u-he ACE
“You could easily overlook this - it’s yet another virtual analogue synth - but u-he’s ACE is the most fun soft synth I’ve ever used. It has a fantastic architecture and is so easy to use. Most importantly, it sounds incredible and sits brilliantly in the mix. The pads are beautiful and the stacks, bleeps, FX and stabs are easy and a doddle to modulate. When I need a soft synth, this is what I go for.”
iZotope plug-ins
“I could have just talked about five iZotope plug-ins for this whole article! RX is an amazing restoration utility - you can clean up anything with it. Stutter Edit (pictured above) is a brilliant interactive plug-in designed by BT, Nectar smacks vocal processing and Ozone used in WaveLab makes mastering a lot of fun.”
Read iZotope RX review
Read iZotope Stutter Edit review
Read iZotope Nectar review
Read iZotope Ozone
Steinberg WaveLab 7
“I haven’t seen a better tool for mastering. I’ve learned more about mastering since I got this than I did in all the years before (and that’s a lot of years). It gives you total control over the dynamics and frequency content of your mixes - I adore it. All I need now is for Daddy Nu:Tone to spend a day teaching me how to use the more advanced features.”
Celemony Software Melodyne Editor
“When Celemony announced that Melodyne would include DNA editing, I thought it sounded impossible, but it works a treat. The best thing: you can analyse a sample, output a MIDI file of what each note or instrument is playing, recreate it using your virtual orchestra or whatever, change the notes enough and - lo and behold - you’ll have no copyright issues but still retain the vibe of the original sample.”
SPL DrumXchanger
“I used this to build a library of breaks for my new album, Yikes!. When it came along, it was a gift from God. You can replace the kick or snare in a break and keep the rest. That’s right - you can keep the atmosphere and ghosts and hi-hats/percussion from your old break and replace the fuzzy old kicks and snares with big, fat shiny ones. It rocks!”
Meteorites, the second single from London Elektricity’s forthcoming album Yikes!, is out now.
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