Thursday, September 21, 2006

Samplitude 9 Boasts New Eversmeier Effects

am-phibia user interface
The Samplitude website has been updated with a new look and all the features of version 9, now shipping. This looks to be another major step in the evolution of this product, which has a small but dedicated audience. Now effects are not the first thing I look for in a multitrack sequencer, but in this case there's something special.

Several Samplitude FX are written by one person, the remarkable Sascha Eversmeier, who began by offering the free plugins Endorphin and Dominion. Both of these rapidly became favourites of mine, for the subtlety of expression they made possible. Now that he's employed by MAGIX, we know him as the author of the "analogue modelling suite" tools am|track and am|pulse. These have been reworked for version 9, but, more importantly, have been joined by two new effects.

VariVerb is a digital reverb unit that uses distinctly different algorithms for each class of its presets. In this way it's like having multiple different reverb units in one. Check out the digitalfishphones site for some samples. This could be the be-all and end-all of reverberation FX, great for those places where the convolution reverb (room simulator) is simply too much, and the pre-existing channel reverb too little.

Joining the analogue modelling suite is am|phibia, a tube preamp channel strip. This has a pre- and post-amp filters, optical compressor and cabinet simulation. While all of this seems possible with the existing Samplitude kit, I am sure this particular plugin offers unexpected audio delights.

While most multitrack applications throw in extras with little thought, the quality of Samplitude's effects reduce (or eliminate) the need for third-party products. I am sure the new offerings from Eversmeier will continue this tradition.

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5 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

So, it's been a few months - what are your impressions of the reverb?

{Fixed typo}

robin said...

Actually, I have not upgraded yet! My recent work has all been in the area of live "interpretative" synthesis, and for that I am using Reaktor. I might have a multitrack recording project coming up that will justify Samplitude.

Unknown said...

Well, if you upgrade, then please do share your impressions. There's a paucity of useful, public information about Samp 9, and I'm really curious about the diffusion-based VariVerb when everyone seems to be doing the convolution thing, for better or worse.

Unknown said...

Whoa, Limerick? I live in Chicago, but was born in Tralee - my ma and brother are still over there.

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