Ahead of Superbooth 2025, scheduled for May 8-10 at the FEZ-Berlin, Error Instruments has announced the Cinematic Tape System 9 – a powerful tape-based system designed for ambient, soundscape, and experimental music.
They describe it as “wild, lo-fi, and cinematic—perfect for pushing boundaries and exploring new sonic territory.”
Features:
Four independent tape players – each with individual speed control
A central mixer for blending textures
Lots of CV inputs for deep modulation and performance
Built-in effects to shape and mangle your sound
It’s “wild, lo-fi, and cinematic—perfect for pushing boundaries and exploring new sonic territory.”
They’ve shared a preview of the Cinematic Tape System 9 in action on Facebook.
Details are still to come at the Error Instruments site.
Melbourne Instruments and Bitwig are pleased to announce that Roto-Control’s deep integration with Bitwig Studio is now available as a public beta.
This is the second and most advanced DAW integration for Roto-Control, allowing Bitwig Studio users to take full advantage of this innovative controller’s features. Melbourne Instruments brings its revolutionary touch-sensitive motorized knob technology, high-res LCD displays screens, and adaptive haptic control to Bitwig Studio projects.
Roto-Control, launched in January 2025, follows Melbourne Instrument’s motorized synths NINA and DELIA. Powerful, compact, and portable, Roto-Control features three main modes of operation: MIX, PLUGIN and MIDI with Motion Recorder. Bitwig Studio users can streamline their creative workflow and quickly develop ideas with responsive physical control through Roto-Control’s MIX and PLUGIN Modes.
In MIX Mode, the colors and track names in your Bitwig Studio project will instantly appear on Roto-Control’s displays, and those names and colors will update automatically when connected to an active Bitwig session. That means there’s no need to save or edit labels in the device.
In PLUGIN Mode, plugin parameters and labels are taken directly from Bitwig Studio with one touch, one time. That means Roto-Control only needs to learn plugin parameters once — and you can select parameters to map directly from a third-party plugin’s GUI. Since all learned parameters are stored locally on Roto-Control, it will remember the mappings the next time you open Bitwig Studio — even if you’re in a different project file. And all remote controls in Bitwig Studio get mapped to Roto-Control automatically, including step parameters.
The Bitwig Studio integration for Roto-Control is a public beta, please visit this link for more info and to download the beta firmware.
Bitwig Studio’s integration for Roto-Control is a public beta. Please visit the Melbourne Instruments website for more information and to download the beta firmware. You need Bitwig Studio 5.3 or higher to make use of the Roto-Control integration.
The Bitwig Studio / Melbourne Instruments Roto-Control integration will be on display at Superbooth in Berlin next week at the Melbourne Instruments (H220) or Bitwig booths (Z105).
Anukari Music has released Anukari, a software synthesizer based on the idea of creating a network of small masses (like little ball bearings, or marbles) connected by springs.
The masses can be vibrated by striking them via MIDI input, or they can be vibrated directly via audio input, so it can act as an effect processor or reverb plugin.
Features:
Radically New MIDI Instrument – Create a 3D instrument made from masses and springs, and then use your MIDI keyboard to trigger mallets, plectrums, bows, and traditional oscillators.
Hook up virtual microphones to pick up the sound the 3D instrument makes. You can keep it simple, or build sprawling systems of hundreds of masses.
Powerful Effects Processor – Anukari can accept audio input signals, either as a sidechain input alongside MIDI or as the primary input. Create 3D audio signal inputs and connect them to the parts of the physics system you want to vibrate, and then pick up the resulting sounds with virtual microphones.
Full MPE Support – Works with both “legacy” MIDI and Midi Polyphonic Expression (MPE), so you can use a regular MIDI keyboard or your Linnstrument, Roli Seaboard, Haken Continuum, or other favorite MPE controller with Anukari. All MPE inputs can be custom-mapped to modulate arbitrary physics parameters, or left alone with their satisfying defaults so you can just play.
In addition to the basic physics objects, there are a ton of options for modulation. Powerful sample-accurate LFOs which can operate all the way up to audio frequency for FM. MIDI-triggered envelopes. Envelope followers. The modulation matrix is simple to understand: it’s displayed via physical connections in the 3D world. And nearly every parameter can be modulated.
Unleash the Power of Your GPU – Anukari processes audio on your graphics card (GPU), so massive compute power is available to you, leaving your CPU power available for other plugins.
Plugin and Standalone Mode – You can run Anukari in your favorite DAW on Windows or MacOS as a VST3, AU, or AAX plugin, or run it in standalone mode to play it as a MIDI instrument without the complexity of a DAW.
Anukari only uses a fraction of your GPU’s resources, so you can easily run multiple instances of the plugin in your DAW.
Tactile Real-Time 3D Interface – You create the instrument’s physics layout in an intuitive 3D editor, and then see how it vibrates, flexes, spins, and moves in real-time as you play it.
‘Unbelievable’ Reverbs – Run external audio sources through any shape of spring system you can think of. Tune the parameters to get dark industrial caverns or crashing plates. Modulate the physics parameters with an LFO to get swirling reverb, and add delay lines for slapback or feedback effects.
Custom 3D Visuals – Anukari has support for loading fully custom skyboxes and 3D models. Using 3D modeling software like Blender, advanced users can completely replace the 3D visuals, including the animations.
Anukari is now available as a beta release, with a discounted price of $70 (normally $140).
