Sinevibes has announced the release of Luminance for Mac, which they describe as an Audio Unit plugin that produces 'shimmer reverb' effects - unreal acoustic space simulations which gradually pitch-shift the reverberation tail. Sinevibes Luminance Luminance is a plugin for creating 'shimmer reverb' effects - unreal acoustic space simulations which gradually pitch-shift the reverberation tail. It's a novel take on this coveted effect.

• Sinevibes Releases Luminance Shimmer Reverb Plugin For Mac Pro
• Sinevibes Releases Luminance Shimmer Reverb Plugin For Mac Free
• Sinevibes Releases Luminance Shimmer Reverb Plugin For Mac Download

By Nov 29, 2018 , With comprehensive DAW integration as well as plenty of realtime controls and the ability to interface with your CV-controlled gear, could Novation’s SL MkIII be all the controller you ever need? We finally have a new version of the Novation SL Series keyboard controllers. Back in 2009 when it was first released, the SL series was a big hit. It came in 3 sizes, 25, 49 & 61 keys. There was even a Zero edition that just had the controls without the keys.

Now in 2018, the SL series keyboards has seen a serious update with some new features that’s got a bunch of YouTube influencers excited. Let’s see what the fuss is all about. Overview The SL MkIII is a MIDI Keyboard controller for your DAW as well as hardware devices that respond to MIDI or CV. It has a built-in polyphonic 8 track sequencer with USB, 5 pin Din MIDI and analog CV outs. The SL MkIII comes in two sizes now – 49 key and 61 key.

There is no 25 key version and no Zero version with just the controls, at least for at least for now. Novation already produces the highly popular Launchkey controllers but the SL Series is for the musician who is looking for a bit more from their controller. If you are a fan of the Arturia Step range of controllers and the Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol devices, this SL MkIII will seem like a perfect combination of these aforementioned. Sure, Native Instruments has their NKS standard which makes it easier to control third party plugins but if you are willing to live without NKS support, the SL MkIII is probably the best option for a keyboard controller available right now.

Hardware The SLMkIII has a Fatar keybed with the LED light guide popularized by Native Instruments. I found it gimmicky and unnecessary when it first came out but with the SL MkIII, I now see it’s a highly functional feature. The light guide is also a lot taller than the ones on NI’s S series so it’s visually a lot more in-your-face! There are 8 sliders and 8 endless encoders alongside a 2 by 8 grid of pads. The pads feel OK. They don’t really compare to the Launchpad, Ableton Push and Native Instruments Maschine pads but they do the job. Surrounding these there are a variety of push button pads that address various features depending on if you are in DAW control mode or built-in sequencer mode.

Sinevibes Releases Luminance Shimmer Reverb Plugin For Mac Pro

There is a 6 Button transport that works to control your DAW transport as well as the internal sequencer transport. The Pitch Bend and Mod Wheels are rubberized and a bit thinner than the ones on the Native Instruments S Series. I definitely like it a lot more. Both the wheels have built-in LEDs that change color depending on the part selected. Novation has really gone all out on the use of RGB LEDs in this controller. In Control The SL MkIII works great as a DAW controller. I tried it with Ableton Live as well as Logic Pro and the integration is excellent.

The Transport controls just work – no need for any tinkering around to set up the transport functions. The sliders are pre-mapped to control track levels and the encoders can control various parameters of the selected channel strip. There’s a dedicated pair of buttons to navigate to different tracks, which makes it a lot easier to quickly switch a focused track and use the encoders to change parameters.

The built-in Arpeggiator feature works in In Control mode and will output the actual arpeggiated notes to the DAW. The 2 by 8 grid works great for Ableton’s clip launching. There’s also two scene launch buttons but these buttons lose their purpose with other DAWs.

All in all, it’s a great keyboard controller for your DAW, if you are using Ableton, Logic or Reason. I am looking forward to seeing support for more DAW’s like FL Studio and Pro Tools. Components Software I’m really glad to see the back of Automap. It was always a pain to work with and very annoying to have another app open up every time you load the DAW. I remember it used to crash a lot as well. Now the controller just works directly with the DAW.

Any specific mappings or templates that need to be created or edited is done in the Components software which has a really nifty web based interface. Updating the firmware is also done in Components but make sure to use a web browser that supports MIDI transfer – the Mac OS Safari browser does not. I found myself using Components mainly when working with the internal sequencer options and creating custom templates. Novation makes use of the LED light guides on the keys as a really good visual indicator during firmware upgrades.

There are a lot of customizations that can be saved for the 8 track pattern sequencer, right down to the name of the hardware the part will be controlling. The SK MkIII comes with some templates for popular hardware synths if you don’t want to make your own. Internal Sequencer The internal sequencer is probably the highlight of the SL MkIII.

It can work as a standalone sequencer for your hardware synths. With the 2 MIDI DIN outs and 2 analog CV outs, there’s plenty of options for a fully DAW-less performance. Each of the 16 channels on each port is independently addressable and the 8 track-16 step sequencer is quite deep. Each track pattern can have independent start/end position, direction and sync rate. So polyrhythmic pattern sequencing which is getting really popular these days is awfully easy to setup on this controller.

To go a step further, you can even incorporate multiple pages of the encoders and sliders to control and automate various aspects of the synthesizer. The parameters can be input on a per-step basis or recorded in realtime.

I haven’t seen a quantize function, which would be great to have too. There is a scales feature which can be set to use specific scales and skip non scale notes or just use the light guide to indicate the scale but not disable the non-scale notes.

The built-in arpeggiator is the cherry on top with a variety of controls like direction, gate time, sync rate, octaves, velocity and even an arp pattern sequencer similar to Logic Pro’s Arpeggiator Grid mode. Conclusion When I first heard the SL MkIII was about to be released, I was a bit skeptical about its place in the MIDI controller world considering the saturation of MIDI keyboard controllers on the market. But after actually working with the device, I feel the SL MkII does what would typically take multiple devices to achieve. It may not bring something totally new to the table but it can be used to replace multiple devices and reduce redundancy.

A lot of musicians use a keyboard controller with their DAW and use something totally different for their hardware synths. Granted, in the purely analog world, you will only be able to control up to 2 devices with the SL MkIII keyboard but that’s also true of the next best option out there. I like the idea of one central controller for everything instead of multiple controllers, as things can get cluttered and messy.

Its a bummer Novation doesn’t make a 25 key version of this as that would be a great option for live performance but at the same time I also see the problem of fitting all these controls into a smaller form factor. For now, the SL MkII 49 key should do the job. The controller needs a power adapter to run, it does not run on USB bus power which is a shame for pure DAW control. Maybe Novation can consider a bus powered mode for DAW use while having the power adapter for standalone usage.

The Post Appeared First On Novation Music.com by Nov 24, 2018 The latest generation of Arturia’s multi-talented MIDI controllers integrates with pretty much any MIDI software or hardware you can think of. Hollin Jones got plugged in. Although it spent its earlier years as a software developer, Arturia now makes as much hardware – broadly speaking – as it does software. Some of this is sound-generating synths like the Brute series, and some are controllers. Since the French developer has such a rich library of soft synths in its lineup, it made sense for them to eventually start producing their own dedicated MIDI hardware to trigger it. This it now does with a range of models catering to every user from someone throwing a laptop in a backpack all the way up to more heavyweight stage performers. The KeyLab MkII lives somewhere in the middle of those descriptions, a serious studio MIDI controller that’s nonetheless portable enough (in its 49 key variant certainly) to carry around without too much effort.

As we will see, it has some features in particular that elevate its capabilities beyond those of most MIDI keyboards. Look And Feel The KeyLab MKII is solidly built in pro-feeling aluminium and has Arturia’s partly retro, partly futuristic aesthetic that I for one happen to quite like. They don’t have a really striking look like a Nord keyboard, but at this point you can spot an Arturia design pretty quickly. It comes in 49 or 61-key versions and as is usually the case they are functionally identical except for the number of keys. Around the back is a versatile selection of ports for interfacing with all kinds of other gear. There’s USB of course for MIDI and power, with a PSU option for using the controller independently of a computer. Sustain, expression and aux pedal inputs are available for proper performance control and there’s a CV input as well as two regular MIDI DIN plugs.

What’s interesting is that you also get 4 CV outputs – pitch, gate and mod 1 and 2 which will of course let you connect to Eurorack and other modular synth gear. Arturia has form here – its Beatstep, MiniBrute and several other hardware units also feature CV capability, meaning there’s no need to add yet more boxes to your studio to make your keyboards talk to modular gear. If you already have CV-controllable gear this is a great bonus and if you don’t, it may encourage you to get into that world. Take Control The top surface is where you do much of your controlling and you’ll probably start with the semi-weighted keyboard, which has what Arturia calls its “pro feel” action that they say captures both the nuances of softer playing and the force of more vigorous performances. It’s a perfectly good keybed and will suit the wide range of players that will likely use it, for all kinds of playing tasks.

Then there’s the wealth of hardware controls available. Starting on the right you’ll find 8 rotary knobs and faders, “wiggle free” and pre-mapped to the main parameters in Analog Lab. Like all the controls here they are of course customisable. Personally I like to use them for pan and channel level. In the centre is a two-line LCD display with jog wheel that provides text-based feedback for whatever action you are performing, or the patch you are loading.

Some might prefer a slightly larger display, but I found it to be adequate for most of my needs. When you are using Arturia’s instruments you will find all pre-mapping has been done, and workflow is very smooth.

Of course it works with with other software too. Play, Stop, Record Next up is the DAW transport control section, which uses the MCU / HUI protocols to provide hands-on control of core tasks like playback and recording. All major DAWs are supported, and helpfully it also comes supplied with ten magnetic overlays that can be swapped out to suit your DAW of choice. The performance controls come next – a grid of 16 dynamic backlit buttons that can be used for everything from beat-making to switching mapping options or triggering chords.

There’s also an Intelligent Chord feature to assist your compositions, pitch and mod wheels as well as a quick 4-way MIDI channel select for switching on the fly. This means no menu-diving to change MIDI channels, which is particularly useful in live performance situations.

Although there’s a lot to work with on the top surface, workflow and layout are well thought-out and it won’t take you long to get used to where everything is. Extra Goodies We have mentioned that the Keylab MkII comes with Analog Lab, Arturia’s huge collection of over 6500 presets from across its V-Collection, housed in a dedicated app that runs as a plugin or in standalone mode, and beautifully pre-mapped to the KeyLab’s hardware. You also get Ableton Live Lite, so if you’re new to computer production you don’t have to buy anything extra, and Piano V, Arturia’s gorgeous collection of 12 modelled pianos, which sounds amazing. MIDI customisation and saving of maps is managed via the MIDI Control Center software, which is a downloadable template editor for all of the company’s products. Conclusion KeyLab MkII is an excellent, well-built and thoughtfully designed MIDI control solution that will suit a really wide range of producers and performers. Whether you want to just plug over USB and control your DAW and soft synths or hook up to external MIDI and Eurorack gear over CV, it’s got you covered.

It can power over USB but also via a PSU, so it can be used on stage without a computer – an increasingly popular approach. There’s everything you need for ease of performance and programming, and it’s all pre-mapped to Arturia’s software and easy enough to customise for other products.

The inclusion of Analog Lab and Piano V is great – even if some might suggest that for this price and given its stable of products, Arturia could have thrown in a couple more plugins. But Analog Lab has 6500 presets taken from across its range, so perhaps that would be their response. If you’re in the market for a serious but accessible MIDI control solution that spans a wide range of connectivity, the KeyLab MkII should definitely be on your radar. Scanned is a bit of an oddball synth module, but that’s OK, because eurorack is all about oddballs. Superficially, it rather oddly has a past tense-style name. More importantly it represents the first hardware implementation of an obscure and largely unknown form of synthesis called Scanned Synthesis. Qu-Bit refers to it as an Organic Wavetable VCO which is a convenient simplification, but still rather mysterious.

A Quick Scan Of The Data After looking into Scanned Synthesis, my understanding is that it is somewhere between wavetable synthesis and physical modelling. In this technique, an algorithm is created to simulate a string with a series of attached objects and controls over the behaviour of the string and objects.

In physical modelling, this sort of system would be used to synthesize the sound of the string, but in the case of scanned synthesis the string vibrates at around 15Hz, which is too slow to be audible. Instead, a snapshot of the waveform produced by the vibration of the string is scanned and used as a wavetable. The size of the wavetable is determined by the frequency of the oscillator.

The idea is that the string and objects will oscillate slowly and interact with each other, which will cause the timbre to slowly evolve while keeping the pitch constant. This technique was designed not to mimic any real world instruments, but to create new timbres using the principles of actual instruments. The result is a digital sounding oscillator that evolves in an organic way. Scanned synthesis was invented in the late 90’s by Max Matthews and Bill Verplank, with inspiration from Jean-Claude Risset’s work on haptic frequencies and the human perception of sound. Matthews earned his status as the father of computer music by developing MUSIC, the first widely used program for generating sound all the way back in 1957.

Having an idea of how scanned synthesis works will help to make the Qu-Bit Scanned module make a little more sense, but it’s not a necessary prerequisite to have fun making some noise with it. The concept behind Scanned means that it does not function like a regular oscillator, but it also enables it to work as a standalone voice. To get the system vibrating, a virtual “hammer” is used, which is a metaphor for a rather amorphous excitation signal. The hammer has its own shape control sweeping from sine wave to noise, along with a strength control, and an excite trigger with a gate input. One way to understand these controls is to imagine the excite controls causing the hammer to strike or pluck, while high strength settings apply a force as if the string is being bowed.

Of course these two methods can be used together or separately and modulated. The hammer section also has an update rate control, which determines how often the module samples the waveform, so it actually affects the entire system’s sound character. Low values can create rhythmic pulses, while higher values can introduce sideband harmonics. To control the behaviour of the virtual string and connected objects are controls for mass, stiffness, damping, and center. Mass controls not just the string, but the mass of all objects in the system from smallest at counter clockwise, to largest clockwise. Turning the knob up actually decreases the mass of the virtual objects, but that is because objects with more mass cause more damping to the sound, while lighter objects have less impact on the movement of the string. With mass turned clockwise, notes ring out longer or even swell from nothing like a rush of feedback, depending on the settings of the other parameters.

Stiffness determines the strength of the connection between the string and objects. Counterclockwise values will have low stiffness, and this floppy connection will cause less interaction between objects. Damping sets the amount of negative energy added to the system to absorb the vibration. With this control, turning clockwise actually decreases the damping added and allows Scanned to function more as a standard constantly outputting oscillator. While I thought center would determine the hammer or scanning position, it actually sets the amount of gravity toward the center of the waveform. Clockwise higher gravity settings will cause a more rapid change to timbre as harmonics are pulled back to center, while low gravity will induce slower timbral changes. Lastly we have coarse and fine frequency tuning controls, along with an external audio input called inject with a level control.

Injecting an external signal adds a further excitation to the generated waveform. I discovered that by sweeping the frequency of a sine wave injected into the external input, certain pitches would create interesting timbral responses.

It was almost as if it was causing sympathetic resonances. Injecting drums also yielded some cool rhythmic tones that would layer nicely with a groove. Organic Sound Organic is a good way to describe Scanned because it has a very fluid character. It seems to be constantly changing and evolving, which prevents the tone from becoming stale or repetitive.

The interplay between the controls is quite compelling and really rewards active manipulation. During my first explorations with the module, I found it a little unstable and unruly, but that was before I had read the manual and understood what was going on. To gain a better understanding of Scanned Synthesis I also looked over a short article by Max Matthews and Bill Verplank. Scanned is a module that defies a simple explanation, and similarly it defies a simplistic approach. The controls have plenty of sweet spots, but they also have settings that can rather suddenly kill the output.

Rather annoyingly, I was not able to escape one quirk where sometimes activating excite would cause a noticeable click in the output. You’ll be able to hear this in some of my recordings, and I’m guessing this is probably due to abruptly cutting the amplitude of a low frequency wavelength. I asked Qu-Bit about this and they told me it was a known issue and more pronounced when hammer is set to sine. They plan to fix this in a future firmware update that will be installed by playing an audio signal into the inject input. Other than that, I really enjoyed using Scanned and the unique morphing timbres I was able to achieve. Conclusion If you’re looking for a wavetable oscillator or a physical modelling voice, Scanned probably isn’t the right choice.

But if you’re looking for something truly unique, with a character that will continue to entice and surprise you, it might be worth giving it a scan. Audio Examples. Roland seems hell bent on ‘making keytars cool again’ and to this I ask – ‘when were keytars NOT cool?’ (Note: I am not cool) When Roland released the AX-Synth, it represented the first shoulder synthesizer with onboard sounds that had actively been produced in quite a while. WIth the AX-Edge, Roland refined their formula, expanded on what works, and really ‘dialed in’ what a modern keytar should be. Check out the video review below to find out what Matt made of the AX-Edge First, What’s New Although the AX-Edge sports a really slick new look, I was more interested in what modern conveniences Roland brought to the table this time around. Bluetooth MIDI is absolutely at the top of the feature list, and it darn well should be. When you want to utilize the AX-Edge with your favorite soft synths or other MIDI gear, you can now do so completely untethered.

I quickly set it up with Korg Module on the iPad and was able to wander around the studio and trigger the sounds directly from the AX-Edge with ease. You can even edit and manage the sounds via wireless connection with an Android/iOS app!

USB connection is present, of course, but you can also plug in a standard memory stick and use it to back up the entire synth. Audio playback is available as well, so you can jam along with some backing tracks from the AX-Edge if you’d like. There is also a dual-display system at work here – the patch number is displayed prominently in the corner in a quite large fashion. This makes it easy to see which sound you’ve got dialed up in a pinch without having to look too deeply at the smaller main screen. Finally, in a feature Roland is dubbing ‘Tone Remain’, you can switch patches on the AX-Edge without a weird cutoff or release sound. This is great for quick patch changes, and is especially appreciated for those blistering lead tones with lots of delay!

Sinevibes Releases Luminance Shimmer Reverb Plugin For Mac Free

How It Feels The AX-Edge definitely feels a lot more ‘tightly designed’ than any predecessors. It’s an incredibly light keyboard, and yet at the same time it’s very sturdy. It’s a little more angular, so it has a bit more of an ‘edgy’ look (hey, now I see where the name comes from). The face plate is removable and swappable for different color options, and the AX-Edge even comes with a second edge blade right out of the box. Finally, there is a vocoder input included that allows you to plug in a headset mic and do some really creative things. They’ve even curated a whole category dedicated to vocoder/vocal sounds.

Sinevibes Releases Luminance Shimmer Reverb Plugin For Mac Download

This keytar really feels good in your hands. Paired up with rechargeable batteries, you can really be quite free to ‘roam the stage’. I hooked up my wireless 1/4” audio unit to the AX-Edge and was free to run around the stage as much as my guitar player. It was a really great feeling, and to be honest, I feel that I got more than the 4-hours of battery life that Roland said I would (I do use Eneloop Pro AA batteries, they have a little more ‘juice’ in them than most). How it Sounds The included sounds on the AX-Edge are really well thought out. Whoever did the sound design really thought a lot about what’s most important to keytar players. There are 2 separate categories of lead synths, one a little more ‘edge-y’ than the next (their words, not mine!).

Honestly, these sounds were pretty great right out of the box and need very little tweaking. I know that the Bluetooth MIDI function can make it tempting to trigger your MainStage rig, but honestly, the sounds were good enough to stand on their own. One of the things I love most about the AX-Edge is how much it will allow me to ‘sit in’ with various groups and bands. I may have turned down the opportunity before because bringing my whole keyboard rig out with me can be a bit of a burden – but the AX-Edge is easy enough to toss in the car and show up at a gig with no muss or fuss. Conclusion I had an immense amount of fun with the AX-Edge. There really isn’t anything else out there like it. The full sized keys, the well-designed sounds, and the keyboardist-friendly feature set come together to make a truly fantastic experience.

• 32bit 64bitWindows XP • 32bit 64bitWindows 7 • 32bit 64bitWindows 8 • 32bit 64bitWindows 8.1 n/a n/a Other APRP Utility V2.0.01 for Windows 7/8/8.1 32bit & 64bit. Asus vivopc drivers for mac.

From classic spring and digital emulations to fastidiously programmed convolution algorithms, you would be forgiven for thinking there’s little left to add to the virtual reverb market. Leave it to Sinevibes to deliver yet another creative approach to a famous workhorse, adding a tuned component to expansive reverb to elevate the effect from mere acoustic illusion to unique creative instrument. The Shimmer Providing a fresh take on classic “shimmer” reverbs which first appeared in the 1980s, Sinevibes augments this architecture with a modern feedback delay network, adding high-quality interpolation, phase-inverted time modulation, and special signal blending.

All this power under the elegantly simplified hood imbues Luminance with highly musical usability, smoothly tracing melodic or harmonic material to create lush tonal dreamscapes that remain coherent with their input. Familiar pre-delay injects a gap of up to 1000 milliseconds between source impulses and resulting delay network. Three spatial sizes – Medium, Large, or Huge – work in conjunction with the Decay control to define the perceived acoustic realm and ultimate duration, while a simple Brightness control provides optimized frequency dampening as needed. Input controls the amount of dry signal passed through and Return provides separate control of the wet signal, while the intervening Send control allows for easily automated dub-style momentary effect programming within the device itself. Modulation Frequency and Depth control sinusoidal Decay time oscillation for vintage chorusing and artificial sheen.

Where things of course get interesting is with the pitch Shift dial, which allows you to adjust the resulting reverberations in semitones, up to one octave above or below the input. The default +12 setting instantly delivers glossy utopian atmospheres, while +3 or -1 settings quickly make a mix just ever so unsettling. Experimenting with -5 or +7 provides pleasingly consonant spaciousness that generally stays in key. The blue line up top cleverly corresponds to the reverb algorithm, defined directly by the blue controls below it. In Use The initial understandable temptation is to put Luminance on an auxiliary return. Sending multiple channels to it instantly transport one-dimensional productions into otherworldly territory with instant harmonic atmospheres that can easily do the heavily lifting of intricately programmed pads. Feeding it entire drum tracks create unique atmospheric noise.

Placing Luminance directly on a snare drum adds body and weight to otherwise thin percussion with lower shift values, while higher shift values can be used to pull weighty sounds upwards. Using Luminance on a staccato synth with selective Send automation adds welcome spatial and harmonic dynamism to otherwise stale patterns. Resampling results and treating the resulting audio is a quick way to generate harmonically coherent textures ready for all kinds of further processing. Conclusion Combining Sinevibes’ algorithmic prowess and trademark intuitive interface design, Luminance will open up new dimensions in anyone’s reverb repertoire. Whether you’re looking for expansive ambience or an experimental approach to virtual space design, Sinevibes’ latest reverb plug-in is well worth a look.