Results for mastering

Plugin Alliance has announced that it has contributed six multi-format (including AAX DSP/AAX Native) plug-ins to Avid’s recently-released AAX Pack, making it the main contributor to this 18-plug-in-strong bundle.

The AAX (Avid Audio eXtension) plug-in format was launched last year alongside Pro Tools 10 to provide better workflows and sound parity when sharing sessions between DSP-accelerated and native-based Pro Tools systems; AAX Pack offers Pro Tools|HDX and Pro Tools|HD native owners running Pro Tools 10 software a must-have collection of superior-sounding, studio-essential AAX plug-ins from the world’s leading plug-in providers, including six of the best from Plugin Alliance.

Plugin Alliance plugins included in AAX Pack

• Brainworx bx_limiter is a great-sounding, simple, but effective low-latency limiter plug-in designed to help determine how many dB of dynamics to reserve for each and every signal — go louder with more punch, less distortion!
• Brainworx_XL V2 is based upon the M/S technology taken from Brainworx’s bx_digital, a ‘modern classic’ high-end analogue M/S EQ developed in 2006/7 — maximize your loudness with this powerful peak limiter!
• elysia alpha compressor is a software recreation of elysia’s acclaimed mastering compressor, emulating its sound and features to match the analogue hardware as closely as possible — programmed by the coding experts from Brainworx!
• Mäag Audio EQ4 successfully models Mäag Audio’s renowned EQ4® (500 Series) equaliser — retain original sound integrity and enhance ‘airy’ frequencies while shaping sounds to perfection with this studio-coveted six-band EQ!
• Pro Audio DSP Spectrum Mapper V2 was developed by former Sony OXF R3 digital console development team members using groundbreaking adaptive techniques — create great-sounding vocal tracks with this unique compressor/limiter/de-esser!
• SPL TwinTube transfers the warm, transparent, and smooth sound of analogue tube and coil filtering to the digital domain — add the warmth and presence of SPL’s renowned RackPack modular system processor!

Plugin Alliance has also announced major updates for all its currently available plug-ins from global partners Brainworx (Germany), elysia (Germany), Mäag Audio (USA), Noveltech Audio (Finland), Pro Audio DSP (UK), SPL (Germany), and Vertigo Sound (Germany); all are now conveniently grouped in the same menu (named Plugin Alliance) and listed alphabetically — no need to go searching anymore.

The AAX Pack is available to registered Pro Tools|HDX and Pro Tools|HD Native owners for $1,295 USD from all Avid pro audio resellers until December 14, 2012. All six Plugin Alliance plug-in licenses sold as part of the AAX Pack are non-transferrable and must be registered on the Plugin Alliance website to activate them.

More information: Plugin Alliance / AAX Pack

Audiofile Engineering has announced Triumph, the long awaited sequel to their popular Wave Editor audio editing application.

Available as an app for Mac OS X, Audiofile has redefined audio editing with Triumph as an “audio designer”, sporting a newly redesigned interface and a host of new features and functionality.

Triumph is much more than just a new version of Wave Editor, which is also the reason for the new name. “Our goal is to always be on the cutting edge of technology and interface design. We completely rewrote Wave Editor. We rethought everything, not only how to improve on what we built in Wave Editor, but how we could bring the concept of an audio editor forward”, says Matthew Foust, founder of Audiofile Engineering, “Triumph takes full advantage of all of the latest technologies Mac OS X has to offer.”

Musicians and audio professionals who are already fans of Audiofile Engineering’s Wave Editor will be delighted in seeing the new Triumph’s single window and full screen support, experiencing the completely rewritten audio system and the significantly improved arrangement & mastering features, all fully 64-bit.

Less guess work and more speed
Triumph features a unique and patented method for editing audio: Layers. It’s similar to image editing in technique, but is specifically tailored for audio. The Layers method is an innovative way to create combinations of sounds. It saves time by keeping everything live and editable until the final product and results in less guesswork and more speed.

Spacious, natural sounds thanks to FHX™
The new FHX™ effect in Triumph solves a number of the issues often associated with listening to music on headphones. FHX creates a more spacious, natural sound stage over headphones — enabling an exceptional listening experience that will truly inspire and engage.

Audiofile Engineering has teamed up with iZotope and now includes iZotope Restore & Restoration as well as the advanced iZotope MBIT+ and 64-bit SRC options for disc burning in Triumph.

Triumph features

• Redesigned Meters inspired by the beautiful UI from the Spectre, Audiofile’s real-time analysis application.
• Auto Save & Versions – automatically save your projects with browse history.
• Multi-Touch Gestures.
• Full Apple Script Support for complex workflows, automation and interacting with other applications.
• Actions for a clean, uncluttered interface and intuitive workflow.
• Effects Groups – save a group of Effects including their settings for use on future projects.
• Effects Automation – new Shapes feature can automate the parameters of an effect.
• High performance scrubbing and innovative FHX™ headphone listening plug-in.
• Hardware Output & Channel Mapping for greatly improved system configuration.
• Full Support for iXML.
• Support for Retina displays.
• Analog Simulation.

Triumph is available to purchase for Mac, at the introductory price of $59.99 USD through November 16th, 2012 (25% off regular $79.99 USD). Users who purchased Wave Editor 1.5 on or after May 1st, 2012 may request a license key for Triumph 2.0 at no charge.

More information: Audiofile Engineering / Triumph

Universal Audio has announced the upcoming Precision K-Stereo Ambience Recovery and Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plugins for its UAD-2 platform.

Created by Universal Audio in collaboration with famed mastering engineer Bob Katz, the K-Stereo Ambience Recovery plug-in extracts ambient cues from source recordings — allowing users to precisely enhance the stereo depth and imaging of mixes without unnatural artifacts.

The Precision K-Stereo Ambience Recovery Plug-In for UAD-2.

“The K-Stereo plug-in gives mastering engineers an easy, organic-sounding solution for excessively small mixes or mixes that need more space and depth — from classical to jazz, rock, or hip-hop,” said Bob Katz. “Because we’re effectively ‘pulling out’ the ambience that’s already in the recording, the results sound much more natural. I’m happy to be working with UA to bring K-Stereo to the UAD platform.”

Designed for critical 2-track mastering or post-production applications, the K-Stereo plug-in offers a “do-no-harm” approach to adding depth and width to busy or narrow-sounding mixes. Using elements of the Haas effect and other psychoacoustic principles, the plug-in transparently enhances existing ambience and early reflections without adding artificial reverb or changing the ratio of center elements to side elements.

Precision K-Stereo Ambience Recovery Plug-In features:

• Unique ambience recovery and stereo processing tool, created and patented by famed mastering engineer Bob Katz.
• Extracts ambient cues from the source material, naturally adding depth and width to the stereo field.
• Perfect for fixing busy or “narrow” mixes at the mastering stage.
• 3-band Ambience Filter EQ for further shaping the effect.
• Mid/Side gain controls available to adjust the center-to-side balance.
• Left/Right Gain controls for final stereo image balancing and leveling.
• Custom user presets created by Bob Katz.

Created by UAD Direct Development partner Brainworx and Shadow Hills Industries founder Peter Reardon, this true-to-life plug-in emulation of the hallmark Mastering Compressor expertly tempers dynamics and tames transients like no other device on the market.

“The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor hardware is capable of delivering so much character and color, from subtle to very dramatic. It was important to me that any plug-in emulation provided the same sonic experience,” said Shadow Hills’ Peter Reardon. “Thankfully, the team at Brainworx and Universal Audio have faithfully brought this hardware product to life in the digital world.”

The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Plug-In for UAD-2.

As the go-to compressor on recordings by Muse, Gnarls Barkley, Coldplay, John Mayer, Regina Spektor, and more, the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor features a world-class signal path, controlling music dynamics in two stages — first with an Optical section, then with a Discrete (VCA) section. Both sections can be bypassed, providing a variety of compression sounds (Optical, Discrete, and combined) from a velvet touch to an iron fist.

Like the hardware version, the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in offers selection of three distinct output transformers (Nickel, Iron, and Steel) — taking the signal from “clean” to “colored” and “dirty” — as if selecting from the output stages of three distinct classic analog consoles.

Whether employed on a vocal chain, drum buss, or on the master fader, the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor’s unique control and character will inspire creativity.

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Plug-In features

• Meticulous emulation of the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor, licensed and endorsed by Peter Reardon.
• Created by Brainworx, developed exclusively for the UAD Powered Plug-Ins platform.
• Separate Optical and Discrete (VCA) dynamics sections for two-stage serial dynamics control.
• Transformer matrix switches between Nickel, Iron, and Steel output transformers — like selecting between 3 distinct vintage console outputs.
• 90Hz sidechain filtering for musical compression of low-frequency program material.
• Large, accurate VU meters provide Optical, Discrete, or Output gain views.
• Custom presets created by Shadow Hills founder and designer Peter Reardon.

Both plug-in are available as part of the upcoming UAD Software v6.3.2 release, scheduled for early November. The Precision K-Stereo Ambience Recovery Plug-In will be $199 USD, the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor will be $299 USD.

More information: Universal Audio / UAD-2 Plug-Ins

iZotope has announced Insight, an essential metering suite for post production and broadcast applications.

More than just a traditional metering plugin, Insight provides the valuable visual feedback imperative to the mixing and mastering stages of any audio project. In addition, Insight offers peace of mind and added security to audio engineers seeking compliance with BS.1770 loudness standards, as specified by regulations like the CALM Act.

Insight provides a full suite of audio analysis and metering tools, perfect for visualizing changes made during mixing and mastering, troubleshooting problematic mixes, and ensuring compliance with broadcast loudness standards. Fully customizable and scalable, Insight allows you to visually monitor all relevant information from your stereo or surround mix in a convenient floating window. With level meters, loudness meters, a spectrogram, spectrum analyzer, vectorscope, surround scope, and a loudness history graph, Insight allows you to keep an eye as well as an ear on your mix at all times.

Insight features

• Immediately detect potential mix problems through real-time visual monitoring and color-coded alerts.
• Ensure your audio is fully compliant with current loudness standards with forward-thinking tools that adhere to standards like BS.1770-1/2/3.
• Perform deep and flexible analysis with zoomable meters and the ability to route audio from any tracks or buses to Insight.
• Design your ideal metering plug-in by choosing the meters you want to view, customizing them, and resizing the Insight window to fit your current workflow.
• Get an extensive suite of metering tools in a single plug-in, including true-peak level meters, loudness meters, loudness history graph, stereo vectorscope, surround meter, 2D/3D spectrogram, and spectrum analyzer.

Insight will be released mid-November, 2012. Insight will be available separately and will be included with all purchases of Ozone 5 Advanced. Upon Insight’s launch, all existing Ozone 5 Advanced customers will be notified with details to install Insight for free.

More information: iZotope / Insight

iZotope has announced it has licensed a suite of audio repair and restoration tools for the debut of Sound Forge Pro Mac, Sony’s Professional Digital Audio Editor.

Built on a clean slate for OS X, Sound Forge Pro Mac provides a contemporary application environment that’s perfect for recording, editing, processing, and rendering broadcast-quality audio master files.

“Sony was looking for highly innovative, easy-to use technology to raise the bar,” says Alex Westner, Director of Business Development for iZotope, Inc. “We’re proud to be a part of the long-awaited release of Sound Forge Pro Mac.” Sound Forge Pro Mac includes three algorithms to solve common audio problems: iZotope’s DeClicker, DeNoiser, and DeClipper. These professional sound repair tools allow quick results directly in the Sound Forge interface. The inclusion of additional iZotope technology in Sound Forge’s Mac version is a perfect complement to the iZotope Mastering Effects Bundle, found already in Sound Forge Pro for PC since 2007.

“These new audio repair plug-ins are versatile, easy-to-use, and work like magic in a wide variety of situations,” says Dave Chaimson, vice president of global marketing for Sony Creative Software. “For more than a decade, audio professionals have turned to Sound Forge software for recording and editing, and we’re pleased to bring iZotope’s acclaimed tools into the mix.”

Sound Forge Pro Mac software, including audio repair algorithms and mastering effects powered by iZotope, is now available worldwide through software stores and online retailers for an MSRP of $299.95 USD.

More information: Sony Creative Software / Sound Forge Pro Mac

Plugin Boutique has announced it is having sales for the Waves Native Gold Bundle collection of effect plugins and the iZotope RX2 audio restoration software suite.

We’re pleased to announce the addition of the superb iZotope label to our catalogue with a sale on their amazing RX-2 software, and we’ve launched a new sale on the excellent Waves Audio Native Gold Bundle.

Get 50% off a collection of 30+ plugins with the Waves Native Gold Bundle.

Gold brings a wealth of signal processing power to your studio, geared toward tracking, mixing, and mastering. The Gold Bundle now includes Waves Tune LT, IR-L Convolution Reverb and Doubler as well as many of our most sought after processors. With dynamics processing equalization, reverb and more, Waves Gold Bundle is a great introduction to the power of Waves.

iZotope RX2 is 30% off for a limited time at Plugin Boutique.

iZotope RX™ 2 is the most complete audio repair toolkit on the market, enabling you to remove noise, hiss, buzz and hum, eliminate clicks and crackle, restore clipped audio, visually select and suppress unwanted sounds, resynthesize missing audio and much more.

More information: Plugin Boutique / Waves Native Gold Bundle / iZotope RX2