Woovebox is a pocket-sized music workstation combining synthesis, sequencing, sampling, effects and mastering in a highly portable hardware device.
The Woovebox is a compact, standalone music production system with a 16-track sequencer, multi-timbral synthesizer, sampler and built-in effects and mastering tools.
Firmware 3.0 adds expanded synthesis, effects, connectivity and workflow features.
Its synthesis engine includes multiple oscillator and synthesis models, wavetable synthesis, filters and extensive per-voice effects. The sequencer supports patterns, automation, generative features, conditional steps and song arrangement, while the sampler provides recording, slicing, time-stretching and resampling.
The device weighs about 68g and includes a rechargeable battery, audio I/O, MIDI, Bluetooth MIDI and a web-based interface for transferring songs, samples and firmware.
Features:
16-track synthesizer and sequencer
Multiple synthesis and oscillator models, including VA, FM, wavetable and more
Sampler with recording, slicing, time-stretching and resampling
Built-in effects, DJ effects and mastering processors
Pattern sequencing, automation and generative features
MIDI, Bluetooth MIDI and audio connectivity
WAV and MIDI export
Rechargeable battery with 9+ hours of claimed continuous operation
Firmware 3.0 adds expanded synthesis, effects, connectivity and workflow features
The Woovebox is available in multiple versions, priced starting around $280 USD.
Developer Dave Whiting shared this preview of Wave Emulation, a software recreation of the classic Waldorf Wave, a hybrid wavetable synthesizer known for hybrid synth engine, featuring gritty digital oscillators paired with analog filters.
“Rather than simply making a modern synth that sounds similar,” says Whiting, “I’ve tried to reproduce the structure and behaviour of the original machine.”
Wave Emulation models:
The Wave’s 250 kHz, 8-bit time-multiplexed wavetable oscillator system
Signed mixer overflow—including the characteristic Waldorf “ASIC Mix Bug”
Digital 12 dB high-pass filtering
CEM3387-style reconstruction filtering, resonant four-pole low-pass filtering, VCAs and panning
12-bit stepped control voltages, sample-and-hold behaviour, saturation, noise and output coupling
Three independent 16-voice WDV boards, matching a fully expanded 48-voice Wave
The original 480 × 64 monochrome LCD and front-panel workflow
The instrument can also run authenticated Waldorf Wave OS 1.700 firmware. An emulated 68000 CPU executes the original main operating system, while a second runtime executes the genuine WDV voice-board program. Their shared-memory communication, voice-update masks, semaphores and hardware-register writes are reproduced and traced inside the model.
Whiting notes, “The oscillator ASIC itself remains undocumented, so its internal operation is represented by a behavioural model based on the Wave’s published architecture, firmware activity and known hardware characteristics. This is therefore an ongoing reverse-engineering and preservation project—not a claim of perfect, bit-exact emulation.”
Wave Emulation is available now as an open source project via Github.
AutoTune Advanced is the new flagship automatic pitch correction plugin from AutoTune (Antares Audio Technologies).
Antares has announced the release of AutoTune Advanced, a new edition of the vocal tuning plugin based on a ground-up rebuild of the Auto-Mode pitch algorithm and equipped with a newly-developed DVA vibrato detection and preservation engine.
The new flagship product in the AutoTune range for producers working in Auto-Mode, AutoTune Advanced promises to address an issue that has plagued producers and engineers working with pitch correction tools since their inception. When applying tuning to a vocal recording – particularly at tighter or more aggressive settings – a singer’s natural vibrato can often be flattened or altered, taking away from the character of the performance.
Advanced tackles this with DVA, a feature that identifies a vocalist’s vibrato and preserves it so that the natural rise and fall of a singer’s pitch remains intact. Not only preserving vibrato, DVA also gives users the ability to cut it, boost it or generate artificial vibrato using a number of different waveshapes in the Creative Vibrato FX panel, with precise control over timing and expression. There’s also a visualiser onboard to track the vibrato-shaping in real time.
Antares tells us that the work the company has done on its updated tuning algorithm represents the “largest engineering investment” since its introduction, producing the most clear and accurate pitch correction found in an AutoTune product to date. This is complemented by a new Live Mode designed for “ultra-fast” real-time monitoring, which is joined by two more latency modes: High Quality is for final mixes and bounces and Low Latency is suitable for general studio work.
AutoTune Advanced also updates a number of features familiar to existing users. The Formant Designer has been given a refresh, there’s a new workflow for inputting custom scales, and a 78-note Visual Keyboard makes dialling in per-note behaviour more intuitive. The plugin’s MIDI Perform feature gives you hands-on control over tuning and Vibrato FX via your MIDI controller.
AutoTune Advanced arrives with a collection of presets designed by Grammy-winning producers, engineers and artists, including Julian Marley, Ann Mincieli, Jess Jackson, David “Yungin” Kim, and more.
“I’ve been using AutoTune for over 15 years, so I know it inside and out,” Kim said in a press release. “Advanced feels like a real upgrade. Live mode is crazy fast and keeps the artist locked into the performance. The formant designer gives me more ways to shape a vocal without losing the person behind it, and the modern UI gives an old friend a much needed fresh look.”
“Since 1997, the complaint about pitch correction has been the same: it takes the singer out of the singing,” adds Jeff Wright, CEO of Antares Audio Technologies. “That’s the problem DVA was built to solve. It can tell the difference between a pitch error and a decision the vocalist made, and it leaves the decision alone.”
AutoTune Advanced runs on macOS 13 or higher and Windows 10 and 11 in AAX, AU and VST3 formats. A perpetual licence is $486 USD or $18.90 a month as part of an AutoTune Unlimited subscription. A free trial is available now.
