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Behringer has introduced Vintage, its first software synth plugin.

As its name suggests, this is modelled on the classic analogue synths of the ‘70s and ‘80; unlike many of Behringer’s hardware synths, though, it isn’t a direct emulation of any specific product. The ‘wooden’ end cheeks are there to emphasise the plugin’s all-round ‘vintageness’, and the interface is scalable.

In addition, you get a couple of oscillators with hard sync, two LFOs, a pair of filters and the same number of envelopes.

They say that “Vintage is packed with all the features you need to effortlessly get those lush, classic synth tones that made the 70s and 80s roar, or you can also create your own wild patches!”

Features:

• Sine, square, saw, and noise waveforms
• Lowpass, bandpass, highpass, and notch modes
• Dual LFO with controls for rate, attack delay and retrig
• Synthesizer engine based on meticulous modelling of the analog circuitry of legendary vintage synthesizers
• Carefully crafted UI for intuitive sound sculpting and vast sonic possibilities
• Two high-quality oscillators with hard sync function and selectable waveform: sine, square, saw, noise and sub-oscillator
• Pulse width modulation of square wave oscillator
• Two versatile filters featuring 12/24 dB switchable lowpass, bandpass, highpass, notch and formant modes, plus selectable drive curves for lush harmonic saturation
• Filter ADSR controls are easily accessible on the main UI and a flexible routing scheme allows for serial or parallel filtering
• Noise generator with Color knob controlling low pass cut-off
• Following the filters two amplitude modules allows for panning and levelling with controllable ADSR envelope
• Powerful dual LFO to modulate Oscillator, Filters and Amplifiers. The two LFOs have separate controls for rate, attack, delay, retrig and waveform, which encompass triangle, sine, random and square wave with pulse width control

Behringer Vintage is a free download, with the company encouraging users to support the Playing for Change Foundation. It runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU formats.  The Behringer Vintage link is currently down.

Meet AstroLab, Arturia’s greatest hits in a stage keyboard with 34 instruments, 10 synth engines and 1300 presets.

After teasing a mysterious announcement across its social media channels over the weekend, Arturia has announced a new product at a livestream event this evening, the AstroLab.

AstroLab is a stage keyboard equipped with more than 1300 sounds from Arturia’s Analog Lab software, a sound library that features an extensive selection of presets from both the Pigments synth and the company’s V Collection, a comprehensive collection of vintage synth emulations.

This means that – in a single keyboard – it gives you access to acoustic sounds, like piano and strings; classic stage piano sounds, like Rhodes, Wurli and Clavinet; vintage synths sounds, like CS-80, DX7, Emulator II & Jupiter-8; organ sounds, like B-3 and Farfisa; string synth sounds, like Solina; West Coast and East Coast modular sounds; and more.

AstroLab’s concept combines Arturia’s ‘Lab keyboards, V Collection instruments & sound banks into a holistic system.

The Arturia AstroLab gives you instant access to presets from a 34 instruments, including:

• ARP2600 V
• Augmented GRAND PIANO
• Augmented STRINGS
• Augmented VOICES
• B-3 V
• Buchla Easel V
• Clavinet V
• CMI V
• CS-80 V
• CZ V
• DX7 V
• Emulator II V
• Farfisa V
• JUN-6 V
• JUP-8 V
• KORG MS-20 V
• Matrix 12 V
• Mini V
• Modular V
• OP-Xa V
• Piano V
• Pigments
• Prophet-5 V
• Prophet-VS V
• Sampler
• SEM V
• Solina V
• SQ80 V
• Stage-73 V
• Synclavier V
• Synthi V
• Vocoder V
• Vox Continental V
• Wurli

AstroLab’s 61-key, semi-weighted keyboard is equipped with channel aftertouch, and sits below a beautifully designed interface based around a circular display that also acts as a rotary encoder. Two additional banks of rotaries operate macro controls for the AstroLab’s sounds and its 12 onboard effects, which include delay, reverb, chorus, phaser, distortion and more.

The keyboard is kitted out with an arpeggiator, chord and scale modes (that work in conjunction with its 61 LEDs above the keys) and a 32-bar looper, in addition to a vocoder engine that can be used with an external microphone. AstroLab’s 1300+ sounds can be split across the keyboard or layered together in multitimbral patches.

In addition to AstroLab Connect, a mobile app for browsing presets and purchasing new sounds, AstroLab comes bundled with Arturia’s Analog Lab Pro software which can be used to access more sounds, customize the keyboard’s sound library and assign custom macros. Owners of Arturia’s software instruments can also go beyond Analog Lab’s four macro controls to design customized patches on the computer to be loaded on to the keyboard.

As for connectivity, AstroLab is equipped with both WiFi and Bluetooth for hooking up with its companion apps, USB-C and USB-A ports, MIDI In/Out, a stereo line output and a headphone output. You’ll also find a stereo combo input for running a microphone into the keyboard, along with jacks for sustain and expression pedals.

Official AstroLab overview:

Features:

• 61-note semi-weighted keyboard with piano-size keys and aftertouch
• 10 sound engines
• Virtual Analog
• Samples
• Wavetable
• FM
• Granular
• Physical modelling
• Vector Synthesis
• Harmonic
• Phase distortion
• Vocoder
• Over 1300 in-built sounds
• More than 10.000 sounds via Arturia software
• Navigation wheel & screen for easy browsing
• 10 Preset Buttons for quick sound access
• 4 macro controls for quick editing
• Brightness
• Timbre
• Time
• Movement
• 12 insert FX
• 4 dedicated knobs to control FX including dedicated Delay/Reverb
• Multis/Keyboard Split
• MIDI IN i/o, balanced stereo input, sustain, expression, aux 1 & 2 pedals
• USB-C connection and USB-A host
• Bluetooth audio input and WiFi for wireless control
• Arpeggiator, MIDI Looper, Chord & Scale modes

Arturia AstroLab Demo:

AstroLab is priced at $1999. Find out more on Arturia website.

Arturia teases mysterious extraterrestrial announcement to be revealed at livestream event: ‘25 years, and beyond’

French manufacturer Arturia has teased a mysterious announcement to be unveiled at an “exclusive livestream event” scheduled for Tuesday April 9^th, in celebration of their 25th anniversary.

“25 years, and beyond,” the teaser reads, accompanied by a video of an astronaut floating in space. “A new era awaits, and you’re invited to witness its dawn”.

You can view the official debut via the embed above. Prior to the event, the video will display a countdown until it goes live.

Speculation in the comments is rife, with many hoping for an addition to the company’s well-loved Brute line of hardware synthesizers, or a Mk3 version of its popular KeyLab MIDI keyboard.

The livestream event will commence at 6PM CEST on April 9th. They haven’t officially announced anything yet. When we know more, so will you.