Spitfire Audio announces availability of ORBIS plug-in presented in eDNA engine as a horizon-expanding ‘world synth’

“Great film music often blends sounds from different cultures to create a rich tapestry; ORBIS lets you infuse your music with DNA from around the world — from incredibly useful, original recordings through to beautifully evolving textures.”

- Paul Thompson, composer and Spitfire Audio co-founder 

 

Spitfire Audio is proud to announce availability of ORBIS — offered as a horizon-expanding ‘world synthesizer’ standalone plug-in, presented in the sound-specialising British music technology company’s sophisticated eDNA engine, enabling exceedingly creative access to 2,500 extraordinary sounds born out of organic performances treated and transported to new dimensions, designed for progressively-minded composers as a gargantuan creative compendium comprising distorted loops to evolving textures and visceral one-shots, subsonic low-end to ethereal pads, perfect for producing rich-sounding, panoramic scores from nature documentaries to sci-fi movies.

Sometimes a score needs more than an orchestra. ORBIS reimagines the work of David Fanshawe (1942-2010), an English composer, sound explorer, and ethnomusicologist who travelled the globe to gather an archive of approximately 2,000 hours of music, documented for posterity at a time of great change. “The present is almost history; every day is worth recording.” So stated the man himself. 

However, ORBIS itself is so much more than a collection of organic field recordings; rather it includes 90% treated content, with over 200 presets, plus loops, textures, one-shots, and pads created by Spitfire Audio’s accomplished team of engineers in its own journey of sonic discovery, distilled — alongside clean recordings, rich in history, character, and emotion — in the sound-specialising British music technology company’s sophisticated eDNA engine to provide users with virtually endless parameters and possibilities for enhancing their own scores with the DNA of countless cultures from across the globe. 

Enduring and enthralling, David Fanshawe’s rarefied recordings have already made themselves heard in scores to major movies such as 1997’s Seven Years In Tibet (John Williams) and 2002’s Gangs Of New York (Howard Shore); now they are ready and able to empower anyone’s scoring sensibilities as an essential resource for producers, composers, or sound designers intent on seeking out new sounds — or even civilisations! After all, sounds are the fabric from which music is weaved.

Watch Spitfire Audio co-founder Paul Thomson’s ‘traditional’ video walkthrough of ORBIS here:

With that thought in mind, maybe it was inevitable that Spitfire Audio would creatively cross paths with the David Fanshawe World Music Archive. As such, ORBIS was effectively conceived back in January 2015, when widow Jane Fanshawe introduced Spitfire Audio co-founder and composer Paul Thomson to the global sonic explorer’s namesake legacy. “Listening to these extraordinarily vivid recordings is like looking through a window into a different time and place,” pronounces the clearly captivated listener.

Watch Spitfire Audio’s inspirational introductory ORBIS video here: 

Literally placing them into a different time and space, Spitfire Audio subsequently handpicked thousands of extraordinary sounds from those extraordinarily vivid recordings, really resulting in a so-called ‘world synthesizer’ since ORBIS users are able to delve deeper into some of the most rare and distinctive sounds and loops on the planet, rich in history, character, and emotion encompassing a range of cultures and communities, many of which no longer exist; enhancing every sound still further with ORBIS’ own exploratory eDNA is inevitable.

Watch Spitfire Audio co-founder Christian Henson’s helpful Creating Trailer Music With An Expanded Sonic Palette video here:

Imagine the eDNA engine as a set of two turntables alongside a highly-sophisticated DJ mixer. It includes two sound bays — A and B, each designed to create differing sonic treatments, with individual and independent modulators and control of TRIM, BEND, GLIDE, CLONE, TUNE, ADSR (envelope), HI-PASS (filter), LO- PASS (filter), and WOBBLE (modulating VOLUME, PITCH, and FILTER). Furthermore, the GATE SEQUENCER allows for independent gating of those two bays and unified control of amount, speed, and LENGTH of sequence. These two signals are then unified with an x-fader; move between the sounds with the mouse or the factory default-assigned modulation wheel. Elsewhere, eDNA’s five-stage FX (effects) path contains 41 custom plug-ins, including preloaded bespoke IRs (Impulse Responses). The BAY A FX and BAY B FX stages affect sound bay A or B, while an AUX FX stage can be sent via the layers or MASTER FX stage. 

Obviously ORBIS easily enables sonic journeying of its own doing. Discover hundreds of presets treated in various ways, with Spitfire Audio’s acclaimed sampling expertise and technology twisting and turning every sound through 3,000 lines of code! Some sound subtly manipulated while others are heavily processed, unrecognisable from their original source material. 

Musically-speaking, ORBIS travels far — from playable one-shots and short phrases to tuned and untuned rhythmic loops and recordings up to a minute long. Ultimately, unearthing sounds with subtle movement, complexity, and evolution is an ear-opening experience. Throbbing basses and pulsing loops, ideal for dance music; thunderous drones, subsonic low-end and visceral, tortured drum hits, for adding movement and depth; Blade Runner-style synths, made from antelope horns; and ethereal pads and breathtakingly beautiful evolving textures, for three-dimensional cinematic soundscapes... the very nature of ORBIS’ design takes its users to new levels of sonic exploration and adventure. A lifetime of inspiration as an essential resource awaits anyone creatively climbing aboard. 

As to the finished product’s potency, Paul Thomson is clearly qualified to comment, enthusiastically ending on a high note: “This is a really rich tapestry of sounds; it’s almost like a new kind of ‘world synth’ which goes from the raw sounds that are incredibly useful all the way through to beautiful, undulating, evolving textures made from these incredible organic recordings.” 

ORBIS can be purchased and digitally downloaded as an AAX-, AU-, and VST-compatible plug-in that loads directly into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for a time-limited introductory promo price of £229.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$269.00 USD/€269.00 EUR (inc. VAT) until August 1, 2019 — rising thereafter to an RRP of £299.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$349.00 USD/€349.00 EUR (inc. VAT) — from here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/orbis/ 

For more in-depth information, including some superb-sounding audio demos, please visit the dedicated ORBIS webpage here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/orbis/

About Spitfire Audio (www.spitfireaudio.com) 

Spitfire Audio is a British music technology company that specialises in sounds — sample libraries, virtual instruments, and other useful software devices. It collaborates with the best composers, artists, and engineers in the world to build musical tools that sound great and are exciting to use. © 2019 Spitfire Audio Holdings Limited

Unfiltered Audio advances audio processing possibilities with world’s most advanced multi-band plugin

 

“I really like the way you can create variations and modulations over the spectrum.”

- Tom Hades, techno artist and producer, 2019 

 

Plugin Alliance, supporting all major plugin formats and uniting some of the best-known international audio companies under one virtual roof, is proud to announce availability of TRIAD — the latest creation from fellow Californian company and plugin-creating partner Unfiltered Audio, advancing the successful outcome of last year’s award-winning BYOME (Build Your Own Modular Effect) breakthrough by combining state-of-the-art processing, versatile modulation, and dozens of powerful effects with a limitless multi-band workflow as the world’s most advanced multi-band processing plugin.

Some say that good things come in threes. TRIAD literally lives up to that saying — in name and nature. Why? Well, with an ability to split an audio signal into three bands and apply BYOME effects — themselves tapping into Unfiltered Audio’s abundant MOD (modulation) control choices via virtual cables (conceptually similar to establishing all the connections between the separate modules on a modular synth system with patch cables to generate tones and sound effects) — to each band individually, this three-pronged approach to multi-band processing par excellence easily has what it takes to stand out from the sound of the crowd. 

 

TRIAD truly advances the phenomenal possibilities of its single-band BYOME predecessor by bringing a new level of control to the myriad of onboard effects. Essentially, then, it is a three-band frequency splitter capable of processing the LOW, MID, and HIGH frequency bands with different effect rows, consisting of 40 effect cells arranged into eight categories; each effect cell can be expanded and added to. These range from multi-band compression to frequency-dependent reverb, complex distortions to intricate delays, plus pitch shifting and an array of modulation-based effects — all of this and much more besides are a breeze to set up and control.

 

Watch a video overview of Unfiltered Audio’s awe-inspiring TRIAD here: 

Readily refrain from using any of the effects — easier said than done, admittedly — and TRIAD can be used as a ‘flat-sum’ frequency splitter with adjustable cutoff points, guided by a first-rate FFS (Fast Fourier Transform) visualiser that displays the signal and allows for precise control over the band amplitudes and cutoffs on the fly. Furthermore, the DYNAMIC SPECTRAL SNAP feature allows automatic frequency cutoff balancing — an industry first, while well-crafted tools like Auto Cutoff and Unity Gain will keep the frequency distribution balanced between the bands, or even adjust the amplitude ratio without any overall volume change. Critical listening required? Simply solo or mute any of the individual bands with one click.

Watch a video walkthrough of Unfiltered Audio’s awe-inspiring TRIAD here:

 

 

Changing the frequency splitting into a number of other multi-band processors — namely, 2-Band, 3x Parallel, 2x Parallel, Mid-Side, and Left-Right — maximises effect routing possibilities. Many modes have a flexible Pre/Post row that can quickly swap positions from the start of the chain to the end, turning the tables on patches for facilitating speedy sound design workflows. With that thought in mind, TRIAD features a unique Permutation engine that rotates the function of each active band. Put it this way: what, for instance, if a user had an amazing delay set up on the MID frequency band, but would rather hear it instead applied to the HIGH frequency band? Then their wish becomes TRIAD’s command by clicking on the Permutation arrows to hear it exactly as they wanted — without destroying the rest of their preset.

Watch the trailer video for Unfiltered Audio’s awe-inspiring TRIAD here: 

 

Presets fit for Unfiltered Audio’s latest and greatest creation have been carefully crafted by acclaimed artists and world-class sound designers to showcase its individualistic capabilities, covering functional frequency splitting to putting it through its innovative paces as the most advanced multi- band processing plugin around.

Whatever way anyone chooses to use TRIAD, variable slope allows them to change from smooth band transitions to razor sharp cut-offs (12dB to 72dB per octave). And since most DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) include individual low/mid/high band outputs, TRIAD can even be used as a fully-routable splitter for use with any other plugin!

TRIAD takes Unfiltered Audio’s Build Your Own Modular Effect technology to new heights, combining state-of-the-art processing, versatile modulation, dozens of powerful effects, and a limitless multi-band workflow with all the power of BYONE — but now in three dimensions. Discerning sound designers and artists alike should seriously consider checking out TRIAD today, travelling to sonic vistas that they have hitherto heard only in their dreams.

Dreams have long since become reality for one of Belgium’s longest-standing techno artists and producers; progressing to become something of a tastemaker in today’s far-reaching world of techno, Tom Hades has already embarked on his TRIAD travels and likes what he has heard: “I really like the way you can create variations and modulations over the spectrum.” 

 

Unfiltered Audio’s TRIAD is available for purchase — as an AAX Native-, AU-, VST2-, and VST3-supporting audio effect processing plugin for MacOS (10.9 through 10.14) and Windows (7 through 10) — exclusively from distribution partner Plugin Alliance for a  price of $299.00 USD — from here: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/unfiltered_audio_triad.html

 

From June 8 onwards, a fully-functional, 14-day trial is available to anyone registering for a free Plugin Alliance account here: http://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/registration.html

 

Note that the proprietary Plugin Alliance Installation Manager means users can select, download, and install only the products and formats needed for their system. For more in-depth information, including several superb-sounding audio demos, please visit Plugin Alliance’s dedicated TRIAD webpage here: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/unfiltered_audio_triad.html

 

About Plugin Alliance (www.plugin-alliance.com) 

World-class plugins. Dongle-free. Plugin Alliance is supporting all major plugin formats and uniting some of the best-known international audio companies under one virtual roof. The Santa Cruz, California-based company empowers world-renowned analog hardware companies with a digital strategy and provides software developers with services that allow them to develop products with increasing quality and quantity. It does this by providing professional marketing and distribution as well as platform features like a state-of-the-art authorization system. An open invitation is eternally extended to all developers, engineers, and artists to join its fast-growing community.

About Unfiltered Audio (www.unfilteredaudio.com)

Unfiltered Audio is a creative audio effects company based in Santa Barbara, California, creating AU (AudioUnit) and VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plugins, plus Rack Extensions... from academia with love. © 2019 Plugin Alliance LLC