The Sonic Joy awards are here again! For those who missed the 2007 edition, it's a selection of software and hardware products (mostly software this time) released during the last year and mostly tested in our sonic labs.
So, here we go with AudioNewsRoom's Sonic Joy 2008 awards. And feel free to add yours!

Pro Audio Dsp DSM: DSM stands for Dynamic Spectrum Mapper. No, don't be scared. This brilliant plug-in is a sort of all-in-one godsend. It can act as limiter, de-esser, helper for poorly recorded takes, and besides these things, it has a unique spectrum capture feature which let you improve your mixes without too much effort. I know, this sounds like the usual marketing pitch but once in a while it's true. Oh, a great selection of presets too! Before saying "nah, it's not for me" we definitely recommend downloading the 21 days demo and watching the video tutorials.

SPL Transient Designer: last year almost every software house has released a transient designer plug-in. Not surprisingly, the best emulation comes from those people who manufactured the original Transient Designer hardware. SPL (with the coding help of the well known Brainworx team) entered the plug-in arena with an instant-classic. And it's just the first of a series (in the meantime they've also released an EQ collection, EQ Ranger vol.1, and the intriguing TwinTube).
See also our previous article about SPL plug-ins...

Softube Fet Compressor: released just a few days before the end of the year, the FET Compressor is Softube's take on one of the most famous audio design of all times. Gorgeous tones, easy on the cpu and... a nice couple of VU meters! Especially those not using external DSP solutions should demo this plug, we're sure many will end up buying it!
See also our previous article about Softube...

Vertex DSP MultiInspector: if you just use your ears, well, you can skip this. But if your eyes love those almost-psychedelic spectrum analyzers, they'll love a Multitrack Spectrum Analysis even more. MultiInspector is actually a well thought and very useful piece of software. The graphic design looks a bit cheap and could be improved, though.

D16 Devastor: maybe not the most exciting GUI in the world, but an overall excellent distorsion device, with a ultra-inviting price point.
See also our previous article about Devastor...

SonicCharge Synplant: do you think virtual synths are more or less always the same? You don't know Synplant, then! Created by the genius mind of Magnus Lidström, Synplant is SonicCharge's second release (after MicroTonic), and is definitely the most interesting virtual synth we've tested in 2008. Try it, even if you hate Al Gore and you don't love nature, biology and plants.
See also our previous article about Synplant...

GForce M-Tron Pro: a classic reborn. It was not easy to add something valuable to the original M-Tron. Well, they made it!
See also our previous article about the M-Tron Pro...

Synthogy Upright Pianos: after years of sampled grand pianos, last year we saw the... revenge of the upright. Synthogy Upright pianos is a collection of 4 different pianos (available also as standalone, which can come handy): a modern Yamaha U5 upright, a vintage one (our favourite!), a barroom upright (perfect for honky-tonk lovers), and a tack piano. There's something for everyone, and as you could expect from these ex-Kurzweil engineers, the package is an excellent mix of quality and reliability (Ivory is still the most stable and reliable piano emulation software engine on the market, and that's a big plus!).

SonicCouture Balinese Gamelan: we made an exception on this one. Unfortunately it's not in our possession (yet?), but since these are the Sonic Joy awards, we thought we simply HAD to include this library. From what we've heard this is no ordinary stuff. We're sure you love balinese gamelan, even if you're never heard this word. The instruments reproduced here are actually the ones that have fascinated Debussy almost two centuries ago, as well as hundreds of modern composers and sound-designers. This is not just a sample library, this is an act of devotion, sonic joy at its core.

Goldbaby TDM 1&2: Goldbaby strikes again with a new marriage of vintage drum machines and tape recording!
See also our previous article about Goldbaby...

Realsamples Edition Beurmann: If you've ever wanted to play one of those old and precious pianos or harpsichord in a musical instruments museum, well, now you... errm..... can!
See also our previous article about Realsamples...

Numerical Sound Hollywood Impulse Responses: Impulse Responses libraries are an essential tool in today's music production and sound-design. Numerical Sound's Ernest Cholakis keeps on making inspiring and unique products, and HIR is a must if you're looking for cinematic and unreal spaces.
See also our previous article about HIR...

Acousticas Lexicon 300 & EMT 245: a new brand and the old good challenge: trying to recreate the ambiences of classic devices of the past, like the Lexicon 300 and the EMT 245. Well, hats off, at Acousticas they know what they're doing. It's time to streamline your big IR archive, guys. Delete all those average quality IRs you've grabbed here and there and make space for these releases, you won't regret it... and your hd will be happier too!


Uad-2: in this case, saying "much-awaited" is never been so appropriate. After years of rumors, the new version of the most famous audio DSP solution was finally introduced last year. A new chip and several configurations (Solo, Duo, Quad) offering up to 10x the power of the good old Uad-1 card. Now, when for the first threads about the Uad-3?

Ableton: Best of Show
Let's simply put it like this: Ableton is the King (or Queen?) of Namm this year, at least in the software + controllers departments.
In a few hours they introduced (and co-introduced) many new juicy things.


Chapter one: Live 8 (available in Q2 2009) adds some cool features to an already great package: groove engine templates, new audio warping features, a looper, new plug-ins, including a multi-band compressor and a vocoder (which also help competing with the all-in-one Logic's approach), new sound library (mallets and acoustic percussions, available individually or as part of the Suite version ), and a revamped Operator.
We're also glad to see a new tool, called Share: years after the first internet-based pioneer steps (Logic Rocket, anyone?), Ableton feels times (and bandwidth) are mature to let users collaborate online.
Share in their words is "a simple system of setting access permission, speedy transfers and no issues with external plug-ins and instruments". What if your friend across the ocean is not a Live user? When you send him your shared project, he gets also a temporary free License so that he can add his magic touch on your tracks and send them back! How cool is that?


Chapter two: things get serious for tweakers and music nerds: the collaboration between Ableton and Cycling '74 has given its first result: it's called Max for Live, and it's an (optional) extension for Live 8. Basically it lets you add Max do-everything-you-like-to-do features inside Live.
It will be possibile to create new instruments, effects, composition tools, and everything can be done in real time, without stopping your music workflow. Oh, I see, you do not feel to be a music nerd? Don't worry. As for the Reaktor users community, "Max for Live owners also get access to any number of additional instruments, effects and extensions created by the Max for Live community".
Suggested additional read: David Zicarelli's Perspective on Integrating Max and Live
That said, I guess lots of girlfriend and wives will spend more time on their own during 2009...


Chapter three: somehow tied to the Max for Live thing, there's a third announcement made by Ableton, this time in collaboration with Akai. It's about the APC40, a new hardware controller specially designed for Ableton Live.
From the press release: "The APC40 features high quality controls for real-time mixing, remixing and production. 109 buttons, 16 endless encoders with LED rings, nine 45mm faders and a replaceable crossfader give musicians and producers complete control of Live's Session View, effect devices and virtual instruments".
Furthermore, Max for Live owners will be able to completely customize the integration between Live and this controller. Power to the people!

For prices, upgrades and availability, it's better to keep an eye on Ableton's site.

Eventide PitchFactor


They had to to do, it sooner or later: Eventide is going to add a new product to their stompboxes line. The Pitchfactor is the heir of Eventide's harmonization magic, and it's a great introduction to their outboard racks, for those who can't afford them. Price: $599 (Eventide's margins on these products have to be like Apple's ones on iPods, me thinks...).


NI Maschine


Let's start from what it's not: it's not a standalone hardware drum-machine (unfortunately), it hasn't any onboard sound nor audio converters. And if you think about it, it's not that surprising. NI is essentially a software company, who's doing also some hybrid software-hardware products (read Kore). NI is not Elektron (yet?).
So here you get a software sequencer (available as plug-in and standalone) with over 5 GB of samples sampling/re-sampling/slicing and internal fx, and a hardware controller (yes, that sort of MPC meets Monome meets PadKontrol style) with MIDI and OUT ports (it means you can use it to drive other devices, well done NI!), and a couple of nice displays.
The displays are really well conceived, since they let you do most of the things you need to do with Maschine without having to look at your computer's screen.
The case seems to be well built, the plastic knobs seem a bit cheap but we need to put our hands on a real unit to say more on the build quality.
The videos published on NI's site are a good introduction to the product's features, have a look if you didn't watched them yet.
Bad news for PPC Mac users: an Intel machine is required.
Other specs:
* 2 displays with 64x256 pixels
* 16 high-quality, illuminated pads with velocity and aftertouch
* 11 endless rotary encoders
* 41 backlit buttons

Maschine will be available March 1st 2009 in stores worldwide and the NI Online Shop.
Price: $669 / 599 €

As usual in these cases, hybrid devices like Maschine bring some questions to the table (besides the obvious hardware's build quality and software's stability, which are hopefully going to be tested soon): do we really need a piece of software that seemingly does things that our daw and previous NI software already do? And what about the hardware's obsolescence in a crazy fast computers' market, where everything (O.S., plug-in standards, hosts version, software houses' commercial strategies, etc.) seems to change faster than the speed of light? Ok, we're talking too much here, let us just try this beautiful new toy and let's see how it performs!


Uad-2 Solo


Laptop users rejoyce! Unless you have an audio card which already takes up your express card slot, this one's for you. We don't need you how good UAD plugs are, isn't it? By the way, the 2009 should bring new names to the UAD's ever growing list of beauties: Manley (yes, that Manley!) and Antares have just signed an agreement with Universal Audio. The Uad-2 Solo is not available yet (early Q2), and it will come at a price of $499.

Redmatica Compendium Pro Bundle 2


The italian software house, already a big name for Logic users due to their previous products, has previewed a new set of applications, including Keymap Pro 2, AutoSampler 2 and ProManager 3 (ProManager is the new ExsManager).
The biggest news is these apps will extend their support to all the major instrument formats on the market, including Apple EXS24, Native Instrument Kontakt, Digidesign Structure and Propellerheads Reason 4 NNXT. The list of new features is really long and worth reading, check out Redmatica website.
What we can say is that these guys are raising the bar for sampling management again!
The Compendium Pro Bundle 2 is set to be released in Spring 2009. Price: TBA

Korg MicroKorg XL


Yes, it's been announced way before NAMM, we know it's basically the Korg R3 wit a new dress (and size) but the colored versions are the icing on the cake!


Melodyne DNA


It was Musikmesse 2008 biggest hit, its release has been delayed, and even if it's not ready yet (it should ship at the end of Q1 2009) Melodyne Direct Note Access technology is so revolutionary that we had to mention it in our NAMM's picks. The first Melodyne product with Direct Note Access will be Melodyne editor (formerly called Melodyne plugin 2). On Celemony's site there's plenty of details about price, upgrades, etc.

For those who don't know, Kyma is a graphical modular software sound design environment accelerated by the software-reconfigurable Capybara multi-processor sound computation engine. Beware, it's more or less the Ferrari of sound-design, so unless you're one of the few that can shop for a Buchla modular system or a good set-up of analog vintage stuff, you probably can't afford it.
Anyway, the US company Symbolic Sound Corporation who created this system in the nineties has just announced the long-awaited new product: it's called Pacarana (from the name of a rare and slow-moving South American rodent, as Wikipedia gently tells us), and it's shipping in 2-3 weeks.
As you could expect, it's several times more powerful and less expensive than the previous model, but unfortunately it's still a boutique item. In their words: "The flagship model Pacarana is 150% the power of a fully-loaded Capybara-320 for less than half the price. The entry-level Paca costs less than a Basic Capybara-320, but the new entry-level model is 5 times more powerful. "

A few specs:

- four processors and 2 gigabytes of sample RAM (for the professional model, Pacarana)
- two processors and 1 gigabyte of sample RAM (for the entry level model, Paca)
- a "warm and friendly" (?!?) OLED display, with a touch-based scrollable menu
- two FireWire 800 ports (to communicate with OS X and Windows computers, an 800-to-400 adapter cable is available too)
- 2 USB ports
- 100-base T Ethernet jack
- 1 rack-unit high
- Audio and MIDI input and output is handled via an external FireWire or USB converter. That means NO audio converters and no MIDI connectors on the unit. Keep in mind that, to this day, not all firewire interfaces work with Pacarana (this sounds inexplicably weird for a high-end piece of gear like this is supposed to be). The list of compatible audio cards is in progress, before ordering be sure to ask Symbolic Sound if your card is going to be supported.
UPDATE: the updated list can now be found in the product's faq.

How much? $4402 for the Pacarana, $2970 for the Paca (add 150/200 dollars for shipping, at least for places like Uk, Germany, Italy + your import fees).
Given that modern cpus and ram are pretty cheap today, that most of the R&D work was already done and that there are no audio converters on the unit, Pacarana could have probably been cheaper, but you know, that's why it's called a Ferrari...

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 (in the above picture, from left to right in all their northern beauty: Oscar, Torsten, Arvid, Niklas - Author's Note)...

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.