3ee Sound Design has announced the release of Aesthetics, a soundset for the Diva virtual analog synthesizer by u-he.

Aesthetics is a collection of 64 instruments for the great u-he Diva synthesizer. The basic idea of creating diverse, solid and playable, sweet-spot instruments that were tweaked to perfection with no particular genre or style in mind was very effective.

All instruments within this collection were created by 3ee and were optimized with modulation wheel and pressure controls. (exception, no control assignments for the Poly_String Chest2 patch)

The Aesthetics soundset is available to purchase at the price you want to pay ($7 USD mimimum). A free demo pack is available to download from the product page.

More information: 3ee Sound Design / Aesthetics

Cerberus Audio has updated the Volt Precision Fader effect plugin to version 1.1.2.

Volt Precision Fader affords increased control over gain staging, remarkably smooth fades and transitions, and an ergomonic user interface.

Changes in Volt v1.1.2

• New Features:
  • Right-clicking on the Shuttle knob opens the text box for dB value.
  • “Shuttle/Transition Mode” indicator text is suppressed while gain is changing.
• Changes and Fixes:
  • Transition Speed text box works correctly when accessed from the numeric display or bar graph display.
  • dB Value text box reads correctly when accessed after double-clicking on the Shuttle Knob.
  • Undo buffer is written for Shuttle Knob double-click.
  • Clicking near the edges of the Transition Speed Bar Graph could incorrectly expose the voltage digits for editing upon returning to Shuttle Mode.

The Volt Precision Fader for Windows and Mac (VST/AU) costs $18 USD.

More information: Cerberus Audio / Volt Precision Fader

The Drum Broker has announced the Kool G Rap Beat Contest, offering its customers the chance to win a 16-bar verse from American rapper and hip hop legend Kool G Rap.

The Drum Broker & legendary producer Domingo of Beats4tunes.com are proud to announce their latest contest/giveaway. This time we are testing your beatmaking skills in a contest to find the BEST beat. The winner will get a 16-Bar Verse from Hip Hop Legend/Heavyweight Kool G Rap courtesy of Beats4Tunes.com and The Drum Broker.

The best beat submission will be judged by Domingo on July 31st, and a winner will be announced August 1st, 2013.

A single winner will be picked based on beat composition, mix quality, drum selection, & over-all beat quality by Veteran Producer Domingo.

The contest is open to all Drum Broker customers.

More information: The Drum Broker / Kool G Rap Beat Contest

AudioThing has released Glass, a sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt.

Found in a flea market, buried inside a box full of dust and cutlery, this balloon wine Glass has a bright and crystalline tone and long sustain. Hits were sampled with fingers, a piano hammer, a metal stick, and palm of the hand.

Additional sounds produced with wet fingers on the border, small screws thrown inside the goblet, and processed slowed down hits for the atmospheric pads.

Glass features

• 10 Kontakt Instruments (.nki).
• 7 Kontakt Multis (.nkm).
• Up to 10 Round Robin samples.
• Up to 3 Velocity layers.
• 114 Samples (44.1kHz / 24Bit).
• 7 Custom Reverb IRs.
• Formats: Kontakt and WAV.
• Size: 387 MB / 135 MB download.
• Sample sets including: finger hits, metal hits, piano hammer hits, palm hits, screwes hits, wet fingers.

AudioThing Glass requires Native Instruments Kontakt 4.2.4+ full version.

The sample library is available to purchase for the introductory price of 9.95 EUR until June 2nd, 2013 (regular 12 EUR).

More information: AudioThing / Glass

ArtsAcoustic has announced version 1.6.0.15 of the ArtsAcoustic Reverb effect plug-in for Windows and Mac.

The ArtsAcoustic Reverb is a high quality reverb for everyday use in a professional studio. this plugin is (unlike the current trend) a highly advanced, but easy to use algorithmic reverb, so no convolution is involved.

Changes in ArtsAcoustic Reverb v1.6.0.15

• Fixed: some CPU types did cause a crash under Windows.
• Fixed: reset parameter to default using the ctrl+left mouse button click.
• Fixed: open parameter window did not work with all controls under OSX.

ArtsAcoustic Reverb for Windows and Mac (VST/AU) costs 189 EUR/USD. The update is free of charge for all existing ArtsAcoustic Reverb customers.

More information: ArtsAcoustic

Blue Cat Audio has released version 5.0 of Blue Cat’s Liny EQ, a complete rewrite of the low latency linear phase EQ plug-in.

Blue Cat’s Liny EQ is an 8 bands linear phase graphic equalizer with very low latency and comprehensive visual feedback: it processes audio signals without phase distortion, with an unusually short latency (less than 3 milliseconds).

Version 5.0 has now a brand new, fully customizable user interface, and includes many new features and enhancements: premium visual feedback with EQ curves, spectrum and spectrogram displays, new EQ shapes, single and dual channels modes, a new presets manager, Windows AAX support, multiple display sizes, new MIDI and automation mapping capabilities, and much more.

Blue Cat’s Liny EQ is available to purchase at a 25% introductory discount until June 15th, 2013. The Blue Cat’s Master Pack (which also includes Liny EQ) is 15% off.

Customers who recently purchased the software (in the past 3 months) will receive the upgrade for free, and others can upgrade to the new version for a small fee. Other Blue Cat Audio customers can purchase the plug-in with 40% discount.

More information: Blue Cat Audio / Liny EQ