Soundiron has emerged from the burning embers of samplesmith Tonehammer Inc. to carry on the tradition—and continued support for many of the Tonehammer libraries. As part of the grand opening celebration, Soundiron is having a site-wide sale where all products are 15% off. This sale will be active from August 1 to August 10, 2011.

Soundiron is staffed by a number of ex-Tonehammer employees and is dedicated to producing equally stunning virtual instrument libraries. As a group of talented recording engineers, scripters and instrument programmers Soundiron is determined to follow a mantra of quality – deep-sampling, realism, playability, creativity and precision.

In addition to the sale, Soundiron is announcing the release of oft-requested major updates for 10 of its existing libraries. The libraries that are receiving “2.0” updates are: Requiem Light, Emotional Piano, Clack, Little Epic Percussion, Bamboo Stick Ensemble, Bizarre Sitar, Frendo, Bronze Bin, Lakeside Pipe Organ and Cylindrum. The updates for all the above libraries include much improved playability, mapping fixes and the introduction of a custom, automatable user interface. As a heart-filled thank you to all of its loyal customers, Soundiron is offering these updates to existing owners of the libraries free of charge!

Requiem Light 2.0 — The missed and mourned affordable epic choir is finally back and better than ever!

New Features:

• Looping Marcatos with Release Samples derived from existing Requiem Light content.
• Polyphonic Legato for Poly-Sustain patches (full choir and soloist).
• Releases for Fast Poly-Sustains.
• New master Sustains patch with complete range of vowel sounds to choose from and blend in real-time.
• Collection of custom ambient and effect presets built on the Requiem Light Samples themselves.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed note placement in true legato patches (notes are no longer shifted an octave).
• Improved the UI to be completely automatable by MIDI controllers and host sequencers.
• Added a knob for Legato speed control as well as release sample volume controls.
• Legato tweaks.
• Playability fixes.
• Various other fixes.

Emotional Piano 2.0 — The much-loved soft, nuanced piano library also received a lot of TLC from the Soundiron crew. Version 2.0 features a brand new custom user interface and a wide range of special fx controls using Kontakt’s built-in effects. Key mapping and release sample volume has been carefully tuned and tweaked to make Emotional Piano more playable and realistic than ever before. The new version also includes a new, proprietary voice-capping technology that helps keep voice count under control and reduce the amount of noise build-up when an excessive amount of notes are left ringing.

These 10 updates are only the first of many to come as Soundiron strives to provide top-quality support for ALL of their libraries. They invite you to keep your eyes on their website in the coming weeks, as they announce new updates for more of their legacy items as well as information on some of the exciting new products they have planned.

www.soundiron.com

Avid recently released its first application for iPad: Avid Scorch. Musicians can now practice, perform and purchase their favorite sheet music on the go with an application that transforms an iPad into an interactive score library, music stand and sheet music store.

Powered by Avid’s Sibelius music notation software engine, Avid Scorch is the first sheet music app to offer a rich, interactive experience that makes scores easy to learn and play. Scorch also offers unparalleled access to the most popular sheet music through an in-app store with more than 150,000 premium titles available from world-class publishers.

Musicians, music teachers and students will enjoy features in Scorch, including:

• Interactive Learning and Performance — Musicians can easily learn songs or adapt them to their instrument by transposing a score, changing instruments, or converting to and from guitar tab—then give a great performance using Music Stand mode, which offers a full display of the sheet music on the iPad. Users can also see the score played on the Keyboard display, hear music played back and speed it up or slow it down.
• Portable, Expandable Music Collection — Using the app, customers can purchase and download more than 150,000 scores available from Hal Leonard and Music Sales. The Scorch app also eliminates the need to carry folders full of paper and music books by making it easy to add Sibelius and Sibelius First scores to the iPad.
• Sleek Interface — It’s easy to manipulate and play back scores with a simple touch-enabled interface. Music is easy to view, regardless of size, through impressive display clarity and functionality, including the ability to select from a variety of paper textures and font choices. Users can also take advantage of Music Stand mode to devote the entire display to the sheet music and turn pages quickly, allowing musicians to stay in the moment.
• Interactive Learning and Performance — Musicians can easily learn songs or adapt them to their instrument by transposing a score, changing instruments, or converting to and from guitar tab—then give a great performance using Music Stand mode, which offers a full display of the sheet music on the iPad. Users can also see the score played on the Keyboard display, hear music played back and speed it up or slow it down.

“We’re certain our customers will be excited to use Scorch, an innovative iPad application, to purchase, practice and perform sheet music wherever they go,” said Tanguy Leborgne, Vice President, Creative Enthusiasts Products and Solutions at Avid. “We’re focused on using our industry-leading technology in exciting new ways so musicians, teachers, students — all creative people — can achieve their artistic vision.”

The Avid Scorch app is currently available worldwide from the App Store for a limited-time introductory price of $4.99. On 31 July 2011, the price will increase to $7.99.

www.avid.com/scorch

The contest below is now over. Many thanks to all who participated! We’ll post the winners once everyone has been notified.

You can win a free copy of Avid Scorch from Mac OS X Audio! Here’s how:

• Log into your Twitter account. If you don’t have one, set one up. It’s free!
• Follow @macosxaudio (not just being selfish, we’ll need to DM your prize).
• Compose a tweet mentioning this post (even using the Tweet button below), but make sure to mention “@macosxaudio” so your post can be found. Your tweet must mention @macosxaudio and be publicly visible to be valid. Example:

Win a Free Copy of Avid Scorch for iPad from @macosxaudio (they rock!) http://www.macosxaudio.com/

• The first 5 posts tonight after 8:00 pm (US Pacific Time) on 12 July, and the first 5 posts after 12:01 am on 13 July will be tallied and sent a “redeem” code for your free copy of Avid Scorch on the iTunes Store, via Twitter Direct Message (DM).
• We’ll send out prizes and post the winning users here after the contest is over.
• We are adhering to rules defined by Twitter for contests, including:
• Anyone found to use multiple accounts to enter will be ineligible.
• Do not post multiple times. It’s about being first, not most. And spam sucks.
• This contest is obviously not valid in regions that prohibit such joy. If you cannot access the iTunes Store from your location, or if you don’t own an iPad, this prize is useless to you. Avid Scorch is only iPad compatible (not iPhone, not iPod Touch, not Mac OS).

Good luck!

As part of a larger strategic review, TC Electronic has decided to cease further development of the PowerCore product range. With the most recent release of software version 4.0, PowerCore is fully compatible with current operating systems and DAWs – 32 bit as well as 64 bit. TC Electronic will continue to sell all of the existing PowerCore plug-ins and hardware variants and will keep offering user support for the platform. Also, TC Electronic will continue its general computer recording activities, including audio interfaces and plug-ins.

In addition, TC Electronic announces a collaboration with Universal Audio in order to offer a crossgrade program, allowing registered PowerCore users to receive a value pack of up to $1,300 worth of UAD Powered Plug-Ins free of charge when registering their newly purchased UAD-2 DSP Accelerator Package.

TC Electronic Product Manager Thomas Valter says: “We are proud to work with one of the industry leaders in external DSP power solutions to offer our users a top-notch addition to their existing PowerCore setup.”

The crossgrade offer is valid from February 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011. In order to qualify for the crossgrade offer, PowerCore users must register a new UAD-2 package, including the recently announced UAD-2 Satellite Firewire DSP Accelerator, within this period. Further, the offer is only valid to new users, i.e. users that are new to the UAD Powered Plug-Ins platform.

PowerCore users who qualify and want to make use of this offer simply have to register their newly purchased UAD-2 DSP Accelerator Package via Universal Audio’s website. During the registration process, they just enter the serial number of their PowerCore unit which will trigger the release of the corresponding UAD Powered Plug-Ins.

The crossgrade offer includes three different plug-in packages that are linked to corresponding UAD-2 processor level purchased (SOLO, DUO, or QUAD):

UAD-2 SOLO / SOLO Flexi / SOLO/Laptop crossgrade plug-in package contains:

• Fairchild ($149)
• Cambridge ($149)
• Pultec-Pro ($79)
• Total Value: $377

UAD-2 DUO / DUO Flexi / Satellite DUO crossgrade plug-in package contains:

• Fairchild ($149)
• Cambridge ($149)
• Pultec-Pro ($79)
• LA-3A ($149)
• DreamVerb ($149)
• Total Value: $675

UAD-2 QUAD / QUAD Flexi / QUAD Omni / Satellite QUAD crossgrade plug-in package contains:

• Fairchild ($149)
• Cambridge ($149)
• Pultec-Pro ($79)
• LA-3A ($149)
• DreamVerb ($149)
• Precision Limiter ($199)
• Precision Equalizer ($199)
• Precision Multiband ($249)
• Total value: $1322

More information is available on the official TC Electronic forum.

http://www.tcelectronic.com/

Discuss TC Powercore on our Effects forum.

After months of preparation, Twisted Tools is proudly announcing the birth of their sound mangling devices for electronic music production and sound design. Instead of handing out cigars, they are serving up 6 free Reaktor ensembles along with their first commercial product, Vortex.

Vortex is a six track polyphonic sampler and sequencer for Native Instruments Reaktor 5. It comes pre-configured for Kore 2 and Maschine and features an original 200+ MB sample map with samples by artists such as c2, Richard Devine, Josh Hinden, Noklip, GlitchMachines.com, Mike Huckaby, Sonictwist, Tipper and Vinja.

Each sampler track has 4 modulation sequencer tracks labeled Gate, Roll, ModA and ModB. The modulation sequencers are color-coded and can be easily assigned to modulate any sampler parameter(s). There are also two cross-modulating LFOs which are also color-coded and assignable. Extensive cut/copy/paste/select/randomize functionality is available using an innovative Graphic Layer system.

Features:

• Six Track Sequencer, 4 Sequencers Per Track
• Six-Voice Polyphonic Granular Sampler
• Color-Coded Modulation System
• Two Cross Modulating LFOs
• Extensive Randomization Features
• MIDI Learn System with Controller Feedback
• Alternate View Option
• Multi-Out Support
• Extensive Cut/Copy/Paste/Select/Randomize Functionality
• Advanced ‘Graphic Layer’ Editing
• Scene Sequencing (create arrangements within each preset)
• Templates for Kore 2 and Maschine
• Comes with all of the Twisted Tools ‘freebie’ plugins as part of the download

Vortex requires Native Instruments Reaktor 5.15 for Mac or PC. Native Instruments Kore 2 or Maschine are also required if using their respective included templates.

You can purchase Vortex via direct download from Twisted Tools for $29. The 6 free Reaktor ensembles can be downloaded separately from Vortex after registering on their web site.

Twisted Tools is the brainchild of Igor Shilov (Reaktor designer SonicTwist) and Josh Hinden (Director of MIDI, Expression.edu). They aim to bring electronic musicians innovative and user friendly tools, with an emphasis on unique design and high quality sound. While their current emphasis is on developing instruments for the Native Instruments Reaktor platform, future development of Audio Unit and VST devices is planned.

twistedtools.com/shop/samplers/vortex

Discuss Vortex in our Instruments forum.

Universal Audio, manufacturer of the award-winning UAD Powered Plug-ins for Mac and PC, today announced partnerships with many well known pro-audio hardware companies to develop new software. Manley Labs, Lexicon, dbx, Ampex, MXR, Studer and more will lend their expertise to the UAD-2 platform beginning as soon as the first quarter of 2010.

Universal Audio Partners With Manley Labs to Unleash Massive Passive EQ Plug-Ins For UAD-2 in Q1 2010

Working with Manley Labs, Universal Audio’s Massive Passive EQ plug-ins represent the most ambitious EQ modeling project to date, bringing UAD-2 users both the standard and mastering versions of this world-renowned hardware EQ. Specifically, the two-channel, four-band Manley Massive Passive EQ utilizes design strengths from choice console, graphic, parametric and Pultec EQs — delivering a fundamentally different type of EQ that’s beyond compare. The Massive Passive’s natural treatment of a signal lends itself to both radical tonal shaping as well as delicate vocal shading or subtle mastering enhancement.

“The Massive Passive is truly the ultimate in mastering grade EQs. It sounds warm without ever being dull; it stays precise while remaining highly musical,” offered UAD Powered Plug-Ins Product Manager, Will Shanks.

“The Massive Passive EQ is one of our best-known products. We didn’t even want to entertain doing a plug-in unless it was really going to be done right,” commented EveAnna Manley, Owner, Manley Laboratories, Inc. “Our expectations were high for the plug-in emulation to be spot-on. Working with Universal Audio, we believe they’ve totally nailed it.”

“Manley Labs represents quality, sonic excellence and unequivocal analog design expertise,” enthused Matt Ward, President of Universal Audio. “To say Universal Audio has admiration for Manley’s designs and reputation as a company would be a huge understatement. There has always been a special affinity between our companies, and we are elated to have EveAnna Manley joining us a plug-in partner for the UAD-2 platform.”

The Manley Massive Passive EQ plug-ins will be available for download directly from Universal Audio’s online store.

Universal Audio Announces Partnership With Ampex Corporation to Develop Tape Machine Emulations

Ampex is famous in the professional audio world as innovators of magnetic tape and tape recorder technology — widely praised for its rich, almost magical sound quality. For the first time ever, Universal Audio’s renowned team of DSP engineers will exhaustively and faithfully model these complex devices and media, bringing accurate emulations of Ampex magnetic recording tape to the UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins platform.

“Ampex is not only the most recognizable maker of US-made tape machines; they really pioneered the concepts that gave way to modern multi-tracking and overdubbing,” commented Universal Audio President Matt Ward. “But it’s really the sound of these amazing machines, along with their well-guarded tape formulas, that birthed the golden-era of record production. The fact that these designs are still in use today is a testament to the Ampex brand’s iconic status in the world of professional recording.”

“Ampex is quite pleased to be returning to the professional audio market after many years away; and in such a unique fashion,” stated Gordon Strickland, President and CEO of Ampex Corp. “It took a company like Universal Audio, who understood that the Ampex name could be made ‘new’ again for multiple generations of audio customers through the latest advancements in DSP technology. We are well aware of the value of the Ampex brand, and we protect it accordingly. Our discussions with UA convinced us that they would be a good partner and would create products that we could all be proud of.”

“We’ve long known that Tape machines would be considered the ‘holy grail’ of audio plug-ins. This is something that our customers have been demanding for quite some time,” confirmed UAD Plug-In Product Manager Will Shanks. “So we’re taking great pains to ensure that our efforts will satisfy our most discriminating customers’ expectations, not to mention our own. We’re very excited to have both the Ampex Corporation and former Ampex engineers closely involved on the emulations of the classic devices and media we’re targeting.”

Universal Audio Announces Partnership With Dunlop

Dunlop is a leading manufacturer of guitar stompboxes and studio-oriented effects under the Dunlop and MXR brands. Under this partnership, Universal Audio will deliver a range of unique and classic effects to the ever-growing family of plug-ins available on the UAD-2 platform.

“Dunlop and MXR have innovated and defined classic effects sounds for decades,” said Matt Ward, President of Universal Audio. “We hope to extend this reputation by painstakingly modeling authentic Dunlop and MXR effects for the UAD-2 platform. Guitarists and producers have embraced these effects for decades, so we’re very happy about this partnership.”

“Universal Audio and Dunlop Manufacturing both have a commitment to maintaining a tradition of true analog gear for musicians,” commented Jimmy Dunlop, Vice President of Dunlop. “When it came time to create plug-ins of our classic electronics, we knew there was only one company to turn to. We know our customers will be pleased with the level of quality and performance that UA will be offering.”

Universal Audio Partners With Harman Pro Group to Deliver Range of Classic Audio Equipment Plug-Ins

Each company in the Harman Pro Group has a near-mythic status in the professional audio world — ranging from reverb (Lexicon), to compression and other processing (dbx), tape machines (Studer), and spring reverb (AKG). Under the terms of this agreement, Universal Audio will develop, market and sell plug-in emulations of select Lexicon, Studer, dbx, and AKG equipment for the UAD-2 Powered Plug-In Platform.

“We are delighted to be working with Universal Audio to bring these virtual legacy products to market,” commented Michael MacDonald, Harman International, EVP of Marketing and Sales. “Our brands are like gold to us, and when it comes to faithfully reproducing the sound and character of these vintage devices, we knew that we needed to partner with the best — and that is UA. We have the utmost confidence in Universal Audio to not only deliver on the promise of these brands, but to provide customers with the ‘best in class’ support they expect.”

“The Harman Pro Group is the parent company behind and array of legendary premium audio brands, and we are truly honored by this partnership,” said Universal Audio President Matt Ward. “This is a great tribute to the care and detail that our DSP and user interface teams put into each and every UAD Powered Plug-In. We look forward to working with the talented folks at the Harman Pro Group to ensure every emulation detail is as faithful and accurate as possible to the original classic equipment.”

www.uaudio.com

Discuss Universal Audio UAD-2 in our Hardware forum.

SoundCloud, the online music service, has launched the first in a series of product integrations with professional music software makers which will enable producers to upload their tracks to the web direct from their favourite audio applications. The first partnerships, announced today at NAMM, are with Studio One from PreSonus and Audiofile Engineering’s Wave Editor, with Ableton Live to follow.

Following on from SoundCloud’s recent partnership with Abbey Road’s online mastering service, today’s announcement marks another step for the service towards its goal of enabling a fully integrated digital music ecosystem.

Studio One and Wave Editor users will be able to upload their tracks direct to their SoundCloud accounts from within the application, bypassing the need to bounce tracks to the desktop and then upload. These integrations were built using the SoundCloud API, which enables any developer to create a huge range of audio applications and services based on core SoundCloud functionality, like the streaming, uploading and downloading of music.

Matthew Foust, Co-Founder and Operations Manager, Audiofile Engineering, said: “Integration of the SoundCloud API in our iPhone and desktop apps not only fits our strategic vision, but is very simple and straightforward.”

Alexander Ljung, SoundCloud CEO, said: “We’re very excited to be launching the first of our music software integrations with PreSonus and Audiofile Engineering. With these upcoming partnerships it’s possible to imagine a production workflow in which you produce a track, upload it to SoundCloud, and send it direct to Abbey Road for mastering without any files hitting your desktop. We’re imagining a future where music professionals can seamlessly use the web together with their desktop tools in a fully integrated and extremely powerful combination. The SoundCloud platform and our open API, in combination with progressive companies like PreSonus and Audiofile Engineering, are making it possible for this future to arrive in 2010.”

PreSonus Studio One Product Manager Jonathan Hillman said: “With Studio One and SoundCloud, musicians can produce their music and share it with millions of listeners in a matter of minutes. We’re very happy to be the first DAW application to introduce the world to 21st-century music production and distribution. We believe this type of integration is critical as the digital-media distribution landscape evolves. And from a development viewpoint, integrating a SoundCloud client into our application took very little time. ”

SoundCloud partnerships with other key music software companies, including Ableton, are already scheduled and set to be released later in 2010.

soundcloud.com

Discuss SoundCloud in our Promotion forum, Wave Editor in our Audiofile Engineering forum, and Studio One in our Studio One forum.

Hi everyone,

I’ve maintained the freeware FX and instruments lists in the forums for a few years – I started them as a reference list for my students. but it seems they’ve been useful to 90,000 other people as well : )

Glenn has now asked me to post new additions here as well. I’m a blogger boy by nature, so hoping I get my head around WordPress!

Generally I’ll just be re-posting PR, but might add comments occasionally. Here we go :

TAL-Reverb (AU, VST) is a free open source stereo plate reverb based on juce. It’s very diffuse and has its own sound because of its special signal routing. Slight modulated delay times avoid artefacts in the reverb tail and give this reverb its smooth sound.

* 12 dB High- and Low-Pass filter.
* Pre delay, up to one second.
* Midi Learn (vst only)
* 10 presets.
* open source.

Maxwell at Meatscience writes in to announce the debut of the Meatscience Convolution Reverb plug-in and the Open Impulse Response Library, a free IR repository for users to submit their impulse responses and download impulses from a well-organized, expansive library with server-side convolution allowing instant online preview with a variety of audio signals.

Meatscience Convolution Reverb matches or exceeds Altiverb 6 and IR-1 on accuracy and low-latency while offering similar performance on Intel Macs. This means professional fidelity, an open IR library, and high track counts at a far lower price. Apply impulse responses to recreate the unique characteristics of real spaces, speaker cabs, classic amplifiers, stompboxes, or experimental audio effects.

Features

• Zero-latency
• Fast (SSE Optimized for Intel Macs)
• Live switching between IRs
• Mono, Stereo, and True Stereo (4-channel) IRs supported
• Supports WAV, AIFF, and SDIR IRs
• Works with the Open IR Library
• OS 10.5+ Only
• Automatic Gain
• Cocoa Native UI, Clean and Fast
• Free Upgrades – V1.2 coming soon
• No Dongle/iLok/DRM

Just as interesting is the promise of an open repository for impulse responses, which are used by many modern plug-ins including Meatscience’s. An impulse response is an audio recording used to recreate the acoustic characteristics of a specific environment or filter.

Convolution is the process of applying the audio characteristics of an impulse response to another audio signal. The impulse response is ‘convolved’ with an incoming signal, say a vocal or guitar track, creating the effect of playing the unprocessed audio in the same environment in which the impulse response was recorded.

Meatscience Convolution Reverb is available now, for $50 direct from Meatscience. It is an AU plug-in for Intel Macs, requiring OS X 10.5 or later. They are working on updates for OS X 10.4 and PowerPC Macs.

http://meatscience.net/

Discuss Meatscience Convolution Reverb and the Open IR Library in our Effects forum.

After some cajoling and discussion and pleading the powers at be at Mac OS X Audio have given me a slice of the front page! I welcome this opportunity and do not take the responsibility lightly. What you can expect from me are some interviews I’ve conducted with various audio professionals, teachers and all around interesting people, reviews and maybe some opinion. Again I thank the admins for letting me write here and I look forward to connecting this aural world we all in habit.

I really like to hear back from people. If there is anything you’d like to see or have any requests on interviews or want me to write about a particular topic please message me in the forum. Better yet post a thread about it in the Site Matters Section!

Finally if you’d like to know a little bit more about me and my professional life please check out my website.

XILS-lab, a new music software company, is proud to announce its first product. The XILS 3 is a new matrix-style virtual modular synthesizer. Based on the architecture of the legendary EMS VCS3 synth, the XILS 3 is capable of creating both ‘classic’ sounds and totally new ones.

The XILS 3‘s matrix design is capable of more than 450 connection permutations, offering more routing possibilities than any other commercially available virtual synthesizer.

In addition, a built-in sequencer, based on the EMS 256 sequencer, can be used to create original and complex sequences.

The XILS 3 comes with hundreds of presets that provide instant access to a broad range of sounds  and styles ranging from modern electronica to classic 1970s retro and experimental. You can also program it yourself to create your own unique sounds.

The XILS 3 offers:

• Three aliasing-free oscillators: sine, ramp, square, triangle
• One 2/4 poles low pass filter (a 3 pole self-oscillating mode is also planned)
• One envelope, based on two different designs, trapezoid and ADSR
• One spring reverb
• One ring modulator
• One 128 steps sequencer
• Two output static filters
• One joy stick
• Three connection matrix
• One input gate
• One input envelope follower
• One pitch tracker
• One transient tracker
• Mono/Unison/Polyphonic playing mode, up to 18 voices of polyphony
• All parameters MIDI controllable
• Many presets made by famous sound designers (Kevin Lamb, Chris Pitman, Cliff Douse, to name but a few)

The Mac version of the XILS 3 requires OSX 10.3.9 or later. It comes in VST, Audio Unit, and RTAS (Protools 7.0 and later) flavors.

The XILS 3 is now available for purchase direct from XILS-lab.

Discuss the XILS 3 in our Instruments forum.

Ohm Force announces the second edition of its “already traditional” annual video contest, this time called Ohm Studio Video Cohmpetition and offering huge prize kits made of Ohm Force plug-ins and additional products kindly offered by PureMagnetik, FXpansion, Anthem Publishing and Mutteki Media.

Five winners will be rewarded and big winner’s prize kit is worth $1,600! The Cohmpetition starts April 27th 2009 and submissions must be sent until June 6th 2009. The winners will be announced a few days later.

Contest’s participants are challenged to produce a video showing how they use the Ohm Force plug-ins in their music creation/production process, focusing on real use cases, tips and tricks, etc. Cohmpetition entries can be the traditional ‘video tutorial’ format, a ‘hands on’ overview, or even just you (or you and your band, partners, friends) showing how do you use the Ohm Force plug-ins in your music, in real life (an example). The more real, useful and interesting, the better; so the more will be your chances to put your hands in one of those cool prize kits.

Still thinking about it? Think about this: The instant-prize. All accepted submissions already win 1 Ohm Force plug-in of choice, for free, no strings attached. So you see it’s not about winners and losers, it’s about having some fun with something we all love to do: Make music!

Cohmpetition rules and prize descriptions can be found at the Ohm Force Blog.

Discuss Ohm Force plug-ins in our Effects forum.

BIAS, Inc. announced today that all six professional audio processing plug-ins from the Master Perfection Suite, will also be available separately as retail editions. The Master Perfection Suite is aimed at musicians, recording and mastering engineers, audio and video editors, sound designers and other audio professionals.

Repli-Q is a linear phase spectral matching/balancing plug-in, which is designed to analyze, edit, and compare the spectral content of audio recordings. Once analysis has taken place, the spectral characteristics of one recording may be applied to another. Repli-Q can mimic or apply an artist’s spectral “style” to your own recordings, or use it in the mastering process to give a cohesive sound to a collection of songs that may have been recorded and mixed in different locations or environments.

Like Repli-Q, both Sqweez-3 and Sqweez-5 incorporate advanced new linear phase equalization algorithms from BIAS. Sqweez-3 and Sqweez-5 both offer graphic per-band viewing/editing of threshold and EQ. Each band may be soloed and/or bypassed individually, and a convenient “auto gain” button compensates for loudness variations due to compression. Additionally, a variable “digital ceiling” slider controls the clipping headroom of the integrated soft clip function.

PitchCraft is a real-time pitch correction/transposition plug-in that also offers the ability to manipulate the signal to achieve creative effects. Professionals can rely on PitchCraft to fix out-of-tune vocals or other single voice instruments easily and with minimal artifacts, thanks to a powerful pitch-shifting algorithm.

Reveal combines seven powerful tools in a single plug-in interface — Oscilloscope, Peak and RMS Power History, Spectrogram, Pan Power, Spectral Analysis, Lissajous Phase Scope and Peak and RMS Level Meters. An “all” view displays every tool in a single window.

SuperFreq offers a powerful suite of mastering-quality 4, 6, 8 & 10-band parametric graphic equalizers with everything for professional caliber equalization, including -18dB to +18dB Gain Values; 0.1 to 30 “Q” (bandwidth) values; sweepable frequencies from 20Hz to 20kHz, individual band bypass buttons; 24dB stereo input/output meters; and filters including Peak, Notch, High Shelf, Low Shelf, High Cut, and Low Cut.

Featuring waveform and graph displays and a suite of advanced parameter controls, GateEx effectively removes signals below an assignable threshold while the integrated downward expander helps reduce residual unwanted content.

The Master Perfection single editions will be available in April from $59 to $149 US SRP through authorized BIAS resellers and distributors worldwide, and directly from BIAS. The entire Master Perfection Suite is also available separately for $599 US SRP. Master Perfection Suite is also included as part of the Peak Pro XT package. Visit the BIAS web site for additional details including free 14-day trials.

Discuss the Master Perfection single editions in our Effects forum.