Sound Magic Releases Neo Reverb, Revolutionary Hybrid Algorithm and Convolution Reverb

Nowadays, when musicians and technicians are talking about reverb, Convolution Reverb is considered to have the best sound – it’s more realistic. At the same time, Algorithm Reverb is viewed as more alive and dynamic, with better playability.Combining the advantages of both has remained a dream – until now.

Sound Magic brings this dream into the real world. By converting the True Stereo IRs of specific spaces to Algorithms, Sound Magic is the first to accomplish this impossible mission. Opening a whole new doorway for digital reverb, we present Neo Reverb.

A new way always needs revolutionary ideas. In order to have the same realistic sound as Convolution Reverb, Neo Reverb has a new model which we have named the Ba gua Model. This new model is different from the famous Schroeder/Moore Model, adding the ability to generate millions of early reflections, and then holding thousands of delay lines for at least 15 seconds. (A typical Algorithm Reverb only utilizes hundreds of early reflections, which has proven, well, satisfactory at best.) This huge difference puts a lot of pressure on your CPU and RAM. Further, in order to avoid the static sound of most convolution reverbs, you need to modulate these millions of Early Reflections in real time. That’s even more of a challenge for your typical computer setup.

To overcome this issue, Sound Magic uses ASM (assembly language) in its core. ASM is the native language of your CPU and it’s far more efficient than common C++. By doing so, Neo Reverb keeps your CPU usage around 20%, while giving you 200 times the reverb calculations of a typical algorithm reverb.

Another great obstacle to making software reverb sound as good as hardware reverb is that of efficiently using the cache. Remember that a reverb has to hold thousands of delay lines for a few seconds. This fills up the cache quickly and it’s easy to run out of resources. Today’s CPUs typically have only an 8MB cache fast enough (usually L2/L3 Cache of the CPU) to do this hard job, but the FPGA inside those hardware reverbs have at least 128MB – or even 256MB!

Sound Magic has developed an innovative Cache Compress and Reallocate Technology that will efficiently compress the data in the cache in real time, making the 8MB cache have the efficiency of 200MB. Neo Reverb can easily hold thousands of delay lines for 15 seconds which produces a really smooth reverb tail.

Another breakthrough technology that Neo Reverb uses is the Cascade True Stereo technology, which emulates the natural blending process when sound resonates in a huge hall. In a real space, such as a concert hall, the left and right channel sounds are blended together, but it is a continuous process, not a one time blend. Traditional True Stereo tends to blend them immediately but Sound Magic Cascade True Stereo technology makes this blending an ongoing process in real time, creating a beautiful spatial sound.

Neo Reverb features around 40 controls allowing you to tweak the sounds. Neo Reverb gives you the realistic sound of a Convolution Reverb AND the playability and aliveness of an Algorithm Reverb. You also get over 100 converted Algorithm IRs (called REF Files) which cover different types of space, such as Hall, Room, Plate, Chamber, Concert Hall, etc. And, in order to be friendlier to its end users, Sound Magic contains a detailed help hint system inside Neo Reverb, along with a very detailed and in-depth manual.

Features

Internal 64-bit floating point precision.

All-Purposed Reverb contains 8 Algorithms for different spaces, including, Hall, Concert Hall, Room, Plate, Chamber, Ambience, Space and etc

Innovative Hybrid Convolution and Algorithm Reverb Engine

Innovative Cascade True Stereo technology

Powerful modulation system helps to achieve a dynamic sound

Over 40 in depth controls on the Reverb

Over 130 algorithm IRs in 6 different categories for your uses

Innovative Dual Cores Controls let users compare different settings quicker.

Support up to 32Bit/384KHz resolution

Price: EUR 99.00

Visit: supremepiano.com/product/reverb

Sound Magic Updates Neo Imager to Version 1.1, Hybrid Stereo Enhancer and Imager

Neo Imager is a hybrid tool which combines a Stereo Enhancer and an Imager. You can adjust both the stereo position of your music/tracks and enhance that stereo feeling as well. It is very useful when you need put an instrument into a different position, or make a mono recording “pop” into a stereo feel.

Neo Imager use a new technology which we call “Enhanced M/S Matrix”, which enables you to rotate the sound, make it wider or put it into a deeper position. You can also add a delay effect and/or a natural damping effect to the sound, which really creates a natural stereo image.

Using traditional methods, changing a mono sound to a good sounding stereo image is “nearly” impossible. Engineers will often apply some delay to one channel and that sounds a little bit better than mono but it still cannot compare to a true stereo sound. Neo Imager is a stereo enhancing plug-in that is based on a revolutionary approach which we call Partial True Stereo Convolution. In a real space, the sound usually comes from a single point. We are able to identify where the sound is because the signal reaching our right ear is different than the one reaching our left. The timing of arrival may be slightly different and the natural reverb of the space will differ as well. The different route the sound takes through the space is combined with different early reflections allowing our brains to pinpoint the sound.

changes since version 1.0
1. Improved ER algorithm
2. Adjust presets
3. Changes which could use the same IR as Neo Reverb and Headphone Mix 3.0
4. Many minor changes

Visit: supremepiano.com

SynthMaster 2.6 Released

Welcome to our March 2013 newsletter. We have been busy fixing issues, and have recently released a major update for SynthMaster. We encourage all SynthMaster users to upgrade to v2.6  from our downloads page.
 
In this new version, our factory presets library grows to 750 presets, with the addition of Rob Lee’s factory presets (114) plus the factory presets we had for SynthMasterCM (60) and SynthMaster BE (70). Rob has done an amazing job again, as can be heard from his audio demo below:
With the addition of the new factory presets we increased the number of factory presets in the demo version to 300. To make your demo experience better, we also increased the demo time limitation to 15 minutes. 
 
Other updates in the version are:
 
1. NEW: SynthMaster now reads SynthMasterCM/SynthMasterBE presets
2. NEW: SynthMaster now has access to presets uploaded to the online library by SynthMasterCM/SynthMaster users
3. NEW: SynthMaster VST now sends MIDI output for its 2 layers separately
4. NEW: Updated the OnlinePresets bank
5. NEW: Easy parameters auto assign algorithm has been vastly improved
6. NEW: Number of modulation sources per parameter has been increased to 4
7. FIX: Easy parameter default values are not correct
8. FIX: Preset scale dropdown is not working correctly
9. FIX: There is a click between overlapping notes in mono mode
10.FIX: Layer2 Ensemble effect is not working correctly
 

SoundOutTheBox releases XTrack EQ32 v1.0

SoundOutTheBox has released version 1.0.0 of XTrack EQ32. XTrack EQ32 is a 32 bands equalizer with a low CPU usage.

Whereas most of equalizers support only stereo control, XTrack EQ32 gives you the possibility to control a Mono, a Stereo, a LRS, a Quatro and an 8.0 Music system. Equalization presets can be saved in a specific file in XML format. These presets are editable and can be loaded easily by the plugin via its user interface. Each slider control the gain of one equalizer between -12dB and +12dB for a specific frequency. EQs frequencies are fixed from 16Hz to 20kHz and are splitted in four different areas Low, LowMid, HighMid and High. XTrack EQ32 has also a vumeter for input and output signal.

Xtrack EQ32 is available for free as VST/VST3 plug-in for Windows.

Visit: soundoutthebox.com