Lately I’ve been grabbing for the stock Avid Pro Tools de-esser a lot more than I used to. I haven’t really been a fan of it before, but for the last few sessions things have changed.

First of all, let it be clear that I stand by my previous commments about the new breed of de-essers (Eiosis E2Deesser, McDSP DE555 and Sonnox SuprEsser) being more than one notch better than any of the previous generation that I’ve had the chance to try. I’m happy to say that this is an area where improvements have been made.

So why the Avid De-Esser Dyn 3? Because it’s quick and easy. I still like to ride my vocal esses and use as little de-essing as possible, this way De-Esser Dyn 3 only cathces a few dB here and there. It’s not a surgical tool, it’s just there to remove some of the harshness, for that I don’t need all the extra fancy controls. With just a few tweaks I’m getting where I want – creativity first.

Definition of a golden age: when the desire of the creator is greater than the technology available.
[...]
“If I press one of these 397 buttons on this synthesizer, maybe I get something out of it.” That moment the machinery is driving the creativity, and the creativity is not driving the machinery.

- David Caine from BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Still got to give Sonnox props for the effort. It will however be rendered completely useless if they for some reason don’t keep updating frequently, so hopefully that won’t happen. It’s free, so no harm in grabbing it and give it a go. Also be sure to check out Fab’s videos in the app.

Sonnox app at Appstore

Straight from the horse’s mouth…

• The debut of ISIS 5000 and Pro Tools|HD Series Interfaces as well as the latest Avid Euphonix control surfaces running with support for some of the industry’s most popular video and audio software.
• Demonstrations of the award-winning Media Composer 5 editing software and a breakthrough demonstration of “anywhere” web-based editing technology.
• The latest technology developments around Avid’s Integrated Media Enterprise framework.

Avid

Native Instruments has finally released Komplete 7 and Komplete 7 Elements and with it introduced a total of five new effects and instruments.

The suggested retail prices are $559 / €499 for Komplete 7 and $119 / €99 for Komplete 7 Elements. Every copy also includes an NI Online Shop voucher worth $60 / €50. For full details I suggest you check out the Native Instruments website.

The five new effects and instruments are Reaktor Prism, Reflektor, Vintage Organs, Traktor’s 12 and Rammfire.

Reaktor Prism utilizes the new modal synthesis capabilities of the latest Reaktor 5.5 generation. Reflektor is a new reverb processor for use within Guitar Rig 4 and Guitar Rig 4 Player. It’s a combined impulse response and algorithmic reverb. Vintage Organs is a set of three organ emulations. Traktor’s 12 is an effect suite of course derived from the DJ software Traktor Pro. finally, Rammfire is a collaboration with Rammstein’s Richard Z. Kruspe. Together they have modeled the original recording chain that is behind the band’s guitar sound. It can be used both as an expansion to the amplifier arsenal in Guitar Rig 4 and as an individual product in combination with the free Guitar Rig 4 Player.

On October 1st Sonivox will release a new synthesizer called Vocalizer. If you think it’s another way to get those dreadfully overused vocal sounds we’re flooded with today then you’re right. It does seem to take it one step further though and when they get into sound design in the video above I’m actually a little interested.

More at Sonivox

The Sonnox Post bundle includes Sonnox Restore, which in itself includes DeClicker, DeBuzzer and DeNoiser. Other plug-ins found in Sonnox Post are Oxford EQ, Dynamics, Limiter, Reverb and SuprEsser.

Sonnox Post is available with a 30% introductory discount for: £1,526 ($2,570) TDM or £1,093 ($1,835) Native.

Sonnox Broadcast is a smaller bundle aimed towards – you guessed it – the broadcast market. It includes Oxford EQ and Dynamics plug-ins, Inflator, Oxford Limiter and SuprEsser.

Sonnox Broadcast is available with a 30% introductory discount for: £792 ($1,342) TDM or £405 ($685) Native.

Waves

EastWest wants you to testdrive all of their virtual instruments for $129, they will even supply you with the drive for it. Good thing they do, $129 for a 10-day demo wouldn’t exactly be the deal of the century.

Now on the other hand, it seems like an interesting deal. The hard drive comes loaded with full versions of all of their product except Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Plus (Platinum 24-bit samples are included). Couple this with a promotion that lets you buy many of the EastWest instruments (Hollywood Strings and The Dark Side not included) at a 50% discount (until September 30, 2010).

The Terapack hard drive is a Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0 Gb/3.5″ internal hard drive and the products included are Hollywood Strings, The Dark Side, Symphonic Orchestra Platinum, Symphonic Choirs, Symphonic Choirs Expansion, Quantum Leap Pianos, Stormdrum 2 and SD2 Pro Upgrade, Voices of Passion, Ministry of Rock, Fab Four, Goliath, Silk, Ra, and Gypsy.

I guess my biggest concern if I were a potential customer would be is 10 days anywhere near long enough time to give all the libraries a fair trial? Personally I would’ve liked to see the trial end at the same time as their 50% discount offer.

More info at their website

To me it looks like they’re most useful for jamming. Building a song around them would be cheating to me (but I hear cheating is the easiest way to win so it might still be a good idea).

The following titles are available so far:

70’s Rock,Funk Soul, Led Grooves, Dan Grooves, Progressive Rock, 60’s Rock, Motown, Back Beats, Big Band, Pop Country.

Besides loading them into your DAW, you can import them into the AmpliTube SpeedTrainer or load them into the songs or recorder sections of AmpliTube iPhone/iPod/iPad.

DrummerTracks are available for $29.99/ €19.99 each.

IK Multimedia