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This Bristol-based developer is headed up by film composers Will Slater and Simon Ashdown.

Slate + Ash’s latest release is Primaries / Strings, the inaugural instrument in a new series dubbed Primaries that “treats performance as a fundamental colour in the orchestral spectrum”.

At the heart of Primaries / Strings is an extensive library of multisamples made up of solo bass, cello, viola and violin recordings, with a focus on unique articulations, unconventional performance styles and extended techniques.

Primaries / Strings is built on a powerful sound engine that’s capable of layering multiple sound sources with individual settings for tuning, filtering, mic placement, key-zone and envelope controls for amp, filter and pitch, along with an onboard time-stretcher.

Four input modules can be used to create scale-locked harmonies, generative patterns and arpeggiated sequences, while an array of fifteen effects that includes a delay, reverb, tremolo, bitcrusher, pitch-shifter and much more can be manipulated using XY pads, modulated using the instrument’s LFOs, tweaked via external MIDI controllers or randomized completely.

The recording that make up Primaries / Strings’ library were re-amped in a variety of spaces to further expand the palette of sounds available; these include the echo chamber of Berlin’s Funkhaus Studio and Real World Studio’s Wood Room.

Individual sounds can be blended in virtual space using the instrument’s spatial mixer, enabling you to position sound sources on an XY grid to precisely control their reverberant characteristics.

Though the extensive sample library and the instrument’s 150+ presets should keep you occupied, a real bonus here is the ability to drag and drop your own samples into the instrument’s sound engine, giving you a versatile and powerful tool with which to manipulate and reimagine your own sounds.

Here’s the Preset Demo:

The instrument runs in Kontakt 6.8.0 or higher, or in the free Kontakt Player.

Primaries / Strings is priced at £249, but it’s available now at a discounted price of £149. Find out more on the Slate + Ash website.

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The Plug ‘n’ Play device gives you a simple way to make high-quality recordings of your digital piano, and the built-in mic can capture your voice, as well

Korg has released PianoRec, a new product that’s designed to make it easy for you to record your digital piano performances to your phone. The Plug ‘n’ play device is designed to simplify the whole process.

Though you might be doing this already – either by using your phone’s built-in mic or via an audio interface of some sort – but PianoRec both simplifies the process and promises better quality than you might be used to.

It works by taking a direct audio output from your piano – the default connector is a 3.5mm one, but you also get a 1/4-inch adapter in the box – and placing a USB connector on the other end. This is USB-A, but a USB-C connector adapter comes supplied.

For monitoring purposes, there’s also a built-in set of earphones, complete with microphone that enables you to capture the sound of your voice as you play (the mic has a mute switch if you don’t want it on).

The whole setup promises to be totally plug ‘n’ play, and if you own an iOS device you can also make use of the Korg EZ Rec app. This offers both stereo recording and video capture, but you can also use the device with any other recording app, or for streaming purposes.

The PianoRec costs £59/€73,95. Find out more on the Korg website.

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Shmøergh has introduced the Hog synthesizer, a fully analog two-voice monophonic synth that they say features is “designed for musicians who need a simple but fat synth in live situations.”

Features include a 100% analog signal and control path with two oscillators, a sub and noise sources, and “an extremely drippy diode ladder filter” that keeps the low end, even when resonance is fully on.

Hog is available now as a DIY project. All the hardware and software are open source and freely available, for anyone who wants to build their own.

Shmøergh Hog Intro Video:

Features:

• Fully analog signal path and control circuits
• Two voices with triangle, sawtooth, square waveshapes
• Sub or noise extra voice
• Narrow and variable pulse width for voice 1
• 10 octave precision
• 5 octaves switch
• Voice 2 with +/- 1/2 octave and detune
• 2 selectable LFOs for auto-wah and vibrato
• Playground with variable modulation paths
• Custom quick envelope system
• Glide
• Variable gate modes (envelope, gate and drone)
• MIDI upgradable
• Customizable, hackable, open-source

More demo videos are available at the Shmøergh Youtube page.

The Shmøergh Hog is available now as an open source DIY project.

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