Focusrite

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.

At the 2009 Winter NAMM Show, Focusrite launched its Guitar FX VST/AU Plug-in suite; the result of a collaboration between Focusrite and Overloud.

The Focusrite Guitar FX Suite provides eleven VST/AU plug-ins that Focusrite claims are “sonicaly equal to, or better than any Guitar FX plug-ins on the market.”

These include five guitar amp models and four distortion pedal effects, all courtesy of Italian software company Overloud; experts in the field of accurate Guitar Amp modeling. A Hot Tuna guitar tuner and Smart Hum Remover are also provided.

The amp models include plug-ins based on the Vox AC30, Marshall JCM900, Fender Twin, MESA Boogie Rectifier and the Fender Bassman. The pedal models include plug-ins based on the Boss DS-1, the Ibanez Tube Screamer, the Electro Harmonix Big Muff and the Dunlop Fuzz Face.

The amp and pedal models utilise Overloud’s analog modelling technology. It’s designed to offer perfect reproduction of parameter behavior. With Overloud’s analogue modelling technology, each component of the schematic has its own mathematical model. After this rather raw scientific step, the resulting tone is fine tuned by ear. 

Finally, each Focusrite Guitar FX Suite plug-in provides a host of factory pre-sets, providing a number of great tones for you to audition immediately. You can also save and recall your own custom presets.

The new Focusrite Guitar FX Suite will be available worldwide in January 2009. Pricing is TBA.

Got bass?

Propellerhead software has announced the 2008 Bassline Battle.

Reason 4 are invited to put together the funkiest, illest, baddest bassline and drum beat combinations for a chance to win grand prizes, provided by Propellerhead Software, Focusrite, KRK and Novation.

Entering the battle is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Use the Reason Electric Bass ReFill, or the Electric Bass demo ReFill available for download here, to create a killer bassline. For competition purposes, your funky masterpiece must conform to the following guidelines:

• It must consist of Bass, Drums and Percussion only
• It must be based on the Reason Electric Bass ReFill (full or demo version)
• It can not use third party ReFills or self-contain samples
• It must be 8 bars long

2. When you are done, upload your bassline as a Reason .rns song file. You can upload up to three separate basslines. You have until November 24 to upload.

3. When submission time is over, it’s time for the Reason user community to rate the basslines. The top 10 basslines will proceed to a final round. In the final round, the top 10 submissions will be rated by our superstar artist panel consisting of Mocean Worker, Arabian Prince, Chaka Blackmon, DJ Babu and Mix Master Mike. The winners will be announced on December 19th. Read more…

Liquid Mix HD is a software version of Focusrite’s Liquid Mix desktop dynamic convolution processor, designed specifically for Digidesign’s Pro Tools HD. It runs of the DSP cards of an HD rig, so it takes no power from the user’s host computer.

It includes the same selection of EQ and dynamics processing presets, modeled on desirable studio stalwarts, that ship with the hardware unit, comprising 40 compressors and 20 EQs, with more available on-line.

According to the designers, over 60 instances of the plug-in can be used simultaneously on an HD3 system (each instance provides one EQ and one compressor) and, using the low-latency infrastructure of the Pro Tools HD environment, Liquid Mix HD can be used for both tracking and mixing.

Prices for Liquid Mix HD are $499 in the US and $399 in the UK.

Via SOS

Musikmesse sees the release of Liquid Mix V2.0, a new software release for Liquid Mix, Focusrite’s DSP-powered dynamic convolution mix solution, delivering 32 channels of EQ and Compression simultaneously.

The new software release will be available for free to download early in April 2007 and delivers a number of improvements over the original software. The new release makes Liquid Mix a no-brainer for producers and engineers wanting classic vintage processing, but with the flexibility of the digital world.

Liquid Mix v2.0 now features an EQ side-chain on the compressor, providing an additional one-band EQ to be fed into the side-chain of any classic compressor emulation. Combined with the existing ‘Listen’ feature, this provides the ideal solution for high quality de-essing and more creative compression. Read more…