Archives for April 2019

Hans Zimmer Strings revealed by Spitfire Audio

April 7, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Having enjoyed a number of fruitful collaborations in the past, Spitfire Audio and Hans Zimmer have unveiled their most ambitious project yet. This latest effort is an orchestral string library simply titled Hans Zimmer Strings.

It’s an unassuming name for something that sounds like it could be pretty spectacular. From thundering basslines to spine-tingling glassy high notes, it looks like Hans Zimmer Strings will be capable of some serious shock-and-awe, as well as the kind of radical dynamic shifts that have made the man himself so influential.

5 Best Compressor Plugins for Mixing (UPDATED: 2019) — Pro Audio Files

April 7, 2019 by Jake Weston Leave a Comment

Have you heard of the term option overload? It is a real thing in compressor learning because since compressors have a lot of things they can do it takes a real time to learn them. To add to that complexity, every brand has its own compressor series. The author tries to pare down the complexity a little by emphasizing on his favorite compressor plugins. The first plugin to be reviewed is the MJUC “Vari-tube” compressor by Klanghelm. This compressor has three modules of which the author uses the first more frequently. During his mix tape, he says that for pop vocals he uses module 1 and sets the timing constraint to 5 while for rap vocals he uses module 2 with the density button clicked on. The next plugin is the Powair plugin from Sound Radix. It was designed for virtually anything that one has in mind to do and is one of the author’s favorites. Next in line is the Waves RVox and other plugins that the author has found useful as compressors.

Key Takeaways:

The Klanghelm MJUC is one the cheapest options for compressors and often frequently used for vocals.
The actual sound of the POWAIR is so transparent it can fool an experienced ear.
FabFilter Pro is a very powerful tool that is a favorite for multiband usage.

“You know what’s great? When a single compressor covers almost all of your compression needs. You know what’s even better? When that compressor costs $30.”

Bitwig Studio 2.3: Down and Dirty With Phase 4

April 4, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Bitwig made a pretty big splash at NAMM when they dropped the Bitwig Studio 2.3 beta. One of the new features, a very cool synth called ‘Phase 4’ works hand in hand with a host of upgrades to craft some truly huge sounds.

Phase 4 has a truly fantastic and diverse set of presets already programmed. This is great because Phase 4’s engine is based on the concepts of Phase Modulation and Phase Distortion which aren’t quite as common as your typical subtractive or wavetable synthesis. New to Bitwig 2.3, the Expanded Device View feature puts the most important information absolutely front and center.

SONAR lives on as Cakewalk by BandLab and is free to download now

April 3, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

BandLab Technologies has released Cakewalk by Bandlab. The relaunched DAW includes all core premium features of SONAR Platinum such as the award-winning Skylight user interface, flexible ProChannel modules, and powerful end-to-end 64-bit mix engine.

CEO of BandLab Technologies, Meng Ru Kuok said, “We are excited to be able to continue development of SONAR in its new guise as Cakewalk by BandLab and have an aggressive feature development roadmap ahead. We are making the software completely free to use to ensure that anyone, regardless of their resources, technology or stage in their career, can have access to the highest level of professional music production tools.”

Top 12 Most Popular DAWs (You Voted For)

April 2, 2019 by Elaine Sy Leave a Comment

Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) are the center of most music studios. It’s where we spend the most time recording, editing, arranging, mixing and mastering audio. So which is the most popular DAW?

What is the best DAW? Most modern DAWs can do everything the others are capable of with varying degrees of success. Certain DAWs are more specialized in certain areas than others of course. Ableton Live was the overall winner with over 20% which is incredible considering it was first released back in 2001. But as a company, Apple just eclipsed Ableton if you add Logic Pro and GarageBand together.