Essential software and shiny gear for music producers
This is pretty amazing (and meta), but Porter Robinson, the Grammy nominated artist who has used Vocaloid voices in many of his exceptional tracks now actually got his OWN Yamaha Vocaloid AI bank, dubbed Po-uta (if you for some reason haven’t heard Shelter you should listen to it right away).
Listen/watch Porter Robinson’s Vocaloid bank Po-uta in action here:
Buy Vocaloid.com: Po-uta Vocaloid Bank ($108)
GForce Software has released a sequel to their Minimoog Model D emulation VST instrument: The Minimonsta 2.
So what’s new under the hood?
Check out the video below. The Minimonsta 2 is available for an introductory price of £49.99, otherwise priced at £99.99.
Read more at GForceSoftware.com: Minimonsta 2
Cherry Audio has released their new ”visionary flagship” synth plugin GX-80, which combines the emulation of the classic Yamaha GX-1 and Yamaha CS-80. The latter, of course, famous for being used by legends like Vangelis for the Blade Runner soundtrack, for instance.
GX-80 is not just another CS-80 emulation. GX-80 adeptly integrates the GX-1’s distinctive feature set into the CS-80 architecture; most significantly, the massive dual-layer architecture that effectively made the GX-1 the equivalent of two CS-80s and then some. The GX-1’s unique high-passed resonant pulse and bandpassed sawtooth waves, octave-up triangle wave, and filter envelope inversion are incorporated, opening up a new universe of sonic experimentation. Most notably, GX-80 includes an expert reproduction of the legendary GX-1 filter, delivering exquisite timbres that even the mighty CS-80 cannot produce.
Both the GX-1 and CS-80 cost around $50,000 back in the 70’s, this software… replicant, if you will, gonna put you back $59 at this date.
CherryAudio: GX-80 ($59)
To celebrate that Valhalla’s free Supermassive reverb and delay plugin turns 2.5 years old, they’ve released a 2.5.0 update including two new modes: scorpio and libra, making the plugin contain 18 original algorithms ranging from weird/experimental to more practical ones and.. of course, epic lushness.
These are seemingly subtle changes, but they make a HUGE sonic difference. The complex feedback path in Scorpio creates a lot of stereo width, as well as a more “open” frequency response. By incorporating the High EQ filters into the feedback paths, the Scorpio mode can create far more realistic reverb sounds, where the high frequencies decay away over time.
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The Libra mode in ValhallaSupermassive has a somewhat slower attack than Scorpio, and can sound like a delay at 4X the displayed DELAY length when WARP and DENSITY are both at zero. Turn up the WARP control, and Libra quickly transforms into a very lush reverb, with balanced modulation.
And remember, this one is a freebie, so check it out if you’re looking for a plug for massive reverbs, harmonic echoes or space sounds.
Download Supermassive (Valhalladsp.com, free)
Kilohearts has released a new free plugin, Dual Delay. Or as they describe it:
Dual Delay is like a regular delay that wants to be a reverb and ends up being something cool and new instead, with its double delay lines working in tandem to give you rich and complex echoing systems in seconds
As always, their plugin comes as VST/AAX/AU and can be used both stand-alone or within one of their snapin hosts (Phase Plant, Multipass and Snap Heap). Can’t say I’ve ever been disappointed using one of their earlier plugins so this’ll be an immediate download for me.
Deskew Technologies just released Gig Performer 4.0, a CPU-friendly host for VST effects, instruments and plug-ins for live performances and musicians. The new update includes new features including enhanced visuals and MIDI features.
Gig Performer lets you set up a Global Rackspace that keeps the VST plugins loaded and ready to go for all your tracks (say, a virtual amp setup), and then you can set specific rackspaces for specific tracks when needed.
As for MIDI there’s a midi player that can store up to 128 songs, and you can select the tempo to be either globally set or tapped. New in 4.0 is also real-time midi data display, adjustable velocity cuves and an Elektron-style probabilistic sound designer engine that can apply randomization of selected parameters of any plugin.
Gig Performer 4.0 is available for Mac and PC for $199.
Read more @ GigPerformer.com
Another sweet freebie from Sample Science: Rusty Piano, a free lo-fi acoustic piano plugin (64-bit VST/AU).
Rusty Piano is a lo-fi acoustic piano with a lot of character and charm. Recorded hot on purpose, Rusty Piano has a very saturated and thick sound. It’s the perfect piano sound for “rougher” music genres like indie rock, lo-fi hip-hop, free jazz, rock’n’roll, etc.
So you get a nice lo-fi, one-sample-per-note, multi-sampled acoustic piano tweakable with multi-LFO, hi/lowpass filters, reverb, amplitude range controls and the ability to switch between polyphonic/monophonic and legato all for the nice price of nothing.
Download Rusty Piano from Sample Science ($0)
Plogue – makers of the incredible Chipsounds plug – announced a new synth plug, the Chipsynth MD. It’s a 16 bit four operator polyphonic FM synth that’ll bring back the sounds of the classic Sega Mega Drive / Genesis as it emulates the classic OPN2 (YM2612) with a SN76489 compatible square wave core.
‘The Mega Drive™ – also known as Genesis™ – is a much beloved console system that brought the bright and sparkly sound of FM to the masses. It resulted in the creation of numerous fast paced and exciting soundtracks, and it still drives the creativity of composers to this day.
Since Plogue promises this thing to be bit accurate it also comes with a complimentary VGM file player so you can load up those classic Sonic tunes and see how exact it is yourself (and maybe rip some classic presets out… who knows).
Read more about the Chipsynth MD on Plogue.com
Now this is interesting! Native Instruments teases us with a new generation of their incredibly popular synth Massive dubbed Massive X. The new version will co-exist with the current Massive plug and will be released in February 2019.
Massive X will sport a new sound engine that takes advantage of modern CPUs, a big modular engine, plenty of effects and new subtractive filters. Judging by the quick view we get of it in the video below it looks like the UI is completely revamped and probably a bit more user friendly.
The current version of Massive will continue to get updates though, so don’t fret if you don’t want to upgrade.
With a next generation sound engine, state of the art components, and new effects, MASSIVE X will ensure your music stays on the cutting edge for the next decade.
Read more at native-instruments.com
Soundtheory just released Gullfoss (named after that huge waterfall in Iceland btw), an intelligent automatic equalizer plugin that uses “unique computational auditory perception technology” to identify and resolve problems in your track or mix.
Read the whole post “Soundtheory Gullfoss: Intelligent Automatic Equalizer Plugin”