“Every artist has a sound they’re chasing. We want Volt Gen 2 to give people the confidence to explore that sound, experiment, and keep creating”
A product shot of the new Volt USB Audio Interface from Universal Audio
Photo credit: Universal Audio
Universal Audio (UA) is rolling out the next generation of its Volt USB Audio Interfaces, the Volt Gen 2 and Volt Max.
Spanning six new models, the updated collection of UA’s bus-powered recording interfaces brings high-quality 32-bit audio conversion with Tone Shaping Preamps, Max dynamics processing and smart recording features. They are compatible with UA’s own DAW, LUNA, and all major DAWs.
Notably, the Tone Shaping Preamps have three switchable character modes — Warmth (Tube), Focus (Solid State) and Shine (British Class A) — and a full-colour Smart Display (excluding the Volt 1). The character modes can be combined with Max compression presets such as Rap Vocal or Jangly Acoustic, which opens up users to more than 18 sound combinations per channel.
“Every artist has a sound they’re chasing,” said UA CEO Bill Putnam Jr. “We want Volt Gen 2 to give people the confidence to explore that sound, experiment, and keep creating — whether they’re recording their first song or working on their tenth album.”
The new interfaces also come with the UAD Volt Studio Bundle collection — which boasts 15 plug-ins, including the LA-2A and 1176 compressors — LUNA, Celemony’s Melodyne Essential and three months of FL Studio Producer Edition.
UA released an updated version of its flagship LUNA DAW earlier this month. The company also announced a new subscription service, UA Spark Audio, which merges the LUNA Studio DAW with UA’s complete plug-in and virtual instrument library.
Native Instruments announces Maschine 3.7 with new creative sequencing tools
The music tech giant is also marking its 30th birthday by launching three more of its Expansions sound packs
The update introduces a new trio of creative sequencing tools: a random note generator, a Euclidean sequencer and Note Event, with the latter attributing a chance value to every note.
Maschine 3.7 is available now as a free update for all Maschine 3 users.
Aside from the Maschine 3.7 update, NI is also marking its 30th birthday by launching three more of its Expansions sound packs. This trio comprises a special “genre-spanning” 30th-anniversary collection (featuring 30 Maschine kits, 291 drum samples and more), the French house-inspired Paris Heat, and Rage Circuit — a rage and hypertrap collection created with GRAMMY-winning producer Snipe Young.
“30 years is a moment worth celebrating. This milestone couldn’t be reached without the producers and musicians who took NI’s instruments and made history with them,” said Tim Adnitt, NI’s senior director of product management. “Maschine 3.7 gives those producers and musicians new ways to write, sequence, and perform, and with Thirty, Paris Heat, and Rage Circuit arriving together, this is one of the biggest weeks for Maschine sound content we’ve ever had.”
NI first introduced Maschine 1.0 at NAMM in January 2009 and has released several updates over the years, with Maschine 3 arriving in 2024.
