Giveusa quickhistoryofXLNAudio.
SO“FoundersNiklasMöllerandLars
Erlandssonwantedrealisticandgood
soundingdrums:quick,easyandin-the-box.
AddictiveDrumswasreleasedinDecember
2006.Today,theproductportfolioconsists of
AddictiveKeysandRC-20RetroColor,plus
tonsofexpansionproductsforAddictive
Drums.Thelatestadditionisthebrandnew
drumsampler,XO.”XO’ssample‘constellation’makes it
verydifferentfromanyotherdrum
machinepluginwe’veeverseen.Canyou
explaintheconceptandinspiration?
SO“AddictiveDrumsfulfilstheneedfor
acoustic-sounding drums, but we’ve also
alwayshad the idea of creating a drum
samplerfocused on beats and one-shots,
withoutdivingintofilenamesandfolders. This is where the ‘XO Space’
comesin.Fiveyearsago,webuilta prototype where you could browse
samplesina spacebasedonfrequency and length. Then we stumbled
uponGoogle’sTheInfiniteDrumMachine, which led us to grouping
samplesbysimilarityinstead.Thatmadetheexperiencefeelmagical.”HowdoesXO’sgroupingofsimilar samples work? Is machine
learninginvolvedatall?
SO“Yes,weusea prettywell-knowntechnique called t-SNE (t-Distributed
StochasticNeighborEmbedding).It’sa way to reduce the number of
dimensionsinhigh-dimensionaldatasets, such as one-shot drum samples.
t-SNEachievesa gooddistributionand similarity clustering, but it is slow
andneedstoberecalculatedeachtime you add new samples, so we
trained a neural network to mimic the
behaviour of t-SNE. The hard part is to
tweak and process the data before
you feed it into the analysis, so that
the distribution and clustering are
basedonrelevantinformation.”What else sets XO apart from
other drum plugins? What elements of it are you most proud of?
SO “I believe it’s the ‘sum of it all’ that sets XO apart. From intricate details
like loudness-compensated sample playback with automatic trim and
exclusion of loops, to the amazing included sounds and presets. We’re
proud that users seem to have so much fun with XO. We hear stories
about users spending hours fiddling away, exploring new sounds and
beats. Personally, I find the Live Filter (in the Sample Combiner) really
unique and fun. It allows the search filters to be applied to your current
sample selection – live! Type ‘909’ and you’ll get the current kit replaced
by 909-sounding samples instead. I also find the export features really
powerful and unique: drag out individual samples or the whole beat,
eitherasWAVorMIDI.”Where did the name XO come from?
SO “Coming up with a name for this product was really hard! It’s like
coming up with a name for a band. We probably had hundreds of
suggestions, but none of them felt right. Then the word ‘exo’ came to us,
which is Greek for ‘outside’. Exo became XO, as we immediately saw the
possibilities with the O becoming the ring that marks a selected sound in
theXOSpace.It justclicked!”xlnaudio.com“I find the export
features really powerful
and unique”
Staffan
Ösp
TheHeadofSoftwareDesignfortheSwedish
company’s XO drum machine tells us all about it
XLN Audio
Get with the
programmers
iZotope acquire
Exponential^ Audio
In a surprising but positive move, audio
software giants iZotope have swallowed up
plugin effects specialists Exponential Audio,
adding the acclaimed PhoenixVerb and
R4 reverb and Excalibur multieffects
plugins, among others, to
their impressive catalogue.
Exponential Audio founder
and ex-Lexicon designer
Michael Carnes joins
iZotope as a Research
Fellow, and an FAQ explaining the
practicalitiesforexisting Exponential
customersisontheiZotope website.
izotope.comKlevgrand Stark
Described by its developers as “ridiculously
slick and playable”, Stark is a guitar amp,
cabinet and effects simulation plugin
comprising 12 amp models, ten
cabs, six room reverbs and 14
pedal-style effects (in four
slots). Klevgrand claim their
amplifier algorithms sound
and respond better than most, as they don’t
use convolution or FFT analysis; and ultra
low latency is promised, making live
monitoring a possibility.
Stark is out now for Mac and PC, priced
$80,aswellasoniPadas an AUv3 plugin
for$20.
klevgrand.sePolyverseComet
Unique– as far as we’re aware – to
Polyverse’s new reverb plugin is its
tantalising ability to morph between up to
five presets, enabling smooth
transitions through different
ambiences and effects, synced
to host tempo or timed freely
in milliseconds.
Comet also features a “rich and musical
detune algorithm”, and syncable pre-delay
timing, and looks to be eminently easy to
use, with its clear and straightforward
interface. Oh, and we hear it sounds great,
an’all...
Youcangetit nowfor$149.
polyversemusic.comMixed In Key Studio Edition
Already a favourite tool of many a digital DJ,
Mixed In Key, among other functions,
analyses any number of tracks and reveals
their musical keys, facilitating
harmonically consistent mixing. The new
plugin Studio Edition, however,
repackages the same algorithms for
producers looking to get samples – be
they melodic, harmonic or percussive – in
tune with their tracks, and offers real-time
key detection, as well as visual
representation of the notes present in an
audio signal and alternative key suggestions.
MixedInKeyStudioEditionis on our
reviewslistandavailablenow,priced $58.
URL mixedinkey.com12 / ComPutermuSiC / July 2019
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