Our friends at Antelope Audio are very pleased to announce six new plug-ins for their Synergy Core range of FPGA and DSP audio interfaces. The new range comprises COMP-4K-STRIP and COMP-4K-BUS, Marble White AutoWah, the MES-432C mastering EQ. MG4 which is a recreation of a studio favourite, and Adaptive Vibrato. With over 50 plug-ins now available on this hybrid processing platform, Antelope really are pushing on with their efforts to bring new tracking and mixing options to the audio community.

COMP-4K STRIP And COMP-4K-BUS

Put 4K on an EQ or Compressor and we know what we are dealing with. Throughout the 80s and 90s, the SSL 4K range of consoles were at the heart of many of the worlds top recording and mixing facilities. Fast-forward to 2020 and Antelope bring a COMP-4K-STRIP to their Synergy Core effects platform. In this case, Antelope Audio tells us that the SSL 4K channel strip that was modelled was carefully removed from a well-preserved 4K large-format console before being painstakingly analysed and digitally recreated to make faithful 4K reproduction. If you are using the Synergy Core platform you can now enjoy that classic punch, glue, drive, and saturation of these studio icons with next-to-no latency and zero CPU load, thanks to the DSP+FPGA Synergy Core processing.

COMP-4K-STRIP is available for the Antelope Discrete 4 Synergy Core, Discrete 8 Synergy Core, and Orion Studio Synergy Core audio interfaces, priced at $125.00 USD.

The new COMP-4K-BUS has been designed to realistically recreate the famous glue effect of the SSL bus compressor that rose to prominence during the 80s turning lots of individually tracked parts into a cohesive sounding mix and 40 years on still nothing sounds quite like it. Try the COMP-4K-BUS on the Drum Bus to make your kit sound tight and connected. Put it on your DAW’s master fader and start mixing directly into it and listen to how it can transform your basic mix into a balanced production.

COMP-4K-BUS is available now priced at $145.00 USD.

Marble White AutoWah

The Marble White AutoWah has been designed to replicate a boutique auto-wah pedal from Finland whose circuit is originally based on a rack-mount wah, which Antelope have refined further to sound like a real wah pedal. Or to put it another way, Marble White AutoWah is an effect all on its own, with fast-tracking, amazing accuracy, and responsive controls that are designed to work equally well on guitar and bass. The bespoke DECAY control allows adjustment of the filter frequency fall speed, so Marble White AutoWah can drench every note in wah or be more under control as you might expect from a more traditional autowah pedal. Marble White AutoWah works in real-time with no perceivable latency on the Synergy Core platform.

Marble White AutoWah is available now priced at $55.00 USD.

MES-432C Mastering EQ

Recreating the Sontec mastering equaliser, the new MES-432C has been designed to be the software equivalent of an absolute standard. Since its introduction in the late-Sixties and refined in the early Seventies, the Sontec has remained the go-to mastering equaliser for mastering engineers. This EQ is the very definition of subtle and lacking in any obvious “vibe, but dig in deeper with the controls and any program material can benefit from the EQ’s very pleasant character enhancement. Audio just sounds better. Antelope Audio’s MES-432C has been created to emulate exactly what this top-end mastering EQ does best, by squeezing extra drops of sweetness out of an already excellent-sounding mix that needs little in the way of additional polish. It will, however, serve just as well when put to work on a mix bus or onto individual tracks in need of frequency boosts or cuts.

MES-432C is available now priced at $145.00 USD.

MG4 EQ

The MG4 has been designed to recreate the sound of a modern audio legend heard on tracks by artists such as Madonna, Snoop Dogg, and many more. The Antelope Audio MG4 features a re-named SKY BAND to add an up-market gloss and sheen to the processed audio. The original, easy to use, six-band EQ is also notable for its highly-linear phase operation meaning it sounds great on complex material like vocals and does not suffer and nasty phase-shifting artefacts.

MG4 is available now priced at $125.00 USD.

Adaptive Vibrato

The virtual circuit for Adaptive Vibrato was derived from closely examining some tried-and-tested vibrato models, which were then incorporated by Antelope Audio into a virtual unit delivering a wide variety of vibrato effects. Use it in real-time and take advantage of the near-zero latency on the Synergy Core platform.

Adaptive Vibrato is available now priced at $55.00 USD.

Clone Or Copy?

It has been noticed by many of the more vocal members of the professional audio community that some of the new plug-ins for the Synergy Core range of interfaces bear more than a passing resemblance at least to products that are already well established in the industry.

While this is nothing new with hardware that has been discontinued, with current products, it is considered courteous to the creators of the original hardware or software to establish licencing or endorsement agreements too, at the very least give a nod to those who were the original innovators of such products. However, whichever way you look at it, it was the art collector and writer Charles Caleb Colton who said that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

You can find out more about all the Synergy Core interfaces and plug-ins at the Antelope Audio website.