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Audified STA Effects

By
Bryan
-

Want to add some tint to the digital windows that is your DAW? Audified is back with a new version of their Summing Tube Amplifier (STA) complete with a sleek new interface and a new delay unit.

BOSKOVICE, CZECH REPUBLIC: in response to requests from first-generation users, host application and audio effects developer Audified is proud to announce availability of the second-generation version of STA Effects — an affordable bundle of new and improved summing tube processing plug-ins based around its proprietary Summing Tube Amplifier (STA) technology from which the bundle takes its name — as of August 1…

The namesake STA (Summing Tube Amplifier) technology that the original and second-generation STA Effects bundle of summing tube processing plug-ins both benefit from uses two signal paths, one being processed by modulation or spectral change while the other remains unprocessed. Those two signals are mixed via vacuum tube circuitry models, making more ordinary-sounding effects like flanging or phasing sound exceptionally extraordinary with some unique and warm characteristics like no other!

On that very note, all six second-generation STA Effects plug-ins — including an all-new, self-explanatory STA Delay addition with convenient control over TEMPO, DECAY, STEREO, PING PONG, HPF (Hi-Pass Filter), and LPF (Low-Pass Filter) parameters — perform pleasingly to the ear, thanks to improved algorithms, and also beautifully balance flexibility and familiarity by serving superb-sounding saturation characteristics up to the discerning DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) user at a painless press of one of the following five virtual buttons: P (Presence — higher amount of mid-high frequencies to better cut through the mix), V (Vintage — smoother highs and more even harmonics), B (Brown — an almost flat frequency response with only light high-frequency rolloff and attractive higher harmonic punch), W (White — higher amount of higher frequencies with balanced ratio between the even and odd harmonics), and L (LoFi — less low and high frequencies).

Fortunately for those selective STA Effects plug-in users, the easy-to-use and superb-sounding STA Delay shares a number of STA (Summing Tube Amplifier) controls with (most of) its bundled STA Chorus, STA Enhancer, STA Flanger, STA Phaser, and STA Preamp plug-in partners — namely, LEVEL IN/LEVEL OUT (calibrated to provide saturation at a level of -9 dBFR, corresponding to 0 dBVU on the meters), WET ONLY (mutes the dry signal before the STA circuit), SATURATION (drives the modelled tube circuitry into saturation), Sync (host application tempo-synchronisation settings), METERS (switches between metering the input and output stages of the plug-in), and BYPASS (turns off the effects processing).

Perfectly positioned to tell it like it is, Audified Marketing Director Jakub Turecek reveals the company’s collective thinking behind STA Effects thusly. “The digital audio world tends to be very accurate and overly calculated nowadays,” he begins, before adding: “The lack of technical errors can lead to sterility in contemporary music production, so STA Effects represent the perfect combination of both worlds. They are an exact simulation of vintage valve circuitry’s characteristic behaviour, so bring more life to mixes.”

There you have it, then… beautifully bright mixes are but an ear-opening instance of STA Enhancer away and spacey sounds come courtesy of STA Phaser, yet there’s much in-between and beyond brought to the discerning DAW user when utilising all six second-generation STA Effects plug-ins.

As a new and improved second-generation summing tube processing plug-in suite, STA Effects takes some beating — and all without breaking the bank. Better still, the GUI (Graphical User Interface) has been given a major makeover with Retina support, so users can clearly see and hear what they’re getting… just open your eyes and ears!

All six STA Effects plug-ins are available to purchase as a bundle for $129.00 USD from Audified’s online shop here: https://shop.audified.com/products/sta-effects (STA Delay and STA Preamp can be bought separately for $49.00 USD each.)

STA Effects are available to download directly from Audified as 32- and 64-bit AAX-, AU-, VST2-, and VST3-compatible plug-ins for Mac OS X (10.9.5 or newer) and 32- and 64-bit AAX-, VST2-, and VST3-compatible plug-ins for Windows (7 – 10) from here: http://services.audified.com/download/STAEffects

Native Instruments Komplete 11- Ultimate – Select

By
Bryan
-

Native Instrument’s KOMPLETE bundle is a mainstay in both the internal and external hard drives of most of today’s music professionals. Now version 11 is on its way!

Berlin, August 1, 2016 – Native Instruments today announced the 11th generation of its industry-leading KOMPLETE collections. These latest releases add new products to KOMPLETE and KOMPLETE ULTIMATE, and introduce a new member of the portfolio: KOMPLETE 11 SELECT. KOMPLETE 11 incorporates seven new instruments, including the highly innovative and brand-new synthesizer FORM, UNA CORDA, and REAKTOR 6 with the acclaimed REAKTOR Blocks. KOMPLETE 11 ULTIMATE adds 13 new products, such as the all-new orchestral instruments SYMPHONY ESSENTIALS and FLESH, as well as all the new additions in KOMPLETE 11. All suites are available as downloads or on hard disk or flash drive.
KOMPLETE 11 and KOMPLETE 11 ULTIMATE deliver new instruments that significantly expand the sonic palette for producers, composers, performers and sound designers. Both suites now include FORM – a brand-new synthesizer. Using a sample as the primary oscillator, FORM offers a powerful new paradigm for sound design, to spark a broad array of fresh ideas. KOMPLETE 11 ULTIMATE also includes SYMPHONY ESSENTIALS – five detailed orchestral instruments that place the worlds of brass, woodwinds, and strings directly at users’ fingertips. Based on the SYMPHONY SERIES instruments, SYMPHONY ESSENTIALS deliver the same professional recordings and signature interface with a streamlined set of articulations.
KOMPLETE 11 SELECT is a new version of the suite that offers a gateway to the professional music production world of KOMPLETE. It delivers eleven full instruments covering the entire instrument range, with synths, pianos, drums, percussion, and effects. Among the instruments included are MASSIVE and MONARK – two of Native Instruments’ most widely used and revered synths. Two essential effects – The REPLIKA delay and SOLID BUS COMPRESSOR – round off the collection, enhancing options for experimentation and adding polish to new creations. In all, KOMPLETE 11 SELECT includes over 2,500 sounds with more than 25 GB of instruments and effects.
The KOMPLETE 11 suites are designed to keep users focused on sound creation and music making. The newly launched Native Access drastically simplifies downloading, installing, activating, and updating Native Instruments software. The included KOMPLETE KONTROL software offers unified browsing, innovative Smart Play features, and lets users take direct physical control of KOMPLETE instruments from a KOMPLETE KONTROL S-Series keyboard or MASCHINE. All KOMPLETE 11 suites are available as downloads or as boxed versions. For an improved installation experience, both KOMPLETE 11 and KOMPLETE 11 ULTIMATE are now delivered on a hard drive, and KOMPLETE 11 SELECT is provided on a USB flash drive – boxed versions only.
The 11th generation of KOMPLETE offers an even more comprehensive collection of instruments and effects. KOMPLETE 11 now includes 45 products and more than 13,000 sounds, with seven new instruments: FORM, REAKTOR 6, UNA CORDA, DISCOVERY SERIES: INDIA, REPLIKA, SESSION GUITARIST – STRUMMED ACOUSTIC, and KINETIC METAL. KOMPLETE 11 ULTIMATE – the flagship bundle for professional producers, composers, and sound designers – now has 87 products and over 18,000 sounds. It adds 13 new instruments to the previous generation, including the five SYMPHONY ESSENTIALS instruments, FLESH, EMOTIVE STRINGS, plus all the new products in KOMPLETE 11.

KOMPLETE 11, KOMPLETE 11 ULTIMATE, and KOMPLETE 11 SELECT will be released online and in retailers September 1, 2016. All KOMPLETE 11 versions are available now for pre-order from the NI Online Shop. KOMPLETE 11 costs $599 / 599 €. KOMPLETE 11 ULTIMATE costs $1199 / 1199 €. KOMPLETE 11 SELECT costs $199 / 199 €.
For owners of a previous version of KOMPLETE, KOMPLETE ULTIMATE, or KOMPLETE SELECT, upgrade and update offers are available.
Additional information on KOMPLETE 11 is available at:
www.native-instruments.com/komplete11

Review: iZotope Ozone 7

By
Bryan
-

For years, iZotope has revolutionized home mastering with Ozone. Version 7 has handed more tools over to the user to make home mastering as intuitive and easy as possible. Just like before, Ozone is split into two versions: Standard and Advanced. Standard will give you access to the most used portions of the suite plus a new Vintage Limiter, updated Maximizer with IRC IV, and MP3/AAC export. Advanced incorporates all of the same features as Standard but also ads component plugins for 10 modules, Codec preview, the Insight Metering Plugin, and even 3 all new plugins which will be discussed later. Standard weighs in at $249 while Advanced is $499 – Yes there is a big difference in price but the features in Advanced make the suite almost a whole different program in its own right. Since Ozone is such a massive suite and there are already numerous reviews of the entire program, this review will focus on the new features to see if the jump from version 6 is worth the cash.
Let it be known from the start that Ozone is not the most CPU friendly software suite. iZotope has made it known that quality takes priority over efficiency. As frustrating as it is to push your DAW or Standalone version of Ozone to the point of overload, a listener does not care about your woes. They just want to hear the best version possible and it is actually commendable that even though a software company strives to be CPU conscious, they will always let quality dictate the end product. Just pull a few of those other plugins off the mix or print some tracks with processing and you’ll be fine. Now that we have the disclaimer on the CPU usage out of the way let’s start with the new features that come standard on both versions.
New Features for Standard and Advanced:
Maximizer:
The Maximizer section of Ozone is the bread and butter of the suite. This digital peak limiter incorporates Ozone’s award winning IRC (Intelligent Release Control) to give optimal loudness without the artifacts. For version 7 a new IRC standard has been added with IRC IV. This IRC incorporates dozens of bands that limit only based on the material in each section. When peaks come across one section, the limiter only acts in that section, thus taming the part that needs it the most, while leaving the rest untouched. This essentially is smarter multiband dynamics on autopilot, taking the guesswork out of the equation and handling the heavy lifting on its own. IRC IV features 3 styles that cater specifically to the limiting needed for the track: Classic, Modern, and Transient. Classic is a broader adjustment over the whole spectrum, Modern is more precise and transparent, and Transient saves those peaks, while adding more transparency without flattening your waveform. Each IRC within the Maximizer strives to bring the levels up in mixes all while keeping the pumping and distortion artifacts to a minimum.
 
Vintage Limiter:
The Vintage Limiter is actually spun off from the Maximizer’s “Tube Mode” but was so useful, it was made into its own module. The Vintage Limiter is also somewhat based off the Fairchild 670 Limiter from the days of yore with its soft knee and gentle musical response to material. This Limiter warms up material all while incorporating Maximizer’s IRC I to prevent clipping, all while bringing up the level of the source material. If this weren’t already useful in itself, iZotope has made 3 modes within the Vintage Limiter. Each of these modes feature custom attack and release times paired with some iZotope magic to add different flavors of old school goodness to a track.
 
Analog Mode features fast attack with a variable release to thicken up the low end while smoothing out the rest of the spectrum. This mode is perfect to provide just a little more thump to the chest without mudding up your low end.
Tube Mode gives variable attack and release to sweeten up the entire frequency spectrum without being too heavy handed. The enhancement is audible throughout your lows, mids, and highs, all while preventing clipping.
Modern Mode takes features from both Analog and Tube mode to both handle the surgical, all while sweetening the entire spectrum and allowing the transients to stick out in the mix.
The Vintage Limiter is great for situations where levels need to be brought up with style. The gentle characteristics of this limiter allow for a little more leeway in transients, all while controlling dynamics in the way only a true veteran processor can.
Added Export Modes:
The last new feature that comes standard in both versions of Ozone 7 is the added export formats. Not only can you simply export WAV files with Ozone, but with version 7 there are no need for external programs to create an MP3 or AAC with metadata.
New Features for Advanced Only:
As if Standard didn’t come with enough new features, Advanced brings a proverbial arsenal to the battlefield in the form of enhancements, unlocked features, and even new modules. Each module can be instantiated as its own plugin without using the Ozone plugin in your DAW, thus expanding the tools for easier use on mix buss processing. Advanced even comes standard with Insight which is $499 on its own, thus making the jump a no brainer. If that weren’t enough, Advanced features 3 all new modules with Vintage Tape, Vintage EQ, and Vintage Compressor.
Insight:
Insight packs so many metering functions that a full review of features deserves its own review, but in essence, Insight provides in depth metering with a slew of graphs that cover loudness history, spectrum analysis, sound field, phase correlation, and more. Insight provides multiple graphs of monitoring each of these metering types in both stereo and surround forms. This metering suite will ensure that loudness standards are met for a variety of broadcast formats, saving the guesswork for the birds.
The three new modules bring all new versions of dynamics, sonic enhancement, and EQ with the Vintage Compressor, Vintage Tape, and Vintage EQ.
 
Vintage Compressor:
Vintage Compressor is actually not based on one piece of hardware: it’s based on the best parts of all of them. This compressor is actually a feedback compressor, meaning that detection for dynamics control is monitored on the way out, not on the way in like most software compressors. This is actually very difficult to create in the digital domain due to translation of analog topology to 1’s and 0’s. This type of compressor creates a very unique dynamics control that uses program dependent attack and release. Essentially the release will be much longer during sustained content and quicker for shorter transients. This helps avoid the pumping artifacts created by other types of compressors. The detection filter can also be controlled by the user with various high pass, peaking, and shelving filters. Like most other modules within Ozone, the buck doesn’t just stop with the main module. The Vintage Compressor contains 3 modes to further tailor dynamics control to meet the needs of your content.
Sharp Mode allows the transients to pass though while controlling the rest of the content.
Balance Mode handles it all while controlling peaks without smashing them and enhancing the quieter parts.
Smooth Mode does just that by softening peaks and bringing up the quieter parts to add density to the mix.
Vintage Compressor also features automatic gain compensation to keep the track as close to the original level for easier comparison.
Vintage Tape:
Vintage Tape brings the subtle saturation and transient smoothing characteristics to your masters, basing the model off of the Studer A810 two track tape machine, all without the headache and unwanted noise that comes with reel to reel. This module allows for control of the drive into the machine, Bias, Tape Speed, Harmonics, and Emphasis, giving all the features needed to add the color only running tracks through tape can give. The Harmonics can even be tweaked to add odd or even distortion into the track for a highly customizable palette. Vintage Tape also features both 15 and 30ips modes to add the low end of 15ips or the crispness of 30ips to mixes.
Vintage EQ:
Vintage EQ is based off of the Pultec EQP-1A and MEQ-5, thus bringing both of these pieces of gear into one window for ease of use as well as vintage flavor. Vintage EQ features the exact same knobs as the originals, giving the ability to boost and attenuate the same frequency for that prized Pultec tone. The frequencies come in the same set frequency switches to control the lows and highs of the EQP-1A and the mid-section with the MEQ-5.
Codec Preview:
With so many different formats of audio across so many mediums, final masters have to be checked across all of them. Codec preview brings many of these in one window by allowing the engineer to hear what the mix will sound like on various streaming sites at different bit rates. This takes the guesswork out of wondering what Youtube or Apple music is going to do to the master by giving selectable formats and bitrates for preview in Ozone.
Summary:
In conclusion, it’s pretty clear that Ozone 7 delivers the justification needed to convince your significant other of the purchase. He or she may not understand all of the new features, but the sheer amount will either justify the purchase or overload them so much technical speak, it will force them into submission (Thanks iZotope!). Each of the new modules didn’t feel like recycled features already within the plugin and offered new enhancements to both mastering and mixing. Many of these modules have ended up on various mix busses via the individual component plugins offered in Advanced. The metering section helped find issues in the mix that I couldn’t quite put my finger on audibly, and the updated look of the interface provided a non-biased analysis of the impact each module made. Let’s be honest, sometimes the actual look of a plugin can sway your opinion of it but iZotope’s sleek look still provides ease of use without dulling the senses with un-needed visuals some other flashy plugin designers use (I don’t need a light show to prove I’m compressing properly). I’d say Ozone 7 is a no brainer for the home Mastering Engineer, Mix Engineer, and the A List Engineer alike. Bravo iZotope!
For more information and to purchase, visit https://www.izotope.com/en/store.html

Plugin Alliance and Unfiltered Audio Release Fault

By
Bryan
-

Boring tracks? Mixes lacking rhythm and movement? Plugin Alliance and Unfiltered Audio have your back with Fault. This tool features an unorthodox combination of pitch and rhythm based effects in one window to either provide subtle or all out otherworldly effects.

No other plugin has the comprehensive ability to manipulate pitch and time like Fault. Whether used at mixdown to fortify weak tracks or in sound design to totally mangle instruments beyond recognition, Fault’s applications are limited only by your imagination. With over 100 factory presets included– featuring settings from contributing artists like Richard Devine and The Crystal Method– finding creative inspiration with Fault is fun and engaging.
Three main processors power Fault’s comprehensive spectral control. Dual-channel Pitch Shifters musically retune sounds up or down as much as a full octave, in steps as small as 0.1 semitone. The stereo Frequency Shifter can be modulated by precision FM controls to create beautiful and discordant sounds alike. Stereo Delays use cross-channel feedback and filters to add immersive depth. And if that weren’t enough, every control knob and switch setting can be itself controlled dynamically by up to six powerful and flexible modulators.
Medicine or Mutilation—You Choose!
Fault’s schizophrenic personality can take your tracks in any direction you want: make boring tracks sound richer and more exciting, or take pristine tracks to the next level of frequency-modulated mayhem. Place the Frequency Shifters in ring modulation mode and sprinkle with short delays to make a dull, lifeless snare drum sizzle like a firecracker. Still too tame for your industrial heart? Filter and feed back Fault’s Pitch Shifters and add a smidgen of split-second delays to make snare hits sound like sonar hunting for submarines! If you can imagine it, Fault will take you there.
Fault’s freely assignable modulators create more realistic-sounding ADT (automatic double tracking) effects for vocals than most doublers. Modulate an LFO—patched to the stereo Pitch Shifters—with a second LFO to create tape recorder-style varispeed ADT effects like the Beatles used on their vocals! Fault is indispensable for hard rock and alt-rock productions, too. Create heavy sub-octave effects on room mics to send drums to the depths of Hell. Use the Frequency Shifters’ FM controls to make a grand piano track sound like an electric keyboard under water. Or like tiny birds chirping. Fault knows no bounds.
Of course, Fault can also create all the conventional effects you need for everyday processing, including ping-pong delays, chorus, flanging and more. Independent stereo parameters facilitate the ability to broaden sounds while an internal M/S matrix allows for width control and optional output to Mid and Side components for further processing. But what sets Fault apart from other plugins is its ability to create startling, new sounds that can’t be ignored. Hand out seatbelts—Fault will shake your listeners to their core.

Activate the fully functional 14-day demo with your Plugin Alliance account today to hear for yourself (no dongle required)!
Price: $99.00
For more information, visit https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/unfiltered_audio_fault.html

Review: Orange O-Edition Headphones

By
Bryan
-

Headphone companies are springing up daily. It seems every celebrity is photographed with some bright colored beacon proudly affixed on their heads. Even companies who have no affiliation with audio are making brands. It’s all too much. Why can’t it just be easier? Well it can. Simply choose a company with a track record of knowing what sounds good and who has a history to prove it. Could it be a company who makes guitar and bass amps? Maybe… Let’s find out.
 
Orange has made a power play at the headphone game similarly to the Marshall company (who took matters even farther by making fridges?) and have developed a set of headphones. These headphones are made of a combination of durable ABS plastic, stainless steel, and a closed ear shape. In a refreshing left turn from the masses, Orange has kept the design to a minimal. The O Edition headphones have slight accents of orange with the company’s crest engraved into the headband. The flat black ear pieces with the Orange “O” stand out just enough without blinding people on a subway (ahem… Beats).
 
O Edition features 40mm drivers that Orange claim “have been engineered for a tight and rhythmic bass response and an articulate top end. A purposefully neutral EQ response makes for an open and revealing sound stage with detailed layers of separation in the mid-range”. The headphones also come with a pretty big, somewhat hard zipper case with 3 different gold plated cables: one simple cable, one with volume control, and the other with a mic. The headphones are fairly lightweight without feeling too cheap as well.
 
Let’s start with the looks. I actually found the headphones to be refreshingly understated – not too much going on, but not looking bland. This could seem like a bit of a departure from a company whose amps can easily be seen from the back row of an amphitheater, but even upon even looking closer at the front panel of an AD30, a lot of detail and design comes into play. These headphones are very similar – from far away they will catch a glance but once they’re in a person’s hand, a lot of intricate detail can be seen.
 
There are a lot of extras as well with the case and extra cables. Each cable had a slightly different look, and even though most people would settle for just one cable with everything on it, I liked having the choice of  cables. In most cases, I do not use a mic on a set of over the ear headphones anyways so the volume control stayed on most of the time. This also supplies spare cables because we all have dropped the phone or bent a plug during air guitar sessions right?!
 
The sound quality was a breath of fresh air. I look for even overall frequency response which isn’t much of a trend these days. Usually, companies end up with overhyped highs, too much bass, and scooped mids. Not the O Edition. Music sounds like it was intended to by the engineer. The frequency response is very open and natural but not dull. One could almost mix off of them. The headphone design also allows for great sound isolation. I was surprised by how much noise they blocked. Friends were essentially yelling at me in the office and I had no clue. That’s probably for the better… Who knows what they were calling me.
 
There was only one issue I experienced with the headphones. I love the look, I absolutely love the sound quality, the price is still lower than most headphones with equal quality, BUT personally I couldn’t keep them on long. The ear pieces are slightly too small to fit my ears in. I know what you’re thinking: “you must have huge ears.” Maybe I do, but these ear pieces seem to be just ever so slightly too small for my ears, which really was a shame because they sound so great. If the design would have been modeled where the padding didn’t cup your ears but rather set flat on the ears similar to the smaller Beats series, these headphones would have been the absolute perfect set of phones on the market. Don’t get me wrong, I played through the slight discomfort and still listened. I just wish they were either slightly bigger, or not cupped design. One other issue one may face is trying to purchase them. Not many stores carry them yet and the ones who do are sold out, but I feel very soon this will be fixed with a wider release.
 
Overall Orange has completely dominated the headphones game with the O Edition headphones. Coming in at $195.00 usd, the cost per quality ratio is on their side. They sound excellent in all genres of music and look great as well. Now only if they can make a set of earbuds too… hint hint.
For more information, visit https://orangeamps.com/orange-headphones/

Sample Logic Cinematic Guitars

By
Bryan
-

Let’s face it. Being a producer on the run requires more than just a few analog synth emulators and an 808 kit. Sountracks require real instruments and in some cases, there isn’t enough time to set up mics, amps, and instruments. Sample Logic has you covered with organic guitar sounds.

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, USA: award-winning sample library company Sample Logic is proud to announce availability of CINEMATIC GUITARS ORGANIC ATMOSPHERES — an atmospheric collection of samples and presets that advances its award-winning CINEMATIC GUITARS family of compelling cinematic virtual instruments powered by Native Instruments’ industry-standard KONTAKT PLAYER platform to an even higher plane of organic soundscape creation consciousness as an all-in-one cinematic atmosphere solution second to none — as of July 27…
Derived entirely from recordings of real acoustic guitars of all shapes, sizes, and styles, CINEMATIC GUITARS ORGANIC ATMOSPHERES allows for an astronomical array of diverse, organic sounds in inventive ways that emphasise both the natural and earthy tones of realism and the imaginative world of cinema. All are a perfect fit for its inspired nomenclature. Needless to say, an inspiring individual was tasked with creating all the original samples from a suitably sizeable guitar collection — composer, performer, and producer extraordinaire Steve Quimette, namely… famed for his Guitar Hero exploits.
Exploiting his extensive knowledge and adventurous performance styles, Steve Quimette rose to the occasion, creatively criss-crossing countries and continents with a diversity of unprocessed recordings ranging from Southern, Southwest Bluegrass, and Old Western to Pacific Islands and traditional Asian genres using unique instruments such as the 4-string Cigar Box guitar, Baritone guitars, bowed and traditional Ukuleles, Puerto Rican Cuatro, Marx-O-Chime, Dobro, Purgatory Hill Harp, Silvertone Archtop, and much more besides. Beyond that, this truly magical material was duly developed by the Sample Logic team to create a wide range of all things organic- and acoustic-sounding, bringing breathtaking soundscapes to the discerning DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) user — Standalone mode operation notwithstanding, of course! From blissful and lush, dark and mysterious, bombastic and edgy to bowed, plucked, and strummed, those 850-plus presets — produced from 5GB sample content — collectively cover much musical ground, ranging from simple and stationary textures through to complex tempo-synched sonic animations. All are but a click away, while those seeking an adventurous atmospheric experience like no other with a more personalised touch can craft their own original soundscapes in a mere matter of seconds!
So CINEMATIC GUITARS ORGANIC ATMOSPHERES makes creativity simple, ensuring effortless design of infinite soundscapes. So who and what do its users have to thank for that, then? By being built on Sample Logic’s dynamic MULTI CORE engine, CINEMATIC GUITARS ORGANIC ATMOSPHERES allows up to eight simultaneous SOUNDSOURCES to be stacked and shaped via four SOUNDCORES (with each SOUNDCORE capable of playing back two SOUNDSOURCES simultaneously), so starting with the seed of a soundscape then working outwards with the intuitive interface can quickly spiral into massive sounds! Such sounds need not be static, however, but can be infinitely evolving, thanks to the power and free-flowing creative combination of the X/Y slider and 3D Mixer. Mixing sounds in CINEMATIC GUITARS ORGANIC ATMOSPHERES makes for a new kind of KONTAKT user experience for sure — simply drag the crosspoint along the X/Y axis to smoothly blend between four SOUNDCORES, while the 3D Mixer itself is so much more than a balancing tool with an axis that can be linked to effects parameters that can also be animated with Sample Logic’s proprietary Step Animator and Morph Animator to take things to an even higher plane of organic soundscape creation consciousness!
Speaking of effects, CINEMATIC GUITARS ORGANIC ATMOSPHERES comes complete with dozens of fully-customisable effects presets with hot-swappable SOUNDCORE FX and MASTER FX chain technology to die for. Fortunately, there is no need to feel trapped by a prescribed effects chain ever again as chains can be built and reordered in realtime from a selection of over 20 studio-quality effects including Comp. (compressor), EQ, Saturator, Phaser, Delay, Reverb, and many more besides.
Better still, Sample Logic has helpfully equipped over a dozen parameters within its innovative interface for randomisation so CINEMATIC GUITARS ORGANIC ATMOSPHERES users can quickly tap into trillions of starting point combinations with creative effects. Effortlessly arm the randomisation feature, prepare to fire! The interface’s intelligent randomisation technology will guaranteed generate instantaneous inspirational results — every time!
Time, then, to unlock your creativity and launch amazing atmospheres into the world with CINEMATIC GUITARS ORGANIC ATMOSPHERES… an almost limitless number of sonic combinations are available to you and your musical muse with Sample Logic’s newest virtual instrument made entirely from guitars! Go get it while the price is right.

CINEMATIC GUITARS ORGANIC ATMOSPHERES can be ordered online and directly downloaded from Sample Logic for a time-limited introductory discounted price of $199.99 USD — rising to $249.99 USD thereafter — from here: https://www.samplelogic.com/products/cinematic-guitars-organic-atmospheres (Time-limited cross-grade pricing of $99.99 USD is exclusively available to owners of CINEMATIC GUITARS INFINITY, rising to $149.99 USD thereafter; alternatively, CINEMATIC GUITARS ORGANIC ATMOSPHERES and CINEMATIC GUITARS INFINITY can be bought bundled together for only $499.99 USD, representing a significant saving over buying both products for $850.00 USD.)

Nomad Factory Analog Studio Rack

By
Bryan
-

Bernie Torelli was the mastermind and founder of Nomad Factory. Sadly he passed away but the brand lives on with one of his most prized creations he started: Analog Studio Rack.

Today we are very, I mean VERY, VERY, VERY proud and excited to announce the launch of Nomad Factory’s HOT NEW PRODUCT, “Analog Studio Rack”. This one is the third Nomad Factory plug-in launched, since we acquired the brand following Bernie Torelli’s sad passing in January 2016.
Analog Studio Rack was Bernie’s baby and he would have been so proud to see how Plugivery’s young while talented developers managed to solve many technical issues involved in the way this plug-in has been designed.
Bernie initiated the development of Analog Studio Rack over 3 years ago, designing it for his personal use as a professional producer and sound engineer. He wanted something more flexible than the channel strips found on the market to-date, those for most only offer a fixed path structure for each module they contain.
Bernie simply wanted to create the “ULTIMATE ANALOG CHANNEL STRIP PLUG-IN” that can be quickly loaded on any track from voices to bass, drums, keys, percussion or any other instrument, and set-up the pre-amp and modules with the ideal position and signal path for each instrument(s) needs.
The most versatile all-in-one Analog Channel Strip plug-in ever released?
Analog Studio Rack is a “Modular Rack” that provides hot-swappable 500 series style EQ’s, Compressors, Gate, Exciter and a Tube Driven Pre-Amp; the perfect all-in-one channel strip!
Inspired by a classic and famous British console for its Gate/Expander, Comp/Limiter, Bus Compressor and EQ, a modified Exciter, a Tube Driven Pre-Amp and another famous mid 1950’s EQ, the Analog Studio Rack brings together a suite of 7 modules expertly tuned to sound musical. True analog in the box!
Each of the 6 main modules can be placed in any order with simple drag and drop, allowing you the freedom within a rack space design to try different combinations; Compressor before or after EQ, Gate after a crushed Compressor for effect… All of this is now possible to customize your tone and source material, with various views available per module for gain reduction, spectrum and 1/3 octave.
The plug-in comes with an array of presets specifically designed for various instruments as your starting point. Utilize them in your mixes, tweak, create your own as single module presets or global.
Analog Studio Rack ships with 7 individual plug-ins
The Nomad Factory Analog Studio Rack is not only a powerful Modular Rack Plug-in, but a complete bundle that ships with all 7 modules contained in the rack as individual plug-ins. Each plug-ins are also sold separately :
AS – Preamp is your tonal colouration box. Saturate your music, increase the warmth and drive the circuit for some sweet flavors.
AS – Gate Expander, inspired by a famous British console brings the control to your tracks! Slice and dice noise and low-end rumble, and expand your sound so it punches through the mix.
AS – Comp Limit, inspired by a famous British console brings the colored control to your individual tracks.
AS – Exciter, inspired by a classic maximizer you may know, breathes added life to your tracks.
AS – State EQ inspired by a famous British console brings the color of the E and G series to your fingertips.
AS – Pulse EQ, inspired by the classic and famous “Holy Grail” blue hardware rack unit EQ from the mid-50’s brings balanced analog curves to your audio.
AS – Bus Comp, inspired by a famous British console brings the punch and glue to your mixes.

Pricing and Availability
For a limited time, the Analog Studio Rack bundle will be sold at the NO BRAINER price of ONLY $39 (MSRP $199) and each individual modules can be purchased for ONLY $9.99! (MSRP $49)
For more information, visit http://store.dontcrack.com/product_info.php?products_id=2341

Orange O-Edition Headphones Giveaway

By
Bryan
-

Who doesn’t like free? Well Everything Recording has teamed up with Orange Amps to giveaway this pair of O-Edition Headphones (valued at $149.00). We try to make this as easy as possible so no asking for your personal data or to sign up for email updates. All we ask is you go like our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Let’s make this even easier, LINKS BELOW
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingrecording
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingRecording
Twiter: https://twitter.com/EverythingRec
Contest ends August 10, 2016
Enter now!
 
 

Eiosis E2 DeEsser

By
Bryan
-

Finally the day is upon us. In the AirEQ Premium review (Here), we had mentioned we wanted to bring back one of the best DeEsser’s in the market. Eiosis has heard our plea and released the E2DeEsser.

The e 2 deesser is designed to be extremely easy to use for musicians and audio enthusiasts, along with the versatility, power and reliability that are required by the most demanding mixing and post production engineers. The e 2 deesser meets all the demands of the simplest to the most advanced deessing tasks, it is your ultimate deessing tool.
By aiming at simplicity with its two main parameters, and by giving access to innovative fine adjustments and precise sound sculpting options, we combined the best visual feedback with the most advanced audio processing in one beautiful interface
The sibilants’ section Auto and Smooth are great sounding, easytoadjust and unprecedented controls in a deesser. Auto adjusts the frequency response of the sibilants, dynamically and intelligently. Smooth brings a gentle and natural smoothing saturation in order to remove peakiness and high amplitudes from the sibilants.
For advanced users, the equalizer allows precise adjustment of the sibilant and voiced sound. This unique feature brings ultimate flexibility: you can notch unpleasant resonances in the sibilants, add some Air on the voiced signal only, or gently boost high frequencies to balance mid range heavy sibilants.

 
A fully functionnal 15 days trial is available at http://www.eiosis.com/download
MSRP : $149, available now at http://www.eiosis.com , Introduction†price†∫†§99
Eiosis e 2 deesser/AirEQ bundle, until Sept, 1st : $179
Product URL : http://www.eiosis.com/e2deesser
e 2 deesser introduction video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbH8XQPp3Yo
Plugin for Win/Mac, 32/64 bits : AAX, VST2, VST3, AU, Requires an iLok 2.

Review: Audified MixChecker

By
Bryan
-

We all have multiple speakers in the studio to reference data. We constantly worry about how our mixes will translate and spend precious time exporting, emailing files to ourselves, running to the car, listening on the phone, and repeating until you’ve used up storage space on your email and other devices. It’s an extremely nerve wracking process that needs to happen to ensure audio sounds good across all mediums. What if there were a plugin that models these devices and you could monitor all straight from the comfort of your control room without moving from that ergonomic mesh back chair you dropped $300 on? Audified has come up with a solution with “MixChecker”.
 
MixChecker is a plugin that goes at the end of your mix buss and emulates different common listening devices for consumers, thus eliminating the need to go on a listening world tour to experience how your track sounds in each situation. It is available in AU, VST, and AAX, for both Mac and PC, and uses iLok for registration. The concept is really straightforward, but is it effective?
 
The interface, although a little dated looking, is simple – at the top you have your compensation section that will work to help flatten the frequency response for either 5” mixing monitors, 8” mixing monitors, or headphones. This isn’t exact science due to the many different types of monitors and headphones on the market, each having different EQ curves, but it helps. If you are listening through high end monitors it is best to leave this off. To the right of the compensation section is the “Bypass” section which completely disables processing on the plugin. Below the “Compensation” section is the “Simulation” section. This features 12 different types of common everyday devices in which most audio is being played through. You are given the choice of:
 
Classic Studio Monitor (assuming NS10s)
Classic Cube Monitor (Auratones)
On Ear Headphones
Smartphone speaker
Tablet speaker
Laptop Speaker
Car Audio System
TV Speaker
Micro HiFi
Radio
Desktop Speakers
Earbuds
 
Audified does no go into the specifics of how this is accomplished but it is assumed that phase shifting, EQ, and some impulse responses are at play to emulate these different types of systems. Simply click on each icon to experience what Audified considers models of each device. That’s pretty much it. So how does it perform while in use?
The smartphone model is great. I ran an A/B comparison by playing a file on my cell phone and on my Pro Tools system using MixChecker on the Cell Phone setting. I am using a set of Focal Solo 6Be speakers so compensation was not being used. Instantly my speakers sounded eerily similar when switching between the phone and MixChecker, almost like the speakers had shrunk. There were times when I would lose track of which was the cell and which was mix checker. The desktop speaker setting was very close to my Logitech speakers I use to check mixes with as well. I found the “Classic Studio” monitor to be helpful in targeting mid range balance issues as well but since I do not own a pair of NS10’s cannot attest to the accuracy of the model. The tablet and laptop speaker settings were OK, but I didn’t find myself using them as much as the other 3 mentioned above.
 
Upon initially using MixChecker, I found that a few of the models sounded a little off. Upon researching and talking to the folks at Audified, I was informed of something that changed my perspective. Upon using these settings, they may sound lofi and degraded, this is because Audified modeled some of the more “worst case” scenarios. The headphones were cheap stock earbuds that come with cell phones and the car audio system was from a system over 10 years old. I was very skeptical of this explanation but once I actually tracked down an older car and dug out some old earbuds, the models started to line up a little more. This is where I figured out MixChecker is more of a tool to pick out situations where audio quality is not ideal, not on devices people who enjoy high end equipment use.
 
 
The only model I didn’t have this experience with was the TV Speaker setting. This model seemed more of a very very old CRT TV which virtually aren’t used anymore. With the quality of audio coming out of TVs these days, the “TV Speaker” model was more of an effect preset of an old TV than the frequency response of today’s flat screens. Although an older TV Speaker can be useful in targeting frequencies, an updated TV Speaker would be helpful to have. Also seeing that a lot of mediums use one speaker, I’d like to see a “mono” selection to better emulate these situations. While we’re on the topic of improvements, I’d also like to see various streaming presets as this would help tremendously with most music going to the cloud. Also, a Jukebox model or an In-Store Sound System would be extremely helpful for bars and retail store references. I’ve been told by Audified that improvements are on the way so hopefully these will show up in future revisions.
 
Another completely different application MixChecker could be used is as presets during mixing as an effect. It was mentioned the TV Speaker had the effect of an old television – this could be used as a quick preset for a vocal effect. The cell phone could be used in post for editing audio for video as well.
 
Overall:
What it does do right, it does great. The cell phone, classic studio monitor, and desktop speakers were spot on. This helped by giving accurate perspective with multiple types of speakers. The Car Audio gives a very good picture of some of the less ideal monitoring situations but a modern TV Speaker would have been more helpful as well to hear what music would sound like on commercials, but the current TV Speaker model was a little exaggerated and dated.
 
Clocking in at $149.00, it’s a little bit of a stretch on price point but since Audified is looking to add improvements, these features could make the product a little more worth the price tag.
 
 
For more information, and to purchase, visit https://shop.audified.com/products/mixchecker?variant=20301040967

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