The question de jour is the following: Are todays plug-ins overpriced?

Let me know, and feel free to bash each other in the comments section (but bash friendly please or I’ll brazilian jiu-jitsu your ass out of here )

n

Some build entire songs out of them, some shun them like they were the Devil. Here are my opinions on virtual instruments in general.
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I’ll be taking a rest from life for about a week in Spain starting tomorrow. This means:

1. It’s very unlikely that I respond to any emails during this time
2. There probably won’t be any news updates at all

But there will be updates every day as usual. I have prepared plenty of posts about other things that you hopefully will enjoy. The downside is of course that if you don’t think as I do and criticize what I write I won’t be able to defend myself. With that said, feel free to have discussions with each other

So be sure to check every day as usual. See you in about a week!

Wallander Instruments has announced the release of WIVI Collections version 2. Personally I’ve been waiting quite some time for this. I tried a demo of the AU version (v.1) a while back. I can’t really say much about the sound quality, but I thought the whole concept looked interesting and cursed Wallander for not having an RTAS version available. But now that has changed! I’ll try to find out later if its worth it’s salt.
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JVC Professional Europe Ltd. has teamed up with the SAE Institute to include television broadcast facilities for SAE campuses worldwide.

From the SAE press release:

Closer ties between the two companies will see the beginnings of a number of co-marketing programmes and commercial activities, and will also provide SAE film students with the opportunity to broaden their videography skills even further with access to state-of-the-art equipment and resources. Specific details of this extraordinary deal will be announced very soon.

The global partnership between SAE Institute and JVC Professional will enable students & staff to purchase JVC equipment from both the professional and consumer divisions, and at discount pricing via SAE’s webstore.

SAE

Apogee Electronics has selected SCV AUDIO as its new distributor for France. SCV AUDIO a distributor headquartered in Paris with Touring, Installation, Music, Hardware and Hi-Tech divisions servicing all areas of the audio industry.

SCV AUDIO notes (from the Apogee press release)

The addition of Apogee products to our catalogue will enable us to offer a new level of quality and a great diversity of solutions to our specialized Hi-Tech dealer network, reinforcing our common leadership.

SCV AUDIO will assume the new role beginning September 1, 2008 and will integrate the entire Apogee product line into its “Hi-Tech” division.

Apogee

Free sounds are always nice to get. We’re all flooded by drums, basses, synths and even pianos. But harpsichords? Nope. Realsamples has changed that by giving away a free harpsichord sound taken from their “Edition Beurmann” series which features eight historical instruments including several harpsichords, pianos and a spinet.

The free harpsichord file features the combined 2×8″ registers of a historical Kirckman harpsichord built in 1766. It contains a light version ranging over two octaves with three velocity layers.

The fullrange version with 8 velocity layers, also offering 6 different register combinations of the instrument, is available on the realsamples website.

The light version is available until September 30 and can be downloaded here. The downer? GigaStudio only. I’m bitter because I don’t use GigaStudio.

realsamples

I use a midi controller keyboard or a synth, but hey! Some like to use phones

Fantom YASE is a software by Nexoe designed to bring external sound libraries to Roland Fantom S/X/G workstations and prepare them so that they can be played sound data straightaway. I’s capable of converting and edit samples and programs from samplers. This new version claims to be more user-friendly and yet have plenty of features.
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Softube has released and is now shipping Spring Reverb plug-in for VST, AU, and RTAS. It’s available at the Softube web shop ($99 excl. VAT). I have used Spring Reverb in a couple of sessions and so far I’m happy with the sound so I suggest you check it out. The controls mentioned below are really cool!
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