Spitfire Audio’s free LABS Classic Synths plugin features vintage Minimoog, ARP, Pro-One and Juno-60 sounds
Spitfire Audio’s latest LABS release looks like a bit of a doozy – a free plugin full of vintage synth tones. Known as Classic Synths, it takes samples from the likes of the Minimoog, ARP Quadra, Sequential Pro-One and Roland Juno-60, compiling them into an easy-to-use package of warm and sometimes wobbly tones.
The interface will be familiar to anyone who’s used a LABS instrument before, with controls kept to a minimum. There is scope for some tweaking, though, using the built-in filter and reverb.
The patch set is said to comprise “unstable, wave-like pads, characterful bass sounds and short, noisy plucks.”
Like all other LABS instruments, Classic Synths is completely free and runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats. Find out more on the Spitfire Audio website.
Dream Theater keyboard maestro Jordan Rudess, revealed that he’s in the process of creating a Heath Robinson hybrid that comprises both a 49-note MIDI controller and an electric guitar.
For some, being able to play multiple instruments just isn’t enough – they want to be able to play them at the same time.
Designed in collaboration with Druzkowski Guitars, this might not be the most elegant of solutions, but it does enable Rudess to fulfil his dream of being able to play guitar and keyboard pretty much simultaneously. It’s very much a prototype at the moment, with bits of it seemingly held together with Gaffer tape, but as Rudess reveals in the video above, it’s already playable.
It seems that the idea for the instrument may have been born when Rudess posted a video of him attempting to play guitar and keyboard simultaneously about a year ago. One commenter on the clip, Jedi Council, responded by saying: “Bro. I just had an insane idea. We need a Twin neck, guit-synth. One neck mini keyboard, other neck guitar. Load it up with effects and call it The Wizards Axe [sic]”.
Whether that’s what Rudess’s finished creation will be called remains to be seen, but he’s clearly excited about the prospect of it being built.
“I’m very excited,” says Rudess (told you), “because today I got to look at the very first prototype of a new instrument I’m designing with Przemek Druzkowski, the master guitar builder. This is the first prototype and I’m blown away because I didn’t expect to see it today. You can see that it’s all one piece. It’s totally a prototype and I’m sharing it with you guys so you can be excited about it as well.”
Although it looks a little heavy and unwieldy, Rudess later reassures his viewers that “It weighs about as much as a Les Paul… It’s going to be awesome. It will feature one of Przemek’s guitar designs and it will have a MIDI keyboard below.”
Reports that version 2 of the product will include a foot-operated, back-mounted kick drum and a harmonica on a neck strap are still to be confirmed.
Void And Vista has introduced Strands, a virtual instrument for Native Instruments Kontakt that they say combines expressive, characterful and unique sampling with powerful sound design features and an inspiring interface.
Featuring 32 sound sources, based on the concept of bowed textures both real and imagined, it’s designed to be ideal for contemporary media composers, writers of production music and sound designers.
What they say about it:
“Built around an original set of bowed sound sources (including: acoustic and electric guitar, bass, viola, vibraphone), Strands also features a collection of Effects sounds (such as a bowed cymbals, wine glasses and synthetically deconstructed and processed sounds using eurorack modular and pedal FX) and sampled synth waveforms from a collection of analog hardware.”
Features:
Nearly a thousand presets
5gb of samples
32 Sound Sources
Layered sound design engine
UI with over 150 controls
2 Morph Layers
Expressive Dynamics
2 LFOs & 6 Envelopes
2 Multi-Mode Filters
A customizable Lofi effect
3-stage parallel multi-FX
Convolution with user impulse response import
Dedicated Send FX
Custom MIDI mapping page
Download & install via Native Access
Compatibility:
NKS / Kontakt Player Compatible – (Available in VST, VST3, AAX & AU)
Compatible with all major DAWs
Kontakt 6.7.0 or higher
macOS 10.14 or above – Natively compatible w/ Apple Silicon
Windows 10 & 11
Strands is available now for £99 until March 25th, 2023 (will be £129).
