New Gear Alert: Bass Slapper by Waves, Steinberg Updates Cubasis, Novation’s “Beats and Bytes” Video Series & More

Waves releases Bass Slapper plugin.

Waves is now offering the most advanced and realistic slap bass emulation tool on the market with their new “Bass Slapper” plugin.

Bass Slapper is the newest addition to Waves’ expanding line of virtual instruments. Over the years, there have been many attempts to sample the sound of slap bass and recreate it as a virtual instrument, but nothing has come close to the sound of recording a great bass player who has mastered this technique—until now.

This plugin lets you recreate, on your keyboard, the realistic nuances of a seasoned bass player, with complete control over every note and articulation, including thumbing, popping, hammer-ons, pull-offs, open strings and dead notes.

Waves Bass Slapper includes the most extensive sample library ever created of special bass guitar sounds, including slides, mutes and harmonic strums. It also offers intuitive position and articulation controls that let you determine precisely where to play on the fretboard, which strings to thumb or pop, when to play legato or staccato, and much more.

For endless tonal possibilities, Bass Slapper includes studio-grade stompbox effects, detailed tone controls from vintage warmth to modern punch, and your choice of clean DI or authentic amp sounds.

Check out an introductory video to Bass Slapper here, and a tutorial video here.

Waves Bass Slapper is on sale now for $29 (reg. $69).

Steinberg launches Cubasis 2.3.

Steinberg’s Cubasis 2.3 is loaded with new features, such as the user-requested ability to automate Audio Unit instruments and effects, along with the first-time addition of select Waves plugins.

Cubasis 2.3 is Steinberg’s award-winning sequencer app for iPad, which strongly gravitates toward its desktop equivalent, the Cubase music production system. It provides the same look and feel, as well as project compatibility for easy import to Cubase. Cubasis provides all the required tools to arrange, mix and edit music productions, including many effects and hundreds of instrument sounds.

The latest version of Cubasis comes with a unique feature addition. Debuting on the iOS platform, Waves is celebrating its 25th anniversary by providing its AudioTrack Channel Strip, the L1 Ultramaximizer and Q10 Equalizer as in-app purchases exclusively available to Cubasis. Each effect can be purchased individually or together as a bundle.

Cubasis 2.3 now supports Audio Unit automation, allowing users to automate parameter changes of Audio Unit instruments and effects. Audio Unit user presets can now be saved and loaded. Saving and loading presets is also possible with Cubasis’ very own effects. On top of this user-requested feature, version 2.3 comprises a massive library of over 200 factory effect presets, and boasts more than 70 dedicated factory presets for the effects processors of its FX Pack IAPs.

Cubasis 2.3 is available as download through the App Store for $49.99. Existing Cubasis 2 customers are eligible for a free update to 2.3. The Cubasis LE 2.3 Full Feature Set IAP is available within Cubasis LE 2.3 for $29.99. The Waves IAPs are available for $7.99 each. The Waves IAP plugin Bundle is available for $19.99. The FX Pack IAPs are accessible through Cubasis 2.3 and Cubasis LE 2.3 for $6.99 each. For the next two weeks, Steinberg is offering great discounts on both Cubasis 2.3 and the FX Pack IAPs, ending on December 5th, 2017.

Novation launches interactive Beats and Bytes Facebook Live series.

Novation is now offering their customers real-time product tutorials and Q&A via “Beats and Bytes,” a new monthly Facebook Live series launching November 30th.

Beats and Bytes is a new interactive Facebook Live series that showcases the features of Novation’s creative instruments. For the first episode, Novation will be showcasing the Circuit Mono Station.

Users can tune into the Novation Facebook Page on November 30th at 4pm PST to learn more about the Circuit Mono Station, and have their questions answered live.

There will be one episode per month; check out the schedule here.

Blue Cat Audio releases free update for Destructor plugin.

Blue Cat’s popular Destructor distortion and amp simulator plugin sees a crucial update, featuring new “legendary guitar tone” presets crafted by guitarist Hans Van Even.

Destructor is a comprehensive distortion and amp simulation plugin, and version 1.2 offers several exciting upgrades—most notably new free guitar tone presets.

Enhancements have been made to the user interface and workflow, with a new zoom feature to scale the GUI, improved presets management, Retina displays support and a new installer on Mac. Several bug fixes and other improvements are included as well.

In addition, new and free “legendary guitar tone” presets are available for download from the editor’s website. Details and video demos can be found here.

The update is free for existing customers, and demo versions are available on Blue Cat’s website for new customers, who can purchase the plugin with a 10% discount until December 5th, 2017.

Akai Professional and Plugivery announce MPC 2.0 beat production software.

Explore new possibilities in Akai’s updated MPC 2.0 software, which sports a fresh GUI redesign and scores of other improvements for added flexibility and efficiency.

Released after an extensive beta testing period, MPC 2.0 is compatible with Mac and PC, and works either alone as your main DAW or integrates seamlessly into your DAW of choice as a VST, AU, AAX plugin. It introduces a number of powerful new compositional and performance features to the Music Production Center experience.

Along with a redesigned user interface and mixer layout, some other notable improvements include audio track recording, real-time time-stretching and pitch-shifting, audio and MIDI drag-and-drop, Bluetooth compatibility, Ableton link support and more.

The upgrade paths for all current MPC owners are as follows: MPC X, MPC Live, MPC Touch – Free; MPC Studio Black – Free if registered after January 1, 2017 / $99.99 if registered before; MPC Renaissance – $99.99; MPC Studio – $99.99; MPC Element – $149.99; MPK225, MPK249, MPK261 – $149.99.

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