Lurssen Mastering Console for Mac/PC and iOS adds "Digital Delivery Mastering" feature in latest update

Lurssen Mastering Console for Mac/PC and iOS now lets musicians create "Mastered for iTunes®" specification compliant audio masters for digital distribution services like iTunes®, Spotify®, Pandora® and more

September 1, 2016 - IK Multimedia, the leader in mobile music creation, is pleased to announce an update to Lurssen Mastering Console for Mac/PC and iOS that adds "Digital Delivery Mastering" - a feature that lets musicians and audio engineers prepare their mastered audio files for popular digital distribution services to comply with Apple's "Mastered for iTunes" specifications. The update is complimentary for current owners of Lurssen Mastering Console for Mac/PC, and is an included feature in the HD engine in-app purchase in the iOS release. Five new style presets for Hard Rock/Heavy Metal music are also included in this update.

Digital Delivery Mastering - "Mastered for iTunes"

For musicians and engineers mastering music for digital distribution and streaming services like iTunes, Pandora and Spotify, Lurssen Mastering Console now ensures their music is compliant with Apple's Mastered for iTunes specification - an industry first. Lurssen Mastering Console's new Digital Delivery Mastering (DDM) feature provides mastered audio files that comply with specifications for sample rate, bit depth and peak levels, ensuring that audio translates perfectly for compressed formats like AAC.

Apple's Mastered for iTunes specifications states that files have to comply with high-resolution sample rate and bit depth requirements and that no clipping at or over 0.0dBFS should be present in the digital masters being submitted. As the tendency in contemporary digital music production is to go for super loud masters, distortion can be created as a by-product of extreme use of digital peak limiters pushing up the level. Even though the file's maximum peak level is not exceeding 0.0 dBFS, digital overshoots can still occur when the file is de-compressed back to PCM format for playback.

This is where the new Digital Delivery Mastering option for Lurssen Mastering Console comes in. It offers an additional layer of protection against peak overshoots that could be generated when decoding the compressed format for playback. This can cause clips that may go unnoticed while mixing and mastering with regular sample peak meters. The additional layer of protection is achieved by the peak limiter at the end of the mastering chain working in a specific way. This guarantees that the compressed file is safe from distortion when played back from digital distribution services such as Apple's iTunes, Spotify and Pandora.

The Digital Delivery Mastering option is part of the HD Engine in-app purchase, and can be enabled independently from the HD Engine in the settings menu. It is also included in the free update for Mac/PC users.

Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Style presets

Lurssen Mastering Console provides mind-blowing results in record time through an intuitive set of controls and settings. "Styles" presets created by Gavin Lurssen, Reuben Cohen and the team at Lurssen Mastering, Inc., define the gear chain and provide the settings for virtually every genre including Rock, Country, Americana, Pop, EDM and more. In this new release, five new styles have been added for creating Hard Rock/Heavy Metal mastered files. With these additional presets, users can now find a mastering starting point for virtually every style and genre of music.

GameSoundCon's 2016 Report About Income and Trends in the Game Audio Industry

New findings and updated information on opportunities
for game music composers & sound designers

Seattle, WA (August 22, 2016) - How much can I make in Game Audio? Do I need to go to college or can I rely on my musicianship and creativity? How much experience do I need? Is it better to freelance or work for a game company? Answers to these and other interesting questions regarding income opportunities for video game composers and sound designers can be found in the new and highly anticipated GameSoundCon report.

 

Every year, the results of the GameSoundCon Audio Industry Survey are published before the premier conference for video game composers and sound designers. GameSoundCon opens its doors again in the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on Sept 27-28. The 2016 survey ran from May 15 to June 30, 2016 and received close to 600 responses of game audio professionals.

 

The report covers compensation, work and environment, use of live musicians & middleware, contract terms, and education, plus an addendum on gender and game audio. New questions for 2016 deal with

• Total Compensation for Freelancers
• Correlation with experience/years in the industry
• Use of Union musicians and voice actors
• Income Breakdown by Gender

 

The report reveals that while salaried game audio employees make more on average than freelancers ($65,000 vs $42,000 per year), the very highest salaries were obtained by freelancers. Experience and time spent working in the industry influence the income opportunities greatly for employees, and the same can be said for freelancers, even though their range of income varies much more.

Indie games are on the map

In terms of freelancer compensation per project, Brian Schmidt, Executive Director of GameSoundCon, was surprised to find a few indie games among the highest payers: "Per project fees varied tremendously, from a low of zero, to a high of over $250,000. Large budget games, of course, dominate at the higher end, with Indie games clustered toward the low end. However, there are significant number of Indie games (self-funded, kickstarter, etc.) with per project fees rivaling those of Professionally Produced small scale/casual games," he says.

 

The report informs also about the correlation between education and game audio employment. It turns out, just relying on your musical talent is not enough: 72% of all surveyed have a bachelor's degree or higher.

 

Another big surprise was the income differences in between male and female respondents. Schmidt is in the process of verifying the findings and will issue an addendum in a soon-to-come blog post.

 

The report contains 17 pages of information, such as how many game audio pros are currently working on a Virtual Reality title, corresponding graphs, and remarks on the statistical validity of the GameSoundCon survey. The complete report is available at GameSoundCon.com.

Native Instruments releases KOMPLETE 11, KOMPLETE 11 ULTIMATE, and KOMPLETE 11 SELECT

 
Berlin, September 1, 2016 – Native Instruments today released the 11th generation of its industry-leading KOMPLETE production suites, the most comprehensive collection of instruments and effects yet. KOMPLETE 11 now includes 45 products and more than 13,000 sounds, with seven new instruments: FORM, REAKTOR 6, UNA CORDA, DISCOVERY SERIES: INDIA, REPLIKA, SESSION GUITARIST – STRUMMED ACOUSTIC, and KINETIC METAL. KOMPLETE 11 ULTIMATE – the flagship bundle for professional producers, composers, and sound designers – now has 87 products and over 18,000 sounds. It adds 13 new instruments to the previous generation, including the five professional scoring instruments in the SYMPHONY ESSENTIALS line, FLESH, EMOTIVE STRINGS, plus all the new products in KOMPLETE 11.

KOMPLETE 11 and KOMPLETE 11 ULTIMATE now include FORM – a new synthesizer with a refreshing approach to sound creation.  Using a sample as the primary oscillator, FORM offers a powerful new paradigm for sound design that can spark a broad range of fresh ideas. Producers choose the direction and behavior of sample playback, and set playback rates according to sample length, frequency, or BPM. For in-depth manipulation, the amplitude curve is modified using presets or the built-in Curve Editor. The signal is split into two frequency bands, able to be treated independently. Each band features its own controls for digital or analog saturation, dynamics control, and delay, reverb, and modulation effects. This rich feature set, combined with a sleek and easy to use interface, allows producers to transform simple samples into complex synth sounds not found anywhere else.