Ample Guitar M Lite II - Ample Sound-

Brilliantly authentic sounding acoustic guitar with an excellent set of features including strumming patterns for one to tweak. Unbelievably this is  FREE with just a few limitations as opposed to the full version. If your after some great acoustic guitar sounds without shelling out, look no further, this is probably the best your likely to come across!

Ample Guitar M Lite II aim to bring the Martin D-41 Acoustic Guitar sound to your studio.
Sampling:
Size: 848 mb, 16bit 44.1khz
DFD(Direct from disk)
Rich Fingering Noise - more vivid and realistic.
Finger Instrument libraries to fit different needs.
Each Cycle & Rhombic Sampling structure - Separate sample cycle for each note and vel layer to improve sample utilization efficiency.
Sustain, Hammer On & Pull Off, Palm Mute, Popping 5 articulations.
Technology:

Capo Logic - Intelligent play according to guitar rules.
Doubling Guitar - different samples at L & R.
CPC(Customized Parameters Control) - any button knob etc can be controlled by MIDI CC or Automation.
Poly Legato.
Slide Smoother.
Combined Articulation - combine 2 articulations via pressing 2 keyswitches at the same time.
Open String First.
Alternate Tuner.
Capo - Transpose without need to modify midi.
Tab Player:

The Tab Player can load and play several prevalent guitar tablature file formats. Users can load, display and playback any specific track inside a tablature file. When used in DAWs, the Tab Player also allows users to export the tablature as an audio file.
The Tab Player supports all the fingering, looping, chords, articulations and other markers in the loaded tablature. Supported articulations articulations include: Strum, Natural Harmonic, Artificial Harmonic, Hammer On/Pull Off, Trill, Bend, Tremolo Bar, Legato Slide, Slide In, Slide Out, Vibrato, Tremolo Picking, Palm Mute, Popping, Tapping, Let Ring, Staccato, Dead Note, Grace Note, Ghost Note, Accentuated Note, Fade In, etc.
As a built-in function, the Tab Player works seamlessly with the Ample Sound instrument engine, which has extremely customized guitar playing logic so as to model a real world guitar being played. The Tab Player can even judge on its own to automatically add some refining articulations when it thinks it is appropriate, such as slapping on strings or body, or other realistic and indispensable noises.
Strumming is an important factor of guitar playing. By taking advantage of the Ample Guitar Strummer engine, the Tab Player can not only mingle different articulations into strumming, but can also alternate between strumming several strings (i.e. multiple notes) simultaneously and strum at a particular string (i.e. one note).
Strummer:

14 Strum notes + 28 ways to play for every chord.
Strum Legato - both Slide and HP can be played while strumming.
Easy Strum Time Control via velocity.
Body Resonance and Mute Depth.
Total and Each Strum time, 4 humanization settings.
Customized Chords in Select or Detect mode.
Chord inversions to Positions.
Strum SEQ with customized rhythm.
Delicate presets with Drag & Drop Support.

Pigments - Arturia

Arturia have had quite a pedigree of really great synths over the years , and 'Pigments' is certainly an evolution of their fine architecture , painting a canvas of hybrid wavetable/ analog sounds. 'Pigments' is beautiful designed and really shines when it comes to  the modulation , which are quite easily assigned once you know how , and are wonderfully displayed with the moving graphics. Sounds are excellent too which certainly leans more toward sound design and creation of  unique textures.

Taking that spark of imagination and transforming it into sound is the most fundamental, exhilarating part of creating music. Pigments makes that process natural, intuitive, and colorful.

Your sound, in living color
Imagine a sound, then create it.

Pigments gives you the finest elements ever found in a software instrument, letting you create pioneering, exciting, and deeply personal sounds. Laying everything out before you, Pigments lets you fully express your creativity in a way that’s never been seen before in a software instrument.

Pigments features a twin audio engine, letting you mix virtual analog and wavetable oscillators to create the perfect starting point for your patch. You can even morph wavetables, or import your own.

What you do next is up to you. Experiment with 3 envelopes, 3 LFOs, and 3 function generators. Assign modulators to animate your sound, and breathe life into it. Add controlled, or totally wild random changes to any parameter with a Turing probability generator. Run it through 2 filters, with any combination of iconic analog filters or modern formant and surgeon filters you want. Process your patch with exciting contemporary effects like wavefolder and multifilter, or vintage studio reverbs, delays, and EQs.

Main Features

Two engines in parallel
Virtual Analog triple osc engine
Complex Wavetable engine
Two filters
Classic filter types from V Collection instruments
Modern filter types
Continuous series/parallel routing
Powerful effects section
Insert or Send routing
Modulable parameters
Advanced modulation system
Graphical editing, source-based or destination-based.
Envelopes, LFOs, Function generators, Random src, ...
Visual interface
Graphical representation of the most important modules
Polyrhythmic Sequencer and Arpeggiator
Create complex, custom and evolving sequences/arps
Extensive factory preset library

Ultraspace - Tone2

If there's one thing that Tone2 really excells at it's reverb. For ambient space design this is brilliant with lots of innovative space modelling.  Nice to see a ducking feature too which most reverb units rarely have.A definite go to reverb and probably the only one you will ever need!

Tone2 releases UltraSpace, a new compact plugin as an all-in-one solution for everything related to ambient simulation.

Available as VST (Windows) or AU (MAC) plugin formats, UltraSpace is the complete ambience-modeling solution. It can simulate nearly any kind of room, echo or acoustic environment with high-end sound quality.

UltraSpace is far more than just another reverb – it’s a complete compilation of different effect units covering all important aspects of space simulation. By combining these units, completely new and unique effects can be created.

Highlights:
One compact plugin as an all-in-one solution for everything related to ambient simulation.
Replacement for a large number of very expensive hardware units.
Modules can be combined to create new and unique effects, not possible with competing products.
Make your tracks stand out in the crowd!
Huge sonic range, and usable for a large number of applications.
Higher sound quality than competing products. Effect algorithms designed by DSP experts with 20 years of programming experience.
Excellent value for money.
150 inspiring patches created by professionals give you instant access to the right sound to quickly enhance your mixes.
Visual real-time displays and tooltips make it very easy to use.

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.

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.

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

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!