ScratchPad ties it all together in the latest update with support for Audiobus 2, Audio Copy 2, and much more. Nominated for a 2014 TEC Award, Scratchpad is making waves in the mobile market allowing users to create playful and pumping songs in seconds. Check it out today on the App Store.
What’s New:
Full support for iOS 8, continued support for iOS 7
Support for Audiobus 2, Audio Copy 2, and Inter-App Audio has been added
Performance enhancements using low latency settings
Now includes support for dynamic latency changes
Easier drag and drop functionality to move loops from one cell to another
Improved stability, project handling, user interface, and bug fixes to enhance the user experience
Pricing and Availability:
For current ScratchPad owners, the 1.3 update is a free download from the App Store. For new customers, ScratchPad 1.3 is available for $3.99. Full product information is available here.
Askaudiomag gives it a “Best of 2014 iOS apps”. Check out the article here.
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with our friend Ben Cantil (aka. Encanti) – EDM Producer, author of the Mutant series Expansion Packs, and evangelist for Z3TA+ 2.
Who is your Masters Sound Design Course at Berklee Valencia geared towards?
I am working with young professionals from all walks of life who have come to Berklee Valencia to earn their Master’s degree, especially as part of the Music Technology Innovation program. My curriculum emphasizes practical and professional applications of creative music software. Some of these students will become sound designers, but many others will become engineers, stage musicians, film scorers, and installation artists, so I try to find common threads to make the content really relevant and useful no matter where you take your skills outside the classroom.
What are your goals for the students in your class?
This course is all about the fundamentals of sound design. The first goal is to equip students with creative and technical skills for generating sounds from scratch, emulating sounds, and composing unique sonic gestures intuitively. Another goal of this course to produce content using a variety of different medians. I think it is an ideal class for anyone that learns best from hands-on experience.
What are some of the Cakewalk Products being used in your class?
Z3ta+ 2 is a major part of my masters sound design course. We spend several weeks building patch libraries and sequences to make the synth really sing. I’ve found this is the ideal plugin to use when teaching synthesis, because it’s so unrestrained and versatile without being a processor hog.
A decade in the making: Z3TA+ 2 now available for Mac – only $99/£69/€79
For 10 years, Z3TA+ 2 has only been available for Windows…until now. We are pleased to announce that Z3TA+ 2 is now available for Mac OS X 10.6.8 and higher in VST3 and Audio units format. This is huge news for Mac owners who have been asking for Z3TA+ to come over the Mac platform. Z3TA+ 2 for Mac includes all the ground-breaking features of the Windows version plus all the updates and improvements in Z3TA+ 2.1.
Z3TA+ 2 features 1000 new sounds from top sound designers including:
Limited-time offer: Save 50% off additional sounds for Z3TA+ 2
In honor of the Z3TA+ 2 for Mac announcement, we are slashing prices on all Z3TA+ 2 Expansion Packs. This is a great time to stock up on more sounds from leading sound designers like Xenos Soundworks, Digital Sound Factory, Loopmasters, and more. Choose from 13 individual expansion packs that span many different genres of music. Offer ends August 31st, 2012.
New Z3TA+ 2 Explained video tutorial now available for only $19.95/£14.95/€19.95
To help you learn all there is to know about Z3TA+ 2, we are also offering a brand new video tutorial from Groove 3. Whether you are familiar with Z3TA+ 2 or a first-time customer, no other video offers you a comprehensive look at the amazing Z3TA+ 2 waveshaping synthesizer.
Z3TA+ 2 Explained Highlights:
24 tutorials / Over 2 hours of total runtime
Perfect for beginners or more advanced synth users
Written by DAW master instructor Doug Zangar
Simple to use video control interface for Mac & PC.
Electronic music producer Encanti has a brand new toy. Watch as the Z3TA+ 2 preset designer takes the new QuNeo controller for a spin with Z3TA+ 2. Z3TA+ 2 is currently available as a VST for Windows, and it’s coming soon for Mac, so it can be used in other hosts like Ableton Live as pictured below.
Encanti: “In this example, all of my square pads on my QuNeo are set to “latch”, which means where ever my finger goes on the x-y axes, the value will remain there once I take my finger off. The notes are pre-programmed and playing back on the sequencer. This gives me 16 x-y controllers, which I can use to fine-tune values across the board. QuNeo’s XY pads are immediately useful with Z3TA+ 2 because once you’ve set up some interesting routing settings in Z3TA+ 2’s modulation matrix, you are free to explore their potential by dialing in many different values at once with the QuNeo pads. When I find a “sweet spot”, I save a preset in Z3TA+ 2 and keep on exploring. Later on, I can revisit all my variations, and explore them further, add/subtract ideas, make pads into leads, and keep ideas flowing until starting the process over again with new routings in Z3TA+ 2’s modulation matrix or possibly binding my QuNeo to different controls.
First preset:
Two sweeping resonant bandpass filters are at the soul of this gnarly bass sound. While most traditional x-y setups typically control “filter freq” and resonance, I’ve opted to control filter frequency and pole separation width as my x-y, on two different x-y pads. I’m also modulating these filters with two envelopes, while I control the duration/volume using two different x-y pads. This opens up a huge range of expression – because 3 sweeping poles on two filters (that’s six points of resonance all moving together) is easier to keep track of since I can define their movements all at once with the QuNeo. I’ve also got an envelope opening a delay effect, which I can control the attack/sustain and duration of. With a soft attack on my delay volume, my bass womp has a nicely compressed-sounding impact when the note hits, but I can still add lots of variation to how spacial it sounds, lending me the ability to make those long notes sound really massive.
Second preset:
The QuNeo is controlling the same parameters as the last preset, except I’ve added a few things: each filter has it’s own LFO modulating the frequency along with the envelopes – and again what’s also true with this patch is that the soul lives in the filter modulation settings. There’s also a quadruple-phaser modulation, with pad control over speed, depth, volume, and feedback, which sounds good with all the LFO sounds happening. I also have the ability to change the octave of different oscillators independently. One of my faders are also controlling the key of my chords (via Ableton “pitch” midi effect), allowing me to easily explore different range potentials for the patch.”
Z3TA+ 2 has been a huge hit with musicians since its release in August 2011 but we still get that one persistent question: When will it be available for Mac? We are happy to announce that day is coming soon.
Z3TA+ 2 will be available in VST3 and AU format for Mac OS X 10.6.8 or higher and VST2 for Win7/Vista in early August 2012. Customers who have already purchased Z3TA+ 2 for Windows will receive the new Mac installer at no charge when it is released. We will have more information on Z3TA+ 2 for the Mac in the coming weeks.
If you love Z3TA+ 2 and know a friend or family member who is using a Mac, please let them know about this exciting news. They can also sign up to get updated information via email and to be notified
when it goes on sale.
