Audio Software Goodies

[filkertom]

It's been awhile since I've mentioned this, and there are some very, very nifty things popping up:

• True Pianos is finally going to be announced soon. I've been waiting for this for months. (If you've forgotten why this is gonna be so cool, here's a video reminder.)
• Studio Cat is having a group buy for their Reverb Tools IR, a bunch of tremendous pro-level Impulse Responses for convolution reverb plugins. (Note! It is not itself a reverb plugin.) It's normally $49, now $20 until Jan. 28.
• Semuta is a bizarre and wonderful audio toy for Mac and PC. I can't really describe it, but... there's a button on the lower right that looks like a screw head; it's the toggle for the help function, and once it's on a mouseover displays what any given feature is. The "screw" in the upper right exits the program.

Anything new on your musical horizon?

Comments

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Wow, that video ad for True Pianos is amazing. What will be the requirements for the keyboard and accoutrements? (I assume something with onboard processor and memory, or something with external processor as well?)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Nope. As far as I know it's just a VST plugin, so any reasonably modern computer (and keyboard hooked up to it) should do the job. Part of the appeal of the beastie is that it's a "hybrid" instrument -- not completely synthesized, but with a very small footprint compared to fully sampled things like Ivory (http://www.ilio.com/synthogy/ivory/index.html) (which sounds fantastic, but needs a full GB of RAM to run and has over FORTY GB of samples...).

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Count me naive here—I thought VST plugs were processing modules done after recording, inside something like Cubase, Audacity, etc. But the demo was live, so that means that the MIDI went from the keyboard to a computer that was running live processing of the TruePiano VST plug-in and then outputting to a speaker?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Technically, it's VSTi -- a VST instrument. What you're thinking of is a VST effects plugin. Same tech, different purpose. Remember also that, with most modern software, VSTs can be applied on a per-track and per-bus basis as well as on the final mix, and when used that way they can process nondestructively. Boy, this stuff is fun. :)

Dumb question time again

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

I understand the nondestructive processing bit. (I still have n-tracks on one of my computers, so I have Climbed the Learning Curve. Ah, the young'uns who can download Audacity and have a noise-filtered, normalized podcast in seven clicks. They don't know what we had to do, walking through the software docs uphill, both ways, ...)

But I have one more question, sir (and then, thinks Columbo, I'll have nailed Smith for the murder of Jimmy Hoffa): if I'm understanding correctly, the VSTi is not a standalone app but a plug-in, which means I will need another app that does live-processing and output if it's a live performance (or, for us mundanes, making our Casio keyboards sound a little less like sh**). Apparently, Audacity doesn't do everything I need in audio software...

Re: Dumb question time again

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Unlax, rewind. :) Audacity doesn't handle it because that's not its purpose; you need something that properly wrangles MIDI. Best and easiest way to start for free is to try something like Reaper (http://www.cockos.com/reaper/) or Luna Free (http://www.mutools.com/).

Re: Dumb question time again

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Or rather !sknahT (you did say "rewind")