was written by , posted on October 10, 2008 at 11:47 am, filed under plug-ins and tagged bit crusher, d16, Decimort, Emulator, Ensoniq, plug-in, Reason, sampler. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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