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Native Instruments’ Pro-53 synth returns for free as Pro-54, but only in your web browser.

Much to fans’ disappointment, Pro-53 was one of a long list of products that Native Instruments discontinued in 2020, but those who’ve been hoping that this Prophet-5 synth emulation plugin might return have new hope thanks to the release of Pro-54.

The good news is that this is free and open-source but, at the moment, you can only use it in your web browser.

This new port is programmed in Cmajor, a language that’s designed “for writing fast, portable audio software”. The Cmajor project was started in 2021 by Julian Storer and Cesare Ferrari in collaboration with Native Instruments. NI has been using it in its “production code” since 2023.

Storer has serious pedigree in the music software industry, having previously created both the Tracktion DAW and JUCE, a cross-platform audio app development framework. Cesare Ferrari previously worked at ROLI.

Together, the two men founded Sound Stacks, a company that fell under the Soundwide umbrella brand that has since been replaced with the Native Instruments name. Their brief here was to “drive development of new audio platform technologies for improving productivity and performance for developers” but it seems that the two are now focusing on their Cmajor endeavours.

Apparently, Pro-54 has been created with NI’s blessing, though; it’s a direct port of a “never-released” internal C++ port of the original synth, and has a GUI that was recreated in HTML/javascript using “mostly salvaged low-res bitmaps for that authentically vintage feel”.

For fans of the 2002 original – and anyone who loves the juicy sound of the Prophet-5 – it’s fun to be able to play it again in your browser, and programming types can check out the source code, as well.

Will we ever see a Pro-54 plugin, though? The Cmajor homepage says that any Cmajor ‘patch’ (of which the Pro-54 is an example) can be converted to a native C++ JUCE project and then compiled into any audio plugin format you like, so a VST/AU/AAX version is technically possible.

We’re told that native support for Cmajor patches themselves could soon be coming to a DAW near you. Tracktion Waveform is confirmed to be getting this soon, and Storer and Ferrari hope that others will follow in due course.

For now, though, you can play the Pro-54 for free on the Cmajor website. Other patch examples on there include an electric piano, an 808 and the CompuFart.

Image-Line has announced that it has teamed up with Native Instruments to bring bundles of NI’s effects and virtual instruments to FL Studio.

Two bundles are available:

• KOMPLETE Collection for FL Studio – The KOMPLETE Collection for FL Studio offers 12 instruments, modern classic synths and effects, mix and vocal polishing tools, and mastering. Includes: Massive X, Empire Breaks, Feel It, Utopia, Lo-Fi Glow, Bite, Dirt, Freak, Ozone 11 Elements, Nectar 4 Elements, Neutron Elements, Guitar Rig 7 LE
• KOMPLETE Signature Series for FL Studio – This features 15 instruments and effects. Includes: Massive X, Ozone 11 Standard, Guitar Rig 7 Pro, Vocalsynth 2, Nectar 4 Elements, Neutron Elements, Empire Breaks, Feel It, Utopia, Lo-Fi Glow, Cloud Supply, Duets, Bite, Dirt, Freak

Video of FL Studio user Larry Ohh working with the plugins:

 

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A post shared by Larry Ohh | FL Studio Power User (@larryohh)

Through March 19th, 2024, the bundles are available for 85% off. Details available on the Image-Line website.

Free Native Instruments plugin enables you conduct a choir of 1,000s of Jacob Collier fans “polyphonically across many different chords, keys and soundworlds”

Enter Jacob Collier Audience Choir, an awe-inspiring, free instrument from award-winning multi-instrumentalist and Native Instrument Artist Board member Jacob Collier. Created using audience recordings from Jacob’s Djesse world tour (Djesse Vol. 4 out now!), this instrument allows you to harness the emotive power of a huge choir, and sculpt it in exciting ways.

The new free plugin captures the sound of Collier’s audience choir in a software instrument. The audience choir is a regular feature of Collier’s live shows where the Grammy-winning artist invites his audience to participate in the performance of his songs, conducting them “polyphonically across many different chords, keys and soundworlds”.

Jacob Collier Audience Choir is built on recordings of 22 concerts in different cities around the world, from Adelaide to Zurich; as notes are played, you’ll be able to see which recordings you’re hearing on the plugin’s interface. The plugin offers four different vowel sounds (Aa, Mm, Oo, and Ee) which can be blended via the XY pad on the interface’s right-hand side.

The instrument also features a chord generator, so you’ll be able to play diatonic chords with single notes, and a slider for dynamics control. A timbre knob acts like a low-pass filter, and the onboard delay and reverb do exactly what you’d expect them to do, with five reverb types onboard. You’ve also got a control for stereo width, and you’ll be able to shape your envelope with dials for attack and release.

Open up a separate panel and you’ll find more advanced controls that allow you to automatically tune the chords you’re playing to the just intonation tuning system in real-time. “One of the most amazing things about audience choirs is that people often automatically tune to each other in just intonation, because the way the piano is tuned doesn’t usually apply to groups of singers en masse”, Collier says. “It’s kind of an amazing part of this plugin that it’s able to adapt as people would in real rooms to be very much in tune.”

In addition to the choir sounds, the plugin’s equipped with percussive sounds and a number of other samples of Collier’s audience shouting various words and phrases. The plugin supports polyphonic aftertouch, so you’ll be able to get expressive with MPE-compatible controllers like the Native Instruments Kontrol S MK3.

“I’ve spent the last few years touring around the world, playing shows in every corner of the globe […] one of my favourite parts of the whole experience has been the ever-expanding evolution of the audience choir”, Collier says in the video embedded above.

“Over the course of this experience, one thing I was dreaming about was: what if I could sit in the comfort of my own home, and you could sit in the comfort of your own home, and experience the feeling of an audience choir at your fingertips? So I teamed up with the mighty Native Instruments gang and we put together this amazing instrument, built from real samples of real audiences the world over”.

Download Jacob Collier Audience Choir now at Native Instruments website.