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Warm Up Your Mix With Radiator

Soundtoys introduces a new plug-in based on the Altec 1567A tube mixer


Soundtoys tell us that Radiator brings instant heat to your mix with a smoky, vintage tube sound. It's based on the old-school classic Altec 1567A tube mixer and EQ as heard on Motown hits to today's hottest indie tracks. It also includes the newly updated Little Radiator 1566A tube pre plug-in, too. Here's the details in Soundtoys' own words...

Introducing Radiator, a dual drive tube input channel and EQ, based on the classic Altec 1567A tube mixer from the 1960s.

The original Altec 1567A hardware was a rack-mounted five-input tube mixer with removable transformers, a simple two-knob EQ, an unmistakable green faceplate, and a whopping 97 dB of gain. The sound, by today's standards, is colored and gritty, with a heaping helping of good old fashion hardware noise. In its day, it was used on many early Motown hits, and found its way into the PA racks of countless churches and school auditoriums across the USA.

Radiator brings the classic Altec tube sound to desktop recording rigs, capturing the distinctive warmth and punch of the original hardware. Featuring the modeled bass and treble tone controls from the original unit, a mix control for easy parallel processing, and the saturation and harmonic effects of the original hardware's input and output amplifiers. All of these different circuit elements interact, allowing a wide range of tones to be created with just a few simple knobs. Plus we let you decide if the original noise is on or off.

Over the past few years the Altec mixers have been picked up by recording studios as an inexpensive way to bring analog color and character to computer based digital recording. With producers like Matt Wallace of early Maroon 5 fame utilizing the 1567A on their early hits, and now bands like the Black Keys (who had a custom console made from Altec 1567A's) the demand, and price, for these funky little color boxes have soared.

Computer recordists everywhere can now get the Altec tube sound - on every input channel, without the hassles of interfacing to esoteric analog gear, and at a much lower cost. Radiator also includes Little Radiator, a simpler single-stage tube pre-amp model based on the Altec 1566A hardware, the little brother of the Altec 1567A.

Pricing and Availability:
Buy now for $129. Or upgrade from the original Little Radiator for a limited time for only $49 (regular $89). Offer ends January 3rd 2013.

More information:
www.soundtoys.com

Analog Four Sound Packs

Elektron offers five free sound packs to all Analog Four owners


As a Yuletide gift for all Analog Four owners Elektron has compiled five Sound Packs. They tell us that each Sound Pack contains 24 meticulously crafted sounds and all of them are of course 100% royalty free. The Sound Packs are:

  • Bass vol. 1
  • Leads vol. 1
  • Drums vol. 1
  • Atmospheres vol.1
  • FX vol. 1

All of them are available for download on the Analog Four Downloads page of the Elektron website.

Pricing and Availability:
Free download.

More information:
Elektron

Animoog Updated

Version 2 of Moog's iPad synth gets a 4-track recorder and more


Moog Music has announced the release of Animoog V2 for Apple's iPad. This major update to the TEC-Award Nominated iOS synthesizer is a free update for existing Animoog users and includes many user requested features and product enhancements, such as: accelerometer integration which gives Animoog owners the ability to tilt their iPad in any direction as an interactive 3D modulation source; note hold and scale lock, and tools for advanced users like, Load/Save MIDI CC maps, Audiocopy/Audiopaste integration and support for the new Audiobus platform. 

Also, as a holiday gift, Animoog V2 features a powerful 4 Track Recorder, which gives Animoog users the ability to record audio from within Animoog or import audio tracks directly from their iTunes library. Users can then split, loop, copy, paste, and share individual clips, or mix down entire songs and upload them directly to SoundCloud, all from within the Animoog's universe.

This 4 Track Recorder will be free to existing users until Dec. 31, 2012 at which time it will revert to it's regular price of $4.99 in the Animoog Store.

Pricing and Availability:
Between Dec 20th and Dec 31st Animoog for iPad will be available at the promotional price of $14.99 (reg. price $29.99), Animoog for iPhone will be available at the promotional price of $4.99 (reg. price $9.99), and Moog's first iOS app, Filtatron will be available at the promotional price of $4.99 (reg. price $7.99).

More information:
Moog

MiniBrute-Based Kontakt Synth

Precious Sound releases PreBrute sample-based synth


Precious Sound tells us that PreBrute is the latest sound set for their "4Scoop" engine for Kontakt 5, and the worlds first sample based Kontakt synth based on the Arturia MiniBrute. Here's all the details in their own words

Our "4Scoop" engine consists of 4 oscillators.
Each Oscillator has a possible 80 waveforms to choose from(20 waveforms 4 flavours)each with independent modulation and filtering options, these four oscillators are then summed in the global section to 2 master filters and various send/insert FX.
We do not sample "Synth Pre-sets" we do not want to be limited to modulated waveforms/filter sweeps etc.
The goal of our engine is to capture the character of hardware oscillators and modulate them within our interface to create a sound of your own.
We also had hardware in mind while developing the engine and at every stage of the engine when a effect/filter is off it is bypassed from the signal chain completely leaving you with a clean tone that can then be fed to any hardware filter of your liking.
you can then save all your settings as pre-sets and can recall them anytime you like.
This can be done all from our interface no need to have multiple instrument files and have to deal with opening and closing each Kontakt instance.

Pricing and Availability:
PreBrute is available at a special 25% off festive discount until 07/01/13
£30.00 (Inc. VAT) $37.49 Festive discount
£39.99 (Inc. VAT) $49.99 Full Price
Owners of any "4Scoop" based product are entitled to a additional 10% discount part of a newly-established Loyalty Scheme.

More information:
www.PreciousSound.com

Mixvibes Releases CrossDJ For iPhone

DJ anywhere


Building on 10 years of expertise in the DJ software industry, MixVibes has released a stand-alone DJ app for iPhone. Easy to use for music lovers yet powerful for experienced DJs, this app allows you to achieve the same level of performance as with real decks.The Paris-based company has a successful experience in developing pro DJ software. Its flagship product, CrossDJ, is already available on PC, Mac and iPad and its today available for iPhone.

Mixvibes tells us that, in order to stand out from the crowd of DJ apps, CrossDJ for iPhone focuses on industry standard DJ setups. CEO Eric Guez told Sonic State, "CrossDJ is the easiest way to start Djing. When you step up to iPad app or regular decks, you'll already be familiar with standard layout." Here's more details in Mixvibes' own words...

With its scratching, loops, effects and hot cues, CrossDJ is the first app for iPhone that provides professional features in an intuitive design. Its layout was optimized for the Apple device: smart tabs, large controls and Cue/Play/Sync buttons. Based on the same engine as previous CrossDJ versions, CrossDJ for iPhone provides the most reliable synchronization engine and BPM analysis on the market. It guarantees DJs to be always on the beat. Plus, you can visually preview your mix using parallel waveforms and sync meter.

On top of that, Cross DJ for iPhone provides direct access to iPhone's iTunes library and playlists. And best of all, it's free! Playtime is unlimited, and no ads will interfere with the experience. For $2,99 / 2,69€ / 1,99 £, users can upgrade to a premium version with additional effects and the split output function.


Pricing and Availability:
Download the app for free on the app store

More information:
www.mixvibes.com

Relaxed Grooves Sample Collection

Ueberschall announces the availability of Chillout Zone


Ueberschall tells us that Chillout Zone combines atmospheric dense instruments with laid-back beats, deep basses, elements of Easy Listening and Jazz as well as cool Dub-FX into relaxed grooves. Here's a description of it in their own words...

This new Ueberschall-library continues the series of successful chillout-titles such as Chillout Breeze, Chillers Joint, Comfort Zone, Easy Listening and Lounge-O-Rama. Chillout Zone offers relaxed tracks that can perfectly be combined with other chillout-libraries.

Chillout Zone consists of ten pre-produced construction kits with a total of 609 loops. Each kit offers a complete mix of the particular groove for demonstrative purposes. In addition, we provide mixes of the complete backings and the drumsets which are particularly useful for song-sketches, digital DJ-sets and productions under time pressure.

It goes without saying that each construction kit also contains loops of all single instruments and drums. These loops have been recorded and prepared using professional equipment and offer total freedom while arranging and mixing. The options are widespread, ranging from adding single loops to an existing track up to the construction of complete new tracks using one or several construction kits.Among the separate drums are kicks, snares, hi-hats, claps, cymbals and percussions. Instruments used for the backings are synthetic and electronic basses, organic electronic pianos, warm synth-pads, funky guitar licks and atmospheric sound FX.

Each construction kit contains two to six subfolders with different variations of a groove. This makes the creation of a conclusive track with intro, verse and breaks easy and effortless.

Chillout Zone is targeted towards music production of Chillout, Lounge and Easy Listening. However, the library is also well-suited to create soundtracks for games, television programs, movies and for event-location-sounds.

Elastik-Feature
Ueberschall's Elastik player allows combining all loops of Chillout Zone with other Elastik libraries with ease. Tempo and pitch can be perfectly adapted using the included high quality time-stretch- und pitch-change algorithms provided by zplane. Use the browser to search for specific beats, basslines, synth-loops, guitar-riffs and other elements across all installed libraries. In addition, all loops are sorted by category, base pitch and original tempo. This makes transposing and tempo adaption of instrumental phrases and drum loops between construction kits a no-brainer.
The loops and sounds of the library can effectively be edited and manipulated by a multimode filter and functions such as formant, resample, and reverse, including modulation by an internal step sequencer.

Credits
Responsible for Chillout Zone are Marc Steinmeier and Ron Paul. Both have already worked for companies such as Universal Music, EMI Electrola and Sony/BMG. They have also worked and remixed for well-known artists such as LL Cool J, Alicia Keys, George Clinton and Eminem. Many productions thank their final polishing in composition and sound design to them.

  • 1.5GB, 10 construction kits, 609 loops
  • Genres: Chillout, Lounge, Abstract Hip Hop
  • Elastik soundbank for Mac/PC/AU/VST/RTAS/standalone
  • Elastik player included - no sampler required

Pricing and Availability:
49 Euro

More information:
www.ueberschall.com/goto/523/Chillout_Zone

ReFill Bundle Gets Bigger

Nucleus SoundLab updates Christmas ReFill Bundle with Vast


Another Reason ReFill has been added to Nucleus SoundLab's Christmas 2012 ReFill Bundle. Tom Pritchard Sound Design Vast ($70 value) is now available for all purchasers who pay $49.99 or more.

The Christmas 2012 ReFill Bundle now encompasses 10 ReFills with a regular price of over $360 - at a Pay-What-You-Want price. The sale ends December 28th, 2012.

Pricing and Availability:
See website

More information:
http://refillbundle.com

14 New Plug-Ins

Plug & Mix launches Version 3.0 with new plug-ins and AAX support


Plug & Mix has announced the launch of its version 3.0 of their V.I.P. series plug-ins that adds full 64-bit support for Mac OS 10,8 (Mountain Lion) and Windows 8, as well as compatibility with Avid's AAX format for Mac and PC.

Version 3.0 also includes the 14 most requested plug-ins by users to complement the 26 existing plug-ins of the previous V.I.P. Bundle.

The upgrade to V3.0 is free of charge for all owners.

The new plug-ins are :

  • Octaplexer – Octaver Divider Plug-in
  • Psycho Ring – An unique Ring Modulator
  • Stereolizer – Stereo width enlargement
  • Ob La Wah – The Virtual WAH-WAH Pedal
  • Electro Q Tone – Extreme EQ when needed
  • Talking Tone – Talk box and Vocoder
  • Deluxe Tilt – Tonic Tilting
  • Ambiosoniq – Improve your Stereo Image
  • Maxbass – Bass enhancement plug-in
  • Screamer – Hardcore Screaming Distortion
  • Liquid Air Q – EQ with presence
  • Vinylizer – Get that Vinyl Sound
  • Granulizer – Granular Processing Plug-in
  • Ls Rotator – Need a great Leslie?

A spokesperson told Sonic State, "Plug And Mix have been working very closely with their carefully selected developers to create new plug-ins that their customers had requested. Sound quality was the first priority while always keeping in mind the ongoing goal of making the plug-ins as easy to use and efficient as the existing toolset included in the previous V.I.P. Bundle. Now there are a total of 40 creative audio tools that let professionals and audio enthusiasts take immediate control of their mixes and get superb results without searching through a multitude of parameters."

About Plug & Mix

Plug & Mix (formerly DC Plug-ins) is a company owned by DontCrack.com which has been supporting and distributing the finest audio plug-in manufacturers since 2006. P&M is a collaborative concept where they partnered with major plug-in manufacturers to fill a gap in the audio plug-in market.

Pricing and Availability:
The upgrade to V3.0 is free of charge for all owners.
Until January 31, P&M products will be sold at the promoted price of $39 (MSRP $59) for the individual plug-ins and $299 (MSRP $499) for the full V.I.P. Bundle.

More information:
www.plugandmix.com

Korg Updates Entire Line Of iOS Apps

Audiobus and other new enhancements offered


Korg has announced updates to all Korg iPad music apps that include Audiobus support, iCloud data backup, virtual MIDI (for most apps), Retina support and more. These updates are also available as a free download for existing users.

A broad range of features is now included across all apps:

  • Background audio support
  • iCloud data backup
  • Audiobus compatibility (enables audio to run between two iOS apps)

In addition, some individual app enhancements have also been made available:

iPolysix:
MIDI CC control
Improved Polyshare feature that enables sharing songs online
Virtual MIDI for MIDI communication between iOS music creation apps

iKaossilator:
iPhone 5 screen compatibility

iElectribe:
Beat Flutter- randomly generates rhythm patterns for live performance
Retina support
Virtual MIDI for MIDI communication between iOS music creation apps

iMS-20:
Retina support
Virtual MIDI for MIDI communication between iOS music creation apps

In addition, all Korg apps continue to be priced at 50% off through December 31, 2012, as part of the celebration for the recent iPolySix launch:

Sale Pricing:
KORG iMS-20 for iPad: US $14.99
iKaossilator for iPhone/iPad: US $9.99
iElectribe for iPad: US $9.99
iElectribe Gorillaz Edition for iPad: US $9.99
iPolysix: US $14.99

More information:
Korg

Best Service 2for1 Holiday Promotion

Buy one virtual instrument, get a second free


For a limited time, purchasers of a Best Service Instrument will receive a second instrument for free.
Compared to the purchased instrument, the second instrument must be of lesser or equal value.
There is no difference between products sold through the retail channel or at Best Service.

Participating products:

  • Accordions
  • Black Box 8 CD-Set
  • Blue Box 16 CD-Set
  • Chris Hein Bass
  • Chris Hein Guitars
  • Chris Hein Horns Compact
  • Chris Hein Horns Pro Complete
  • Cinematique Instruments
  • Cinematique Instruments 2
  • Complete Classical Collection 2nd Edition - Peter Siedlaczek
  • Convolution Space
  • Desert Winds
  • Drums Overkill
  • Epic World
  • Era Medieval Legends
  • Ethno World 5 Professional & Voices
  • Evolution Series World Percussion
  • Evolution Series World Percussion Compact
  • Forest Kingdom
  • Galaxy II Pianos
  • Galaxy Vintage D
  • Galaxy X
  • Gu Zheng
  • Halls of Fame Complete - Origami Edition
  • Klanghaus
  • K-Size Engine Edition
  • Nitron
  • Orchestral Bundle - Peter Siedlaczek
  • Peking Opera Percussion
  • poetic acoustic guitars
  • String Essentials 2nd Edition - Peter Siedlaczek
  • StudioBox Mark II
  • SYNTH-WERK
  • TITAN - 200 Synthesizers in One
  • Voices & Choirs
  • Xsample Chamber Ensemble

Pricing and Availability:
Promotion ends January 13 2013

More information:
www.bestservice.de/special.asp/en

Stylophone S2 Demo Video Posted

Not terribly enlightening


Everyone is getting excited about the new Stylophone S2 from Dubreq - the original British manufacturers of the Stylophone. With the S2, they've added some proper synthesis features and CV input control

News of the S2, with its synthesis capabilities has been racing cross the interwebs, we're dying to hear what it can do. Unfortunately, this video isn't about to make things all that much clearer.

Hopefully, there will be more to come as the holidays progress, and we'll certainly be doing our best to get hold of one either prior to NAMM or at the show itself.

For more information on the new Dubreq Stylophone S2, stay tuned...

Features:

  • All analogue signal path
  • Classic British 12dB/octave state-variable filter
  • Dual all-transistor voltage controlled oscillators.
  • Sub-oscillators for incredibly fat-bass
  • Aux. input (to use the filter and envelope generator as effects)
  • Eight waveform LFO (low frequency oscillator) with 14 octave range
  • 4x AA cell operation or external DC (mains adapter not included)
  • Main output: 1/4" jack-socket
  • Use internal speaker or headphone amplifier (3.5mm headphone jack)
  • CVI (Control Voltage Input) and Trigger via 3.5mm jack sockets
  • Unique illuminated speaker detail spins to show LFO speed

More Information
Stylpohone2.com

Lemur On iOS Updated

Liine announces new features including In-App Editor and new Skins


Liine tells us that multi-touch controller Lemur's templates are now editable directly from your iPad. They've also added new skins and announced a free LiveControl 2 downloadin early 2013. Here's the details in Liine's own words...

In-App Editor

Lemur has evolved. Now you can design your templates on the fly without a computer in sight. The In-App Editor (only available for iPad) makes multitouch control truly improvisatory by letting you shape your controller the same way you shape sounds. Virtually every function of the desktop editor application is now available through an intuitive system of iOS menus and widgets. Best of all – it's easier to use than ever.

So what does editing templates directly In-App mean?

For novice users, this means a much smaller learning curve and an immediate initial experience. Any basic configuration, such as a typical bank of faders, can now be created with a few familiar taps and gestures. And any factory template can be adjusted quickly to suit your particular needs.

For advanced users, the In-App Editor provides the possibility to quickly edit templates without breaking the musical flow. Whether you're playing with live musicians or engineering a track in the studio, designing and using the Lemur controller becomes improvisatory. Need to add an extra fader for the reverb effect? Two seconds and you've got it.

Skins

Lemur now features three new skins in addition to the classic look. Choose the look that fits your style and get inspired.

Coming early 2013 – LiveControl 2

Experience the ultimate Ableton Live controller, designed in partnership with master designer ST8. Improvise a riff on the Play page, then switch to the Sequencer page to edit the pattern. Choose a key and scale to guide your melodies and use Quick Chord to instantly create harmonies. Use the Modulate page to flawlessly map any parameter from any plugin to the MultiBall object and take advantage of Physics, LFOs and gesture recording. The Launch page gives you everything you would expect from a clip launcher, and more. We even integrated snapshots and morphing. LiveControl 2 will be a free download available in early 2013.

Pricing and Availability:
Update available now on iTunes

More information:
lemur