Sonic Charge Permut8 Sound Mangling

YouTube Preview Image

Sonic Charge has introduced Permut8, a new VST / AudioUnit that lets you modulate, manipulate and mangle your audio in countless ways.

Here’s what Sonic Charge has to say about Permut8:

Permut8 is an effect plug-in that embraces the sounds of primitive signal processing hardware. At its core is a 12-bit digital delay with variable sample rate from 0 to 352 khz. The delay is controlled by a programmable processor that allows you to change and modulate the delay time with various “operators”. The input and output stages offers virtual analog components for saturation, limiting and filtering. The sound of Permut8 is raw and complex but noisy and warm at the same time.

Permut8 is available now, for Mac & Windows, for $66. A trial version is also available.

New Algorithmic Composing VSTi For Windows, Ghost Machine

HG Fortune has released Ghost Machine – a multipart algorithmic composing machine for Windows.

Ghost Machine features:

  • a Pad part with Long Wave Sequencing
  • a HiSq part with a 16 step sequencer and customizable note pattern
  • a bass part with a 16 step sequencer and customizable note pattern, and
  • a drum part with 4 instruments parts each with a 16 step sequencer.

Continue reading

Analog + Digital Compared: OP-X PRO-II vs. The Oberheim OB-X

YouTube Preview Image

Here’s an analog vs virtual analog comparison, via virtualoberheim, of the SonicProjects OP-X PRO-II virtual Oberheim VSTi software synth for Windows and a vintage Oberheim OB-X Rev.2.

The lower manual in the video is an USB MDI master keyboard (an Emu Xboard 61) which drives OP-X PRO-II hosted in Steinberg Cubase 5. No effects or any other treatments were involved, both OB-X and OP-X PRO-II were recorded directly to disk, OB-X over the line inputs of an RME HDSP 9632.

The video switches quickly back and forth between the two sources, making it easy to listen for differences.

Check it out and let us know what you think! Can you hear differences between the vintage Oberheim and its virtual recreation?

Continue reading

New Vortex Multitimbral Sequencer + Synth

Home Grown Sounds has released Vortex, described as a ?break through? VSTi Multitimbral Sequencer.

Vortex is a performance instrument, offering 12 tracks of multitimbral sequencing + synthesis, with an emphasis on quick and easy music creation.

Features:

  • Real-time triggers which allow manipulating the sequences with effects such as Stutter (and programmable stutter), Restart, Half tempo, double step, note ties and mute amongst others. An octave of your keyboard is reserved for the triggers allowing easy sequence transformations. When sync mode is enabled, once all triggers are released the sequence will revert to it?s former playing state.
  • Global knobs for subtracting or adding to the internal synth parameters, amongst them Filter Cutoff, Resonance, Filter Decay, VCA (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release), Filter (Attack, Decay, Sustain), Noise Level, FM, Oscillator Mix, and LFO (Speed, Amount, Sustain). These knobs affect all synths simultaneously and so the entire output of Vortex becomes a single morphing and dynamic instrument.
  • All knobs have CCs.
  • Vortex began as a MIDI application and so the internal sound module is designed to behave as an external MIDI device. The idea is that you simply dial up presets rather than being faced with actual sound editing, although up to 10 CCs can be overridden in a session to give some sound editing possibilities.
  • Other features include a Multi-Sequencer which allows assigning multiple sequences to a single key, internal FX using the the TerraNova FX engine, a 16 channel midi mixer and 8 rows of assignable CC Knobs.

Here’s a demo of Vortext in action:

Continue reading