Excellent and underrated DAW which has lots of excellent features. Smart looking interface and a huge amount of quality instruments for almost any genre. Comes bundled with a load of samples too. One very niice feature is the ability to integrate Launchpad and launch clips much like Bitwig and Ableton. Another bonus is Melodyne too!! Slight downside is the rather basic sampler.
The ultimate software tool for pro-level mixing and mastering! With 6
additional virtual instruments and 28 additional effects, Mixcraft 8 Pro
Studio features over $1250 worth of plug-ins - the complete package for
"record-ready" productions with incredibly realistic instruments and
superlative audio processing capabilities.
Integrated Melodyne Tuning Software
Celemony’s
groundbreaking Melodyne tuning software sets the standard as the most
natural-sounding and easiest to use vocal tuning software available.
Mixcraft 8 Pro Studio takes it one step further by integrating Melodyne
Essential directly into Mixcraft’s clip sound edit window (and
eliminating time-consuming audio “transfers”). Whether you’re simply
touching up intonation, or moving notes to wildly alter performances,
vocal pitch editing has never been easier!
Stunning Synths
Mixcraft
8 Pro Studio adds painstakingly modeled virtual analog and digital
professional synthesizers. Memorymoon is a spot-on recreation of the
Moog Memorymoog’s crushing analog fatness. ME80 Version 2 is a killer
model of the classic Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer, now with a gorgeous new
user interface and a whole new sound engine. Kastelheimer Veldberg XD is
new virtual analog synthesizer based on algorithms from hardware VA
synthesizers with immense programming possibilities - a veritable
goldmine of powerful analog and digital timbres!
Some great tutorials on the new features in soundtoys with some innovative ways of using them.
Soundtoys 5 is the defacto standard for high quality, time and
harmonic based effects. In these video training tutorials, studio guru
Scottie Dugan shows you the new plug-ins, workflow, sonics, and
tweakability enhancements made in the newest version of these amazing
plug-ins.
Starting with a basic introduction to how Soundtoys
has upped its game, Scottie zooms right into the Effects Rack, giving
you a general overview as well as exploring all of its improvements.
That
leads right into a video on the enhanced preset handling, as presets
are such a major component of the Effects Rack. After that, Scottie
demonstrates how using the Effects Rack creatively can completely
transform a mix.
Scottie continues with a video on the new
Microshift Pitch and Delay Modulation plug-in, which is followed by two
videos covering the new Primal Tap Delay, a delay modeled on the Lexicon
Prime Time delay.
The second Primal Tap video is devoted to the
Tweak Menu, where the real power lies. The final plug-in covered is
Little Alter Boy, a combination of tuner, pitch shifter and vocoder.
Scottie
demonstrates how you can use this plug-in to transform an instrument or
vocal into something completely new. Finally, the series ends with a
look at some of the minor tweaks and enhancements to plug-ins like
Tremolator that push Soundtoys 5 over the top.
Whether you're new
to Soundtoys or you're an advanced Soundtoys 5 user looking for some
pro tips and techniques, don't miss "Soundtoys 5 Update Explained"!
Could very well be all you need if Bass is what you want!
SubBoomBass is filled with excessive amounts of low end ammunition
to detonate your tracks! With presets designed by the legendary Rob
Papen and other guest artists, this dedicated bass synth will supply you
with huge cone-rattling sounds that will body any music track. This
software instrument is great for Hip Hop and RnB but can also be used
for Dubstep, video game music, film scores and more...
SubBoomBass
has been carefully crafted to provide you with the tools to create
fresh new bass lines. It includes unique tuned drum percussion samples
which are great for Hip Hop and RnB basses but can also be used to add
rhythm flavour to your tracks. Also check out the innovative
'Wave-sequence' feature which will open up brand new sonic possibilities
for your music.
Other features included are two effects slots which
can be modulated using midi from any of the synthesizer parts.
SubBoomBass also features a great 'Easy Edit' page and the unique 'Quick
Browser' system that will allow you to find the sounds you need quickly
and easily.
Another top notch Vst from Rob Papen. The sounds from this thing can be huge and iv'e found it to be particularly nice for evolving pads / strings/ choirs etc.As usual with all Papens Vst's there is an easy page which gathers together the most essential parameters for you to modulate and tweak. CPU friendly and comes with a ton of excellent presets too.
First released in 2005 BLUE already reflected Rob Papen’s cutting-edge,
creative, and — most importantly — musical approach towards developing
virtual instruments by first delivering FM and subtractive synthesis,
then duly adding Phase Distortion and wave shaping synthesis into the
highly creative mix to create one seriously creative combination.
Today
BLUE-II remains true to that ethos with even more sound dimensions and
features to its extended name, starting with six oscillators beating at
its musically creative heart. These can be connected in various ways,
together with two analogue-style modelled stereo filters with 27
different filter types, an enormous range of processing and modulation
options, sequencer, and an incredibly powerful arpeggiator. A new range
of specially selected waveforms based on samples have been meticulously
fashioned for creating new and fresh-sounding synth sounds, so don’t go
expecting acoustic pianos galore here. However, since choirs and strings
are an excellent basis for so many synth sounds BLUE-II has them in
abundance — with much more besides!
Moreover, BLUE-II takes the
useful XY pad features from its popular virtual instrument sibling Blade
— a cutting-edge additive synthesis powerhouse with a human touch — and
transplants them into its own equally extraordinary workflow… perfect
for time-based sound movements and vector pad-type sounds. Complemented
by four top-quality FX processors, each offering 35 FX types, BLUE-II is
a phenomenally powerful virtual instrument to behold.
But
BLUE-II is also easy to use, thanks to its user-friendly user interface
and an innovative Easy Edit page for speedy sound changes, while the
Bank Manager allows whistle-stop navigation through thousands of
inspirational Rob Papen presets and artist sound banks covering a wide
range of musical styles.
BLUE-II represents an amazing journey into ‘Cross-fusion synthesis’ and, quite simply, sounds stunning!
Another fantastic drum/synth machine. Apart from the excellent sound quality and FX one can add to your drum sounds, this is amazing at randomization. Click the dice icons which are peppered everywhere in Polyplex and one can come up with new drum sound variations in seconds.The posiblities are infinite here! Along with Rob Rapens 'Punch' this is another must have and these two plugins are probably my own personal favourites when it comes to drums.
NI’s Battery has been its go-to drum sampler for quite some time, and
of course the company also makes Maschine, though both are geared
primarily towards the sequencing of relatively conventional kinds of
beats. The many drummer series hosted inside Kontakt are also mostly
recreations of real drum kits.
Polyplex is something quite different: an “experimental drum
designer” with an emphasis on randomization of many parameters to create
new and unique kits. Designed by the team at Twisted Tools, it runs in
Reaktor 5 or Reaktor 5 Player and weighs in at a modest 200MB. The idea
is to make a smaller amount of content go much further.
The Layout
There are eight sound slots in Polyplex and each one can hold four
separate samples. Each sample forms one layer of a drum sound and for
each sound slot you can specify a layer type and a subtype, choosing
between kicks, snares, hi-hats and so on. The slots are colour coded for
easier recognition across the interface and they also tie in with the
new Light Guide features of NI’s Komplete Kontrol keyboard.
There are then a range of controls for each one, helpfully arranged
in layers across the edit section so you can trace the layer across and
see each of its settings easily. Layers can be modified individually or
linked together. The edit section starts with Samples and lets you
control which sample to play back for each layer, defined as a MIDI
value between 0 and 127.
If you choose User here you can add your own samples, though this
means accessing Reaktor’s Sample Map Editor, which requires a bit of
research if you’re new to the software. Then there are pitch, start
position and pan controls each with min / max parameter range sliders,
and finally a volume section so you can balance the layers’ levels.
Taking Effect
There are 18 effects onboard and up to four can be used at once, ranging
from reverb, compression, glitch and autopanning to stutter, stretch,
frequency and pitch effects. Each has its own controls and can be
switched on or off for each slot, and you can set up MIDI modulation of
effects as well as using LFO, envelope and velocity to control the
parameters mentioned previously such as pitch, pan, volume and so on.
This also applies to the two further sub-pages, Envelope and EQ, that
are used to shape the sound.
All of this is great, but it’s not the main focus of Polyplex: that
comes when you start to randomize parameters. Sound tweaking is nothing
new but the ability to endlessly come up with new variations and,
crucially, really usable variations is somewhat more unique.
By clicking on the Master Randomizer button at the top (these buttons
all have dice icons) you can instantly randomize the way the layers
behave, completely changing their sound but within boundaries that keep
them usable. What we mean by this is that it’s not going to randomize
things so much that you end up with a bunch of bleeps and white noise
that don’t play nicely together. Going Further
In addition you can choose to randomize each individual sound slot in
different ways. Click the button for a slot and its parameters are
randomized but the other slots are not. Go into the parameter section
and you can randomize just one thing at once, such as pitch, but leave
everything else the same.
You can even lock a layer to make sure it’s not changed and also
deselect any randomizable section so that it is not included while
everything around it is. There are seven kit slots and you can copy and
paste settings between them to create up to seven variations on your kit
and flip between them easily.Polyplex sounds incredibly cool, as a
listen to the audio demos will reveal.
The sounds it can make are cutting edge and amazingly useful for all
kinds of electronic music. This is thanks to the amount of organic stuff
that’s going on with modulation of parameters and effects meaning that
sounds twist, echo and morph in very desirable ways.
Although you can manually tweak everything, the randomizers do their
job of coming up with endless variations supremely well and the results
are stunning. That the onboard effects are so much better than the usual
delay / reverb / compression toolkit is a factor as well. You will need
to add few, if any, external effects to the sound because the
processing inside the instrument is first class. As a quick solution to
drum sound design, Polyplex is a winner. Review from 'Musictech'
Wonderful drum synth with lots of modern up to date drum sounds. Quite different to others in that you can customize the 8 drum sequences to the keys on your keyboard and then add other sounds. An incredible amount of options here from fine tuning your drum sounds to adding FX. A definite go to drum machine!! I particularly like the 'Ian Boddy' presets which goes to show how more cinematic oriented this plug in is!
Based around the BD module of the multi award winning Punch virtual drum
synth, Rob Papen delivers a creative module to help you to produce the
fattest sounding bass drums for your music.
Stacking bass drums
is a popular technique used by today's music producers and Punch-BD
gives you the ability to stack up to 6 in total. Divide the 6 BD pads
over the keyboard or use them 'stacked' in tuned mode to produce
creative new BD sounds for all styles of contemporary music.
Punch-BD
delivers synthesized drums in the finest audio quality or you can
choose to load in your own samples for complete flexibility. Each pad
has its own distortion module with several distortion types as well as
its own 3 band graphic EQ. What's more, each individual pad also has its
own preset section next to the overall 'BD kit'.
Like its big
brother, Punch-BD features four FX units each with many 31 types of top
quality FX plus further filters, envelopes, modulation routings and more
for crafting your own unique sound.
From Electronic Dance and Hip Hop to Soundtrack projects, Punch-BD provides a solid speaker-busting sound for your productions.
The original Predator was a classic and this just expands upon the features, making it even better and more user friendly.The X Y Pads and morphing between waveforms are excellent not to mention a slew of presets which are very up to date. Rob Papens plugins are all superb, no less so here!
Predator 2 is the successor of a legendary synthesizer that has inspired
many artists/composers and appears on countless music tracks! As before
it combines inspiring presets and cutting edge features to make this
your ‘go-to’ synth for contemporary music production.
The user
interface has again been designed so that almost all main controls are
visible on screen, making it fun and incredibly easy-to-use.
With
Predator 2 and all its many cool features, we have also included an
‘Easy Page’ for the users that don’t like too many controls. The ‘Easy
Page’ offers you the most important parameters if you want to change a
sound quickly or just want to use the handy ‘preset variation’ function,
which is an intelligent randomizer.
Predator 2 is packed with
new powerful features such as: ‘Waveform morphing’, ‘Waveform drawing’,
“WaveSet playmode’, XY pad, new EQ, and new voice level distortion....
and so much more!
Shipped with inspirational presets, Predator 2
is a unique synthesizer concept which combines ‘User Friendliness’ and
‘Packed Features’ in one amazing product.
