Cloud Industry for Cumulus Preset Bank

Looking for a few more free sounds for Computer Music's exclusive granular sampler plug-in, Cumulus? Then perhaps you should download Cloud Industry, a selection of presets by AbstractCats, a name perhaps familiar to Cumulus users: he was a major contributor of sample content and presets to the Cumulus Factory bank.

Cumulus is a granular sampler which radically transforms sample content by breaking it into tiny slithers of audio called grains and reorganizing them to form new sounds. Cumulus is capable of a wide ranges of timbres: from evolving atmospheric soundscapes; to organic physical textures. Up to eight Scenes can be created; a Scene corresponding to a particular sample position and set of synthesis parameters. Scenes can be played in realtime via MIDI, or arranged internally using the built-in sequencer.



Cumulus is available as part of CM Studio. The complete, full, unlimited version can be found on the cover-mounted DVD of any issue of Computer Music. Cumulus is available in VST, Audio Unit, RTAS, and standalone formats for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows.

Shift 2.2.3, Diatonic Harmonizer and Delay Effect, Released

Shift 2.2.3 for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux is now available. Download the updated version here.

Shift is a diatonic granular pitch shifting delay. Shift combines an intuitive and beautiful user interface, with a great sounding granular synthesis engine. Shift's flexibility allows a palette of timbres ranging from basic echo effects, through intelligent harmonies, to exotic evolving ambient soundscapes.

This minor update contains the following fixes and features:

• Fixed incredibly rare crash which may occur when first opening the plug-in on certain 32-bit VST Windows hosts. 
• Massively improved speed and responsiveness of all UI controls. 
• Improved CPU usage when tweaking parameters from a hardware controller. 
• Standalone versions now support multiple simultaneous hardware controllers. 
• For the Windows VST plug-in, when using a relative path for the presets folder, the path is now relative to the DLL, not the host. 

Admittedly a minor update, but certainly worth a download for anyone who has fallen foul to the, now fixed, start-up crash bug.