Softube: the rock'n'roll scientists

They describe themselves as a trio (the hacker, the guitar player, and the professor) and if we were a tabloid (?!?) we could easily say that Softube is one of the "hottest names" in the audio software circus.
Well, nevermind, we don't think you'll ever read of audio plug-ins on tabloids!...

Softube's first release, Amp Room, has been an instant classic here at AudioNewsRoom. We love the fact it was a reaction against the trend of guitar amp simulators bloated with thousand features. With Amp Room you get three well sounding amps, modeled after some of the most sought after vintage gear, and a flexible mic positioning.
The concept is clear, and again, very rock'n'roll: you don't need anything else to create great music. By the way, Amp Room can be also used with keyboards/synths/drum machine, etc. We found that playing with the microphone position you can get really interesting results, to add some air and punch to our tracks. Just be careful with the volume knobs, the saturation/tone is not easy to control.
Later the Softube team has been hired to work on third party's products, like the renowned Tubetech CL1B emulation for PowerCore, and some of the Abbey Road's plugs.
In the meantime, as Softube, they released three effects, Acoustic Feedback, Tube Delay, Spring Reverb (also available as a bundle). Even if Acoustic Feedback is an incredibly fascinating concept we have to confess we felt more attracted by the last two plugs. Easy to use, nice GUI, cool sounding plugs, they're definitely something to add to your collection, especially if you're into vintage sound.
After testing Amp Room and these little gems, we knew we had a new name to add to our personal hi-end league of developers!

But the guys did not stop there. We've skipped the metal version of Amp Room, called...well... Metal Amp Room just because we're not so much into those sounds (even if we're sure it f-u-c-k-i-n-g r-r-r-r-r-r-ocks, at least according to some of our metalhead friends' comments, you know they always talk like that!), but we're glad to see they've just released their first compressor under the Softube brand: it's the FET Compressor and yes, it's inspired to the (put your favourite adjective here) 1176.

We'll try this new plug soon, if it's good as they say it will be added to our plug-in arsenal, no doubts. iLok owner can demo all the Softube plug-ins for 10 days, just visit their demo page.

During Christmas holidays we contacted Niklas Odelholm, Softube's Product Manager, for a mini-interview. Actually, we were hoping to steal some of their secrets, but he did not say much. Uhm, maybe next time we should try putting a webcam in their labs and see what happens...!

Hi Niklas, in your pages you claim that your modelling theory makes the simulation sound as good as the real thing. Which kind of improvements, if any, do you think we will see in the next years?
When it comes to modeling of electronic gear, the theory is pretty much in place today and the technology to simulate it exists. More computer power will probably lead to the possibility to model more complex circuits but I doubt that we'll see any major improvements in that area. When it comes to acoustic systems, there are still a lot of work that needs to be done.
Hopefully we'll see a lot of products during the coming years that take advantage of the modeling technology but goes one step further and utilize it in innovative ways that wasn't possible in hardware.

Always about modelling: while it seems to work great for things like outboard, amps, to our ears it's still "not there" when it's applied to instruments emulations, like piano and electric piano. Too many variables to keep in consideration?
Yes. Acoustic and mechanic systems (for instance a piano) are very complex and unpredictable, as compared to an electric system.

Is Softube team still made of a hacker, a guitar player, and a professor?
The hacker is still here, and he is still a hacker. But he's also the President of Softube.
As of today, the team consists of four guys, Oscar (President), me (Product Manager), Torsten (Software Manager) and Arvid (Hardware Manager). We're all musicians and engineers and are constantly fighting over the music playlist at the office...

Do you think you'll keep on doing modeling based products, or is there a chance to see something completely new by Softube, sooner or later?
Some of our products, such as the Tube Delay, doesn't have a hardware counterpart and could be classified as an "original" product although it is based on modeling algorithms. We will probably release more "original" products in the future, but they will be based on the same technology as our modeled products.
Since most of our technology is based on modeling, we use the same technology when we make up new products. If we for instance would make an EQ product, we would start by drawing an electric schematic even if we aren't going to build it in hardware. That way we will be able to use the modeling technology to make the product and ensure that it has a good analog sound and feel.

Your new release, the FET compressor is tempting... When you started working on it what did you feel was missing in previous emulations of "the most famous solid state compressor". Also, how long did this project take?
I don't want to complain about the predecessors, but I can mention that we felt that none of them really captured the input- and output-distortion of the real unit.
The project definitely took too long time. A couple of months.

Amp Room is cool, but even if you're known to be guitar fanatics, it would be super-cool to have a special version of Amp Room "fine tuned" for keyboard/synth players. The Scarbee VKFX is still a good product but it would be nice to see some competition, isn't it?
Definitely. We will release more Amp Room products and we have thought about a keyboard version. But all I can say is that the next Amp Room product won't be a keyboard version.

We are curious... Softube's New Year's resolutions?
Well, I can't speak for the other guys but I guess that we can promise to release lots of great products during 2009.

SPL Transient Designer plug-in: some words with Dirk Ulrich

A couple of months ago, SPL, the well-known German manufacturer of analog hardware processors, has introduced their first software plug-ins: the Transient Designer and a set of three EQs (Vox Ranger, Bass Ranger and Full Ranger, based on the passive graphic equalizers of the SPL RackPack). They are available as RTAS, VST, AU and TDM versions. Please note: the TDM version of the Transient Designer will follow soon.
You can try the demo, going on their software download page.
The Transient Designer is one of those magic devices, simple and very effective at the same time. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to use it, and it's definitely one of those designs which "cannot sound bad". In a way (I know it's apples and oranges but...) it makes me think of other less-is-more classic designs like the 1073, LA-2A, etc.
Talking about the plug-in, you've probably seen and/or used SPL inspired Transient Designer plug-ins in the past. Well, forget them. The SPL Transient Designer plug-in is as close as possible to the real thing. Once in a while the marketing claims seem to have a real reason to be in this case. And it's not that suprising, since the coders have worked in close relationship with the original hardware's engineers.
The responsible for SPL software is Dirk Ulrich, already known for his work with Brainworx.
And... yes, he's the one in this picture you can see on the Brainworx site in these days (by the way, if you're interested in their plugs, it's a good moment to check them out and buy something...).
After seeing that picture you know we really HAD to ask him some questions, isn't it?...

Hi Dirk, could you tell us, in short, something about your background in
music/development?
Hey, well, I started playing guitars in bands when I was 17, then started recording demos and working in a pro music store in Germany at 19. I started my first real studio with 24, together with a music school and a small label. Also, I studied law for 2 years, but the music in me "won"… :-)
I started Brainworx 10 years ago as a recording company, had the idea for my own M/S EQ 4 years ago, and this led to developing the bx1 analog EQ with a friend of mine. I designed the first bx_digital with Robin, my partner in BX, 3 years ago, and this was the start for a (so far) promising plugin company… to be continued…

How's been the collaboration with SPL's hw engineers? And how much difficult has been to get their final "yes" on the Transient Designer plug-in?
Well, we didn´t just get an OK for one plugin, we are the official SPL software department now, which is pretty cool! I have used SPL for years, so I know what we´re dealing with. In terms of coding the Transient Designer: it was not easy, this unit is a beast. Knowing the inside of this box now I can understand why there are many copies out there – and why they all fail in detail…
The collaboration with SPL´s engineers was great, they know thir gear very well and have pointed us to many details that we might have easily overseen else… so the combination of some solid analog background knowledge and some talented programmers (who are ANALOG freaks as well…) seems to be a great mix.
Let me add that I am not an analog engineer and I am not a programmer… I am an audio engineer and producer originally, so my job is "listening carefully" and running the BX show on a daily basis…

In the latest Transient Designer update (version 1.0.2), reading the release notes, I've read something about improvements in the algorithm. Could you be more specific?
Well, we released 1.0.1 because we felt we did all we could, but a few weeks later, and many hours with the software in the studio later we found out that there were still some small things to improve in the Sustain process, so we tried harder and we liked the result better, as did SPL´s guys. It´s even closer to the hardware now than before, so we went for it…

I've read you're developing other products for SPL, could you tell us something more?
Like I mentioned before we run the SPL software department, and we have plans of doing ALL the processors that would make sense in a digital domain, and we might even come up with SPL software that has NOT been released in hardware…
The next plugins will be TDM versions of the 2 existing plugins, then we´re working on the VITALIZER MK2t and the TWIN TUBE, the phase cancelling DE-ESSER will be a project, etc…

Now, more than ever, you have a strong background in both hw and sw products. What do you think of the "classic" fight: outboard vs. plug-in emulations, now in 2008, and what we should expect for the next  years?
I LOVE analog gear, like we all do. But in many studios there is no more time or room for outboard equiment, everything must be automatable, recallable, and last not least budgets get tighter in most studios… so I see a great future for software plugins – provided they sound right and offer tools (not toys). We have a lot of grammy-winning clients with BRAINWORX, and these guys are telling me that they are using our bx_digital on ALL of their no.1 mixes makes me proud – and it says something about software vs. hardware: if software is done right, it can replace hi-end gear in 2008.
Turning knobs is still fun though, and many pro studios will go on using hi end analog gear. And they SHOULD…
Everybody else: good software rocks! :-)

I see you run a recording and mastering studio (Brainrox), and that you like LOUD music! I guess playing and recording some music helps not to become crazy after a day of coding 1 and 0s. But... how do you find the time to do all these things?
I am not coding at all… I write the bills… :-)
And I do a lot of testing for ALL of the BX and SPL plugins, so there is a need for a studio anyway.
We are not recording too many bands in that studio anymore, but I would say 5 album productions and a LOT of hi end mastering jobs go through Brainrox every year… we are doing a lot of online mastering as well for clients in Russia, Sweden, USA, etc.
I LOVE music, and if it´s LOUD – fine! I have produced a lot of punk and metal and rock, like the TSR Project ft James LaBrie of Dream Theater on vovals, check it out!

Thanks Dirk, and a merry Christmas from all of us at AudioNewsRoom!
Merry X-Mas everybody, and thank you for your time!

Synplant: synth in the time of sustainability

As you probably remember, at the end of our last year's interview with Magnus Lidström , he gave some hints about the "close" relationship between the environment and his upcoming product.
Well, now we know that that product was Synplant, and that... yes, its concept has a strong link with nature and environment.
Sonic Charge's Synplant is a new form of software synthesizer. In his author's words "Synplant lets you explore a world of organic sounds by planting seeds that grow into synth patches. The purpose of this product is to move focus away from the sometimes intricate and difficult process of sound synthesis and instead let you develop sounds by simply using your ears".

We've been able to follow Synplant's development since its early days and now that it's finally out we're almost excited like the first time we've seen it. There's a reason why developers like Magnus Lidström do not release a plug-in every three months like many do. His products are a work of art and craft, every feature, every pixel is really there for a reason (and usually it's more than good!), and they're a joy to use.
We suggest you to download and try Synplant, the demo can be used up to three weeks with full functionality, and Synplant only subtracts weeks from the trial time when you actually use it (how cool is that? Developers, take note...).

Lately we've been in touch with Magnus again, here's the report...

Today words like bio, eco, environment, are everywhere (advertising, communication, politics, etc.): it was this that somehow inspired you a sort of bio-technological vision for your new software?

Yes, when the concept of Synplant came up I had a campaign going on where I donated a part of Sonic Charge's income to WWF (and no, I do not mean the World Wrestling Federation). The original plan was to introduce some kind of free or cheap plug-in tied to this campaign. Once I started working on it, I realized how cool the concept was and ultimately it kept growing for almost two years until it became what Synplant is today.
Regardless, I have always been fascinated and inspired by nature and biology, and not the least how it relates to technology. To a great extent, the human being has always stolen and refined concepts from nature and where our biology has limited us we have developed technology to compensate our short-comings (like the airplane for flying or the computer for remembering stuff and calculating). What I find most exciting is when technology goes beyond being merely a tool or an aid of some sort to becoming a contributor in a creative process. True magic for me is when the computer surprises me with a new sound or a random melody-line that inspires me to create a particular song. Now, am I really the only artist in this process?

Usually, the interface informs the way you approach an instrument, and the results you can get from it. What do you expect from Synplant's users, compared to more common synthesis' methods and instruments?

I think of Synplant as a concept synth, and not only in how you interact with it, but how it sounds too.
Synplant hosts something that can be described as a virtual analogue synthesizer engine inside, but it is an engine that has been designed from ground up to work well with the concepts of gradually morphing and randomizing parameters. Also, there is a certain amount of uncontrolled randomness going on inside the engine itself. I didn’t want this one to be as robotically stiff and scientifically exact as MicroTonic.
I hope that people will get inspired by the ease with which they can come up with entirely new sounds and let their inner control freak loose. The trance-gated unisoned sawtooth pad certainly serves its purpose, but we've heard it before.

Touch screen based-devices and softwares seem to be the next big thing in music production: what about a touch version of Synplant?

That would rock, yes. I got myself an iPod Touch to experiment. My first reaction was like "oh cool, this is way better than using the mouse"... but the second realization was like "oh, all these buttons are huge... have my fingers always been this fat?".
When you think about it, touch screens have been around commercially even longer than the mouse, and still they have failed to break into the personal computer market in any big way. I like the possibility of using "gestures", but I am beginning to wonder if it isn't best suited on a track-pad device like on the new MacBooks.
But I do see potential for touch-screens when it comes to musical applications of course, and it would be cool to develop something for the iPhone / iPod Touch as well. It is simply the coolest gadget this far into the millennium. But sadly enough, I haven't even had time to fire up the development kit to experiment.
But have faith, my son is almost four months old now, so in about 20 years from now I assume I will get enough free time over. :)

When the drum machines hit tape: Goldbaby

Hugo Tichborne is the man behind Goldbaby Productions (or simply Goldbaby), and his mission was and still is quite simple: to create the best vintage drum machine samples on the market.
Ok, we all know there are tons of similar samples, both free and payware, but his mission is based on adding some value to the good old "let's sample a drum machine" concept: the added value in this case means recording the drum machines onto some good old tape machines and sampling them as carefully as possible (last but not least, then selling them at cheap prices anyone can afford).
Goldbaby's latest releases are called Tape Drum Machines vol.1 and vol.2.
The first volume contains Linn LM-1, MBase01, Roland TR-505, Boss DR110, Sequential Tom, 4 In The Floor, Yamaha MR-10, MRX-185, Emu Drumulator and MPC The Kit (and a bonus rom based 808).
The second volume contains: Linn Drum, CR-78, TR-626, DDR-30, Bohm, DR-55, RPM-40, RX-5, KPR-77 and the Synsonics Pro.
In both cases the Tape machines used are Ampex valve 1/2 inch 2 track, Otari MX5050 1/4 inch 2 track, Teac A-350 Cassette Deck and the Hitachi 3 head Cassette deck.
In total, you get respectively 1482 and 1838 samples (ouch!) at 24bit resolution (for those who care, the audio card used in the process is the well respected Metric Halo ULN-2), and the drum samplers supported are: Battery 3 and Guru.
Of course you can get just the raw samples and import them in your favourite sampler (better if it has a round robin layering feature, like in Battery or Guru, it makes the thing even more realistic since it emulates the non-linear behaviour of the original drum machines).
By the way, as stated in the manual, the supplied Kits only use a small portion of the samples on offer in the sample folder. It means you can have fun (or lose some sleep, or both) creating your own kits.
Maybe Goldbaby should set up a forum where users can share their presets, I'm sure it would be appreciated, especially by lazy users like...ehm... myself!

As expected, these libraries give justice (and probably more) to the original products. The audio quality/dynamic is way better than most of the similar samples I've used.
And besides the famous names, it's really a good thing to have some of these obscure/exotic drum machines sampled here: for example, the Synsonics is getting a lot of use here lately!
Anyway, listen to the demos on the website if you're still hesitating, but at 29$ each you should not think about it twice!

We've asked Hugo to tell us something more about him, his business and the new product he's working on. Here's Mr.Goldbaby in his own words...



Hugo, you're definitely one the most know drum-machines freak of the interweb! How all this started, you got a drum-machine as a gift from your parents when you were a kid, or what?

I started getting into music technology and electronic music in the mid 80's. Working after school polishing floors just so I could save enough money to buy a 2nd hand Moog MG-1, my first synth. I still have it! The first drum machine I ever played with was a Yamaha RX7. I couldn't afford it, but use to go down to my local music store every weekend just to "test it out". They must of got sick of me! However I didn't seriously get into drum machines until I bought an MPC60... The Roger Linn masterpiece. Then I bought a TR-606, TR-808, CR-78, CR-8000, DDR-30, Mbase... Now I can't be stopped! I also met Steve who is serious collector. He has well over a hundred vintage drum machines. A very handy guy to know if you want to record drum machine samples! I just hire what I need when I need it. He has some rare and crazy stuff...

What's the main reason behind the "let's print it to tape" concept? It's the saturation, the smoothing of some frequencies/transients, or it's just the fact for those of us grown up with the sound of tape in the ears, well, that's what our ears expect to hear?

I have always known that drums sound good on tape. I use to work in recording studio which had a Fairlight MFX 2 and a Studer two inch 24 track tape machine. The Fairlight was an incredible hard disk recorder and editor. Incredibly advanced and sounded great.... but we always seemed to go back to tape when recording drums... You're right... it's the saturation, transient smoothing and frequency response. Or maybe it's just voodoo! What ever it is... I like what it does to an 808 BD!

Herbert, the dj/producer/composer, talking about originality once said in an interview "if you're using a 909 drum machine, like, I don't know, twenty-five thousand other people in the world, then it's going to be a lot harder to sound original". Does that make you feel guilty for spreading even more 909 sounds around the world?

Drum samples are just tools. The way you use them can differ completely to the way someone else uses them. I know customers who use the 909 to make Drum and Bass, House, Techno, Hip Hop, Dub Step... the list goes on. I just supply the tools. My customers supply the originality... Remember the the TR-909 was originally designed to be a realistic drummer. It failed dismally at that. Instead it became the futuristic drum sound that helped shape modern dance music. There have been countless 909 samples available since sampling began. My mission was to create the best 909 samples available.

Do you use software drum-machines, too? Which are your favourites and what do you feel they miss, compared to the old stuff?

Personally I have been favouring Guru as a software drum sampler. Very powerful and inspiring tool. Fill it with Goldbaby samples and then ba boom! Also been using uTonic... it is a great software "analog" drum machine. I still have time for my old stuff. The character and limitations of those old device really make you concentrate on the simple ideas. A drum sampler with only 5 seconds of sampling time for instance, gets you working creatively to overcome it's lack of memory. A synth with no midi gets you playing it live. Plus a healthy dose of nostalgia always keeps my studio full of vintage gear...

Would we ever see from Goldbaby a plug-in a-la Virtual String Machine by GForce? I mean a virtual instrument still based on samples but with actual controls?

Hell yeah! Sign me up.
Unfortunately I have absolutely no coding skills. However if a software developer ever wanted to do something with me.... I wouldn't complain.

I've read you're working on a new release. Could you tell us something more about it?

Next product is based around the SP1200 and SP12. Think dirty 12 bit samples through SSM2044 analog filters (more info on this famous chip here)! Really enjoying my time with these two legends. The first time I sampled through it I used the 808 as a sound source. Playing back the 808 bass drum through the SP1200 I was a little disappointed to the hear the gritty 12 bit aliasing... then I routed it through it's internal VCF.... aaaahh that's better, a whole lot better! That 12 bit aliasing works magic on snares and HH. The filters really warm up the Toms and Kicks... Such a deferent sonic character to my other 12 bit sampler the MPC60...

Off-the-record: Soundtoys

At Soundtoys they do work hard, no doubts. Their (may I add "awesome sounding"?) plug-ins, originally available for PT users only, were released in 2007 in the AU format, becoming an instant classic for native users. In the next weeks they're going to release the much-awaited VST version.
So, we've been patiently waiting for Ken Bodganowicz, Soundtoys' founder and CEO, to reply to our questions, but... hey, would you ever dare to put the Eventide H3000's DSP guru under pressure?

Ken, what you were doing before working at Eventide?

I was at Rensselaer Polytechnic institute, studying electrical engineering and also booking concerts for our school. Our biggest show was the Clash, one of my all time favorite bands. It was really cool to meet Joe Strummer and Mick Jones.

When did you start working at Eventide and which was your task?

I was hired at Eventide right after I graduated university, in 1984. My dream job was to design guitar stompboxes, so when I found out an effects company was close to my home in New Jersey, I was thrilled.
My first couple of projects never made it out the door. One was a digital delay, another was a computer graphics tablet. I did some work on Eventide's SP2016 reverb. I redesigned the A/D converters for that. I also did probably the first ever emulation plug-in, an AMS RMX-16 nonlin reverb simulation for the SP2016. It came on an EPROM chip. It was the '80s and gated reverb effects were in high demand!

Which was the main concept behind the H3000 and how much it owes to other previous products?

The original design concept for the H3000 was simply a stereo pitch changer. At the time, Eventide was making most of it's money by selling expensive memory expansion cards for computers, and the audio division wasn't doing so well.
Eventide had just hired myself, Bob Belcher (who works at SoundToys now), and Dave Derr (founder of Empirical Labs and Distressor Designer). The three of us fought pretty hard to get a chance to design the H3000, because we all came there to design audio products and not memory cards!
We were pretty nervous and started looking at the products that were coming out at the time, like Lexicon's PCM-70 and Yamaha's SPX-90. We knew that multi-effects were the way to go, so from the start we wanted out box to be versatile.
Bob worked nearly round the clock designing the hardware and circuit boards at night and the control software during the day. I'd usually come in the morning to find Bob just waking up in the easy chair in his office. Dave Derr designed the analog circuitry and I designed the DSP algorithms.


One of the things that I think helped was that we were all musicians and engineers, so we tried to make the box more 'musical'. That was what drove me to develop 'diatonic' pitch shifting, because I felt that it was just an obvious musical need.
Pretty much everything in the H3000 was done from scratch, including all the signal processing algorithms. This was our first major audio product, and most of the engineers who had designed Eventide's older products were no longer their. However, we did continue the philosophy of Eventide's SP2016 reverb processor. That box was designed to run multiple different effects (which was new for the time) and even had a panel to plug-in new ROM chips to add effects "plug-ins".

During the H3000's development, which was (if there was any) the relationship with artists? Was Brian Eno involved somehow, or he was just an early adopter?

Well, for the most part we kept things pretty quiet - we didn't even let our management know exactly what we were doing! Brian Eno was an early adopter, and wrote us a nice letter about how much he liked the H3000. That really meant a lot to us, and Bob and I taped up that letter in our offices.

Why did you choose to leave Eventide and start a software company?

After developing the H3000 and DSP4000 I was just ready for something new. I've always just wanted to do my own thing, and it seemed like having my own company was the best way to do that.

After having worked on such classic products like the ones we mentioned, how difficult it is to come out with new and better ideas/products?

Coming up with new ideas isn't hard - it's getting from there to the finished product that's difficult.
For me, developing new products is always somewhat painful. I'm a real perfectionist, and tend to get obsessed with sometimes the smallest details.

One of the first things that I've noticed using the Soundtoys' plugs, is the (high) quality of the factory presets. It's not a common thing, and I'm sure there's a lot of work behind them. Could you tell us something more about that?

Thanks - we work really hard on those! The preset thing really goes back to H3000 days. For the H3000, we were all involved in making presets, but I was the 'editor', doing the final tweaks and choosing the best from all the contributions. I've been lucky enough also to work with some talented sound designers. Andrew Schlesinger, for example, created the infamous Crystal Echoes preset for the H3000 still designs presets for us. Mitch Thomas who's our sales and marketing manager is also a really talented sound designer, and designs our preset expansion packs.


Recently your ported (almost all) your suite of effects to the native platforms, and it seems the reaction has been great. But, what about the "missing" plugs like Soundblender? It's just they're more complicated and longer to port or what? Sometime ago you said something like: "we're still not sure what to do with it, maybe release some of its features under a new form..."

We've been working on porting the pitch processing code from DSP assembly language, which is extremely complicated. In the process we are planning on making some 'improvements' to the plug-ins so that they are easier to use and sound better.

You worked in hardware company, and in your "info" page I've read you at SoundToys are collectors of fine hardware pieces. Don't you miss a real, tactile interface for your own products?

Yes, I'd love to see some of our effect in a piece of hardware. Yes, turning real knobs is always more gratifying than using a mouse and screen. But it's hard to deny the other benefits of software - almost unlimited instances for the same price and total recall and automation.

You say Soundtoys is based in a small place in Vermont, "where rush hour traffic is half a dozen cars at a stop light...".
So that's the secret of making better and "warmer" (whatever it means) plug-ins?

It gets REALLY cold here in the winter - we need something to warm us up!

Maybe this can be helpful to some of our readers: I see you're looking for a plug-in developer. Does he/she need to transfer to Burlington?

We already work with some designers remotely, so that's a possibility. However, we prefer to have someone at our lab. You miss a lot when you don't see someone every day.

I see you often join conferences and meetings related to digital signal processing. Probably granular synthesis has been the most important finding in the last 3 decades, but which are the most interesting methods/techniques do you think we'll see applied in audio hardware/software in the next years?

I'd say that the continuing improvement of "Frequency Domain" techniques that have made possible advanced time-stretching and pitch shifting combined with artificial intelligence techniques will make for some very interesting effects in the future.

The last, classic, ,question:  I swear I won't tell anybody... What's going on in your secret labs (and I mean besides the upcoming VST version)?

We've got a few new plug-ins that we are developing that I think you will like very very much! I can't say much more than that.
Will you be coming out to AES or NAMM in the States? We'll be at both shows, and hopefully at Messe this year as well. ...

New life for historic instruments: realsamples

Some years ago I was in a musical instruments museum, and while it was good to see all those old, rare and incredibly beautiful harpsichord and pianos, I admit it was a painful experience. You know, I wanted to "jump" on them and start playing!
Well, of course things are not going to change in this kind of museums, but technology sometimes may help: the german sample libraries brand, realsamples, has released an interesting collection, The Beurmann Edition. 8 libraries for 8 different instruments, which can be bought separately or bundled together (saving some money!).
For historic instruments lovers the Beurmann Edition is a godsend. The quality of the instruments (3 harpsichords, 1 spinet, 1 celesta-dulcitone, 3 pianoforte) and the way they've been carefully recorded really make these libraries stand out in the crowded samples market.
We have had the chance to try three of these libraries: the English Spinet, the Grand Piano (Erard Pianoforte) and the Dulcitone Celesta.
Since the realsamples website has a lot of info on each instrument, I won't repeat the same things here; I'll just say that quality and out-of-time emotions are the keywords here. Unless you're a lucky owner of some historical instrument these are some of the finest results you can get from today's sampling technology.
It may be obvious, but don't expect an "hyped" or "ultra-perfect" (for today's standards) sound from the Beurmann Edition; these instruments come from another time, and their unique tone and dynamics need some time to be fully appreciated.

The libraries are available on DVD (sometimes on multiple DVDs) in EXS24, Halion, Giga and Kontakt 2 formats (16 and 24 bit, 44.1 and 48 khz).
A little note for Logic users (at least for those using the 7.x.x version): since the samples' files are named in a similar way across the several libraries, the EXS could have some problems associating the instrument to the samples. If it happens, my advice is to use Logic's Project Manager (the Logic 8's Browser Window should be able to perform similar tasks). The developer is aware of this little issue and told AudioNewsRoom he'll take care of this on the next revision.
Prices go from $ 139.95 to $ 159.95 (VAT and shipping excluded) for one library ($ 999.95 for the bundle).
The only thing that's missing (and it's not realsamples' fault) is, ermmm, the physical experience. Playing these samples on your MIDI keyboard it's definitely not the same thing, but add a touch of (a good) reverb, close your eyes and start playing...

As you can see, there were enough reasons for us to try to know more about the Beurmann Edition, so we asked some questions to Nicolay Ketterer, the brain behind realsamples. From his long and detailed answers you'll probably understand why these libraries are a real labour of love.

How the Beurmann Edition idea came out? And what about the choice of the instruments?

Professor Beurmann has a huge collection of old instruments and most part of it can be seen in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. But the visitors can’t play them – it would be too hard to keep them in tune and some are very fragile and they could break.
But what musical value do antique historical instruments have if they remain silent? So the idea came up to make them playable in a software sampler. It’s great to hear those special sounds come alive again and being used in current productions.
We should keep in mind that those instruments are cutting edge - very much in the sense how Stradivari violins are highly sought-after and unparalleled, it’s the same with Ruckers harpsichords or Hitchcock spinets. What a shame if we would not use these sounds today! The instruments build today sound different.
Part of it is the aging process, of course: Wood sounds different when it’s old. Just like an old Fender guitar sounds different than a new one. Not necessarily better in all cases, but different. You can almost hear and feel the history of the instrument when you play it.
The same goes for the old pianos of the collection. They don’t have that modern sound that we’re used to from a Steinway, but a very different, classy sound going on. The pianofortes by Johann Andreas Stein were Mozart’s favourites, for example: They have a baroque attitude that also goes very well with many different styles today. The Erard pianoforte melts with Chopin’s works and is great for any music with character.
For these libraries, we chose instruments that are very distinctive in their own right and that had a historical impact.

In your website we can read about the gear you used to record the samples. Have you tried other gear before choosing this set-up? And could you share with our readers some details about the recording? Mic techniques, etc.

If I’d record a rock/pop band, I’d shoot for the kind of colour that fits the music, e.g. for guitars I’d try a Royer R121 with a Chandler Germanium, for example.
But with the old instruments which are masterpieces that sound very even and balanced, you don’t need that kind of colour: On the other hand, I didn’t want to record with a rather “boring” sounding signal chain.
You always have to keep in mind that sampling is a totally different animal than simply recording a performance: Instaead of playing an instrument, you play a whole mix – every single key in a sampler acts like one track in a multi-track environment. You layer the single samples to a whole performance. If you use equipment that sounds too coloured, the colour will add up and things might become muddy. Also if you use equipment with a bad noise floor, the noise will add up and may become audible, especially with quiet instruments such as harpsichords, spinets, or the lower range of a piano.


My main goal was to find a recording chain that has a certain fidelity and musical soul, a natural warmth, while retaining a classy and pure sound.
Before I start recording, I listen to the instrument very closely and try to find out what the soul of the instrument is; The special thing that sets it apart from other instruments. Then I try to build a recording setup that really focuses that element.
For the mics, we made two choices: The rather neutral yet big and present sound of old Neumann TLM 170’s. For some of the instruments, I preferred a pair of Royer R122V ribbon mics. They have a tube gain stage and more output than traditional ribbon mics. They brought some polish and grace to the table that fit some of the harpsichords and the Traugott Berndt pianoforte very well, lending a nice, expensive shimmer to their treble range. In contrast to normal ribbons like an R84 or the R121 which can sound rather dark with very balanced or mellow instruments, the R122V’s have an extended high end. I also like what they did to the mids, and the way they record the transients.


Regarding the preamp, I didn’t want to use a preamp that has a sonic signature that’s all over the recordings like a thick cloth, adding up with the number of samples played. Along with our choices of mics, we ended up using the Crane Song Flamingo preamps which offer a great noise floor and a neutral yet anything but sterile sound. The transformer simulation and the “warmth” feature gave us great versatility when needed, so we did not use different preamps for the whole recording session.
One thing that is often underrated for a digital recording is the converter. When I first heard the difference from some studio standard RME converters to dedicated audiophile units, it seemed stunning and worthwhile. A sampler is a digital tool and it will reproduce an instrument in a digital way, so in order to capture the instruments in an organic way, I decided to go with Universal Audio 2192 converters. They don’t sound harsh in the sense of some converters without altering the sound in the way a preamp would.
I really like to share the information on the recording setup, because it reveals a certain concept behind the whole thing and also indicates a certain level of care that went into these recordings. It would be rather meaningless to simply state “high quality recording equipment”.

Your products are compatible with most of the samplers; do you achieve this using a conversion software or it's a one-by-one tweaking process?

Most formats are tweaked one-by-one. Some formats don’t work well with conversion software – the GigaStudio format, for example, which is really a special deal, so I create that originally. Others, like Halion, can be converted easily.

At AudioNewsRoom we love the sound of unusual instruments, like the Dulcitone. Do you think we can expect more of this "off the beaten path" releases in the near future?

Oh, I love the Dulcitone, too. It’s one of my favourites! That crooky yet innocent sound full of patina and character shows what sampling can achieve: If you play the samples, you would be hard pressed to guess that this is a sampled sound, not a real instrument. There will be some more unusual instruments in the near future as well, but I can’t tell you anymore than that at the moment, eh eh!

Howard Scarr: a sound scientist

In the interview with Urs Heckmann from u-he, we mentioned the fact that Zebra 2 has been extensively used in the upcoming Batman - The Dark Knight. And we mentioned also Howard Scarr, because he's been hired by Hans Zimmer to assist him in the sound-design stage.
Just some weeks ago, Howard Scarr (keyboard player in the uk prog scene with Zorch, sound designer for Access, Waldorf, etc.; for a complete profile check his website) has released a gorgeous collection of patches and resources for Zebra (242 sounds, 48 oscillator templates and 35 envelope templates, plus a few tips and tricks), called Zebra Science (a must for every Zebra user, available as usual at u-he website).
So it was a good moment to ask Howard some questions about his work and the world of synthesizers he knows so well...to find out that lately he's more into playing guitar! So it goes...

Which was your first synthesizer?

That would be an EMS Synthi AKS, in 1973. The shop was probably the biggest in London - they had an AKS, a Minimoog and an ARP Odyssey. I chose the AKS over those other two because it could make wierd and wonderful noises - the Pink Floyd / Gong stuff. Plus it was slightly cheaper, it had a sequencer, and at the time I wasn't really much of a keyboard player.

You have seen with your eyes and touched with your hands, both as musician and (later) as sound-designer, a good part of the (modern) history of synthesizers. In short, which have been, in your opinion, the highs and lows of this "great human enterprise"?

The truly great gear was mostly developed by enthusiasts investing a lot of brainpower and time following a personal dream. After the first large modulars, the major revolutions were the first affordable keyboard synths, practical solutions to polyphony and patch memory, affordable digital synthesis and most recently, plugins. The lows were either the results of cutting corners, making synths cheaper but less expressive (EMS Polysynthi and Akai AX series immediately spring to mind), or not involving musicians during the design stage. Of course we all had to survive a long period when knob-control practically disappeared from the panel!

Analog vs Software Instruments: recently, in a KVR thread you told that Zebra "beats" even some of the classic analog synths. Of course you were talking about the quality of sound (and the obvious advantages of the software synths, like multiple istances, etc.). But don't you think that the big difference is still in the way you approach the instrument, and that this is a big part of the results you'll get from it?

Sure. Hardware MIDI controllers really do let you approach good software in the same way as good hardware. Admittedly, you have to overcome the urge to use everything at your disposal instead of concentrating on performing, exploring the limits of one simple patch. First and foremost, you need to have at least a modicum of musical talent.

What's your opinion on recent touch-based devices like Reactable, Monome, Tenori-on?

ReacTable was a brilliant idea, and I'd love to be let loose on one! I don't feel button matrices make good performance interfaces, I would like to see them used for virtual patching instead.

Zorch were one of the first (and Uk's first) all-synthesizer band. If you, today, were a teenager and going to form an all-synth band, which set-up would this band choose?

I think I'd go for a hybrid solution: A laptop as sequencer and plugin host, with a couple of good MIDI controllers and one or two highly tweakable monophonic analogue synths. On the other hand, there are so many synth-based acts out there, it might be easier to find your niche using exclusively old hardware - assuming you can afford it. By the way, on stage Zorch used just three EMS Synthis and two tape machines for ping-pong delay.

I've read you're not a fan of 80s and 90s electronic music. So, even words like IDM, Glitch, Techno, D'n'B, Dubstep, etc. are banned in your vocabulary?

Not really banned, but I seldom hear enough difference between what I consider to be sub-genres of Techno to justify making such distinctions. I keep listening to new music, but to be honest, today's flood of synth-based, beat-powered instrumentals either leaves me cold or even grates on my old-style musical sensibilities. Chemical Brothers and a few others have come up with some interesting stuff, but these days I actually prefer listening to new guitar-based bands. In fact I recently started practising guitar and joined a young band (Ayefore) in my home town, so I could strut my stuff on stage and get away from synths every now and again.

You've recently been hired by Hans Zimmer for the latest Batman soundtrack. Is Zebra 2 the only synth in action, and more in general, which is the role of the synths in this soundtrack?

At the time I left RCP, Zebra2 seemed to be the only plugin synth Hans was using, it was the only one I saw on the monitors and I didn't see him reaching for any of his analogue monsters either - he is a big Zebra2 fan. I seriously doubt that he secretly loaded up a virtual TB303 in the middle of the night, when nobody was looking! Most of the other guys at RCP and co-composer James Newton-Howard are also using Zebra2 now. Mel Wesson provided a lot of basic material, and I know his main "axe" is a PPG modular system. I have no idea how prominent the synthetic sounds will be in the final mix i.e. how far they will blend into the live orchestral recordings (which I had the pleasure of attending) and samples, but my guess is that the general public will just hear a massive, scary orchestra, whereas synth enthusiasts will also hear the synths.

You've worked as a consultant too, for some of the biggest firms: what would you like to see in new musical instruments?

Above all I'd like to get rid of superfluous complexity, a shift away from fast-buck featuritis towards usability and quality. I'd like to see more new no-frills analogue performance synths with keyboards - the number of available Minimoogs and Odysseys is limited. Affordable VST host hardware (I'm waiting to check out how well the V-Box performs).  More precise multi-touch pads/displays with less resistive surfaces... maybe also implemented as a dedicated hand drum with physically modelled sound generation. Affordable convolution reverb for small venues. MIDI processing specifically aimed at spontaneous recordings to create bars and tempi... I'm sure I've left a lot out, but I've got to stop somewhere!

Since a couple of years you work for u-he. Ok, Urs's not listening now, so please tell us: is he a good boss?

Urs is great! He is also fiercely independant - I can't see him ever becoming a small cog in a big company, despite several offers.

Off-the-record: Urs Heckmann (u-he)

Since a long time we wanted to ask some questions to Urs Heckmann, the man behind Zebra, Filterscape, MFM.
If you're into software instruments, you probably already have some of his products in your plug-in arsenal. And, well, even if you're a hardware purist, you should have a look at u-he website...
P.s: Urs is known to love smileys, so we've kept them :-)

Your father is a sculptor, you have an industrial design background. How would you put these two disciplines in relationship with your job as music software developer, and how did these things help you in doing what you're doing?

Well, my father is a perfectionist and that's something I've certainly got from him. Describing the relationship between audio software development and industrial design would by far exceed the frame of this interview. I think though that they are very similar things. An industrial designer anticipates and outlines a product up to the point where others can fully imagine its existance, looks and functionality. An audio software developer does the same thing. The major difference is, the result of audio software design is a finished product while the sketches of an industrial designer have to be engineered and manufactured afterwards. I just upload the software on my server and there it is. However, coming from that angle I guess I'm a quite exotic figure within the audio software business. A major scope of my work is making complex beasts very easy to use. Working out all aspects of the user interface purely an industrial design issue.

You've refused offers from big companies (Apple, NI?), how much time (read beers) it took you to decide?

Hahaha, well the companies you mentioned have only asked me to send a resume. The direct offers came from other (albeit not necessarily smaller) companies. It never took a beer. Refusal was always the immediate answer to that question. I live in the comfortable situation of earning money from my own ideas, without any pressure from marketing departments. Working in a company would be a step backwards.

About Zebra, in the past I remember you told me there was a remote chance to see an hardware product out of it. Did the idea evolve somehow and are you still interested in it?

I'm all for it but I can't do it alone. I've spoken to some people but I found nothing yet appealing enough to take a risk. I'd love to provide the industrial design for a zebraesque controller keyboard with 4 joysticks though.

Which today's musical hardware devices (both mass produced or not, controller and/or instrument) "excite" you most and why?

To be honest, I'm not a good keyboard player and thus I'm a bit dyslexic on performance qualities. The only hardware I currently find appealing are analogue modular synthesizers. I'm toying around with a little system based around several modules stuffed in a Doepfer Rack, mostly Cwejman stuff. It's fun to wire this up with dozens of patch cords. Of course you can't save patches nor play chords or anything. Thus for actual music I find software much more suitable.

U-he and Hollywood: Zebra and MFM are an important part of upcoming big movies/soundtracks (we've talked about this with u-he's sound scientist, Howard Scarr). Which are the features' request you get more often from this kind of professional audience?

Funnily there's a really big blob of Zebra users in and around Hollywood, it's almost disturbing (I'm afraid I'm not gonna enjoy movies anymore trying to spot Zebras in the soundtrack...). The requests from there are surprisingly not so much about sonical features, they are mostly about technical details, for instance about integration of the software in huge projects or certain environments. It's about resizable user interfaces, MIDI Program Changes, support for Pro Tools etc. every now and then I get a request for surround capabilities.

Let's face it: with so many mags' awards, praises on the forums, etc, Urs Heckmann has gained a sort of superstar status. Are you still able to maintain a healthy self-critical attitude?

Hahaha, that's a good one ;-) I wouldn't perceive myself as a superstar. I think that my stuff is still pretty "underground" and "niche" despite the recognition it gets in magazines and such. This is certainly due to my lack of marketing ambitions. Selling over the internet is fine with me even though I could move a magnitude of boxes if I went with a retail distribution strategy. In fact I assume that moving only a couple of hundreds of licenses a year is very healthy for a one man business. In comparison a large company needs dramatic marketing to feed the overhead. About being self-critical, winning awards is flattering, but in the internet age there's always someone who puts you back on the ground. My wife is good at that too ;-)

About piracy and melting screens: for the russian hackers "mafia" you're probably marked as "Wanted". I bet you double check before drinking or eating something in a restaurant or in a bar, isn't it?

Nah, I don't think so. I'm having some Russian forums translated and they don't make the impression to be particularly angry with me (even though some have been stupid enough to assume that I wouldn't read their stuff, same goes for a couple of Western crackers)

More seriously but still about piracy, what do you think of the BanPiracy's approach?

I don't like it. It causes too much lateral damage. Here's a hypothetical scenario: a studio has a machine with demos from a software company installed by some engineer. An intelligencer of that company asks some other engineer in the studio if their stuff is installed. This one can't even see if it's a demo or not. He opens the demo and says "Oh, it's only a demo, sorry we don't have it". The company can still press charges for license violation against them. There is a major flaw in this system. I think that any license which disallows "accidental demonstration of a demo version for a pending business decision" should be ruled nonsense. These tactics seem desperate to me. Any company that does this could as well just advertise with a webbanner "Give us more money or we're going out of business". Postponed is not abandoned, it just leaves a bitter taste. (I have no clue as to what state said company is in. I just say how their business tactics come across to me.)

Why do we always get so many interesting and innovative hw and sw musical products coming from Germany? Is it because german moms make you eat something special when you're kids? Or it's just you have good schools?

Ha ha ha, maybe it is because we don't have any particular schools here. I wouldn't know what to study here if i wanted to create musical stuff. Hence I guess there are lots of people with a non-specific background, and maybe that's why the products are interesting? Also I think that in our culture (and probably same in Sweden, France and other countries) creating music hard/software "is good enough" whereas in cultures where business success ranks higher the same creative minds would go for other areas that have a brighter outlook.

In Berlin, where you live, several (big and small) hw and sw companies have their headquarters. Is there a sense of network, a "connection" among Berlin's masterminds?

Well, some of my best friends work in those other companies. I would be all for a bit more talk, but it's somehow too hard to organize. Hence we usually meet during tradeshows.

Since the beginning, you made an advanced use of the Apples AU format's features. This format and this Apple's choice has been often and heavily criticized by other devs. Why do you think there's not much love around for this format?

The major problem of AU is that the SDK (Software Development Kit) is overly ambitious. It's hard to find the things that one really needs. It also has a property that makes the transition from VST 2.x to AU very hard for many developers the separation of process and user interface. Now we have VST3 coming up and it seems to embrace all the same things that make AU hard to devlop for. Hmmm.

The u-he tech net part of your site is a cool thing, especially for the geekest among us; since it seems a bit inspired by the open source approach, I'd like to ask you what you think about music related open source projects, like those born for example in the monome community?

I don't mind open source software. I once have open sourced my gui framework for AU (which now is hopelessly outdated though). However, I'm so deeply buried in my own stuff, I have no idea what's going on in the realm of os audio software... The tech-net is for those who develop third party applications and resources for my stuff. Many people have done some things such as gui skins and sample converters. I want to encourage them to continue and enable them to do so on a high level.

I like the way your products have entered their "adult" age (and the tech net we've seen above is an important part of this growth): you've built for them a sort of modular underlying structure, that lets you add new features (resizing, skins, midi control, new filters, etc.). I know it may sound a bit abstract and it could be a broad (off) topic, but to me your approach is all about the value and the ecology of things, in a couple of words I'd say: "project culture"...

Yes. After the early years (More Feedback Machine, Zoyd, Zebra 1) I realized that products must be able to evolve over time. Hence the modularity that not only spans the musical modules such as filters and oscillators but also a general feature set such as the user interface. This meant that I had to write it all from scratch because I didn't want to depend on others, so I basically have a pretty close relation to all parts of the code. I used to be afraid of feature requests, because adding a single parameter with a new knob is a major problem in common plugin structures. It means a whole lot of work and may in some cases make a plugin incompatible to its prior version. Hence I saw the need to come up with a structure that would be prepared for future changes and even invite to add things. I've abandoned the idea that a product is ever "finished". My plugins demand constant attention and care. The future never stops 8-)

U-he products like Zebra, Filterscape, MFM are quite powerful but complex at the same time. Like you wrote for one of them, the philosophy is "If you can make a knob for it, do it!". Yes, I know you did also some "light" versions, but do you think you could ever release something with a completely different philosophy, let's say a minimalist, one-trick pony, plug-in?

Yes, I think I could do that. Maybe not. Dunno. 8-)

Do you think you'll still be able to personally keep all email contacts with customers in the future, or sooner or later we'll have a fake Urs replying from the good old India?

Well, for now I try my best, but I happen to reply late or forget to reply every now and then. Hence I try to direct correspondence into my forums, so that questions can be answered not only by me. By the way, my official sales address ("anybody at u-he dot com") is already being answered by my mate Hans and me, so there you have it ;-)

Lately you gave several hints about possible future products, talking also of a drum-machine. What do you feel it's missing from the existing software drum-machines?

Here speaks the industrial designer: Usability! Current drum machines are good at mangling loops, sounding like real drums and what not. But I think they lack in a really usable interface to actually create rhythms and grooves from scratch.
I'm working on a concept that enables people to use a pattern-based software drum machine in a live situation. Not like actually playing drums but by evolving patterns with various controls. Can't say when this will ever hit the public though.

Last question: what's on your iTunes playlists at the moment?

I'm currently rotating 4 albums and an EP:

Trentemøller - The Last Resort + The Digital Chronicles
You Pretty Thing - Tune In
Einstürzende Neubauten - Alles Wieder Offen
Storlon - Drill Of Silver Fir

Prosoniq: Morph (and related stories)

Plug-in nostalgia? There can be such a thing? Well, yes, after all...
Some time has passed since we've started experimenting with software fx and instruments. And probably, if we think back to the early days of plug-ins, the name Prosoniq comes to our mind bringing back some nice memories. SonicWORX (which was the first Mac software with a plug in architecture in the 1990s), PiWarp, Orange Vocoder, Morph, but also the TimeFactory standalone app (I remember the first time I tried it at a friend's studio, it was one of those "wow" moments!)...
Well, to make a long story short, we were glad to read some months ago that the german software house was going to update its product line making it (at last) compatible with the newer OS X operating systems and plug-in format.
Morph has been the first of the series (now they're going to release the Orange Vocoder in the next days) to receive the "AU make-up".
For those who do not know it yet, the plug-in offers a unique way of morphing two audio signals in real time. How does it work? Well, this is how Morph's creator, Stephan Bernsee, explained the concept behind the plug-in in an old interview: "My definition of morphing comes from the video world, where morphing was first invented and employed by ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) in 'Terminator', if I’m not mistaken. Morphing, in that context means that an object in a scene slowly changes its shape to become another object. The analogous process in the audio world would therefore be an instrument that slowly changes its shape to become another instrument. All morphing processes I’ve seen - except ours - do some kind of spectral manipulation that has nothing to do with the shape of the original instrument. The concept of 'shape' requires understanding the nature of the sound that is being processed - I therefore tend to think of them as some elaborate mathematical tools with musical effects, but not really 'musical' tools. The problem with these tools is that they inevitably require the whole sound to be analyzed prior to manipulation, and that they tend to produce non-musical results in the intermediate stages of the morphing. Our morphing process is based on an inherently 'musical' approach and does therefore not have these restrictions."
It's interesting that Stephan began developing Morph on his Atari ST in the late eighties (of course it was not a real time software at the time). Well, you know, when ideas are good, they're able to stand the test of time!
So you may ask, it can really be useful for today's productions? We think Morph is still the lovely and inspirational piece of software that it was years ago (and that made it a favourite of artists like the ubiquitous BT and of big studios like the BBC ones). At AudioNewsRoom we really like software like this, that try to spice up the creative process without being too complicated or overloaded with options most users will never use. If you are a "vintage" plug-in aficionado or at your first experience with a DAW, our advice is: download Morph's demo and have fun!

Talking with Stephan, we also tried to understand which were the reasons for Prosoniq's 'standby period' and which are his plans for 2008: "I really don't want to go into too much detail but I can tell you that Prosoniq has lost a lot of money when Hartmann Music (the makers of the Neuron synthesizer) filed for insolvency over a quarrel with their former distributor. This has been a major setback which came as a real shock to Prosoniq and has subsequently caused a lot of products to remain stuck in the release pipeline for quite a while. In particular, Prosoniq has been unable to respond to the requests of the AudioUnit community even though the AudioUnit version of their products was well underway at that time. We sincerely hope to make it up to them by now releasing our AudioUnit products first. We really have great customers, they are just amazing and so unbelievably creative and we truly love them and we really care for their requests and listen to what they have to say. We're sorry it took us so long to get there, but all that is now going to change in 2008. As a side effect of all this there had been some dramatic changes in the Prosoniq management, organization and cost structure, and looking at the rapidly increasing Prosoniq sales I'd like to think that they were justified, necessary and beneficial for the company and enabled us to live through this difficult era and come out almost unscathed. In particular, the way things are organized now Prosoniq is able to come out with more and better products faster than ever before, keep track of bugs and other issues in a very transparent way and provide excellent tech support even on the weekend (which is when most people are making music).
In addition, some exclusive licensing contracts as well as some requests by the music industry that we have been honouring in the past are no longer in effect in 2008, which enables us to come out with some pretty amazing products later this year. I can't talk about them before they are officially announced but if you visit the Prosoniq web site every now and then you will notice that the Prosoniq product portfolio will change quite a bit in 2008."

Thanks Stephan! Well, good news then...
We'll keep an eye on Prosoniq, let's hope to see some new creative products soon!

Off-the-record: ProAudioVault

ProAudioVault is Ernest Cholakis and Dan Dean. We loved their first release, a grand piano virtual instrument called Bluthner Digital Model One (or BDMO, for friends), and since they're also among the most respected people in the software industry we wanted to ask them some questions about BDMO, sampling and related topics.
Well, it took months for Ernest Cholakis to get its homework done, but you know, developers are always super-busy trying to do the right thing for us, isn't it? ;-)

I know you and Dan come from different backgrounds, how did the idea of a collaboration come out?

Over the years Dan and I developed a friendship. Obviously sampling and recording technology is something that we both have in common. We produce different content - Dan has released mostly orchestral and bass samples libraries where I have released drones, drum loops, DNA groove templates and reverberation impulse products.
We often discussed various sampling issues, both technical and marketing as well as the growing problem of piracy. When we started to consider the Blüthner Piano sampling project we decided to pool our combined knowledge base because of the considerable technical challenges involved such as the signal processing required for noise reduction, recording procedures like how to record without any ambience etc. Because the piano is one of the most difficult instrument to record effectively, we decided our combined expertise could develop a better overall product than if either one of us took on the project alone.

Before starting working on BDMO which were your feelings about the available software pianos on the market?

We obviously thought that there was still room for improvement as most libraries had too much ambience in the piano samples and true piano dynamics were not accurately captured. In 2005 I wrote an article in Sound On Sound on this subject - (issue Nov DVD 2). THe article points out that all the major samplers could not accurately reproduce the piano's dynamic range - even when the right tone was put into any given sampler, the dynamic range was inaccurate due to the sampler engine limitations. Most samples (even new releases) still cannot accurately reproduce the dynamic range of each individual note of a real world piano.

BDMO really sounds like a labour of love (just have a look at the manual and you'll agree with me). How much time did it take?

Planning started months prior to the recording sessions which took place the end of October 2004. We released it April 2007 so about 2 1/2 years.

Why did you choose a Bluthner? And, how did people at Bluthner collaborate with you during the making of BDMO?

After playing the Bluthner for 5 minutes at Annehein NAMM in Jan. 2004 we knew that the Bluthner Model One was the piano to sample - it has a warm and distinctive tone that was never harsh - even if you play fff. The other element that appealed to both of us was the evenness of the tone. This is clearly apparent as one plays up and down the keyboard. An another reason for choosing this piano is that is has a distinctive sound that is different from the Steinway and Borsendorfer which already have been sampled. We met Dr. Christian Blüthner formally at Musik Messe Frankfurt the following April.
Ours was the first sampled piano library to be officially endorsed by the piano manufacturer. For both Dr. Christian Blüthner as well as us, the most important criteria was quality. As well we all agreed that recording at Skywalker was our first choose as it has one of the quietest soundstages in the world and for a piano this is an essential consideration.

This product, besides being an excellent sampled library, has many interesting additional features: the most important is the IR one, which really makes the BDMO unique. My only critic is: don't you think this important feature could be better implemented in the GUI, to be more explicit and user-friendly? Users could easily get confused with those cryptic preset names, and for some things they need to keep the manual always handy...

Yes it is a point well taken. There are two reasons.
In the end one should listen to each timbral impulse get to know them individually then decide which one(s) work well in a composition. In a DAW a user can change the timbre without having to re-record.
Clearly RI users find it very appealing of obtain the impulse of a famous acoustic environment as well as a visual of the space. But in a musical sense why does this matter? I dealt with this same issue when I released both Pure Space Reverberation Impulse CD's - I refused to mention and include pictures of the spaces because too many people out there are listening with their eyes more that their ears. The purpose in audio production is to find the right type of ambience and adjust it if need be to compliment or enhance the music. Whether the space is well known, one's bathroom or a garage should be immaterial to the decision of selection. That is why I developed the bass, midrange,and treble numbers to describe the "character" of a space - because they actually make more sense in terms of describing a sound than a picture can ever do. In the end does anyone really think that if they have the Concertegedouw or Abbey Road RI's that is is going to sell more records ?
Another reason I decided to withhold detailed information on the sources was for legal reasons.

BDMO recently got an important update/bugfix. Would you like to say something more about it?

Yes it was released in January 2008. We changed about 800 notes in subtle ways but with a distinctly noticeable improvement in the overall sound of the piano. We also added a script so that a user can adjust the keyboard sensitivity. This feature enables one to customize the response for any controller.

Ernest, judging from your background and the BDMO's Timbral IR list, you have a library full of incredible recordings, probably made in every corner of the planet. I'm sure you have some interesting and funny anedocte about this, to share with our readers...

No funny situations I can think of but definitely a few surprises.
I find it especially interesting when one is in a space that has a historical significance. Over the years I have recorded in many temples, tombs, churches, grottos and early Christian churches. I remember when seeing the film of Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii the juxtaposition of this classical ambient band in a historical setting (Roman amphitheater) with no audience was poetic. So when traveling to Italy my partner and I when to Pompeii and recorded the RI of the amphitheater and man of the other buildings.
I find it fascinating that the sound of a particular space is not what one would expect. For example in the Pantheon one would think that the reverb time would be long and thick sounding given the incredible size of this temple however is is surprisingly short and depending where you stand has only a few discrete echos in the "ambience" of this space. Another space that I find interesting is Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel in Florence. It is not a big space but the reverb time is longer than one would expect (maybe due to the architecture's symmetry) and on top of that - it is one of my favorite places in Florence to visit!

Probably the biggest change we've seen in the 'sampling world' in these latest years has been the exponential growth of the libraries (thanks to larger and cheaper hds), which have become bigger and bigger. And sometimes this does not automatically means having a better and more playable product.
Now, in 2008, which is your vision on the state of art of sampling, and which are the next steps this technology is going to take?

Yes I agree bigger is not necessarily better. I think the large library trend has evolved for a number of reasons. Marketing, piracy issues and quality issues. All soundware developers are forced to deal with piracy and as internet and hard drives get larger so it seems the level of piracy also goes up. One very basic form of copy protection is large sound libraries. The problem with this approach is that given the level of polyphony required for a large ensemble such as a sampled orchestra a lot of pressure is put on the streaming engine of an sampler.
Earlier this year I took make a violin resonance impulse of an Andrea Amati and used it to convolve with a regular sawtooth wave patch. The realistic vibrato and character of the resulting tone was very dramatic to my ears. I can't help but think synthesis will go down this path and that convolution will likely be integrated into more sound-ware libraries and software synthesizes.

I know it's not your cup of tea, but still I'd be interested in your opinion...
Since some years we've seen a growth of audio modeling based products. Do you think there's a future for this kind of technology, especially regarding the emulation of a complex instruments like a piano?

Obviously modeling will continue to handle ever more of the piano tone nuances as the processors get faster. A piano sound can be modeled but modeling different instruments (i.e. Blüthner versus Steinway versus Borsendorfer) is a challenge because each piano manufacture and even piano's of the same model all have different partials (tuning and amplitude) and they all change differently as the sound evolves from ppp to fff. The amount of data required for a realistic sound is staggering especially if the user want much more than a "generic" grand piano sound.
That may take a while and will see if the marketplace even cares enough about this to support this kind of development.

is ProAudioVault just a 'one product brand', or are we going to see more products under the PAV name in the future? I swear I won't tell anybody...

Who knows, maybe... (smiles)

Thanks Ernest and Dan!

By the way Ernest added some interesting news. He released a new interesting reverberation impulse CD called "Hollywood Impulse Responses" under his own brand, Numerical Sound. This what he told us about this CD: "These RI's are unique and have something that no currently available software/hardware reverberation unit can do - add reverb that also changes the timbre of the source material as well as being designed for specific instruments (can't be done with any EQ)." You can check some audio demos which illustrate how HIR dramatically changes the timbre of an audio track at Numerical Sound's website.

Need an EQ? Pay what you want!

The much discussed pay-what-you-want model (Jane Siberry, Radiohead, etc.) is not just a music industry topic anymore. 5 months ago, a "young" software house, DDMF, has started adopting this model for its two products, the LP10 and the IIEQ PRO (respectively, a mastering equalizer and a parametric tracking equalizer).
We asked DDMF's developer, Christian, to tell us something more about his products and his pricing model.

Hi Christian, how did the DDMF story start? Did you model your EQs after specific hardware models?

Well, let's see: it began in 2006 when I was between two jobs and had some time to kill. As a scientist I had acquired quite a bit of numerical programming experience, and as a hobby musician I had a good overview over what went on in the plugin world. In my research projects I had used Fourier analysis of all sorts of signals for some time, and I wanted to see whether I could come up with a good-sounding FFT-based equalizer. That's basically how the LP10 was born. It wasn't specifically built after legendary hardware products, but its frequency response (which can be shaped very precise with an FFT-based EQ) follows exactly the ones of RLC modules which, after all, are the essential building blocks of hardware EQs.
Having the basic setup already available, I was then able to develop the IIEQ, a more "go-to" style EQ, in relatively short time. At that time I thought that the LP10 was really something special and the IIEQ more standard (although it offered 10 fully parametric bands),

I know your products had a "traditional" pricing scheme back then. Why did you adopt the pay-what-you-want scheme?

Yes, I offered the LP10 for 40 Euros and the IIEQ as freeware. Ironically the IIEQ received much more attention (well, it was freeware after all) so after some months I decided to publish an extended version of the IIEQ, the IIEQPro, as payware. And indeed, it sold better than the LP10!
But during all these months I never was really sure about the "right" price for the EQs. On the one hand side, there are competitors who charge more than 200 Dollars (and whose products can usually be reproduced by either the IIEQPro or the LP10 to an accuracy of -70 dB or better, by the way).
On the other hand, from my observation 90 percent of the market are young hobby musicians who, in all likelyhood, will not spend that much money on an EQ, but rather get it from emule or some russian torrent site (where my products had also appeared from day one). So when Radiohead published their new album based on the "pay-what-you-want" method, I immediately thought that this was a very interesting approach that would fit very well for DDMF. It would solve the piracy problem, it would allow everybody to buy an EQ from me (and if it is only for a dollar, it's still better than nothing) and, as I only realized later, it's also quite a good marketing tool. In fact, while before this price model DDMF was just another developer, it is now recommended in discussion forums much more often simply because it's an interesting thing...

Let's talk about the results. How do people behave with this scheme?

After 5 months the average price is still around 10 Dollars, and that's really nice! I mean, the users can get away with 50 cents, but they deliberately pay more, sometimes even 50 Dollars, simply because they really like the product. So apart from the model being financially more successful than the old pricing scheme (it's not making me a rich man, but I'm quite sure I'm above the average VST developer) it's also much more rewarding since I have the feeling that people really appreciate what I'm doing.

What we should expect from DDMF in the next months?

In the near future I finally will release new versions of the EQs with full mouse handle control, as this is clearly number one on the request list. I'll probably redesign the whole GUI and add a few other features while doing this, so it's gonna be a major update. It's also tempting to pursue other types of effects like compressors, but at the moment there are no immediate plans.