WORLD OF MUSIC ; PORTABLE KEYBOARD - Latest Portable Music Keyboards, Synthesizers and Music News

u-he let us know that they’ve released Filterscape 1.5, an update that the company say offers improved performance, new analog-modeled filters and more.

The three plug-ins in the bundle are:

• Filterscape FX:
  • Multi-band morphing EQ with various serial and parallel options for the 4 bands.
  • 2 multi-mode filters with blendable lowpass, bandpass, highpass and notch outputs.
  • Tempo-synced stereo delay.
  • Modulation via MIDI, 2 LFOs, 2 step sequencers, the 4 envelope followers.
  • Selectable module routing, including filters in the delay path and post-delay envelope following.
• Filterscape Q6, the dynamic specialist:
  • 6-band morphing EQ including low shelf, 4 peak bands, high shelf.
  • Simpler user interface with larger EQ window and more prominent envelope followers.
  • Reduced to the max: no extra filters, LFOs, sequencers or chorus / delay.
• Filterscape VA, the virtual analog synthesizer:
  • Polyphonic multi-band morphing EQ with various serial and parallel options for the 4 bands. Familiar architecture: 2 wavetable oscillators with FM and ring modulator, noise, sub-oscillator.
  • New lowpass, bandpass or highpass analogue filter models, 2, 3 or 4-pole variants.
  • 3 LFOs, 3 ADSR envelopes with additional Fall / Rise parameter.
  • 16-step arpeggiator / sequencer with up to 6 voices per step, additional modulation lane.

Find out details on the u-he website.

SoundBetter’s Butterfly Effect plugin is a vibey ambient reverb that can create instant meditative music from your melodic playing

Designed “to be felt more than heard”, Butterfly Effect is a new ambient reverb plugin that’s designed to generate pad-style beds from your melodic musings.

One obvious starting point would be to put it on a piano track – start playing and you will instantly get the kind of meditative music that fills all those ‘sleep’ and ‘concentration’ playlists. Butterfly Effect can also drive overtones and create cinematic sweeps from synth pads and strings, or add shimmer to clean guitars.

There are three ambient reverb engines that can be tweaked using various parameters that are spread across Particles, Filter, Blur, Motion and Space sections. The idea seems to be that the Butterfly Effect will act as a kind of musical partner, reacting to your playing in key and time.

Butterfly Effect plugin runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats and is available now for the introductory price of $74 (regular price will be $149). Find out more and download a demo on the SoundBetter website.

Now, Toybox has something new for you to play with.

Already known for its Reaktor packs, Toybox has now released its first plugin, and the good news is that it is free.

Thump One is a free synth plugin that blends a glitchy wavetable engine with a Roland supersaw-style oscillator.

Thump One is an easy to use music synthesizer plugin. It is a two-engine synth that features a glitchy wavetable oscillator and an emulation of the supersaw oscillator from the Roland JP8000. Stack these two elements together and you should be able to create kick drums, basses and lead sounds.

The supplied set of wavetables is based on both clean and processed analogue kick drums. The Kick engine that houses them also offers a saturation and filtering circuit, plus a Buzz circuit that can create a ‘broken speaker cone’ effect.

The supersaw engine, known as Layer, offers a selection of operating modes that can configure the oscillator to play in intervals and add various amounts of cross-modulation. The upshot of this is that you can create everything from scuzzy, retro synth sounds to glitches or plain old noise.

Further sound designing can be carried out using the envelopes. There’s one for each key parameter, and an automatic curve feature should make shaping a breeze.

The interface is straightforward, and there are 150 presets to get you started.

PC and Mac users can download Thump One for free in VST/AU formats, and there is also an iPad version that costs $4/£4.

Find out more on the Toybox website.