Alongside all the geo-political turmoil and roof-rattling weather, February witnessed some fantastic new music technology releases. Here are the five that dominated our attention.
Universal Audio Take The Mike
February ’22 brought a couple of very exciting new microphone systems to the recording table, the first from one of the music technology industry’s biggest players, and marking their entry into the mic market. The three launch models in Universal Audio’s UA Microphones range comprise the SP-1 Standard Pencil condenser pair, SD-1 Standard Dynamic and Sphere L22 Modelling mics, the first coming out in summer, the other two available now. Notably, however, the Sphere L22 has actually been around since 2016, manufactured by Townsend Labs, which UA acquired last year; so that one’s really a relaunch of sorts.
The SD-1 serves as a vocal and instrument recording workhorse, with a cardioid pattern and low-cut filter, while the SP-1 is intended for capturing drums and other stereo sources. Both are also supported by a variety of bespoke channel strip presets in UA’s Apollo audio interfaces, for convenient compression and EQ starting points.
It’s the Sphere L22 that’s the most interesting of the bunch, though. This is a large diaphragm modelling condenser mic with a dual capsule design for stereo or summed mono recording, and the ability to mimic 34 acclaimed microphones (condensers, dynamics and ribbons) by an array of manufacturers when used with the UAD Sphere L22 plugin. With UA’s marketing clout now behind it, this has the potential to really shake up the mic modelling sector.
Also slated for release in Autumn this year, the UA Bock series of tube and solid-state condenser mics is designed by microphone design legend David Bock, but we’ll come back to those nearer the time.
Lewitt Audio Go Luxe
Heading into even more boutique territory than UA’s fancy new mics, Austrian manufacturer Lewitt Audio’s LCT 1040 condenser microphone is a tube/FET Design with a remote control module that enables various functional and response parameters to be adjusted from anywhere in the room. These amount to tube/FET blend, continuous polar pattern, low cut filter, attenuation and tube characteristics – Clear, Warm, Dark or Saturated – and we’re glad to see that Lewitt have gone for dedicated physical knobs here, rather than any sort of touchscreen or other needlessly high-tech interface, which, given the extraordinarily futuristic appearance of the mic itself, wouldn’t have surprised us.
Beyond its stunning visuals, the microphone features a 1-inch gold sputtered condenser capsule, two XLR outputs (Mix and FET) on the PSU/preamp, a carbon fibre shock mount and a dual-layer magnetic pop shield. Of course, all that technology and premium aesthetic are very much represented in the price, but we don’t doubt that the quality of the results the LCT 1040 delivers will justify the outlay.
Waves Make Space For Sampling
Primo plugin developers Waves surprised us all in February with the double-header release of the very affordable CR8 plugin sampler and the completely free Cosmos sample librarian application.
Cosmos utilises a neural network to automatically tag and organise your samples, then presents them in a browser offering three views: Waveform, List and Cosmos. The first two are variants on the conventional list approach, but the Cosmos view groups related sounds in a constellation-style interface, in which dragging the mouse pointer around triggers samples in real time so you can intuitively find the one you’re looking for, then drag it out to your DAW. The app also includes a very generous bank of 2500 samples; and although the influence of XLN Audio’s brilliant XO drum sampler browser is hilariously apparent, as that plugin proved, this kind of workflow can be wonderfully effective, so we’re all for it.
Clearly inspired by the likes of Ableton Simpler and Logic Pro’s Quick Sampler, CR8, meanwhile, is a compact sample playback plugin that provides eight layers for stacking, mixing and splitting, and features timestretching and pitchshifting (with key and tempo analysis), as well as filtering and modulation. The interface is designed to keep things fast and easy, and the Cosmos browser is built-in, too, for effortless sample browsing and import, along with 800 presets that put those 2500 bundled samples to good use. Thanks, Waves – don’t mind if we do.
AudioThing Bring The Noises
Hot on the heels of their recent Gong amp sim effect, AudioThing‘s fourth collaboration with cerebral German composer/producer Hainbach is a colourful noise generator, built on 1.18GB of sampled synths, electronic test equipment, field recordings and more. Each of Noises’ 21 sample banks consists of eight noises that you can crossfade between using the big central knob – this can be manipulated manually, or by an LFO or random step sequencer. Noises are triggered via a button in the interface or MIDI input, or started and stopped in sync with the host DAW; the pitch and Attack/Release envelope are open to tweaking; and a multimode resonant filter and bitcrusher/downsampler are on hand for frequency shaping and distortion.
Packed with interesting and unpredictable sounds, and perfectly focused on the creation of noise-scapes, background textures and experimental atonals, Noises looks to be another winner for the ’Thing.
Audio Damage Give Away The Farm!
Another one of our favourite plugin developers, the iconoclastic Audio Damage appear to be clearing the technological decks, as February saw them relaunch their website and make 33 of their legacy – but still absolutely superb – virtual effects and instruments available for free. Yes, now everyone can get their hands on everything from the company’s 2002 debut, the Mayhem filter, delay and compressor, through the ADverb vintage reverb, Kombinat multiband distortion, PhaseTwo phaser, Fluid chorus, Dubstation bucket-brigade delay, and Basic and Phosphor synths, to the BigSeq2 rhythmic gate, PanStation auto-panner, Bitcom bitcrusher, and Axon and Tattoo drum machines. It’s a genuinely incredible collection of musical toys that no one should think twice about downloading.
The caveat, of course, is that all these plugins have been discontinued, so no support will be given for any issues you might face using them; and it’s entirely possible that future versions of Windows and, particularly, macOS will break them. However, many have been superseded by new and ‘current’ versions (Dubstation 2, Discord 4, Kombinat Tri, Replicant 2, 914 Mk 2, etc) , so if you fall in love with a given plugin, but it does stop playing ball at any point, you can at least splash out for a working upgrade. Go get them before they change their mind!
Did anything in particular catch you music production eye/ear over the last month? Let us know in the comments.