High-end plug-in specialist Softube is proud to announce Console 1 Mk II — an upgraded version of its award-winning hardware/software mixing system, representing an enormous leap forward from its predecessor with support for selected UAD Powered Plug-ins from Universal Audio and a substantial, permanent price drop — at The 2017 NAMM Show, January 19-22 in Anaheim, California.
Originally released in 2014, Softube Console 1 quickly earned a large and dedicated following, receiving prestigious awards and rave reviews in the pro audio press. With its tightly integrated hardware and software, and the included emulation of a Solid State Logic SL 4000 E console, Console 1 offered the best of the digital and analog worlds in a compact system.
Today, Softube announces Console 1 Mk II, an upgrade that addresses the most frequent user requests. Firstly, the new software — also available to owners of the first-generation Console 1 — makes it possible to use Console 1 with selected UAD Powered Plug-Ins from Universal Audio. There are now over 60 world-class plug-ins that can be used from within the Console 1 system, including plug-ins based on units from Chandler Limited, Fairchild, Teletronix, Tube-Tech, Abbey Road Studios, and many more. The plug-ins are pre-mapped and easily selectable from the Console 1 software, so no MIDI mapping is necessary.
Secondly, the success of Console 1 has made it possible to make efficiencies in production, resulting in an MSRP drop from $849 to $499. The hardware has the same build quality as the original units, with some minor layout changes such as more visible LED markers.
All of these changes come in addition to the recently released software update, which added DAW control functions for Presonus Studio One and Cakewalk SONAR.
Greg Westall, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Universal Audio, states: “Softube and Universal Audio share a lot of core values, like the importance of sound quality, ease of use, and a love for good music. Seeing that Universal Audio and Softube are longtime partners, and that Console 1 is a super intuitive control surface, it all just makes so much sense.”
Oscar Öberg, President of Softube, comments: “The concept of Console 1 has been extremely popular, and we haven’t been able to keep up with the demand. I’m excited that we finally are able to manufacture larger quantities of a Console 1 that’s not only better but also a lot more affordable.”
The new Console 1 Mk II units, and the software update with the UAD Powered Plug-Ins compatibility, will be available in Spring 2017. Upon release, existing Console 1 owners can download the updated software from www.softube.com and start using it with their Console 1-ready DAWs or plug-ins.
More in-depth information is available here: http://softu.be/2jW2vBJ
Visit Softube’s NAMM booth, #6911 in Hall A for a personal demonstration and more information.
Aptly dubbed “...the Swedish rock ’n’ roll scientists...” by Sound On Sound magazine, Softube has developed high-end software for the music market since 2003. Its own product roster ranges from modeled guitar amplifiers to professional audio mixing plug-ins and also includes the award-winning Console 1 hardware/software mixer.The company has received several awards and award nominations in recognition of its innovative products. Productive partnerships have been formed with an assortment of pro audio companies held in high regard around the globe — including Abbey Road Studios, Mutronics, Solid State Logic, Summit Audio,Tonelux Designs,Tube-Tech, and Trident Audio Developments — to fashion faithful models of their analog hardware units.These third-party companies have happily lent their names and logotypes to the resulting plug-ins.Above and beyond its impressive namesake product lineup, Softube has also developed software products for other notable companies, such as Ableton, Fender, Cakewalk, Marshall Amplification, Native Instruments, Propellerheads,TC Electronic, and Universal Audio.
French synth & software creators Arturia are set to attend the annual NAMM Show in Anaheim, California, presenting their exciting range of synthesizers, drum machines, virtual instruments, and controllers. Arturia’s attendance will give artists, educators, and retailers the opportunity to get hands on, and learn how it can inspire their creativity. You can find Arturia at:
Hall A - Booth 6920
NAMM 2017 will see the largest Arturia display to date, perfect for video blogging, and with dozens of instruments and controllers to explore. Alongside MatrixBrute, DrumBrute, KeyStep, MiniLab MkII, and other fan-favorites, Arturia product specialists will also be hosting demonstrations every hour.
Demo 1: Analog instruments in modern production
Using the perfect partnership of DrumBrute and MatrixBrute, Sébastien Rochard will demonstrate how to create a contemporary electronic music track.
Demo 2: Sequence them all!
Mauricio will reveal how the small-but-mighty KeyStep can become the creative nerve center of your performance and production set-up.
Demo 3: A keyboardist’s one-stop collection
A focus on the powerful additions to V Collection 5, Ralph Goldheim will showcase the organic tones of Piano V, Stage-73 V and B-3 V.
Demo 4: Exploring the MatrixBrute
A beginner’s guide to taming the beast! Mauricio Garcia and Sébastien Rochard will take us on a journey of musical discovery, starting with an initialized preset and creating some of the exciting new sounds that only MatrixBrute can.
Spitfire Audio, purveyors of the finest virtual instruments from the finest musical samples in the world, is proud to announce availability of SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (SSO) — sampling everything needed to create blockbuster symphonic works for film, games, radio, and television via the finest signal path at Lyndhurst Hall within London’s legendary AIR Studios, served up as an appetising all-in-one, comprehensive core-level professional product for Native Instruments’ industry-standard KONTAKT PLAYER platform.
SSO is an epic saga of orchestral instrument recordings unified under the same (sublime-sounding) roof of Lyndhurst Hall — Britain’s premier scoring facility, attracting some of the world’s biggest movies scores, as well as maintaining its popularity with major classical labels and high-profile recording artists — within London’s legendary AIR Studios by an award-winning team of engineers and composers collectively committed to accomplishing a simple, singular vision: creating supreme soundtracks demands duly going to where the greatest and most successful composers go, using the same instruments and talent, together with the same recording techniques and production principals. Put it this way: it doesn’t get better than Lyndhurst Hall’s 300m2 hexagonal live area with two spacious isolation booths, motorised acoustic canopy, three raised galleries, and a Steinway Model D concert grand piano, while its 50m2 control room boasts one of the world’s largest Neve 88R consoles with 96 channels and Encore automation, SP2 film matrix, and 48 ‘AIR Montserrat’ remote mic amps. All you need is... AIR Studios, to ‘partly paraphrase’ dearly departed studio founder George Martin, the extraordinary English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer, and musician (often referred to as the ‘Fifth Beatle’ by none other than Paul McCartney). Alternatively (and appropriately), AIR Studios is the answer, and Spitfire Audio knows that for sure!
Watch Spitfire Audio co-founder and Director Paul Thomson’s
overview of SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Surely SSO encompasses the very core concept of Spitfire Audio, then? 10 years in design, five years in the making, it ushers in a new chapter in the company’s history — the pinnacle of Spitfire Audio’s achievements over the last decade, to put it bluntly. But even after 50-plus award-winning sample-based orchestral virtual instruments, it’s also an evolution of technique, a codification of the company’s craft. Closely working with A-list composers on AAA productions (with big-budget development and marketing), and as composers working at the coalface themselves, SSO is a culmination of Spitfire Audio’s authentic experience... encyclopaedic in its learning, Death Star-like in its execution of orchestral packages to die for!
That said, SSO didn’t come quickly. Quite the opposite, in fact. For it effectively started out as Spitfire Audio’s long-running BML (British Modular Library) — an ambitious project to create the greatest-sounding and, ultimately, future-proofed living orchestral virtual instruments collection — released in various volumes throughout the last four years. Yet the key objective there was always interconnectivity, with each BML volume locking in with another with the greatest of (musical) ease. Enter ultra-detailed level of samples, articulations, dynamic layers, and round robins gathered from under the architecturally and acoustically stunning structure of one of the largest recording rooms in the world at AIR Studios; Spitfire Audio also placed each player in-situ, meticulously mixing four years’ worth of recordings so that each and every component of the band is correctly positioned in the sonic field.
Furthermore, making that work calls for a whole lot more than simply panning left and right; to make someone sound like they’re behind the violas and not sitting on their laps involves actually placing them there! Thereafter, Spitfire Audio applied techniques accumulated during brass recording to its woodwind sessions; lessons learned therein had the company returning to Lyndhurst Hall to update some of its string recordings. But by unifying this enormous project undertaking into a single collection, it has pooled the acres of knowledge earned into a single experience... enter SSO!
Watch Spitfire Audio’s powerful promo video for SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
So SSO represents an outstanding orchestral concept like no other — a longterm project rationalised from its modular form into a new singular one, readying it for future sampling endeavours. Even though SSO embraces every possible classic nuance, Spitfire Audio — as working composers themselves — also comprehensively curated playing styles that are very much part of the zeitgeist... something the company collectively looks forward to writing with itself in future. Fortunately for both battle-hardened veterans like Spitfire Audio and any other discerning composers at the start of their respective careers looking to invest in their future, SSO is designed as a single, pro-level orchestral solution to making blockbusting symphonic music — British or otherwise — by featuring all three major (strings, brass, and woodwinds) families of the orchestra.
It includes SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC STRINGS, summing up the foundation of Spitfire Audio’s approach as quite literally the ultimate encyclopaedic compendium of symphonic strings sampling, with blockbuster content originally recorded with no expense spared via the finest signal path at Lyndhurst Hall, playing host to the same 60 star string players performing on the same instruments featured on so many memorable scores recorded there for films that have grossed billions between them; SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC BRASS, a definitive compendium of orchestral brass in different section sizes, ranging from solo to larger groups of the usual suspects alongside cimbassi and contrabass curios, captured to tape for posterity via the finest signal path at Lyndhurst Hall, playing host to the best (British) brass instrumentalists in the world while laying the foundations for the finest orchestral brass library available; and SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC WOODWINDS, with a decade of woodwind virtual instrument-making experience going into creating this second-to-none conclusive compendium for Native Instruments’ industry-standard KONTAKT PLAYER platform, featuring the finest woodwind performers recorded and ‘deep sampled’ with no expense spared via the finest signal path at Lyndhurst Hall.
Watch Spitfire Audio co-founder and Director Paul Thomson’s
‘traditional’ SPITFIRE MASSE video walkthrough
However, that’s not all... SPITFIRE MASSE meticulously delivers a mega-epic, instant orchestra created from re-orchestrating the best of SSO. As an exclusive toolset only available to owners of SSO, this is designed for pros working to their limit, feeling the need for speed to get them to the deadline on time. Arranged and orchestrated by Spitfire Audio’s award-winning compositional team, these no-nonsense single patches for two-handed use with multiple and transformative dynamics controlled via CC#1 (modulation wheel) pay particular studious attention to their responsiveness and playability — perfect for getting the job done. Make those (musical) mission impossibles possible... with a little help from your friends at Spitfire Audio and SSO!
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SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA can be purchased and digitally downloaded (as 385.9 GB of uncompressed .WAV files, featuring 273,758 samples) from Spitfire Audio for £1,499.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$1,699.00 USD/€1,739.00 EUR (inc. VAT) from here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/spitfire-symphony-orchestra/ (Owners of any SSO libraries — SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC BRASS, SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC STRINGS, and/or SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC WOODWINDS — will see the price paid automatically reduce to account for those already purchased products when adding SSO to the cart.)
Note that Native Instruments’ free KONTAKT PLAYER is included with SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, while Spitfire Audio’s free Download Manager application for Mac or PC allows anyone to buy now and download anytime.
For more in-depth information, including several superb-sounding audio demos, please visit the dedicated SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA webpage here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/spitfire-symphony-orchestra/
Spitfire Audio produces the finest virtual instruments from the finest musical samples in the world. It was set up by a British group of composers, sound- smiths, producers, engineers, and technologists wanting to revolutionise sampling and bring it back to the centre of the music industry. Like any new music technology — from radio to synthesisers, sampling was (initially) perceived as a threat to music-making and music-makers. Spitfire Audio is at the vanguard of changing that perception; its main goal is to promote British music-making the world over while distributing royalties via an ever-growing distribution chain to its contributors — musicians, engineers, technicians, producers, and artists alike — based on sales. Spitfire Audio puts millions of pounds back into the British music industry while supporting charities and initiatives, both in the UK and beyond. (The fact that the company has become the second-biggest contributor to UNICEF via JustGiving.com by giving away samples in return for donations speaks louder than words.) By doing this, Spitfire Audio gets to work at the best places with the best people to make the best sounds on the planet today.
Press News Embertone embraces iOS with super-sexy-sounding Sensual Saxophone app
Created in close collaboration with Vietnam-based Blue Mangoo, makers of the innovative iFretless instrument apps, next-level virtual instrument developer Embertone is proud to announce availability of Sensual Saxophone — its first foray into the wonderful world of iOS with a self-explanatory, super-sexy-sounding virtual instrument intended to literally blow the musical minds of professionals and amateurs alike. Sometimes you just want to put it in your mouth and blow. But when a reed gets worn or arms become weak with exhaustion sometimes sensual nature can outlast even the swankiest saxophone! So what’s a swinging lover supposed to do? Do not fear. For Sensual Saxophone is here… the world’s first iOS instrument to feature true legato samples, no less, and a truly desirable digital solution to sax saturation. Sensual Saxophone should certainly catch the eye (and ear) of all who see (and hear) it. Indeed, it is the only virtual saxophone to feature an eye-poppingly enormous SEX knob — bang in the centre of its glitzy GUI (Graphical User Interface) that’s as easy to use as it is easy on the eye. Edge that SEX knob downwards and the sax sounds dry as a bone… but touch the knob and listen to that sound grow into something much more sexy! Switching SENSUALITY to ON ensures that the user always has the rightaccompaniment for evenings echoing with pleasure!
More musically meaningful (and useful) controls also abound, including REVERB (with controllable AMOUNT and ROOM SIZE settings); VIBRATO (with dedicated DEPTH slider); DELAY (with control over AMOUNT and TIME); and switchable LEGATO, SUSTAIN, and STACCATO playing styles using the onscreen lockable keyboard (switchable to DOUBLE KEYBOARD for further flexibility). Furthermore, since Sensual Saxophone is Embertone’s first foray into the wonderful world of iOS, it goes without saying that it is compatible with all major iOS-based DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations), working with Apple’s Audio Unit Extensions technology — that brings the Audio Units system-level full plug-in architecture model (that was previously only available to third-party developers like Embertone in OS X) to iOS — as well as Inter-App Audio andAudiobus for full communication with the outside musical world. Embertone embraces iOS, indeed; if its goal for this smokin’ app was for it to be both beautiful and useful to professionals and amateurs alike then it has surely succeeded. Yet it has also added a deep dollop of unadulterated fun into the musical mix… maybe even a dash of romance! Raise your sax levels to 11… by downloading Sensual Saxophone for iPad (2, mini, and above) and iPhone/iPod Touch (5 and above) today! Sensual Saxophone can be purchased and directly downloaded from the App Store for $4.99 USD from here:https://appsto.re/us/ScNTgb.i For more in-depth information, including video demos, please visit the dedicated Sensual Saxophone webpage here:http://www.embertone.com/instruments/sensualsax-ios.php
About Embertone (www.embertone.com) Founded by virtual instrument developer and composer/orchestrator Alex Davis and composer/sound designer Jonathan Churchill, Embertone has been producing next-level virtual instruments since2012. Its mission is simple: sample the shit out of lots of great instruments, and bring them to market to inspire awesome new music! The co-founders seriously love what they do, admiring the likes ofTonehammer, Sample Modeling, and Sonic Couture — companies that have led the way to this new age of deeply-sampled virtual instruments, and aim to move that tradition forward by finding newways to capture the essence of an instrument and program it in an intuitive and responsive package… and, of course, offer it to the composing community at an atttractive price! As the go-to company for musicians looking for realistic and fun virtual instruments since releasing the free Intimate Strings LITE for Native Instruments’ industry-standard KONTAKT (4.2.4+), the full-blownFriedlander Violin subsequently became the flagship solo product for the KONTAKT PLAYER platform while setting the production standard for future realistic-sounding releases. Recently, Embertone embraced iOS with its super-sexy-sounding Sensual Saxophone debut offering a desirable digital solution to sax saturation. Cheers. DCSI
Happy New Year folks!
Experiencing since many hours some deadly slow internet
over here, to keep you busy and happy here's a
bunch of really nice freebies, until I won't be back with new reviews of pure *awesomness* regarding commercial plugins!
So while you wait, enjoy these ones from the free side of the Force ;-)
MUSIC SDP
Music_SDP: a huge modular system of effects and synths, in which you can create nevereding possibilities either for making music or sound design. I strongly invite you to have a closer look at their website, full of detailed descriptions, in depth video tutorials, and alll kind of infos, as this incredibly free software seems to be a very deep one.
THE MUSIC & SOUND DESIGN PLATFORM http://musicsdp.com/
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KRAKLI VST
The KRAKLI plugins (win 32 bit), active since 2000 with really
many kind of vst instruments, now all available as freeware, and after a break, back to activity in this past year, with quite a bunch of cool synths, bringing you several kind of synthesis (addictive, frequency modulation, phase distortion, subtractive...), sequencers, and weird sonic machines of any kind, even a monster modular one, Komodo.
Now since few days with a new kid on the
block too, the KR5sequenced drum machine.
Check its website and grab them all if you hadn't already. http://www.krakliplugins.com/
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DIGITS SYNTH
Then here comes an update of DIGITS (win/mac/lin 32/64 bit), a very
tiny synth, in size, but extremely capable in power, phase distortion synthesis at its best! http://www.extentofthejam.com/
Have a nice start of the year guys and keep focusing on the good stuff of life ;-)
Enjoy.
About Softube (www.softube.com) 
