Monday 13 May 2019

ValhallaDelay - Valhalla

Fantastic combination of delays and reverbs which is capable of creating many unique sounds within one plugin.

Valhalla Delay is our take on classic and modern delay and echo units. Tape echo, BBD, old-school digital, pitch shifting – we’ve got you covered. ValhallaDelay offers the classics, and expands them into new dimensions, with the unique Ratio and Quad delay styles, the Ghost mode (which adds frequency shifting), and a powerful diffusion section that can create anything from smeared echoes to ethereal reverbs.

Valhalla Delay has seven different delay Modes:

Tape: Modeled after vintage tape echoes, with all the features and quirks that were loved in the old hardware.
HiFi: A higher fidelity tape echo, where the ability to precisely sculpt the sound is in your hands. .
BBD: A dark, low fidelity bucket brigade delay model.
Digital: A cleaner, higher bandwidth delay, with the ability to dial in digital dirt.
Ghost: A Valhalla DSP original! Combines the tape model from the HiFi mode with frequency shifting and a unique diffusion algorithm, for sounds that will split your skull in two.
Pitch: A digital delay with added pitch shifting. Perfect for micro-shifting vocals, adding harmonies to synths, creating vast shimmering soundscapes, or shrieking sounds that forever spiral upwards or downwards.
RevPitch: Reverse pitch shifting! Everything that goes in, comes out reversed.

Five tape Styles, for controlling the number of delay voices:

Single: Same delay length & modulation for left and right channels.
Dual: Independent delay lengths for left and right channels.
Ratio: The right channel is set to a ratio of the left channel, and the feedback of left and right channels is mixed. Perfect for sounds that slowly transition from delay to reverb-esque.
PingPong: A delay that bounces between the left and right channels, with the ability to set the left and right delays independently.
Quad: Models the multi-head tape echoes of the 1960s and 1970s, with up to 4 delay taps on tap.

Cool features:

Delay lengths ranging from 0 msec to 20 seconds. Dial in choruses and flangers, slapback echoes, longer delays, or long Frippertronic loops.
Sync the delay to the beat, with straight/dotted/triplet options. Or, control the length via milliseconds.
Age control, for adjusting the artifacts of the delay mode. Clean and shiny, old and dusty, or anywhere in between.
Powerful Diffusion section, that can be used to smooth out the attacks of delays, or can be an amazingly smooth and lush reverb in its own right. Up to 20 seconds of diffusion time possible!
Era control, for selecting between different variants of the delay modes.

Wednesday 24 April 2019

XLN Audio - XO

Very similar in many ways to 'Algonauts' 'Atlas' with your one shot samples being mapped out (albeit much smaller here). But things go way way deeper  with XO including a plethora of editing features which takes ones beat making to an entirely different level. Great fun to be had here for sure!

XO identifies and collects one-shot samples stored anywhere on your computer or hard drives and sorts them by similarity. It brings your samples of choice into a new creative context that facilitates experimentation.

You can use XO as stand-alone or with your favorite DAW along with other plugins. You load XO as an instrument into your DAW. XO is used preferably but not exclusively for beat making and rhythm production using, what you consider to be drum sounds.

Browsing and editing sound become a part of your creative processes instead of disrupting your workflow.

Features

- Load your own samples: Duplicates. Vague file names. Folders in different locations or on external drives. XO sorts them all – regardless of where and how they are stored.
Find your sound faster: Narrow the scope with XO’s powerful filters and search functionalities to find what you’re looking for even faster.

- Ready for action: Factory Samples & Presets – Get a flying start to your beatmaking with XO’s inspiring presets and 8000+ hand-picked factory samples. No matter the music style or amount of sounds in your current sample collection, XO has you covered.

- Perfect your groove: Sculpt the perfect groove with the curated Groove Templates, Nudge your patterns to boost raw urgency or funky sluggishness, and add life and dynamics to your beat with the powerful Accentuator.

- Drag & drop: Drag and drop with ease into your own workflow. Tweaked or raw. Individual samples or the whole beat. Audio or MIDI.




Thursday 4 April 2019

Atlas - Algonaut

Fantastic drum sample plugin that maps out all your drum samples, and by whats called artificial intelligence, groups them randomly into drum sets where you can swap them out or create new sets at the click of a button. This is especially great if you have a vast library of drum samples, the results of which you would never otherwise come up with on your own, It doesn't stop there though as with the latest update you can apply automation, pitch and panning etc. 

Algonaut a released a new artificial intelligence powered sampler that aims to change the way you find sounds and make beats.

Atlas allows you to see all of your samples in one place with a map based on style and character. You can generate unlimited drum kits with your own samples and speed up your workflow using drag-and-drop to any app At the centre of all our products is SoundClass, our own proprietary AI with a little bit of magic that is the first of its kind. It has been built from the ground up using customised neural networks, deep learning, and tailored audio analysis techniques.
We’ve trained SoundClass to be capable of listening to any new audio content and determining its category and a description of its characteristics. This opens the door for features and products that are yet unheard of.

We are constantly evolving and growing SoundClass with increased capabilities to be used with new sounds and future products. It is constantly learning and we pass that knowledge to you through software updates that you can benefit from.

AI is not replacing the musician. We build our products so that the AI solves the problems that get in the way of your creativity. It works with you, so you can make great music without any barriers.

Atlas features:

The Map: Find that perfect sample faster. Atlas’ AI can find every drum sound on your computer and create a map you can scroll and zoom with all your samples in one place.

Instant Drumkits: Find inspiration in randomization. One click and Atlas chooses 8 samples. Lock or hotswap them individually. Rinse and repeat. Tweak how they sound using the combo controls.

Drag and Drop: Drag and drop samples from Atlas to your favourite sampler/sequencer for more control. Atlas can be used as a replacement browser for your existing workflow.

Bundled MIDI Clips: Make inspirational drums in seconds by dragging included MIDI patterns from Atlas into your DAW as MIDI will trigger the drum kit. Spam “New Kit” for instant drum loops.

Like/Dislike: The more you use Atlas, the more it gets to know you. As samples are liked or disliked, Atlas learns the styles of samples you prefer and helps you hone your sound.

Analyse your own samples: Analyze any of your own sample packs regardless of size. Create seperate maps for genre, brand, style or however you organise your samples. Analysis happens locally, not in the cloud.

Atlas comes with a ‘Welcome Pack’ of samples hand picked from the Sample Magic collection. These samples have been recorded from a variety of drum machines, studio recordings and other sources and with custom layering and processing, sound great in any style of music.

The latest Atlas v1.4 update adds the ability to automate any parameter in Atlas with you DAW including the new controls such as fine tune, shape curve and resonance. You can also now navigate your maps with the arrow keys and other keyboard shortcuts which speeds up sample hunting. As well as of course a number of other improvements!

Friday 15 March 2019

HY-Delay4 - HY-Plugins


What do i need another delay for? One might ask! Well 'HY-Delay4' is a delay on steroids with many features and sound capabilities not found elsewhere - except for' Bluecats' 'Latereplies'. The drag and drop modulation,effect processors,macros  and randomizers takes it all to another level!

HY-Delay4 is a multi mode delay.

There are 6 main processes (Delay, Amp, Waveshaper, EQ, FX1, FX2). You can change the order of these processes. Also, you can modulate those parameter values with 4 modulation units and 4 macro controls.

Main Features:

5 delay modes(Simple, Dual, Grain, Groove. PM) + Bypass mode.

Changeable process order(Delay, Amp, WS, EQ, FX1, FX2).

Drag and drop for modulation assignment.

4 modulation generators(5 types).

4 macro controls.

Side-chain input for Ducker and Envelope follower.

Randomizer.

Re-scaleble interface.

Free Version:

1 delay mode(Simple delay).
EQ.
Ducker.
Randomizer.

Friday 1 March 2019

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.

Saturday 23 February 2019

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

Monday 21 January 2019

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.