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The Crow Hill Company Releases Lo-Fi Strings, Free Tape-treated String Library With A Warm & Nostalgic Sound

Founded in 2023 by composer Christian Henson (formerly of Spitfire Audio) The Crow Hill Company is an Edinburgh-based developer of software instruments and sample libraries.

Launched in 2024, Crow Hill’s Vaults collection is an ongoing series of free sample libraries and virtual instruments. At any one time, six Vaults instruments are available to download: each month, a new instrument is dropped and one is archived. Archived instruments can still be accessed in return for a small charity donation.

The latest addition to the Vaults series is Lo-fi Strings, a string library with a nostalgic sonic palette. In developing Lo-fi Strings, Crow Hill processed clean string recordings through a vintage cassette deck in an attempt to bring the characteristic sonic imperfections of magnetic tape – compression, saturation, pitch instability and tape hiss – into the orchestral world.

Lo-Fi Strings shares the same basic interface as the other Vaults plugins. Two central dials control two main parameters: Timbre is a subtle volume and filter control while Dropout introduces additional imperfections to the sound, mimicking the dropouts that can occur in cassette recording. Four additional controls along the bottom of the interface can be used to tweak a high-pass filter, saturation circuit, reverb and stereo ping-pong delay.

Check out the demo video above to get a flavour of how Lo-Fi Strings sounds – it’s a gorgeous instrument with oodles of vintage charm that could come in useful across a variety of musical contexts. (If you’re scoring an indie rom-com and don’t have the budget for a real orchestra, it’s your lucky day.)

While you’re over at Crow Hill’s website, there are five other free instruments currently available, including a TB-303 acid synth, mallet piano, rubber bridge guitar and bodhrán, a traditional Celtic percussion instrument.

Lo-fi Strings is compatible with macOS and Windows and available in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats.

Download Lo-fi Strings on The Crow Hill Company website.

CrushStation delivers everything from ‘creamy saturation to brutal sonic assault’.

Eventide’s CrushStation is typically priced at an RRP of $99 but currently available for no charge, this should be an instant download for anyone looking to expand their collection of plugin effects.

Eventide has a stellar reputation in the effects game that goes back decades, so when the company drops a freebie, it’s always worth a look. CrushStation features the same distortion algorithm that can be found in Eventide’s popular H9 Harmonizer effects pedal.

A stereo distortion and overdrive with a few tricks up its sleeve, Eventide says CrushStation is “capable of everything from pleasing saturation to massively destructive tones”, and it’s not wrong: this is a versatile processor that’ll come in useful across a variety of contexts, from overdriving guitars and sweetening vocals to crushing the living daylights out of a drum break.

Alongside its core distortion algorithm, CrushStation features a handful of additional effects. Compression can be dialled in via the Sustain control, and can be applied pre- or post-distortion, and the Octave control lets you blend in pitch-shifted copies of the signal at multiple octaves above and below its original pitch, much like an octave pedal.

The plugin’s Grit control dials in additional low-end prior to the distortion stage for a gnarly and abrasive tone, while the unique Sag parameter simulates the sonic quirks of poorly-designed tube amps to apply a “sputtery, crushed and broken” quality to the input reminiscent of “the dead and dying gear of times past”. CrushStation also features a three-band EQ and noise gate.

Another interesting feature is CrushStation’s Ribbon control, a macro control that lets you morph between two snapshots of multiple parameter values. This can be automated or controlled via MIDI CC, so you’re able to hook it up to something like your keyboard’s mod wheel for expressive control over CrushStation’s destructive tones. There’s also a Hotswitch button onboard for quickly toggling between two different presets.

Eventide CrushStation is compatible with macOS and Windows and available in VST3/AAX/AU formats.

To download the plugin, follow this link and use the code PIRATE100 at checkout.

Developer Andrew Stroev shared this preview of Synchrotron, a live audio engine built in Python.

“Synchrotron is an audio engine I’ve been building from scratch over the past year,” notes Stroev. “Finally I have something semi-presentable to show the world!”

Synchrotron is all of the following:

• DSP (Digital Signal Processing) engine
• Audio router / muxer
• Synthesizer
• Audio effects engine
• MIDI instrument
• And more!

It’s free and open source.

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