Here’s some more sites for your reference. Some of you will find these really useful.

100 free plugins. Yes, there’s more. We want to hear from you to see which ones you guys think are the best, and why.

Email me – chris@audiotechnews.com
DSK Brass: Sample-based brass instrument, with two layers and 23 waveforms, effects, automation support, and even micro-detuning.

DSK StringZ: Sample-based strings, two layers, separate ADSR envelopes for each layer, effects, automation.

Syntar: A sytar-like synthesizer.

Dr-Fusion 2: Drum sampler and synth with, layering, per-sample controls.

Tapeworm: Mellotron-inspired synth with fine-tuning and automation support.

Enjoy.

A new 200-seat theater is planned for 192 Water St. in DUMBO, the former home of the East New York Fancy Basket Company

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports

The new owners, identified as DumboSpace LLC, plan to convert the ground floor and part of the lower level into a 200-seat theater; add a recording studio and gallery on the second floor; and create 10 condominium units on floors three through five.

10,000 people can’t be wrong. It’s hard to argue with them, anyway.  And as that’s the amount of people who downloaded Digidesign Pro Tools 7.4 in its first 25 days of release, Audiotechnews won’t even bother.

Pro Sound News dish up the goss.

Pro Tools 7.4 software has been updated with numerous music and post-production features and workflow enhancements for users of Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, and Pro Tools M-Powered systems. Among them is a new music composition and production tool called Elastic Time.

Forget friends. Your family will forgive you. If you’re thinking about a Christmas present for yourself, it might be worth taking a gander over here.

You can pick up McDSP’s Analog Channel Native plug-in at a reduced rate until the end of December.

Here’s what they have to say.

Analog Channel Native emulates the sounds of high-end analog tape machines, tape, and channel amplifiers.

Analog Channel is 2 plug-ins:

* AC1 – Emulates analog channel amplifier circuits
* AC2 – Emulates analog tape machines

Both in mono and stereo versions.

Analog Channel Native v3.1 is
RTAS and Audiosuite
Mac OSX & Win XP

Universal Audio have got two new products out – the Precision Buss Compressor, a dual-VCA-type dynamic processor:

They’ve also teamed up with Sound Performance Lab for the Transient Designer

The Transient Designer has a multitude of studio applications and can be used to solve many types of audio track problems. You can shorten or lengthen the attack and sustain of percussive signals such as kick drum, snare or toms, easily take the bleed from open mics, or expand the room sound of overheads.

Just click on the relevant links above to find out more.

It’s good to see that the University of Salford are making use of their time with the Women in Audio Visual Engineering project (WAVE)

They’ve done a survey to find out why more women don’t work in the AV sector.

They’ve spent 12 months on this.

“Typically, audio-video jobs involve working at night in either a freelance role or for a small company” said WAVE project leader Dr Haifa Takruri-Rizk, of the University of Salford’s school of computing, science and engineering. “In the north west 91 per cent of companies employ fewer than five people. For many women with families this isn’t what they are looking for in a career.”

I know women who work in audio and audio visual roles and they’re good at their jobs. Probably because they don’t spend 12 months asking people what they think.

To celebrate it’s 15th anniversary, Waves will begin to offer free downloads of selected Waves Artists’ presets and favorite Waves tools

Waves will update it’s list of available presets from its roster of artists, featuring some of the world’s top producers, engineers, mastering engineers and musicians.

You need to be registered, but then you just click on “Spotlight Artist” and away you go.

The first ones up for grabs are endorsed by Mike Hedges, Steve Lillywhite and mixing engineer Dave Pensado.

Lillywhite says, “Waves is the only product that I have been comfortable to endorse since I started.”

Waves

Following on from yesterday’s post about Interoute’s online attachment scheme (which they featured on the front page of their website, thanks) - Google has announced an imminent new service that is going to be a godsend for millions; online mass data storage which can obviously be used as a backup for all your files, or even a security measure if you’re one of those guys who keeps getting your laptop stolen.

“Google is hoping to distinguish itself from existing online storage services partly by simplifying the process for transferring and opening files. Along with a Web-based interface, Google is trying to let users upload and access files directly from their PC desktops and have the file storage behave for consumers more like another hard drive that is handy at all times”.

Plans are to assimilate the service with already existing Google tools so everything can be accessed from a single search box. Pretty cool eh?

Legendary Producer and Engineer Phil Ramone has written a book about his (almost) 50 years in the business. The man is obviously talented, especially if you measure talent by success. Creative, almost certainly

My favourite book on the industry is propbably ‘Black Vinyl, White Powder‘ by Simon Napier-Bell. Great book, great title. And Mr Napier-Bell once invited me to dinner by accident. I didn’t show. I’m not sure if he holds a grudge.

I haven’t read Mr Ramone’s yet, so I’m not going to give him any stick for his writing. Why on earth, though, has he called it ‘Making Records‘?

Digging aside, it’s bound to be an interesting read.

“It’s a professional memoir of Ramone’s life in the recording business, from sweeping floors to hanging microphones to rolling tape to critiquing songs to winning Grammys. It’s shot through with anecdotes about how his receptionist’s high heels made it onto a Billy Joel record, and how Ramone hung up on President Kennedy. And if you read the book looking for the Phil Ramone formula, well, you will and won’t find it.”

Ramone puts his success down to dedication and his skill as an engineer, as he feels the diverse styles of music he’s worked on mean there is no ‘Phil Ramone sound’.

Phil Ramone will speak at the Cabaret Theatre at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Conn. on Saturday (1st December) at 1 p.m., followed by a book signing at 2:30. Admission is free.

There’s a really good article in full here

OK, it’s no secret that you can download thousands of plugins. Not to most people anyway, although I like to think that some people might read this blog who are pretty new to recording.

So the good news is – you can download free plugins. Pretty much every single type you’ve ever heard of, and then some. Stop there. Even the most seasoned professional sometimes has to curb him or herself with these things. It’s very easy to over do it.

On other occasions though, you just need the right one, and no other will do.

The best way is just to do a google search on “Free plugin reverb” unless you want a compressor, in which case you’re an idiot, but you’ll still find one anyway. Eventually. You will, for example end up clicking onto a page like this.

And there you will find one of my personal favourites – the Terry West Vocal EQ Pro. It’s so simple, but effective, and that’s almost always exactly what you will be looking for. Play with all the buttons, and all the combinations, and lose yourself in the fact that you just made something sound good, even if it is cheating a bit; because at the end of the day, if you end up settling for a bad sound out of that particular plugin…

You Sir… are a moron.