Erica Synths teams up with Richie Hawtin on Bullfrog Educational Synth


Erica Synth has announced Bullfrog, a new educational synth, created in partnership with minimal techno producer Richie Hawtin (Plastikman).

Bullfrog is a compact modular synthesizer that offers modules for sound generation (VCO, Noise), treatment (VCF, VCA/Delay) and modulators (EG, S&H). Unlike many compact modulars, the Bullfrog is not internally normalized, meaning that it won’t make a sound unless it is patched, or by inserting voice cards into the expansion slot, which can patch internal connections or add additional features, like a sampler/looper or sequencer.

The company says that requiring the user to patch connections helps one understand both how the synth works and the principals of sound design.

”As a teenager, I felt like I was searching for the right outlet to transit my creativity and, in synthesis, I found a path,” notes Hawtin. “These memories and concepts are at the heart of our Bullfrog synthesizer. Whether someone’s experience with Bullfrog points them down a career in electronic music or not, our goal is to both nurture a passion for electronically produced sounds and promote a fun easy learning path into basic sound synthesis.”

Bullfrog will be available on 10th of August 2023. Pricing is to be announced.

LOVE by Tracktion, ‘instant ambient’ plugin


All you need is Love, says Tracktion Software, as it unveils an amorous ‘instant ambient’ plugin. Will you have an instant attraction to it?

What your DAW needs now is Love, sweet Love. That’s what Tracktion Software thinks as it launches its tenderly titled new ‘instant ambient’ plugin.

Developed by Dawesome, the core elements of Love are a shimmer effect, a granular engine and a spacey reverb. The shimmer element comprises a reverb and parallel pitch shifters for everything from subtle harmonic layering to “infinite black holes”.

The granular engine enables you to slice, dice and rearrange your audio, and then process it with timestretching, pitchshifting and granular synthesis features. There’s also the Clouds reverb that can be used for additional ethereal ambience.

The interface has been kept to a single page and designed with the aim of pleasing beginners and more seasoned sound designers alike. Intelligent randomisation means that you can lock certain parameters while rolling the dice with others, and there are also filter, delay, phaser and chorus sections.

Love can be trial free for 90 days, and is currently available for the introductory price of $36 (regular price $60). It runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU formats.

Find out more on the Tracktion website.

BLEASS introduces Voices, ‘The Ultimate Vocal Harmonizer’


BLEASS has introduced Voices, a new effect for iOS, MacOS and Windows that they describe as “The Ultimate Vocal Harmonizer”.

Bleass Voices is an audio plugin dedicated to pitching, transforming, doubling and harmonizing vocals and other monophonic sources. It offers a total of 12 pitch-shifted voices, each providing detailed control over pitch, formant, tone, width and placement.

Four of Voices’ harmonized voices can be transposed independently by up to an octave higher or lower, or can be flattened to a chosen pitch. The remaining eight voices are triggered via MIDI, transposing the input signal to match the incoming MIDI notes. Coupled with BLEASS Voices’ deep implementation of MPE, this lets you play vocal chords, and vocal solos with realistic glides, trills and embellishments.

All voices have access to the plugin’s intelligent pitch correction algorithm that forces the voices into a selected key and scale. Additionally, as well as feeding into the master output, each voice has its own independent output buss allowing you to mix and add effects to those voices as though they were standalone recordings.

And, Bleass Voices works with fundamental frequencies ranging from 66Hz (approximately C1) to 5.2kHz (approximately E7), so you can use it for tuning, doubling and harmonizing not only vocal parts, but other monophonic instrument parts.

BLEASS Voices Tutorial:

Bleass Voices is available now, with an intro price of $49.00 (normally $69) for desktop and $14.99 for iOS.