New Necromare plug-ins
Necromare has released some more free sample-based VST instruments for Windows.
What can I say I love building instruments. I think it’s part of being a composer, to finally make the sounds you need and want. I keep coming up with ideas for instruments and there seems to be no end. I already have 50 plus most in the testing stages. Looks like I will be releasing them well into next year.
New Necromare plug-ins
- The Panning Piano – Simple piano that automatically pans left and right slowly as you play. Good for filing out a mix. The last octave includes some piano screeches.
- Piano Harp – Imagine if you played the piano like a harp? What would it sound like? It would sound like this VST great sound for mystical or romantic moods. Included in the last octave are Gliss samples for effect.
- Simple Acoustic Guitar – Straight Foward guitar. Good for picking or sketch work.
- Soft Mallet Xylophone – The xylophone played with a soft mallet. Velocity sensitive over 4 octaves.
- Toys – Toy Piano, a small scale piano with a tiny sound + an electronic children’s piano with baby xylophones instrument.
- VL-1 Drum – Drum sounds from the Casio VL-1 keyboard/calculator.
- Zeboo Drum Kit – Acoustic drum kit, GM Mapped. The last octaves are samples of Zeboo himself!
- Lucivier – The keyboard produces a celesta like tone while pipes produce flute like sounds at the same time. The bottom octave and the last are the sounds produced by using the three pedals on the bottom.
- Kazoo – The only instrument you need little to no experience to play. So why not try a VST. It’s a bit harsh but fun to knock around with.
- Gamelan Music – Three Gamelan instruments: Reyong, Gangsa and Calung.
- Electric Bass – Simple Electric Bass, keys are velocity sensitive to give a short note on harder strikes. The upper octaves include a classic bass slide.
- Whale Song – Made from CC whale song files. Includes a whale purr, a trumpet, gentle underwater sound fx, and more.
- Sinsonic Drums – Like many old toys from the past some have actually been used by pros. Mattel Synsonic drums have been used by kraftwerk and others. This is a knock off the original pays tribute to our toys of a bygone era.
- Basement Piano – Most homes might have one of these lurking in there corner basement. An old upright that you may have learned to play piano on or liked to beat on. Either way this pleasant piano will convey a warm nostalgic sound for your next tune.
- Southern Banjo – For some there is nothing like the sound of a picked banjo. for others they can do without. This is an attempt to faithfully recreate the sound of a great instrument.
The Necromare instruments are available as freeware VST plug-ins for Windows PC.
More information: Necromare
Cheeze Machine – a free VST plug
Cheeze Machine is free VST plug-in for PC and Mac (AU).
“Cheeze Machine emulates the classic string ensemble sound, made popular by such classic synths as the Crumar Performer or the Arp Solina.”
Cheeze Machine Features
- This little synth generates sound by feeding a simple, saw-like waveform, into a chorus ensemble emulator, a 6-stages phaser, and a Reverb
- Up to 32 notes polyphony, with the same note stealing algorithm as EP-Station
- Fully midi-controlled
- Supports Doepfer Pocket Control midi controller
- Available with 2 different GUI’s
Visit: BigTick
Note: In order to download Cheeze Machine plug-in you have to register.
New compressor effect released – the SKWOSH
whiteLABEL unveils SKWOSH, a VST Compressor Effect for Windows.
“SKWOSH, is a versatile compressor offering 4 main modes of hard and soft; compression and signal-boosting. Envelope following comes in a choice of peak or 2 RMS modes with optional peak-hold and simple or complex follow modes.
The sidechain can be either internal (1&2) for regular stereo operation, or external; (3&4) for keyed operation. The sidechain filter offers high, low and band-pass with upto 4 poles for a maximum response or 24dB/octave. There is of course a monitoring switch to hear the filtering applied to the sidechain signal too. “
Features:
- Output wet / dry mix control.
- Input / output flip: 1&2 / 3&4.
- Chain audition: on / off.
- Output limiter: on / off.
- Character: clean / static drive / dynamic drive – with controls for filth level and drive factor.
- Lookahead: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 40ms with additional match / half / double modes.
- Key filter: LP / BP / HP: 6/12/18/24 dB/oct – 80hz to 8khz.
- Sidechain: internal or external (2 stereo inputs).
- Operation: hard knee / soft knee / hard boost / soft boost.
- Envelope: peak / RMS 1 / RMS 2 …
Price: £25
Updates from eaReckon – BloXpander & EAReverb
eaReckon has released version 1.2.2 of BloXpander, a VST host designed for live situations.
Changes in BloXpander v1.2.2
- Far more stable authorization process. BloXpander should not need multiple authorizations anymore.
- A new button has been added to easily clear the search box (Plugins Case).
- Subscenes can now optionally store and call plugins’ state.
- More anti-virus friendly loading procedures.
- Checks for Scene Control Configuration validity on start-up.
- Using the same MIDI input port for both “Scene Control” and “Main Controller”, it is now possible to assign Basic Control elements via MIDI learn (as prior 1.2.0).
- Fixed Unicode typo issues (‘Rename Preset’ input box).
eaReckon has also announced EAReverb, a true stereo VST reverb for Windows.
EAReverb stands for “Earthy Algorithmic Reverb”. This reverb is 100% algorithmic and does not use any IR files. Early reflections are built “on-the-fly” depending on your own settings. The main “Size” parameter has an impact on both early reflections and late reverb… Switching from a size to another will immediately put your music and/or sounds in a place that matches your choice.
Then you can tweak early reflections using 5 easy parameters + 15 advanced but still comprehensive settings. Finally, you can set the late reverb so it matches your needs. “BNC” and “Warp” settings will add the extra randomness your late reverb deserves. For even more realism, you can inject some of the early reflections into the late reverb.
Most of all, EAReverb provides a natural sounding, “earthy” reverb effect. It is able to simulate the subtle reflections of a very small room as well as very large spaces. It is suitable for music and sound design.
EAReverb has been designed and “fine tuned by ear” to sound the most possible natural… Though, the plethora of parameters should be enough to place your music in a twisted environment if you really want it!
EAReverb will be available by end of 2010. A 3-part teaser is progressively uploaded to Youtube. Parts 1 and 2 are already available.
More information: eaReckon
Last sneak before the release of NastyDLA
NastyDLA – a classic chorus echo device with tape-delay simulation.
The device enables:
- classic chorus and echo effects
- authentic signal path coloration
- tape-delay style feedback and saturation
NastyDLA – a classic chorus echo device with tape-delay simulation
Plug-in specification:
- input stage model including signal coloration and non-linearities (switchable)
- classic chorus/flanger effect with amount and rate control which automatically adopts to the delay line configuration
- frequency balancing filter for dead-easy overall tone adjustments in the feedback path
- two different feedback color modes
- feedback circuit and control which supports resonance up to self-oscillation
- standard DSP 12dB high-pass filter
- custom “tape style” low-pass filtering
- sophisticated “tape hiss” noise simulation
- negative or positive pre-delay
- comprehensive tape dynamics simulation taken from the core of the award winning FerricTDS
- the dynamics offers a slight audio ducking effect (switchable)
- two independent delay lines with up to 3sec delay time and sync to host
- delay time modulation with two different modes
- additional phase distortion (switchable)
- audio level metering display
- dry/wet controls plus “wet only” option
- power / bypass switch
- all parameters available through host automation
NastyDLA is a Windows x32 release for VST compatible applications and will be available as freeware early November.
Short demo of the UnoFM
This is a quick demo of UnoFM – a free VST instrument plug-in for Window:
UnoFM is a simple but effective and good sounding FM synth, it sounds like 80′ Yamaha FM 4 Operator.
See the XSynth site for the download.
Sync modulation synthesizer instrument for Windows
Fsynthz has released 15E, a sync modulation synthesizer instrument for Windows.
This time the envelope does the trick. So we get a “normal” synth with six parameters enveloped. Do the double sync and other stuff… To be considered as an expected exercise on the “15″ playground.
15E features
- Designed for any random set of controls to sound good and playable.
- 3 stereo tools (used simultaneously).
- 2 dedicated operation modes for ModWheel.
- Compact GUI with tooltips on controls.
15E is available to download as a freeware VST instrument plug-in for Windows PC.
More information: Fsynthz
Vogue MK2 free standalone synth updated
Go get it 
16tone has notified us that the Vogue MK2 free standalone synth for Mac has been updated to version 1.3. This includes a stereo reverb unit.
Pricing and Availability:
Free Download
More information:
Free phaser shifter effect for Mac
Soundhack has released +phasor, a free phaser shifter effect for Mac.
Tom Erbe writes:
not a big deal – but i wrote a little phase shifter last year, and thought it would be nice to share it. it is only vst macintosh now. once i port it to au/rtas/vst mac/win i’ll probably add it to one of my freeware bundles.
Soundhack +phasor is available as a free download for Mac (VST) here.
More information: Soundhack
Steinberg demos VST Expression
VST Expression allows seamless, transparent and most importantly integrated editing of articulations, with full control over multiple articulations in the Key and Score Editors. Articulations noted in the Score Editor can be played back immediately by sample-based orchestra libraries — in real time.
DATAMASKIN
