Welcome to the latest edition of our TabMuse music technology news digest. It gives us the opportunity to cover a few fresh stories and product announcements worthy of your interest. If you want to check out the last digest, simply click on the following link.
Spitfire LABS brings High-Quality Free Instrument Samples to You
Spitfire Audio continues to be one of the top sample library purveyors in the industry. We previously reviewed their BT Phobos and Hans Zimmer Percussion products. HZP made a vital impact on the new Church of Hed album, Sandstoned.
Recently, the company announced a new initiative, Spitfire LABS. Its purpose is to provide top of the line instrument samples for free. Spitfire calls this program “an infinite series of software instruments.” This is exciting stuff, especially considering the quality of their work.
Spitfire Audio’s LABS offers great sampled instruments for free. Image copyright Spitfire Audio.
The first two instruments were released late last week. Soft Piano uses samples of a piano where a piece of soft felt was placed between the hammer and the strings. The other instrument is Strings, leveraging a recording of a small chamber group using a host of vintage mics.
I am in promo mode for the new Church of Hed album, so I still need to download the instruments. Expect a review of both sometime in the future. Nonetheless, major props to Spitfire Audio for debuting their LABS program.
Audified releases SpeakUp aimed at the Voiceover Recording Market
Another excellent plugin from a top shelf music software shop, Audified’s DW Drum Enhancer received coverage earlier at TabMuse. These folks recently announced a new plugin aimed at the spoken word and voiceover market. Called SpeakUp, it promises to add clarity to both voiceovers and music tracks using speech.
SpeakUp includes two separate plugins. SpeakUp Sensor is aimed at enhancing voice tracks, while SpeakUp Performer works with projects including both voice and music. Those of you producing YouTube shows and/or podcasts need to explore picking up this collection.
If interested, SpeakUp is available in most popular plugin formats for an introductory price of $99. Its regular cost is $129. Buy many for all your friends!
Eventide introduces Blackhole for the NKS Standard
Eventide’s Blackhole reverb plugin is perfect for music projects with a strong sense of outer space. We reviewed it earlier this year. Now Jon Anderson’s favorite effects shop introduced a version of Blackhole compatible with Native Instruments NKS.
NKS stands for Native Kontrol Standard, which is typically supported by NI’s line of high-grade hardware controllers. So if you own a MASCHINE or one of the KOMPLETE KONTROL keyboards, prepare to blast into deep space. NI’s Ray Chemo commented on Eventide’s support for NKS.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Eventide, a brand famous for their high-quality, creative FX, on the NKS platform and deeply integrated into our KOMPLETE KONTROL and MASCHINE eco-systems,” said Chemo. If you want to pick up Blackhole, which supports most popular plugin formats, expect to pay $69. It is also part of Eventide’s Anthology XI, which includes pretty much the entire collection of Eventide audio plugins.
Frankly, all this NKS support makes me want to get my own NI controller!
[…] to get a feel for Spitfire’s work. We mentioned Spitfire Audio LABS in passing in a previous TabMuse Synth News Digest, so here’s our full […]