Spectrasonics has released Stylus RMX, a new groove-based virtual instrument plug-in for Macintosh and Windows. Stylus RMX is the first product to offer the combined power of Groove Control with Spectrasonics Advanced Groove Engine (S.A.G.E.) technology giving users new control over groove production and performance.

“The release of Stylus RMX is a very exciting moment in Spectrasonics’ ten year history,” said Eric Persing, Spectrasonics’ Founder and Creative Director. “Stylus RMX is the culmination of so many dreams we’ve had for a world-class groove machine. The new S.A.G.E. technology makes it simple to use and extremely powerful, all at the same time. The creative synergy of our sound design and software development teams has produced an instrument that has enormous musical potential and we think our customers will find it inspiring for many years to come.”

Spectrasonics’ in-house development team created the new instrument from the ground up, with dozens of new features including the Chaos Designer, a completely redesigned, multi-page user interface, a new core library of sounds, all with a focus on realtime groove creation and performance.

New Core library

The massive new 7.4 gigabyte core-library in Stylus RMX has thousands of cutting-edge grooves and sounds that were created by Spectrasonics’ international sound design team, and produced by Eric Persing. The new core library contains nearly triple the amount of sounds originally offered in the original Stylus, and contains all the original material as well. The new sounds and grooves in Stylus RMX offer a much wider range of modern musical genres than the original Stylus. Mixes of grooves are broken down into individual tracks called Elements for flexibility and infinite combinations.

Also new in Stylus RMX are thousands of new Kit modules, as well as user Kit construction. The new sound menus have over 10,000 new single hits, all arranged in organized categories. Users can create their own customized multitrack remix grooves and kits, save them into the plug-in, and even share them with other Stylus RMX users on different platforms and hosts.

“Xpandable”

Stylus RMX marks Spectrasonics’ first expandable virtual instrument, with a series of five new “S.A.G.E. Xpanders” for Stylus RMX at $99US retail each. Stylus RMX also can be expanded with existing Groove Control CD-ROM libraries and even REX files — which opens the door for musicians to utilize their own audio loops within the powerful S.A.G.E. Environment.

Spectrasonics has announced five S.A.G.E. Xpanders based on the company’s Backbeat, Retro Funk, Liquid Grooves, Burning Grooves and Metamorphosis collections. The grooves on these Xpanders were produced by Persing and feature numerous top session drummers including Abe Laboriel Jr, Gregg Bissonette, Bob Wilson, Eric Boseman and John Ferraro, and were recorded by Grammy-winning engineers at multiple legendary studios including the Enterprise, O’Henry’s, Music Grinder and Capitol Records. The large scope of this series provides the highest degree of authenticity and variety.

Persing’s signature sound design is evident throughout the series, most notably on his versatile Metamorphosis Xpander, which features a wide range of floating, atmospheric Trip Hop pulsations, experimental euro-club beats, and intense Drum ‘N Bass fury – designed specifically for creative film composers, producers and remixers.

All of these new Spectrasonics S.A.G.E. Xpanders also include a special bonus section, which has hundreds of interesting grooves from their Vocal Planet, Bizarre Guitar and Distorted Reality libraries. Each Xpander also includes a unique set of creative Stylus RMX Multi patches that take advantage of the S.A.G.E. features of Stylus RMX and show the potential of the Xpander when used in combinations with the RMX Core Library and the Bonus section.

Chaos Designer

Of the many new capabilities in Stylus RMX, possibly the most innovative feature is the Chaos Designer. With simple controls, the user can introduce musical Chaos into the groove, which allows it to have constantly evolving variations– giving the impression that the audio grooves are improvising. The results can be subtle or extreme by setting the simple to use controls. A Capture feature allows the spontaneous audio chaos patterns to be made into a MIDI file, dragged and dropped into the host sequencer, and played back again for further editing by the user.

Stylus RMX Feature Summary:

• Realtime auto-sync to the beat so grooves are always in time, even when performed live. Groove Control is always active for optimum sound quality at virtually any tempo.
• Massive 7.4GB Core Library, with nearly triple the sounds of the original Stylus. (the original Stylus core library also included)
• Expandable: add more grooves with new series of “S.A.G.E. Xpanders” from Spectrasonics, also expandable with Groove Control activated sample libraries and with Propellerheads REX files, which allow a user to import their own audio loops via ReCycle.
• Thousands of grooves, sounds, patches and interchangeable “Kit modules” for building grooves from scratch
• New multi-page user interface design with fully integrated Browser for easily auditioning & organizing grooves
• Integrated FX Racks with 24 effects: Tube Limiter, Tape Slammer, Modern and Vintage Compressors, Wah-Wah, Power Filter, 6 different Vintage/Parametric/Graphic Equalizers, Flame Distortion, Valve Radio, EZ-Verb, Gate Expander, Stereo Imager, Flanger, 2 different Phasers, 3 BPM Delays, Retroplex Tape Delay
• Chaos Designer adds musical variations and “improvising” within stereo audio grooves
• 8-part Multitimbral, each part can have dozens of grooves and samples
• Eight stereo outputs (with supported software)
• Edit Groups offer unique control of individual beats within an audio loop: add ambience to just the backbeat, control the pitch of the snare inside a stereo loop, reverse only specific slices in the loop…non-destructively
• Favorites Menu creation of user defined suites of grooves, perfect for project-by-project work
• Built-in Mixer w/ 8 channels, mute/solo, level, meters, 4 Aux sends, output assignments
• Drag and Drop MIDI files into host sequencer
• User Kit building from core library, User Remixes, cross-platform/cross-host patch compatibility
• MIDI Control of all 10,000 parameters with MIDI Learn: simply grab the parameter and the hardware control
• Sound design features include new multi-mode Power Filter, 3 syncable LFOs, 3 AHDR envelopes, Reverse and more
• Edit Templates to browse and audition grooves using custom sets of parameter edits
• Easy Edit page with Big Knobs for simple, yet powerful control of key parameters
• 3 hours of Video Tutorials are included — a visual way to quickly learn about Stylus RMX

Stylus RMX operates as a virtual instrument software plug-in for Macintosh (Audio Unit, RTAS, and VST) and Windows (VST).

Stylus RMX is now shipping to all authorized Spectrasonics distributors and dealers. The US suggested retail price for Stylus RMX is $299, while the European price is set at 249 Euros.

Upgrades from the “classic” Stylus are $99US and are the same in all regions of the International market. Stylus customers who registered Stylus for the first time after January 1st, 2004, are automatically eligible for a FREE upgrade (excluding shipping) from the original Stylus to Stylus RMX. Upgrades can be ordered on-line directly from the Spectrasonics website at: techshop.spectrasonics.net

BackBeat, Liquid Grooves, Retro Funk and Metamorphosis Xpanders will be available through Spectrasonics international dealers in November and the Burning Grooves Xpander will be shipping in December. Each SAGE Xpander is $99US suggested retail price.

For more information, visit the Spectrasonics site.