Softube Launches Mutable Instruments Rings & Valley People Dyna-mite

Softube has kicked off 2019 with two brand new releases.  Mutable Instruments Rings uses tuned filters to physically model just about any resonant material imaginable, and Valley People Dyna-mite is a Swiss Army knife limiter/expander design with a unique character. Here's the details.

Mutable Instruments Rings for Modular

A physical modeling phenomenon. After the great success of Mutable Instruments’ Clouds and Braids modules in our software Eurorack environment, Modular, we’re excited to announce the introduction of Rings, the multi-resonator that no physical synthesist should be without.

Three specialized resonator models

Rings uses tuned filters to physically model just about any resonant material imaginable, in three broad categories.

• The ‘modal’ resonator emulates the resonant qualities of plates, strings, membranes, and tubes, which reinforce energy fed into them by organizing certain frequencies of sound around certain physical points (called modes) based on their size, shape, and structure. 

• The ‘sympathetic strings’ model offers the kinds of droning and over-toning sounds and textures offered by instruments such as the sitar. Virtual strings other than the one ‘plucked’ ring in sympathy with the main note. 

• The ‘modulated/inharmonic string’ model is an extension of Karplus-Strong synthesis, which uses a delay with very high feedback and very short period to synthesize a pitched wave like a string being struck, bowed, or plucked. 


In addition to these fascinating and endlessly explorable varieties, Rings offers the user timbral control of the resulting sound, as well as the ability to excite the resonator models in any way they choose in the first place, either with an internally generated noise burst or with external audio signals. 
Even strummed chords are possible with Rings, due to a built-in polyphony mechanism which generates a new virtual string (up to 4 in total) for every trigger – even while the last note is still ringing. 


Valley People Dyna-mite

A secret weapon to some, a hidden treasure to the rest, the Valley People Dyna-mite is a Swiss Army knife limiter/expander design with incredible sound and unique character that has inspired engineers to be inventive with their dynamics processing for decades. That said, it’s always been a bit of a pig to deal with. It’s anything but user-friendly. Genius, but impossible. So we’ve boiled it down into a simple, modern package. Meet Dyna-mite Slam, and Dyna-mite Gate!

Updated & Expanded

Paul Buff built custom gear for Frank Zappa. Need we say more? The cool factor is tangible. By the time he patented his TA-101 VCA (‘The Electronic Gain Control Device’ – the heart of the Dyna-mite) in 1980, his reputation was already unimpeachable.

The Dyna-mite is essentially a limiter or an expander, but through a near-unfathomable combination of switch positions, it is capable of more or less any manipulation of dynamics from gating to RMS compression, from keying and ducking to ridiculously extreme levelling.

Now, however, the user can find all of these magical combinations easily with two new plug-ins, Slam and Gate. Slam takes care of all of the downward stuff – the compression and limiting – in as close to a one-knob format as Dyna-mite could ever become, while Gate deals with the upward operations – the gating and expanding. Control bleed in a subtle manner, add punch to a snare, crush a rock vocal into submission, or duck a synth bass around a kick. All these great functions and more, and no need to read the manual.

The original plug-in is included (with a slightly updated look) for experts, but all the joy of the Dyna-mite, and crucially, none of the headaches, come forward in Slam and Gate. And best of all, existing owners of the original plug-in will get the additions as a free upgrade!