May 9, 2012

Phil Tan: Sharing Some R&B Secrets

Phil Tan is an award winning Atlanta-based mixing engineer with no less than three Grammy Awards for his work with Mariah Carey, Ludacris and Rihanna. But his list doesn't end there, it almost goes on forever with artists like Common, Snoop Dogg, Jill Scott, Outkast, Jay-Z, Aretha....

We had the fortune to take some of Phil Tan's time to ask him about the elements of an R&B/hip hop mix and how he approaches a new track.

Read the entire interview

April 26, 2012

Get Softube Saturation Knob AAX From Avid For Free

Free plug-in! The Saturation Knob is now available for the AAX format (Native and DSP). The Saturation Knob provides smooth, one-knob frequency saturation for just the right amount of tube warmth on any track.

Also check out the Pro Tools Expert Blog podcast, featuring Niklas the Softube product manager, about Softube and AAX.

Visit Avid for more information and to download the Saturation Knob.

April 18, 2012

Article Section - TSAR-1 Density Setting

The Density setting in TSAR-1 is an extremely useful tool that sometimes gets overlooked. You can use the density setting to control the "thickness" or "smothness" of the reverb, but it can also be used to adjust how much space TSAR-1 takes in your mix.

Read the full article

April 18, 2012

Article Section - TSAR-1 Distance

The "normal" way to place an instrument closer or further away in a mix is to change the volume of the reverb sends. But another very effective way to do this is to change the relation between the early reflections and reverb tail from within the reverb.

Read the full article

March 19, 2012

Article Section - Creating a Sense of Space

Scott Fritz has made a new article about how he uses reverb. Reverb is both a very complex concept, and a relatively simple one. When we record music, especially when listening back to the recording, the sense of space and depth the listener notices is almost always very different from the sense of space and depth the people who were there in the recording room would have noticed.

The article explains how he uses one or multiple reverbs to create a sense of space in his mixes.

Read the full article

December 9, 2011

Softube Releases SONAR ProChannel Modules at Special Price!

For a limited time through January 31, 2012, the Mix Bundle will be sold at a special price of $179 (retail $299) from the Cakewalk store.

Note that SONAR X1 Producer Expanded is necessary for use of the ProChannel Module versions. For existing owners of the respective Mix Bundle plug-ins, the ProChannel versions are a free update as part our new 1.3.3 Windows VST installers!

Note that those of you who are not SONAR users can still get the discounted price at the Cakewalk store.

Cakewalk Store More about the Mix Bundle More about ProChannel

December 2, 2011

Article Section - Lookahead compression with the FET

In this article famous producer Tony Maserati describes how to get a fast attack but still keep the smooth sound of a slower attack by using the lookahead feature on the FET Compressor.

"Transients, what do you do with them? Well, with compressors we can make them pop, slap, grab only half of them while letting the rest pass, or we can stomp on them like they stole something."

Read the full article

November 3, 2011

AAX Versions of Softube Plug-Ins Released

Today we are releasing 20 of our plug-ins for Avid's new Pro Tools format AAX. 15 of the plug-ins are also available in the new AAX DSP format. And it's a free update!

Softube is the first major plug-in developer to release a substantial amount of AAX plug-ins for both DSP and Native. If you are a Pro Tools 10 user, this update is a no-brainer. Projects with existing RTAS or TDM plug-ins will automatically and smoothly switch to AAX, or AAX DSP if you have the new HDX card. DSP versions are included with the native license and do not need to be purchased separately.

The new AAX update is so far only available for Mac, Windows will follow soon. The DSP versions are still in beta, but are included in the installer.

Download AAX (Mac only)

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