Our good friends at Tone2 have created another mind-blowing virtual instrument. If you haven’t read it, hop on over HERE to read my review on Saurus. Now the guys over there have come up with a whole new take on sound design. They’ve named it the aptly intriguing Rayblaster. Sounds pretty sweet huh? Well let’s see what this thing is all about.

Remember THIS review? Well Bryce is back with a brand new invent…. I’m not going to finish that. It just popped into my head and now Ice Ice Baby is stuck there too…. Great. Anyways I can’t say enough about the WA12. Its got Cinemag transformers and if you know anything about Cinemag you know its not used in cheap stuff, but somehow Bryce has put them in the WA12 without you having to break the bank. NOW you can throw a few of these in your lunchbox or workhorse and have that vintage sound for a fraction of what other 500 Series modules are selling for. Don’t believe me? Well Gearslutz is a very tough critic with its members being almost impossible to pass one off on. HERE is what they have to say about it.

And here is what the owner himself Bryce has to say:

I’ve hand built high-end preamps for professional studios for some time.  Warm Audio was started with the idea that all great musicians deserve fully professional gear, despite their budget.  I used to charge $1650 for 2 channels of this design but I wanted to do something different for the industry.

Manufacturing my high-end design at a lower price was only an option to me if no corners were cut.  With high quantities and low profit margins I’ve done it, and am confident you will love it. Others who have paid twice as much love it .  The WA12 uses the same quality components I’ve always used including Dual Custom USA made CineMag Transformers. Note: Cinemag transformers are used in high-end products like the Presonus ADL-600, A-Designs Pacifica, Universal Audio LA-610, and Fink Audio’s  CS2-FA.

The WA12 challenges the $1,000 glass ceiling theory that one must spend $1,000+ to get a world-class preamp.  The WA12 is a fully-professional, dual transformer-balanced mic pre with 71db of gain, that sells for a ridiculous price.

For more info, click HERE

Price: $399.00

I don’t have to tell you who or what Abbey Road is. I don’t even have to explain that EMI had its own in house engineering department to build whatever they desired for projects. So if we all know that, why am I talking about it? Well Waves teamed up with Abbey Road to create a digital version of their legendary REDD Consoles. These desks were no easy task either. They almost have a sound all their own with extremely smooth EQ and frequency response. Now you can have that in your own studio… digitally of course. I’d never condone breaking into Lenny Kravitz house and taking one.

London’s Abbey Road Studios were at the epicenter of a seismic shift that rocked the world of music during the 1960s, and changed the course of popular culture forever. The Beatles, The Hollies, Pink Floyd and countless other luminaries made musical history at Abbey Road Studios, trailblazing a revolution that resonates to this day.

And at the heart of it all: The REDD consoles, custom-designed, built by and named for Abbey Road Studios’ in-house Record Engineering Development Department. Renowned for their silky smooth EQ curves, extraordinary warmth and lush stereo imagery, there’s something magical about the REDDs that sound like no other console.

Waves meticulously recreated the color, character and tonal complexity of the original desks: The REDD.17 which still belongs to Abbey Road Studios, and the REDD.37 console now owned by Lenny Kravitz. The result is an impressive pair of plugins that deliver the dimension, depth and richness of these console classics.

REDD comes at an introductory price of $199.00 before going up to standard Waves pricing of $349.00

For more info, click HERE.

Our friends across the pond have put out some very impressive new pieces of gear. Sontronics have made a 2 channel version of its vintage inspired pre-amp, the Sonora II. It features all of the bells and whistles you would need to get quick transient responsive vintage goodness. The 75hz roll off switch is a great addition to get the rumble out of those acoustic guitars and vocals. I’m very intrigued by this unit but I love the British sound. We’ve also got some new mic packs to look at which come with the INGENIOUS shockmount WITH pop filter built onto it. That right there should win invention of the century. I’m tired of trying to bend those pop filters around to line up nicely with the capsule.

At this weekend’s AES Show, British microphone brand Sontronics announced the launch and immediate availability of SONORA 2, a dual-channel solid-state preamp/DI that has been designed, developed and manufactured in the UK. At the same time, Sontronics has also released two new all-in-one recording packages – the STC-20 PACK and STC-3X PACK – each including a condenser mic and free accessories to get the home or studio musician achieving professional studio-quality recordings in minutes.

SONORA 2
The SONORA 2 preamp features Sontronics’ proprietary Class A vintage circuit design and is capable of delivering an exceptional standard of audio reproduction with a classy, silky finish for an outstanding price. For ultimate recording and monitoring flexibility, SONORA 2 has two combined XLR & 1/4” jack inputs plus four individual outputs (two XLR, two TRS jack) as well as a –20dB pad, 75Hz high-pass filter, 180° phase reverse switch and 48V phantom power on each channel. Its lightning-quick dynamic ability combined with a linear frequency response and a powerful 66dB of crystal-clear gain and a huge +23dBu of headroom means SONORA 2 is an ideal choice for any professional studio, home or live environment.

Sontronics’ founder, designer and MD Trevor Coley says: “SONORA 2 represents two years of sheer hard work and dedication and I’m so proud of the fact that we’ve done it all, from the circuitry right up to the packaging, right here in the UK. SONORA 2 has all the build quality and attention to detail you’d expect from Sontro (more…)

I knew it was only a matter of time before the iPad’s got bigger and better, eventually sparking a full console like experience. I’ve seen other companies try to do this but none as intuitive as the guys over at Slate Pro Audio. They have very quickly made waves in both the Pro Audio world in both hardware and software. I’m actually finishing up a review on Virtual Tape Machine as we speak.

So back to Raven. What we have here is a very nicely put together Command center for almost every popular DAW. It also has an analog monitoring section as well, making this your one stop centerpiece for your studio.

No word on price but until it comes in, enjoy this video!

For as much info as you can get for now, Click HERE.

ALSO, for the month of October, Slate Digital are taking 20% off of their popular plug-ins. Click HERE.

Photo taken from Vintage King’s website.
Helios is one of the veterans of analog audio and they have kicked in the door of the 500 series world with a piece of history. This particular model is all things 70′s and all things HUGE sound. When people like Joe Baressi use Helios, you know it’s the good stuff. This unit was modeled after the Island Studios Basing St. compressor used in a great deal of 70′s rock songs. I don’t have a lot of info on this but Vintage King seems to have a ton so I will just let them tell you about it.

This was definitely exciting news when it hit my desk yesterday. I am an avid user of iZotope trash. It is such a powerful audio mangling tool. Drums are instantly more edgy, vocals love getting the mess pulverized out of them, everything just sounds better with it even in small doses. So iZotope remembered the potential and built a whole new platform for Trash with more distortion algorithms and user control. The sky is the limit.

iZotope, Inc., a leading innovator in digital audio signal processing, has announced Trash 2, the ultimate distortion and audio mangling toolbox. Fully overhauled from Trash 1, Trash 2 adds a wealth of new features including twenty new distortion algorithms, fresh filter modules, fifty new impulse responses, multi-band waveshaping, 64-bit support and much  more.

It’s been nearly a decade since Trash first arrived, and it’s remained a cult favorite of artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Noisia, Garbage, KoRn, Sigur Rós, and anyone looking to add dirt, grime, and character to their  tracks. Now, nearly ten years later, Trash is back. Completely rewritten from the ground up, Trash 2 takes the best of Trash and makes it even better. With an entirely new sonic architecture, brand new features, optimized performance, better sound quality, and support for modern hosts and formats, Trash 2 is primed for a powerful new era of audio mangling, distortion, and experimentation.

Trash 2 will be released mid-November 2012. No set word on price.
Trash 1 customers who purchased after October 1, 2012 will receive a free upgrade to Trash 2 upon release.
Special upgrade pricing will be available for all previous Trash owners.
To learn more about Trash 2.0 and to receive updates on pricing and availability, click HERE.

Alright guys and gals, sorry for going all Kerouac on yall but I had to migrate servers and had quite a battle getting it all up and running. Anywho, I’m back and ready to post. So let’s take a look at Audio Technica’s sessy new AT5040. Man minimalism is nice. They stripped the mic design down to the essentials and boy does it look good. The shock mount even has a nice modern design to it. So basically Audio Technica has put 4 identical diaphragms working in unity to give you the utmost clarity in audio. I’m not quite sure how that principle works but I always feel more is better. Lets see how much this thing is going to cost… OUCH… $3000.00. Let’s continue, heartbroken that this beautiful mic will never make it past my soon to be wife’s Chirstmas list for me.

Audio-Technica, a leading innovator in transducer technology currently  celebrating “50 Years of Passionate Listening,” is launching its flagship 50 Series of elite studio microphones with the AT5040 Cardioid Condenser Microphone. A-T’s ultimate studio vocal microphone, the hand-built AT5040 side-address condenser offers remarkably musical high-fidelity performance, with profound realism and depth, presence and purity of sound. Featuring a proprietary breakthrough element design, the AT5040 employs four ultra-thin (2 micron) rectangular diaphragms that function together providing combined surface area unachievable in a standard round diaphragm. Designed as a first-choice vocal microphone with smooth top end and controlled sibilance, the AT5040’s large-diaphragm characteristics and fast transient response also make it ideal for recording acoustic instruments such as piano, guitar,  strings, and saxophone.

The first of A-T’s design criteria for the AT5040 was purity of sound. To achieve this, A-T engineers developed a four-part rectangular element, the pinnacle of recent breakthroughs in sound-capture technology. Four exquisitely matched diaphragms function together (with outputs proprietarily summed) as a single high-performance element – effectively the largest element Audio-Technica has ever created. By using four diaphra (more…)

FINALLY. I can’t stress enough how awesome this is. Vintage King has come through for us with the sound that defines modern music. SSL has moved out of the proprietary x-rack field and into the populous that is 500 series. Vintage King is taking pre-orders on SSL’s dynamics and EQ section from the famed SSL 4000 E Series Console.

The Solid State Logic 611DYN E Series Dynamics Module for 500 Series racks reproduces the legendary sonic signature of an early 80s classic, the SL 4000 E console channel strip, which was featured on countless 1980’s recordings. The SSL E Series Dynamics Module features a compressor/limiter and an expander/gate, both of which return faithfully to the circuitry and key components which define the sound of the original SL 611E Series channel strip. A true RMS converter is used in the side chain while the gain element is an all-discrete design identical to the Class A VCA chip used in the original unit. The compressor contains additional switching options to defeat the over-easy curve and to use a linear release instead of the more usual logarithmic curve. The result is a compressor with three distinct voices, each with its own musical character.

Features:

• Immortal SSL 4000 Series circuitry
• Class A VCA replication
• Expander/Gate
• Based on classic 611E console channel strip

The Solid State Logic E Series EQ Module for 500 Series racks reproduces the legendary sonic signature of an early 80s classic, the Solid State Logic SL 4000 E console channel strip, which has featured on countless classic recordings from the 1980’s to the present. The SSL E Series EQ Module features two different EQ’s found on editions of the console produced between 1981 and 1989. Each EQ has unique response curves and tonal character. Historically the type of EQ fitted in an individual console was distinguished by the colors used on the LF knob caps so the two flavors have become known as the ‘Brown’ and ‘Black’ EQ’s. On the E Series EQ Module you can switch between these two different flavors of EQ that have been loved by generations of professional producers.

Features:

• Immortal SSL 4000 E Series circuitry
• “Black-242” and “Brown-02” twin EQ design
• Versatile 4 band channel EQ
• Bell curve option on HF and LF
• Fully parametric LMF and HMF with Q
• Based on classic 611E console channel strip

A little SSL EQ history
Prior to 1989 SSL used the color of the Low Frequency EQ knob caps to indicate which type of EQ was fitted. All consoles were custom built and could feature different combinations of EQ module.

The following color codes apply:

• E Series BROWN: The original SSL EQ fitted to all consoles prior to the summer of 1985. Despite the rumors these equalizers only came in one version. The EQ card was called the ‘02’.
• E Series ORANGE: The infamous EQP equalizer. This was a variation on the Brown EQ with controls simulating the curves of a valve type EQ. Very few were sold. This card was named the ‘132’.
• E Series BLACK: The last version of the standard E series EQ. It evolved in the early 1980’s from discussions with many top engineers and proved very popular. The EQ card was called the ‘242’.
• G Series: With the arrival of the G Series console in 1989 the color coding was abandoned and the classic SSL end cap color scheme used today was adopted. First introduced in 1989 the original G Series EQ introduced Q characteristics which were proportional to gain settings and the bell/shelf filters had a degree of over shoot when boosting and under shoot when cutting.

The units will be available for pre-order the month.
Price: $889.00 for each.
For more info, click HERE and HERE

Once again, the guys at Native Instruments have updated one of my favorite rhythm sequencing programs. They even have new controllers coming out that feature something I’ve wanted since I bought it, color changing buttons. Now you can make your snares blue, your hats red, and your kicks pink (you know, because a good kick drum gets ladies). The new update even comes with Massive, Native instruments flagship synth program AND the Transient Master.

The free MASCHINE 1.8 update is now available. Workflow enhancements and new effects like TRANSIENT MASTER and time stretch add new flexibility to your MASCHINE projects. And starting with MASCHINE 1.8, all MASCHINE owners also get the legendary MASSIVE for free*, adding powerful synthesis to the premier groove production studio.

The MASCHINE 1.8 update is compatible with all versions of MASCHINE and MASCHINE MIKRO, not only the new MK2 hardware. Open the Native Instruments Service Center now to download and install your free update.

For more info, and to buy Maschine or preorder the new controller, click HERE.