New Gear Alert: Focal’s Alphas & Sub One, Spitfire x Abbey Road Mysterious Reeds, CLA-400 by Avantone & More

Focal releases the Alpha 80 Evo, Alpha Twin Evo, & Sub One.

Focal completes their Alpha Evo line and offers a key sub solution with these three new products.

Focal has announced three new studio products: the Alpha 80 Evo and Alpha Twin Evo powered monitors, and the Sub One subwoofer. Focal completes its Alpha Evo line with these new monitors combined with the 2021 release of the Alpha 50 Evo and Alpha 65 Evo and introduces a brandnew subwoofer to match the line: Sub One. The Sub One pairs seamlessly with both the Alpha Evo and Shape monitor lines.

The Alpha Evo line and Sub One are a perfect match for musicians, composers, and engineers. With new features and technologies as well as a fresh design, the Alpha Evo line delivers unrivaled performance at an affordable price point, enhancing the French brand’s position as a benchmark for professional studios.

The three new Focal products will be available for orders through retailers in the US and Canada in February 2022, and have suggested retail prices of: Alpha 80 Evo – $549/ea ($1,098 pair); Alpha Twin Evo – $659 ($1,318 pair); Sub One – $999.

Spitfire x Abbey Road Studios announce Mysterious Reeds.

Spitfire and Abbey Road Studios further the Abbey Road One collection with the intimate Mysterious Reeds library.

Mysterious Reeds is a smaller, more focused Abbey Road One Film Scoring Selections library created in collaboration between Spitfire Audio and Abbey Road Studios. Evoke a warm and mysterious air in your compositions with this alluring accompaniment to Abbey Road’s iconic Studio One. Whether soft and unsettling, challenging and dynamic, or somewhere in between, these reeds are great for adding a regal tone to orchestral compositions as well as creations of any genre seeking to incorporate magical and bewildering textures.

A departure from your standard, “pretty” woodwind orchestration, these reeds—pairings of 2 Oboes & 2 Clarinets, and 2 Clarinets & 2 Bassoons—deliver an intriguing alternative for a darker, more mystical sound utilized by the crème de la crème of Abbey Road film composers. The enquiring tones of this selection effortlessly inspire intricate voicings to augment your arrangements with enduring, enigmatic emotion.

Mysterious Reeds is available now, priced at $49.

Avantone Pro unveils the CLA-400 studio reference amplifier.

Avantone’s CLA-400 is designed to deliver serious power to large passive monitors.

The Avantone Pro CLA-400 Studio Reference Amplifier is a dynamic, high output, high resolution, full-range system with a classically designed Class A/B amplifier. Avantone took particular care to create an amplifier in the traditional studio style, with generous VU meters, high quality Japanese components and a serious toroidal transformer linear power supply. The CLA-400 implements a classic bipolar transistor design for robust bottom end.

In a standard 3U rack mount chassis, this amplifier can generate over 360 watts per channel into an 8 ohm load, making it perfect for medium to large speakers in a studio environment. The CLA-400 not only uses no-compromise components, but is also convection cooled (no fan noise) so it can be used in the same room as the monitors.

The CLA-400 was designed to be paired with large passive monitors that demand the highest amounts of power. Very low distortion, steady performance under harsh conditions, and an open and transparent sound make this an obvious choice for discerning studios requiring serious dynamic range.

The CLA-400 is available now, priced at $1,199.

Gothic Instruments offers a crucial DRONAR Guitarscapes update.

Gothic Instruments has developed this version 1.1 update of DRONAR Guitarscapes specifically for use with Kontakt.

DRONAR Guitarscapes gives you the ability to create a massive range of guitar-inflected textures from natural strummy accompaniments to wildly complex and awe-inspiring soundscapes. With hundreds of beautiful presets and a huge set of controls designed to invite deep exploration, expression and discovery, you can create mind-expanding atmospheres simply from playing a very small number of notes.

This new DRONAR Guitarscapes v1.1 update has been developed for Kontakt 6.6.1 with all .nkis now converted to snapshots (and 10 new ones added), new under-the-hood effects, the addition of custom impulse responses and general engine improvements which make DRONAR Guitarscapes run faster.

The update is free for all existing DRONAR Guitarscapes users; access it here.

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