Windows 8 Support for our VSTs and Apps

With the Windows 8 launch coming on Friday, now is a good time to remind our users that all Oscillicious VST plugins and stand-alone apps are fully compatible with Windows 8, and have been thoroughly tested in this environment.

If you’re new to our site and are looking for Windows 8 compatible audio software and VST plugins, please check out our products:

I’ve been running Windows 8 on my main desktop machine for a few months now, and although the user interface is weird at first, I’ve ended up getting used to it and really like Windows 8 now. Performance has been good with the DAWs and other music apps that I’ve been testing our VSTs with too (mostly Ableton Live and Renoise).

If anyone has any questions about Windows 8 support or discovers any issues that we might have missed, please send us an email and let us know!

SongStarter 1.0.2 Released!

We’re pleased to announce a new update to SongStarter, the organic music production app for instant jamming.

This update brings general improvements to two key areas, and is a recommended update for all users:

1. A realtime mastering bus now automatically applies some dynamic range compression and excitation to enhance the overall sound quality of your jams. In other words, everything just sounds better.

2. There should be improved compatibility with soundcards using the default Windows Vista/7/8 WASAPI audio API. We’ve made adjustments to provide a better out-of-the-box experience on Windows so you hopefully won’t have to mess around in the preferences before your soundcard works. We tested this on a range of hardware, but if you run into any audio issues on Windows with SongStarter, we’d appreciate it if you got in touch so we can fix them for good.

Also included in this update are a handful of other bugfixes, including:

  • Fixed pops when switching drum beats
  • Updated help screen now points to our SongStarter help page.
  • External audio input latency has been slightly reduced.
  • Improved compatibility with certain Windows recording devices.
  • Turned it to 11 – the overall volume is louder, should be closer to other applications.
  • Fixed a bug in which loops of certain lengths would get rounded incorrectly in the Freestyle Recorder’s tap tempo screen.
  • Switching drum beats now sets the project tempo to the original tempo of the drum beats. No more chipmunk DNB drums when you’re trying them out.

As usual, SongStarter owners can update their full version using the links in their original registration email or by visiting our downloads page.

For those just passing by, an updated SongStarter trial is available for download for Windows and Mac OS X. Check it out!

Oct 8th SongStarter for Chrome Update

SongStarter for Chrome Updated

An updated version of SongStarter for Chrome is now live on the Chrome Web Store! This update includes a handful of bugfixes from the desktop 1.0 release and other small changes:

  • Fade the drum loops in when previewing to eliminate a click (will be fixed in the next desktop version too)
  • In the Jam Setup screen, the BPM now changes when you select each drum loop.
  • Adjusted the volume of a few of the instruments
  • Integrated the new instrument engine from the desktop version, though no new instruments for Chrome yet. We want to keep the download size small to make everything load quickly but still add more instruments, so there’s a bit of work to do there before we add instruments powered by the new engine to the Chrome version. (In the meantime, the desktop version has all the instruments!)
  • Other changes included from the desktop 1.0 version include stability improvements, new graphics, and lots of bugfixes.

And if you dig what we’re up to, don’t forget to rate SongStarter in the Chrome Web Store!