New Gear Alert: Launchkey Mini by Novation, Arturia’s AudioFuse 8 Pre, Zenbeats App from Roland & More

Novation introduces the Launchkey Mini.

Novation’s Launchkey Mini features a brand new arpeggiator, 16 highly-responsive RGB pads, and plenty of powerful software to produce pro-sounding tracks.

With the new Launchkey Mini, Novation have made their highly popular 25-mini-key portable MIDI keyboard controller for Ableton Live more versatile, adaptable, and playable than ever. Now you can make tracks anywhere using Launchkey Mini’s new arpeggiator, Fixed Chord mode, Capture MIDI, 16 big RGB pads, transport controls, and more.

The new Fixed Chord mode and arpeggiator help you take your melodic and harmonic ideas in new creative directions, enabling chords to be triggered from single notes, and turning held chords into riffs, melodies, and sequences on the fly; and thanks to the Capture MIDI button, you’ll never lose a note—even if you forget to hit record.

Spend less time clicking mouse buttons and more time making music, as Launchkey Mini’s device control and deep, intuitive integration with Live lets you step back from the screen and feel the beats. Start and stop playback and recording via the dedicated transport buttons, operate the mixer’s Mute, Solo, Volume, Pan and Send controls, and take instant control of Device Macros with eight rotary encoders.

Launchkey Mini comes with everything you need to make complete tracks in the box, including sounds, virtual instruments and plugin effects from AAS, Softube, Spitfire Audio, XLN Audio and Klevgrand, plus membership of Novation Sound Collective, bringing you new free content from their plugin partners every couple of months.

Launchkey Mini is available for purchase now, priced at $109.99.

Arturia announces the availability of the AudioFuse 8 Pre interface/expander.

Arturia’s super clean, high-gain AudioFuse 8 Pre aims to deliver super quality signal, as either a fully functional standalone unit or expansion for another system.

AudioFuse 8 Pre puts 8 channels of premium analog audio in a simple, intuitive interface, making it easier than ever for musicians, producers, and engineers to achieve their creative goals.

The bespoke DiscretePRO mic preamps in AudioFuse 8 Pre have some of the best specs in the industry; they’re tonally transparent, have huge gain, and practically zero noise. The unit can either be used as a standalone multi-in/out interface, or as a high quality expander for another interface. At every stage in its circuitry, Arturia have used the highest quality components to provide the perfect recording and listening experience with totally flat response and perfect AD/DA conversion.

AudioFuse 8 Pre’s rack ears can face forward to mount in a 19” studio rack, or face down to use the unit as a desktop interface. It comes with the AudioFuse Creative Suite, offering accurately recreated vintage preamps and legendary studio effects that will give your music that triple-A studio sound.

AudioFuse 8Pre is available for purchase now, priced at $799.

Roland releases Zenbeats, a cross-platform music creation app.

Roland acquires Open Labs’ Stagelight app, adds crucial upgrades, and packages it as their own—meet Zenbeats.

Zenbeats is an intuitive and inspiring music creation app that is free to access on Android, ChromeOS, iOS, Windows, and macOS devices, allowing anyone to be creative—anytime, anywhere. The acquisition of Open Labs’ award-winning Stagelight app serves as the foundation for Roland Zenbeats, highlighting Roland’s ongoing investment in empowering artists, bringing the joy of creative experiences to everyone.

Everyone from beginners to beatmakers and electronic musicians can create, share, and collaborate on songs with their friends using Roland Zenbeats, and the app is designed for all screen types—from mobile devices to notebooks and desktops. Kids, teens, and adults can easily begin making beats and entire songs with Zenbeats’ interactive and fun built-in lessons, while more experienced creators will enjoy exploring the app’s expansive composition, collaboration, and production features.

Roland welcomes existing Stagelight users to download Zenbeats and continue their music-making journeys. Zenbeats also includes expressive onscreen instruments, 3rd party plugin integration including drag and drop support, collaborative jamming via Ableton Link, streamlined cloud support, and enhanced exporting options.

Pricing options for Zenbeats include “Free”, “Unlock”, and “Ultimate”. For pricing and further information on each tier, click here.

Celestion unleashes the F12-X200 guitar loudspeaker.

Celestion introduces the F12-X200, an unprecedented feat in the analog re-creation of digital guitar tones.

The F12-X200 is the first guitar speaker designed specifically for use with profiling amps, modeling software, impulse responses, and all technology for emulating the tones from coveted guitar amps and speaker cabinets.

The F12-X200 is a truly full-range driver that delivers a frequency response from 60Hz all the way up to 20kHz; the higher frequency part of the signal is reproduced using a Celestion compression driver which has been integrated using a high quality crossover circuit. This enables the F12-X200 to reproduce the full spectrum of audible frequencies, for the most accurate output possible, whatever the environment or setup.

With the F12-X200, guitarists can enjoy the instant fingers-to-music connection of their favorite amp setup alongside the multitude of amp options offered by their chosen amp and cabinet simulator. As realistic as modeling technology has become, the Celestion F12-X200 makes it more real. Used with amp modellers or IRs, in a backline cab or a wedge monitor, on stage or in the studio, it doesn’t just sound like great guitar tone, it feels like it too.

For pricing and further information, click here.

PSP announces the release of SpringBox v1.1.0.

PSP’s lauded digital spring reverb, SpringBox, sees critical upgrades in version 1.1.0.

The PSP SpringBox is an emulation of a hardware spring reverberator, available in VST, AAX, and RTAS formats for Windows; AudioUnit, VST, AAX and RTAS for Mac OSX. It recreates several features typical of a spring reverb, such as a convincing “boing” on transients and a repeatable resonating musical character with an adjustable presence. A selection of configurations from two to six springs total is provided, as well as the ability to set stereo spread and pan/balance configured to suit various mix setups—from a typical guitar reverb to a creative uses as a send reverb in the mix.

This updated version of SpringBox sports an all-new AAX engine for macOS and Windows, features double-precision processing and added levels of depth for many of the controls, as well as an improved version of the preset bar, and a new “Low CPU/Brilliant” control.

Check out a video tutorial of PSP SpringBox v1.1.0 here.

For further information and pricing, click here.

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