Last week, we brought you the news of Plogue’s new 8-bit style software synth, Chipsounds.

According to Plogue, Chipsounds emulates more than eight vintage 8bit-era sound chips (on top of their variants), down to their smallest idiosyncrasies.

Now you can decide for yourself:

chipsounds EP by chipsounds

These tracks were made by the chipsounds beta team and show the
variety of styles and sounds that can be achieved with the software.

The only guideline given was that the music’s chip content had to be made using chipsounds.

Check out the demos and let me know what you think!

Free Mac Music Software: Sorry, Windows-based musicians, but this freebie is just for Mac & Linux users.

SooperLooper is a live looping sampler capable of immediate loop recording, overdubbing, multiplying, reversing and more. It allows for multiple simultaneous multi-channel loops limited only by your computer’s available memory.

The application is a standalone JACK client with an engine controllable via OSC and MIDI. It also includes a GUI which communicates with the engine via OSC (even over a network) for user-friendly control on a desktop. However, this kind of live performance looping tool is most effectively used via hardware (midi footpedals, etc) and the engine can be run standalone on a computer without a monitor.

SooperLooper is currently supported on Linux and Mac OS X, and any other platforms that support JACK. The Mac OS X package is usable with at least the 0.6 release of JACK OS X. Note that for OS X Tiger, you’ll need to get at least version 0.7 of JACK-OSX. A Mac OS X Audio Unit version is included which does not require JACK to run.

See the SooperLooper site for details.

The Meatscience Bitsmacker is described as a “digital distortion swiss army knife” for adding that certain digital crustiness to your pristine audio signal. It can simulate vintage samplers, and classic video game systems.

Features:

• Zero-latency
• Sample rate reduction from 50 to 44100 hz
• Bit depth range from 0.01 to 32 bit
• Parametric EQ on Input
• Parametric EQ on Output
• Drive adjustment for boost
• All values continuously variable, no large steps between values
• Works in any Audio Unit host (Garage Band, Logic, Ableton, etc etc)
• A swift kick in the trousers

The plugin lets you drive a MIDI-based synthesizer from any DAW that supports software instrument Audio Units.

Version 1.3, posted on 9/20/06: Passes AU validation under 10.6. Can generate program and bank change messages.

This video offers a short introduction to Eloquence, a new MIDI-Step-Sequencer from Sugar Bytes.

Eloquence retails for 99€ / 129USD. Registered ERA users will receive a crossgrade offer for 69€ / 89USD.

Eloquence Features:

Sequencer Tracks

• Pitch – The pitch sequencer works in relation to the root key and transposes it by +/- 12 semitones. It can work in chromatic mode or in scaled mode which expands the tonal capabilities a lot. In addition, the pitch sequencer has a flexible recording function.
• Lock – Lock is part of the pitch sequencer. An active step deactivates the midi transposing. This is useful for keeping important notes and chords in key while transposing the sequence.
• Gate – The Gate Sequencer creates notes and determines their velocity.
• Mute – The Mute Sequencer is part of the Gate Sequencer and mutes the selected step.
• Gate Time – The Gate Time Sequencer determines how long a note is held. Notes can be held up to four times the duration of a step.
• Octave – This sequencer moves the pitch the pitch by +/- 2 octaves.
• Pitchbend – Here you can select from 12 pitch bend figures to be engaged.
• Chord – A Chord is generated using the current note in the pitch sequencer as the root note. Six Variations and four wrap-arounds for major and minor plus six special chords like diminished and augmented are available.
• Break – This sequencer lets you set a multi-trigger at 2, 3, or 4 times the normal sequencer speed, playing the current scale up or downwards or just repeating the current note. 18 breaks are available.
• Random – Each sequencer step can be replaced by a random value. Minor and major chords can be individually randomized to maintain the harmonic structure.

Action Section

• Gatetime – The Gate Time can be increased or decreased, depending on how long you press the button.
• Velo Gate – The note will only play if it is above the selected velocity threshold.
• Looper – The selected part of the sequence will be looped.
• Slowdown – The sequence slows down until it come to a dead stop.
• Retrigger – Re-trigger the sequence by re-triggerpressing the button; upon release, the sequencer continues at its normal position.
• Halftime – The sequence will play at half speed.
• Octave Up – The sequence will play one octave higher as long as you press the button.
• Mute – Mutes all data output.

Specials

• Internal synthesizer to create patterns on the fly.
• Special workaround for sending MIDI with the AU plugin.
• Instant keyboard control for Transpose, Pattern Select, Action Section.
• Pattern Sequencer.
• Sample-accurate timing.
• Individual trigger and sync options, swing function.

Eloquence is available for Windows and Mac (VST/AU) for 99 EUR / $129 USD.

Airwindows’ Pop is a universal binary Audio Unit compressor plugin designed to create “extraordinary pop vocals.”

According to Airwindows:

Inspired by radio-friendly Genesis, Pop puts every detail in your lap- the reason it exists is, I was listening to ‘Mama’ and other songs off the eponymous Genesis album, and couldn’t believe how overwhelming Hugh Padgham had Phil Collins’ vocal sounding. It reached out and grabbed and defined every detail so aggressively- I needed to make a special compressor that could deliver a sound like that, because nothing I had was designed for such aggressive behavior.

Pop retails for $59.99. A non-expiring demo version is available.

Audio Damage has announced the availability of Ronin, a long-deprecated Audio Damage product:

The original returns! One of the long-deprecated Audio Damage products, Ronin hails from a time not so kind nor gentle. This remade version features a new UI, full compatibility with current plug-in standards, and on the Mac side, the best news of all: Universal Binary VST and AU.

What we didn’t change, however, is the sound. Featuring pairs of BBD-style delays, multi-mode filters, saturation, and LFOs, Ronin also is fully modular. You can route the effects however you’d like, including (if you feel like living dangerously) in to themselves. The audio path is entirely modular. Ronin also has an extensive control routing mechanism, including MIDI inputs.

Audio Damage Ronin is $49. Audio demos are available at the site. If you are an owner of Ronin V1.0, this upgrade is free, and is currently in your account in the Audio Damage store.

If you’ve used Audio Damagae Ronin, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Jeff Rona discusses the use of Rob Papen synths while making a new film score.

via robpapen

Waldorf has announced a new software synthesizer, the Waldorf Largo:

Many producers and synthesizer enthusiasts asked for a full-blown Waldorf Synthesizer for their virtual rack. We listened, and now we proudly present Largo. Largo is the first pure software synthesizer with Waldorf DNA. And again – it is the cutting edge sound that makes the big difference.

No wonder, as Largo mirrors the technology used in Blofeld and Q hardware synthesizers. As for every Waldorf instrument, ergonomics are a core feature on screen as well. Your eyes will be pleased with a clearly structured, graphical user interface that supports your workflow intuitively.

Largo offers three fat oscillators, two of them with sub oscillators. These oscillators include models of classic analog waveforms as well as a selection of waves from the PPG and Waldorf Wave stored in two Wavetables. All these run through two Waldorf multimode filters with steep cutoff, resonance up to self-oscillation and a drive stage to add even more punch and grainyness to the sound. Ultra-fast envelope generators and flexible LFOs as well as an easy to understand, yet extremely versatile modulation matrix make for a sound designer’s dream.

The filters have always been a core part of any Waldorf instrument. With outstanding expertise in both analog and digital synthesis, our developers took utmost care in developing the filters. And you can hear a significant difference when working with a Waldorf filter – they just sound right! Use the comb filters for plucked, stringed or blown sounds. Band pass, high pass, low pass and notch filters are all available with 12 dB and 24 dB slope. All of them sound extremely accurate and add pure sonic quality to the sound of your music.

Largo contains a flexible arpeggiator with 16 freely programmable steps as known from the exclusive Q synthesizer line plus an array of high quality effects such as Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Overdrive, Delay and Reverb.

The clearly arranged user interface helps you to create your own powerful synthesizer sounds in a breeze. Oscillators and filters are always in direct access while the submodules are only a mouse click away. It has the same exclusive voice architecture as the Q and Blofeld synthesizer line, fully integrated into the total recall system of your Digital Audio Workstation.

Largo works as a VST and AudioUnit instrument. Details below.

Huston Singletary talks about the new effects in Ableton Live 8 at Winter NAMM 2009.

Ohmv Force has released a free plugin for the masses, Cohmpost:

You just NEED some Cohmpost in your music.

Get it in AU for Mac, VST for Mac or VST for Windows.

For your information, no kittens were harmed while creating the Cohmpost (just a bit ruffled, promise). Lawyer warning : Please do not use Ohm Force Cohmpost Mac version unless you totally agree with the license agreement.

Who knows what it’s doing, but you can safely expect to hear the sounds of kittens being harmed.

Give it a try and then leave a comment with your thoughts on Cohmpost.

Applied Acoustics Systems has released Strum Electric GS-1, a guitar track production plug-in for music producers and composers.

Strum Electric GS-1 runs on both Mac OS X and Windows, as a standalone application as well as in host sequencers supporting the VST, Audio Units, and RTAS plug-in formats.

You can preview Strum Electric GS-1 below:

Strum Electric GS-1 is available now at a retail price of $229.

If you’ve used AAS Strum Electric GS-1, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Description:

Strum Electric includes a collection of classic single coil- and humbucker-fitted guitars, a two-channel amplifier with spring reverb, a speaker cabinet, and effects all featured in a ready-made preset library. It also includes an elaborate voicing module which automatically voices chords played on the keyboard as a guitar player would on the fretboard.

Techniques such as down- and up-strokes, slides and bends, hammer-ons and pull-offs, palm muting, muffled strings, and arpeggios are triggered by special strumming keys. Strum Electric also ships with an inspiring MIDI loops library which provides rhythmic figures, strumming patterns, and chord progressions in various musical styles.

Note that demo versions and sound samples are also available at :

Description:

With twelve sequencers controlling ten effects in six blocks, BigSeq2 is capable of everything from short staccato gate sequences to long, evolving filter sweeps and frequency shifts.

The six effect “Blocks” contain ten effects in total, and these Blocks can be re-arranged by dragging them, giving you full control over the routing of the effects.

Each effect Block has a gate sequencer and a modulation sequencer. The gate sequencer turns that effect on and off (or in the case of the delay Block, activates the “send” control), while the modulation sequencer can affect any and all parameters in that block.

More details below; audio demos at the Audio Damage site.

If you’ve used Audio Damage BigSeq2, leave a comment with your thoughts/ratings!

Features :

• Ten effects in six blocks, each with its own step sequencer, modulation sequencer, and time base.
• The gate and modulation sequencers for each effect block run on their own time-base, allowing different time signatures and step times for each effect.
• Each block has several parameters which can be altered via the modulation sequencer for that block.
• The effects blocks can be re-arranged in any order.
• Each sequencer has three independent modes of operation: forward, reverse, and random step. In addition, each of the twelve sequencers can be completely randomized at regular selectable intervals, for interesting modulation and gating possibilities.
• The included effects are VCA, pan, multi-mode filter, fuzz, sine warp, delay (with chorus and flanger modes), frequency shifter (also providing ring mod and phasing), sample rate reduction, bit depth, and our own “Error” effect.
• MIDI Learn on all published parameters for external hardware control. (VST only.)

BigSeq2 is available now for both Mac and PC in VST and AU formats at a price of $49 (upgrade : $10).

This is an interesting development. Since both Macs and PCs are Intel-based, the long term viability of having four or more plugin formats is questionable.

At the very least, VFX could give new life to a broad range of free plugins developed for the PC.

Suggested Minimum Requirements: 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 1 GB of RAM, Mac OS X 10.5.x or later

Cool developement, or are all the plugins you need already available on the Mac?

Leave a comment with your thoughts.

• The Saxophones 1 collection, based on the traditional quartet, contains 12 instruments—three each of baritone, tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone.
• Saxophones 2 expands the timbral range with 15 instruments—three each of bass, C melody, mezzo-soprano, C soprano, and sopranino saxophones.

The synthesis technology that powers WIVI (Wallander Instruments Visual Instrument) is ideally suited for instruments, such as Saxophones, that respond continuously and dynamically to the player’s input. Unlike traditional sampled instruments, WIVI instruments allow the player to alter timbre and dynamics throughout the entire course of a note.

WIVI solves many of the problems associated with sample-based instruments. For example, divisi is automatic, spatialization and environmental control are handled at the instrument level, making it easy to create the performance soundstage without the use of additional reverb and, since no samples are involved, CPU and hard disk requirements are minimal.

WIVI works on Mac/PC and is AU/RTAS/VST capable. Saxophones 1 and 2 are available with street prices of approximately $399 and $299, respectively.

Blue Cat Audio has released a collection of free music plugins for Mac & PC, in AU and VST formats.

The bundle contains a wide range of modulation effects as well as analysis tools and an EQ to get you started with your DAW.

This bundle is available for Mac and PC, in DirectX, Audio Unit and VST plugin formats.

2009 NAMM Show Update: Focusrite introduced its first collection of VST/AU plug-ins, the awesomely titled Focusrite Plug-in Suite.

The Focusrite Plug-in Suite offers a high-end collection of EQ, compression, reverb and gating VST/AU plug-ins for tracking and mixing:

• The Compressor and Gate have been modeled on Focusrite’s hardware devices, using the measurement of Focusrite’s custom optos to achieve a vintage optical sound. (Focusrite optos are tuned by ear, just like in the old days of analogue design, ensuring a faithful recreation of those classic vintage 1960s optical compressors.) The Gate also features multiple modes. It operates as a stereo gate and, in dual mono modes, one signal can be used to trigger the gate of another; ideal for a number of creative gating techniques, such as tightening up a bass line.
• The EQ module delivers a similar signature to the original Focusrite ISA EQ curves. Focusrite’s R&D team worked to create an authentic response across the entire audible frequency spectrum. The control layout also mirrors that of the original ISA EQ section; a classic six band EQ, with shelving high and low bands, parametric low mid and high mid bands, and low and high pass filters.
• The Reverb is based on classic algorithmic studio reverb designs. Simple controls let you edit room size, Pre-filter and ‘Air’.

The Focusrite Plug-in Suite will be available worldwide in January 2009.

2009 Winter NAMM Show: SONiVOX announced the release of Playa – a Hip Hop Virtual Instrument for MAC and PC. Playa’s user interface is designed to bridge the gap between MPC style beat creation and computer based virtual instruments.

Features:

• Over 400 SONiVOX Instruments, including fat synths, basses, drums, leads, orchestral instruments, ethnic instruments, guitars, strings and brass.
• 16 User Programmable and Assignable Pads for quick and easy MPC style beat construction.
• Over 50 Pad Presets designed to get the producer going instantly with various construction kit layouts, diatonic chord mappings, arpeggios, chord progressions and motifs.
• User Definable Layouts - Make original pad mappings and assign pads to midi keys using the “map” and “learn” modes.
• MIDI Functionality - Playa is instantly compatible with any MIDI controller.
• Independent Zone Tempo-Synched Variable Resolution Roll/Retrigger Mode.
• Onboard FX and Graphic Equalizer.
• Keys Mode - For standard keyboard play/performance.
• User Editable Envelope Controls.
• PC Standalone, VST and RTAS Compatibility.
• MAC Standalone, AU, VST, and RTAS Compatibility.

Playa will be available February 1st, 2009 with a MSRP of $149 and a street price of $99.

It adds a fully programmable virtual analog synthesizer filter with resonance, envelope follower and an integrated post-filter digital delay to your audio production environment.

This product at a glimpse:

• Platforms: MacOS X
• Formats: AudioUnit Latest version: 1.0.1
• Free

You can send any of your audio tracks through this ‘virtual analog’ effects device to either create spezial effects or to simulate the behaviour of an analog 4-pole synthesizer filter.

New in 1.01:

Clicking on the “Dly Time” text area directly above the delay time slider will set the delay time to the click interval. This is a handy way to adjust the tempo of the delay without figuring out the millisecond value

Specifications:

• 24dB/Octave (4 pole)
• variable Cutoff + Resonance
• Lowpass/Bandpass switchable
• Envelope Follower with adjustable sensitivity
• Envelope attack/release times
• Adjustable analog distortion
• Adjustable digital delay after filter with time, mix and feedback

Minimum system requirements:

MacOS X 10.4.11 or newer. AU compatible host software. Tested with:

• Apple Logic 8.02
• MotU Digital Performer 6.02
• Ableton Live 7.07
• RogueAmoeba AudioHijack Pro 2.9.0
• Apple AU Lab 2.0.1
• TwistedWave 1.0.0
• Apple GarageBand 4.1.2

On desktop, Mixtikl can run standalone, or as a plugin to a VST/AU enabled sequencer, giving users the freedom to create on mobile and remix on Mac or PC, or vice versa.

Mixtikl supports 12 track mixing at up to 44KHz stereo (device dependent), a wide range of user-configurable live sound FX and sound generators with the Partikl modular & DLS MIDI synth, a runtime of the Noatikl generative music engine and the Remixer, Performer, Partikl and Player applications. Mixtikl openly supports the use of users’ own files in Ogg, WAV, AU, MIDI, MOD, partikl and noatikl content formats as well as user created add-on Paks.

Seven Windows Mobile screen sizes and orientations are supported at launch, from the smallest Windows Mobile Smartphone screen (176×180) to the largest currently available in the new HTC Touch HD Pocket PC (480×696). “Skins” for all supported screensizes are available in the Standalone versions for Windows and Mac desktops.

Pricing starts at $9.99 for the mobile versions, and at launch Intermorphic is also unveiling a number of special offers and bundles for Mixtikl as well as all its products. 30 day full save trial versions are available from the Mixtikl download page.

Versions for Symbian, iPhone and Antix Game Player are to follow from early 2009.