The team at virtual instrument production house Output are very pleased to announce their latest creation, Arcade, a loop and sample-based synthesizer that has new content being added and updated daily. We have an exclusive review for you to check out too.
Waldorf Music has announced the full production launch and availability of Kyra in time for the 2019 NAMM Show, January 24-27, in Anaheim, California. They claim that Kyra is the world’s first fully FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) powered synthesiser featuring 128 voices each with 10 oscillators per voice, and eight-part multitimbrality with each part having its own dedicated nine-module effects unit.
The Vienna Symphonic Library has released Synchron FX Strings I, their first collection to include production-ready textures and loops, played by a 50-piece string orchestra recorded at Synchron Stage in Vienna. Synchron FX Strings I is currently available at a special introductory price until 30th June 2018.
Spitfire Audio has launched LABS, which they describe as an infinite series of software instruments, free and easy to use; made by musicians in London with Soft Piano and a new Strings library available now.
WMD, a manufacturer of modular synthesisers, guitar pedals, and standalone musical instruments has released Fracture, which is a multi-particle percussion synthesiser module for small-format Eurorack modular systems that apply concepts from classic analogue clap circuits to granular synthesis techniques to generate a wide palette of sounds while maintaining a simple, intuitive interface with a price of $269.
Propellerhead Software has released Reason 10.1 which features sample loading in Europa and support for new Player devices. To celebrate the launch of Reason 10.1 Propellerhead is offering a time-limited offer. If you buy the Reason Upgrade you will get Propellerhead’s new Drum Sequencer for free worth $69 but this offer ends on May 31st, 2018.
iZotope has made significant improvements to VocalSynth 2, their creative vocal toolkit. Additions include a new module, new and better effects, inter-plugin communication with Ozone 8 and Neutron 2, plus deeper control and customization for every module. Also onboard are optimizations in sound quality and performance plus enhanced stereo processing functionality.
In the Rob Papen world of synthesis, there was one type of synthesiser missing… A synthesiser that has all of the controls and features available visually all at once. Rob has plugged this gap by releasing the Go2 Synthesiser Virtual Instrument with 600 presets and priced at $49.
Spitfire Audio has released Chamber Strings Professional For The Kontakt Player Platform with string articulations and techniques taken from recordings of 16 of the finest strings players playing the finest instruments at Lyndhurst Hall within London’s legendary AIR Studios.
By popular request, IK Multimedia’s Syntronik and Syntronik CS apps for iPad and iPhone now offer new synths from the Syntronik Deluxe Mac/PC collection. Syntronik synths recreate the sound of vintage synthesizers by using sampling and modeling to ensure top notch results. IK's DRIFT™ technology varies the color, pitch and phase of the sampled oscillators to keep them moving like actual analog oscillators.
Spectrasonics has announced a significant update of Omnisphere, the virtual instrument synth powerhouse.
Omnisphere 2.5 offers a Hardware Synth Integration feature, which allows well-known hardware synthesisers hands-on control of Omnisphere’s newly-expanded synthesis capabilities.
IK Multimedia has joined the ever growing company of brands vying for a slice of the hardware synth market announcing the new IK Multimedia UNO Synth - a sub $200 and in their words "true-analog, ultra-portable monophonic synthesizer."
The team at renowned sample house East West are delighted to announce there new library Voices of the Empire is available now either as a standalone product or included as part of the amazing value Composer Cloud subscription.
In this free video tutorial Production Expert team member Julian Rodgers shows how SoundRadix Drum Leveler differs from conventional dynamics processors.
In this free tutorial from our friends at iZotope, Nick Messitte shows how to learn a synthesizer in 3 easy steps with iZotope Iris 2.
In this free tutorial from the team at Arturia, Product Specialist Quincas takes you through the basics of this amazing sounding and massive collection of virtual instrument patches with step by step guides to creating some amazing sounds.
In this free video tutorial, Production Expert team member Julian Rodgers demonstrates a trick using a feedback loop within an analogue mixer to create an oscillator. If you've never tried this you really should as its enormous fun!
In this series of videos from the team at UK pro audio retailer KMR, synth specialist Tom Lewis shows us around the Buchla Music Easel.
Today, our friends at Toontrack have just released a new keyboard expansion for EZkeys called Dream Machine that Toontrack say is a hybrid / preset-driven instrument designed for use in modern pop, ambient soundscapes and soundtracks.
Spitfire Audio has been working with Hans Zimmer, to create a string sampling library like no other with no fewer than 344 of the greatest players in London assembled at AIR Studios to have technology transform them into an extraordinary-sounding ensemble available as a plug-in aimed primarily for composers by composers and the result is Hans Zimmer Strings.
With today’s release of Reason, 11.3 using Reason in Pro Tools is finally a viable reality. An AAX version of the Reason plug-in makes all the synths, drum machines, effects, utilities and players, found in the standalone version of Reason, available as a virtual instrument in Pro Tools.
It would appear that the Falcon 2 Avid Edition installer that Avid has dropped in our accounts is faulty and an essential file is damaged, or missing important components. Our current advice is not to install the Falcon 2 Avid Edition update until Avid and UVI have resolved the issue. However, if you have already installed V2 then we have a temporary workaround.
Pro Tools users should now find UVI Falcon Avid Edition 2.0 in their Avid Account, providing they are on a valid rental subscription plan OR an active Upgrade Plan for a perpetual license. There was some debate when Falcon 2 was released by UVI as to whether Pro Tools users would get Falcon 2 as an update to the included Falcon VI. The good news is that we have just learnt that Pro Tools users now get it.
For a limited period, you will be able to get the revolutionary sounds of '90s digital synths for FREE! Avid is offering Digital Synsations by UVI worth $149 FREE but only until September 30th 2019.
From the show floor at NAB 2019, Avid’s Greg Chin shows off the UVI Falcon hybrid virtual instrument, a music creation tool that gives you a pure sound design synthesizer, a huge sound library, 80+ effects, modulators, events, scripting and more in an expansive semi-modular sound design environment, all from within Pro Tools.
In this week's Friday Free Plug-in, we are featuring SSD5 Free From Slate Digital, a free version of SSD5, the acclaimed drum virtual instrument from Slate.
In this week's Friday Free Plug-in, we are featuring TRK-01 PLAY From Native Instruments. Two free Reaktor instruments which, if downloaded before the 7th of January are not only free but also include a £22 e-voucher to spend in the NI online shop.
10 years ago this year Russ Hughes started the AIR Users blog, which morphed into Pro Tools Expert in 2012. To kick off our year of celebrations we are running a competition with a Pro Audio gear and software prize pot worth over $28,000. Enter The Pro Tools Expert 10th Anniversary Competition to be in with the chance of winning the stunning new East-West Hollywood Choirs Diamond Edition worth $620.
Who doesn't love a bit of slap bass? Go on... admit it, we all love a bit of slap, however, getting good slap bass in production requires very skilled bass players. Our friends at Waves clearly love a bit of the slap bass and have just released a new virtual instrument specific to slap bass guitar - Bass Slapper.
Thomas Koritke, the founder of the virtual instrument plug-in maker, e-instruments, shares why iZotope RX 6 is essential in repairing their hundreds of thousands of audio samples.
Our friends at EastWest are delighted to announce the new Voices Of The Empire sound library and virtual instrument featuring the unique vocal talents of Uyanga Bold which will be available at the end of autumn.
UVI state that BeatBox Anthology represents over 50 years of groove boxes, beat machines, drum modules and synth drums. Pro Tools Expert was given an early preview of BeatBox Anthology 2 and we can safely say that UVI hasn't missed a.... beat... at all.
Today, our friends at Waves have released the eagerly anticipated Grand Rhapsody Piano, a new keyboard virtual instrument that I had a small preview of at NAMM 2017. The Grand Rhapsody Piano sits alongside the Waves Electric 88 Piano, Electric Grand 80 Piano and Element instruments, to name a few, in Waves ever growing line of virtual instrument products.
Toontrack state that the Alt-Rock EZX pack is a crude, genuine and raw palette of drum sounds inspired by the style of classic 1990's alternative rock. Having had a quick play with Alt-Rock EZX I feel that Alt-Rock EZX is fairly similar in vibe and aggression to Toontrack's brilliant Seventies Rock Drums EZX pack
Our friends at UVI have just released a brand new synth library called UVS-3200 featuring sounds from the Korg PS-3200 - a semi-modular 48-voice polyphonic analog synth. The Korg PS-3200 was built in small numbers during the late 1970s.
Our friends at UVI have released a new Expansion for Falcon called Ether Fields by Simon Stockhausen. Utilizing Falcon's deep synthesis, effects and modulation capabilities, The Ether Fields expansion delivers 100 premiere patches designed to channel the timeless energy of myth and consciousness.
Our friends at Toontrack have released Hip-Hop Beat Ingredients featuring a large selection of MIDI drum and keyboard loops for the Hip-Hop genre. Expand your Hip-Hop MIDI libraries in both Hip-Hop EZX for EZ Drummer 2 and EZkeys.
The eagled eyed amongst the visitors to the Waves booth at NAMM 2017 might have seen a demo of their latest piano VI plugin, the as yet unreleased Waves Grand Rhapsody Piano, which features the royal sound of the actual Fazioli F228 grand piano at Metropolis Studios and used on Adele’s “Hello” as well as Freddie Mercury.