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

Waves’ team must be feeling particularly generous this week, as the software developer announces that it is releasing a bundle of seven free plugins that offers a convolution reverb, FM synth and several emulations of vintage studio gear. Plus, all future updates are free.

Inside you’ll find Lil Tube, a tube saturation emulator with a simple and intuitive interface designed to imbue signals with the warmth, fatness and texture characteristic of vacuum tube-based gear.

This is joined by V-EQ3, a “natural-sounding” emulation of the revered Neve 1073 preamp, and V-Comp, a software version of the Neve 2254 Limiter-Compressor that Waves says delivers a “fat and textured” sound thanks to component-level modelling of the original hardware.

The plugin pack also contains IR Live Reverb, a convolution reverb that includes an extensive library of impulse responses for halls, rooms, plates, cathedrals and more, along with AudioTrack, a channel strip plugin that squeezes EQ, compression and gating into a single processor.

Additionally, the bundle of free software tools features Flow Motion – an FM synth plugin and GTR Solo, a somewhat dated amp simulator and effects suite.

Waves’ Free Plugin Pack also offers StudioVerse Instruments and StudioVerse Audio Effects, two plugins that give you access to Waves’ StudioVerse online preset library. This enables you open multiple instruments and effects within the StudioVerse plugins, save presets to the cloud, share these with the online community and utilize chains from other Waves users and pro producers.

Here’s What You Get in the Pack:

• StudioVerse Audio Effects (New)
• StudioVerse Instruments (New)
• Lil Tube: Sweet Analog Saturation
• IR Live: Real-World Reverb
• V-EQ3: Smooth & Musical Vintage Analog EQ
• V-Comp: Classic Vintage Compressor
• GTR Solo: Pro Effect Pedal-Style FX
• AudioTrack: All-in-One Channel Strip
• Flow Motion: Hybrid FM Synth

All of the 9 plugins are compatible with macOS and Windows and available in AAX/VST3/AU formats. Find out more on Waves’ website.

Bitwig‘s first hardware product introduced at NAMM this year is out now: Bitwig Connect 4/12.

More than an audio interface, Bitwig Connect 4/12 is a class-compliant, 4-in/12-out CV and MIDI-enabled audio interface with monitor- and DAW-control functionalities and a unique Bitwig Mode. As a bridge between software and external gear, Bitwig Connect is the perfect device to mark our debut into hardware.

Key Features:

The Ultimate Studio Sidekick.
Bitwig Connect is a three-in-one audio/MIDI interface, monitor and DAW controller. Six mode buttons allow its 360-degree, touch-sensitive dial to adjust interface parameters or control software. It can set input gain, regulate the volume levels for two sets of monitors and a pair of headphones, or even move the playhead and control any Bitwig Studio parameter with exceptional resolution.

The front panel gives the user immediate visual feedback, with accurate input and output meters and a ring of 32 RGB LEDs around the dial to visualize parameter values and automation data. Plus, gain settings are accessible and saved within Bitwig Studio, to pick up right where you left off next time you open it.

Bring Bitwig Studio to Life.
Connect’s unique Bitwig Mode puts Bitwig Studio at your fingertips with DAW controller functionalities. Seamless integration makes writing automation, fine-tuning settings, and navigating the timeline in Bitwig Studio with Connect’s main dial intuitive and precise. Get quick access to any control with the high-resolution dial by hovering over it with your cursor, and lock a selected parameter to Bitwig Connect by double-tapping. The LED ring indicates its current task by matching the color of the parameter or track in Bitwig Studio so you’ll never get lost.

CV Connects the Best of Both Worlds.
With two DC-coupled inputs and four outputs easily accessible via 3.5 mm minijacks directly on the front panel, Bitwig Connect is a superior choice for musicians with CV-enabled hardware. That means it goes both ways: To external devices from Bitwig Studio or other programs, and from hardware sequencers and modulation signals into the software realm.

Thanks to factory calibration, Bitwig Connect plays pitch-perfect and without offset with Bitwig Studio right out of the box. And since jacks can also be used for audio signals, they can act as additional ins and outs for line-level signals, making them useful to all types of users.

Audio Quality at the Top of Its Class.
The hardware inside ensures pristine recordings with every take. Bitwig Connect uses balanced connections, a premium mic preamp, and high-quality instrument/line inputs feeding into tried-and-true AKM converters capable of up to 192kHz, 24-bit resolution. That means the user can capture any source with ultra-low noise floors.

Ready To Go.
Connect’s robust steel chassis is built to endure travel and performance. USB-2 bus powering with the USB-C connector means there’s no external power supply needed, so it can accompany you from the studio to the stage. With hardware this tough, you have a companion for life.

The Story Behind Bitwig Connect 4/12.
The concept behind Bitwig Connect was driven by two key goals: to create an audio interface that seamlessly integrates hardware and software, and to offer a way to physically interact with Bitwig Studio.

Bitwig Connect bridges the user’s hardware devices, like synths and modular systems, and Bitwig Studio’s comprehensive Hardware Out tools (CV in/out, Analog Clock, MIDI CC, etc.). Its bidirectional CV capabilities extend Bitwig Studio’s unique modulation system and The Grid to your hardware, and vice versa. Bitwig Connect makes this connectivity seemingly effortless with plug-and-play simplicity and visual feedback.

Cherry Audio has introduced Yellowjacket, a new software synth that emulates the 1978 EDP Wasp synthesizer.

Designed by the late Chris Huggett, the EDP Wasp won over fans with its quirky design, completely flat two-octave membrane keyboard, distinctive, simple-but-effective nasal sound, ease of use (with battery-powered, built-in-speaker portability).

Cherry Audio promise that their Yellowjacket has “faithfully recreated [Wasp’s] unique buzzy tone and drone”, yet enhancing it with 16-voice polyphony, an emulation of the integrated speaker (with adjustable hiss and hum), built-in effects including reverb, delay, phaser, chorus, and a new Octafuzz distortion, an advanced arpeggiator with probability and humanization controls, and a multimode filter.

And, free of that revolutionarily cost-cutting keyboard there’s never been a more playable Wasp. Yellowjacket now offers diatonic scales, transpose functions, a customizable pressure control, and polyphonic aftertouch support for expressive play.

And – for the first time on a Wasp – presets!

Plus, in a smart nod to the modular mono-to-poly nature of the original system’s Wasp-plus-Caterpillar set up, there are multi-voice modes that chain adjustable “mini synth panels” to provide more complex tones, stereo effects, single-fingered chords and arpeggiated patterns.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

“Cherry Audio has reproduced the singular buzzy tone and drone of this legendary monophonic, digital/analog hybrid, from its quirky oscillators to its distinctive filter. Further influenced by the pioneering spirit of its inventors, we’ve added several innovative features to Yellowjacket, reenvisioning what could have been. These include elements of other EDP instruments, unison and 16-voice polyphony, emulation of the Wasp’s integrated speaker, an expanded multimode filter, and a new-to-Cherry advanced arpeggiator with probability and humanise controls.

We’ve replicated the look of the notorious touch-capacitive yellow and black keyboard of the original, enhanced it with diatonic scales and transpose, and extended it with customizable pressure control with support for expressive channel and polyphonic aftertouch. Perhaps the most exciting feature of Yellowjacket is directly inspired by EDP’s innovative pre-MIDI system that allowed multiple synths to be chained together: multi-voice modes that add adjustable “mini synths” that can provide subtle or extreme variation in tone, single-fingered chords and arpeggiated patterns, lush stereo effects, and more.

Yellowjacket is genuinely unlike any plugin we have created to date.”

Features:

• All aspects of the 1978 EDP Wasp monophonic synthesizer have been modeled in detail, and enhanced with several new features
• Over 270 presets
• Monophonic, unison, polyphonic (4, 8, or 16 voices), and cycle voice modes with glide
• Multi voice modes for unison, poly, and cycle that add per-note variation by adding three additional “mini synth” panels, each with their own pitch, pan, filter frequency, VCA Envelope Attack, and VCA Envelope Release settings.
• Quick-access Multi voice panel presets such as Hard Panned, Slightly Detuned, Well Worn, and more to simulate subtle or extreme variations between multiple chained synths
• Dual panel views with a main Edit view for synthesis controls, and an Arp/FX panel with extended features
• Two distinct oscillators with ramp, pulse, square wave, and an enhanced modulated pulse-wave based on the EDP Gnat
• Oscillator sync
• Mixer for both oscillators and a white noise signal generator
• Syncable control oscillator (LFO) with free and retrigger modes, and sine, ramp, sawtooth, square, noise, or random waveforms for pitch, filter, and amp modulation
• Vintage-correct two-pole 12dB state-variable filter based upon the CD4069 logic chip of the original, with lowpass, bandpass, or highpass, with an extra notch mode, and the “Q” resonance setting
• Two envelope generators: a VCA Envelope for volume control with a repeat function, and a Control Envelope that modulates filter cutoff frequency with positive and negative modulation, as well as looping and adjustable attack settings
• Output control with meter and settings for volume, panning, master tune, and limiter
• Support for velocity, channel aftertouch, and polyphonic aftertouch with compatible USB/MIDI controllers
• Keyboard pressure control with six modulation routings: volume, pitch, filter cutoff, mod wheel, reverb decay/mix, and an assignable control that allows a user to select any one of 29 preset synth and effects parameters
• Enhanced capacitive-style keyboard with root and diatonic scales controls, and a transpose control that quantizes notes from the USB/MIDI controller
• Multi-touch enabled (Windows only) – capacitive-style keyboard and pressure meters on the keys respond to multi-touch vertical motion on compatible touchscreen monitors and gesture-capable tablet devices such as Surface Pro.
• User-selectable pitch bend depth from 0-12 semitones
• All new and dynamic arpeggiator with Chance (step probability) and Humanise to add degrees of randomness to arpeggiated patterns. Combine with the Cycle modes and Scales to create varied patterns, even with the touch of a single key, and create transposable four-note step sequences through Multi voice panels
• Speaker effect (mono) with Hiss and Hum controls that simulates the original instrument’s onboard speaker for a lo-fi tone
• Five more studio-quality integrated effects: new Octafuzz multimode overdrive/distortion effect, 4/6/8/10-stage Phaser, Flanger/Chorus, three syncable Echo delays, and five Reverb types. Global FX Out panel with On/Off, Level, and Stereo Expand
• Standalone virtual instrument and plug-in versions included

Cherry Audio Yellowjacket Intro Video:

Yellowjacket is available now for $49.