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Did you hear this ? - The Music Composition & Sound Design Newsletter, Issue #001 -- teaser here
September 11, 2010

September Audio News

Summer is gone, now back to work !

Hi there !

Here are the latest audio news I have carefully selected for you !
For what it worth, this month has been pretty good " audio news - ly " speaking, see this :
- new audio Ipad & Ipod apps
- new free Kontakt libraries
- new cool audio plugins for post-production
- nice creative videos
- cool new audio links
- and many more !

AmpKit @ Agile Partners


Agile Partners and Peavey Electronics announce AmpKit, an iPhone amp and pedal for Iphone.

AmpKit is available in two versions:

AmpKit is a free app, available on the iTunes App Store, that comes with a Peavey ValveKing amp (clean and very-high-gain lead channels), two ValveKing cabinets (4x12 and 1x12), two pedals (Noise Gate, Elevenizer overdrive pedal), two mics (Workhorse 57 dynamic mic, Germann 87 condenser mic), and a built-in Noise & Feedback Filter.

AmpKit+ is a paid app ($19.99 in the US App Store) that includes everything in the free version PLUS some more vintage amps...

In both AmpKit and AmpKit+, an amazing array of additional gear modeled after real-world equipment is available for purchase through an in-app Gear Store. AmpKit has more than twice the number of components of other apps, with more gear coming!

You cal also create your one amps, reamp your guitar and use Soundcloud to publish your music. That said, manufacturer also adds a "not noticeable latency"...

More

Ipad Ableton Live controller @ touchAble


Everything is in the title, it seems that this Ipad App is perfectly designed for Live & live performances.

You can take the control of your Live set and play with it in Wifi. touAble allows you to mix, play instruments and pads away from your computer. Start loops, follow volume or EQs... everything live

see the demo video :



More

Funkbox @ Syntheticbits


Put a little funk in your pocket with the FunkBox vintage drum machine app from Synthetic Bits. Based on classic beatboxes from the 70s and 80s, Funkbox lets you push, tap, mix, and groove your way to some seriously funky beats on your Ipad or Iphone.
Take a look



More

Rebirth @ Propellerheads


Excellent audio news this month, one of the first soxftware groove machine I used is back... I almost started making music on a computer with Rebirth, so I'm pretty happy this very nice app is reborn ! An excellent beat making machine, very intuitive and fun... now on Iphone !

From the author " ReBirth faithfully emulates dance music's three backbone devices: The Roland TB-303 Bass synth and the Roland TR-808 and 909 drum machines. Combine these with FX units, fully featured pattern sequencers and a quick-acting, scalable iPhone interface and you'll soon be making techno on the train, trance on the tram or beats on the bus. " sexy no ?
Just see this



More

"v" apps serie @ delora


Take control of your Kyma with your Ipad. This App transfoms your Ipad into a real time wireless control surface for Kyma sound creation engine. (light versions are also available for Iphone).

More

Seline HD @ Amidio


Seline is a live performance and improvisation music instrument designed for Ipad.
It seems to be a new kind of instrument with its particular scale (Seline features the ioGrid concept. Basically, you have a scale which will never let you play bad notes) and capable of a certain amount of nuances and analysis on your playing means.
Watch the demo



More

Free electro instruments set @ sample78


Steve Bates released a set of 4 electro instruments for Kontakt (Grain Pad, Robot Pad, Gongs and Rainbow Pad instruments).
Sample78 instruments are available as free downloads for Kontakt.
Donations are most welcomed.

Download here.

Free sampled instruments @ Practical Sampling


Practical Sampling released some free instuments for Logic Audio EXS24 sampler (.exs format only)
•Toy Piano
•Toy Accordian
•Simple Guitar
•Bilhorn Organ

Download here.

They also have a bunch of other nice sounding virtual instruments such as electric piano & FM keys. Best of all their EXS instruments are very affordable (around 5 £ each) and seem to be quite realistic from what I've heard on their demos. Must follow...

More

Free Magnus Chord Organ @ Audio Genetics Lab


Audio Genetics Lab (cool name !) just released some free Kontakt patches sampled from a 70's reed organ. It is a very sounding and accurate instrument that can be easily used in any kind of music styles. Patches are clear and quite subtle (they are also pre-programmed for breath controller use. Like I said very very nice guys !)
All patches are in Kontakt 3.5 format, and require the full retail version of Kontakt. Best of all this it's free !

Download here.

Fazioli Concert Grand @ Imperfect Samples


Imperfect Samples released their huge (the hugest they say - 8 GB) Fazioli Concert Grand Kontakt library. Their demos are brilliant and appeal you to bring this patch in your cart. If you buy it tell me. Seems to worth the price (starting at 39,99 £ for basic version to 299,96 £ for complete version).

More

Sun's Erhu @ Soundemon


A 3 GB downloadable Kontakt Library that contains many performance skills of Erhu. This library contains over 4000 samples in 24Bit/96KHz resolution. Erhu is a chinese violin extremely famous and used in traditionnal music. This bank is pretty well sampled and precise. You can listen to the audio demos and buy it here.

Indian Surmandal @ Precisionsound


“Surmandal” also known as “Swarmandal” is a small Indian harp.
It is generally used to accompany vocalists playing arpeggios and notes with the right thumb in Hindustani Classical music.
The Surmandal was used in The Beatles songs "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and "Within You Without You”, plucked with a guitar pick like we have done here with the “Indian Surmandal” SampleSet.

The SampleSet contains 867 24bit WAV files.
16 programs for all versions of Steinberg HALion
16 programs for Logic EXS24
16 programs for NI Kontakt v1 and v2
2 program for NI Kontakt v3 and v4.

More

Symphobia 2 @ Project Sam


The adventure continues... with Symphobia 2.

The latest version of Symphobia is very promising, new orchestral articulations, new symphonic effects, legato ensembles and many more. It is a very good complementary Kontakt library if you already own Symphobia. Symphobia 2 is the new no-brainer library for any film, game or TV composer.

Symphobia 2 is an evolution and extension of the original Symphobia. You will have maximum possibilities when using Symphobia and Symphobia 2 together. Still, it is not required to own Symphobia in order to use Symphobia 2.

More

Fineline, Drumachine R8 & Soundberg @ Cascom


I've just discovered these free virtual instruments for Protools, and I find them very nice. Fineline is digital synth with 2 oscillators, ADSR control and classical tools.

Drumachine DR8 is a digital drumkit and is perfect for electronic music genre and early digital beats.

Soundberg is a "classic" sampler, with its build in recorder you can sample your own sounds with ease, just open the rec page and choose sample length, trigger and record. And with the modulation busses you can even do granular time and pitch shifting.

All three virtual instruments sound good, are compatible with Protools and are free !

However you have to install Pluggo Runtime to make it work on your DAW.

Download here.

Over 1 gigabyte of free loops & samples - PLP Taster @ Peace Love Productions


Good news for those of you guys who use loops & samples in their productions. Peace Love Productions have just released the PLP Taster. The PLP taster is a kind of "Try before you buy" loops & samples library in many different genres including Hip Hop, Rock, Trance, Electro House, Deep House, Chillout, Trance, Techno, Dj Scratches, Industrial, Ambient, and more...

Sign up and verify your email address to download the 2 .zip archives.

More.

Blue Cat's Freeware Plugins Pack @ Blue Cat Audio


Tested and approved. I recommend you this great package of free plugins for Protools.

All Blue Cat Audio freeware audio plug-ins gathered together in a bundle. Save download time and get them all in a single package.

The bundle contains a wide range of modulation effects, an EQ and analysis tools to get you started with your favorite Digital Audio Workstation, for free! This bundle is available for Mac and PC, in VST, RTAS, Audio Unit and DirectX plugin formats, for both 32 and 64-bit architectures (for the platforms that support them). Enjoy!

Download it here.

More free plugins for Protools on Mac OS X ?

Percussiv' @ Acousticsamples


I've just listened to the demos available on Acousticsamples wesite... I must say I've been blown. It sounds very realistic and natural. I think it will be in my shopping list soon. Take an ear and listen to their demos it really worth it. Price is fair : 69 €. The only heck for me is that it's not available for Protools...

Percussiv' is based on the detail of each instrument so that each one of them is playable and sounds realistic.
- 15 Detailed Instruments
- 1,16Gb sample bank, around 4000 samples no loops Recorded at 24/88,2Khz downsampled to 24/44.1khz,
- 4 to 8 Round Robins,
- A lot of velocity layers,
- Detailed instruments with the most common strokes, each one is easy to play.
- Advances functionnalities to be able to change the volume, pitch and pan of each instrument (only in the kontakt version),
- Instrument list : Agogo, cowbell, berimbao, bongos, 2 claves, congas, chinese gong (tamtam), guiro, 3 shakers, cabasa, tambourine, brazilian tamborin, triangle, udu drums, 6 woodblocks...

More.

ToyBox 2 @ Pure Magnetik


ToyBox 2 is a collection of multi-sampled toys, speaking devices, handmade wooden instruments, classic noisemakers & battery-powered plastic gizmos.

Toybox 2 includes some familiar sounds that may inspire you to drink apple juice with
your animal crackers. This Micropak starts off with a Ukelele, Wooden Xylophone, Maracas, Jingle Bells, and classic Casio MT-30 tones, which should all evoke some childhood nostalgia...

More.

Battery Update & Komplete 7 @ Native Instruments


Battery is now available in version 3.1 to all registered users. Downloaded a few days ago. I must it is a lot more stable...

Here.

Komplete 7 is the latest version of this virtual instruments bundle all in one toolbox...

Compared to Komplete 6, Komplete 7 includes 17 additional products, providing you 3,000 additional sounds with 30 GB additional samples. Plus, it comes with a $60 / 50 € e-voucher to further expand Komplete 7 with single products from the Komplete Instruments and Effects range.

Full version is $559 / 499 € - upgrade is $229 / 199 €. So it's still a very interesting package for all composers.

New instruments are :

ABBEY ROAD 60s DRUMS
ACOUSTIC REFRACTIONS
BERLIN CONCERT GRAND
NEW YORK CONCERT GRAND
RAMMFIRE
REAKTOR PRISM
REAKTOR SPARK
REFLEKTOR
SCARBEE A-200
SCARBEE CLAVINET/PIANET
SCARBEE MARK I
SCARBEE MM-BASS
THE FINGER
TRAKTOR'S 12
UPRIGHT PIANO
VIENNA CONCERT GRAND
VINTAGE ORGANS

More.

Auto-Align @ Sound Radix


Discovered through this post Auto-Align is Sound Radix 's first released plug-in.

Auto-Align is designed to automatically time-align recorded tracks in multi-microphone recording setup, sample accurate. It makes me think to remind you to not hesitate to submit your favorite plugins, audio tricks or comments.

Demo here



Nice videos of the month :


Die hard battery VS Gary Numan





Piano Stairs





To finish I just want to thank every person who supports me & my work, to thank more I give you a very nice link to all of those who like movie sound secrets....

Here.

Peace.

Sam.

If for any reason, you want to contact me, please feel free to do so, at this address : contact@music-sound-lab.com



Sonic Big Bang


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