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Classic ‘80s AMS delay/pitch shifter and Manley tube preamp plugins come to the UAD platform

Universal Audio’s UAD Software v9.15 update might not be as significant as some previous ones, but if you are a fan of either the AMS DMX 15-80 S delay/pitch shifter or the Manley Tube Preamp, your powered plugin ship just came in.

Launched in 1978, the AMS DMX 15-80 S was a digital device used on albums by the likes of Joy Division, Nirvana, Brian Eno and Prince, and can be used to provide that distinctive ‘80s-era space and depth.

The UAD version adds the likes of Tempo Sync, Dual VCO mode, Dry/Wet Mix, and more. It costs $299.

The Manley Tube Preamp cost $149, is designed to add “smooth clarity and front-end tube detail,” with Unison technology enabling you to recreate the impedance characteristics and gain staging sweet spots of the original’s Class-A circuit. These promise additional punch and tone while tracking, and you can also apply the sound of the preamp across multiple channels.

Find out more about the AMS DMX-1580 and Manley Tube Preamp on the Universal Audio website.

Future Retro’s eye-popping Vectra synth is now available for pre-order. With its 29-note capacitive touch keyboard and prominent joysticks, the new Future Retro Vectra looks quite unlike any other synth on the market.

The Vectra offers plenty of features: four oscillators, white and pink noise sources, four ring modulators, a four-channel mixer, five LFOs, six morphing envelopes, six primary multimode analogue filter types, a main analogue VCA, and numerous internal modulation routings and VCAs controlling modulation amounts.

Future Retro says that the Vectra nods to synthesis techniques of the past while bringing some new ideas to the table. The digital oscillators offer standard analogue modelled waveforms and a further 500 digital waveforms, and we’re told that a wide variety of sounds can be created.

In addition, there’s an arpeggiator and sequencer, while standard MIDI ports mean that Vectra can easily be hooked up to other gear in your studio.

Although the interface is definitely unique, it’s designed to be easy to use, with the assignable joysticks making it truly hands-on. Buttons, knobs, and a central display are also present.

Find out more on the Future Retro website.

The Future Retro Vectra is available to pre-order now for $1,100. A $550 deposit is required to place a pre-order. Shipping is expected to begin in spring 2022.

With the Black Friday music deals machine starting to kick into gear, Slate Digital has announced that you can currently download every single one of its sample packs for free. These are all royalty-free, so you can happily release any music that you make with them.

Grab these royalty-free sounds while you can. There are 16 packs in total, including four new ones that cover contemporary R&B, pop, ambient electronic and modern guitar. Other packs deal with (among other things) vocals, EDM and classic drum machines.

Taken together, the packs provide you with thousands of grooves, hits, one-shots, vocal chops, melodies, guitars, keyboards, drums and more, all created by top session players, singers and producers.

Find out more on the Slate Digital website.

The packs will be available for free until 31 December 2021. You will need to create a Slate Digital account in order to download them.