It was with a great sense of anticipation that I loaded the KVR Developer Challenge 2016 web page to find out what entries had been submitted for this, the latest and sixth such challenge.
I wasn’t disappointed, the initial information presented was an impressive total of 41 entries. Scrolling through the list reveals a wide range of entries –
- compressor/saturator;
- audio repair software;
- 3 drum machines;
- 3 delays;
- chord / scale tool;
- 2 multi-fx plugins;
- 9 synths;
- my sample pack;
- random midi generator;
- lush 101 presets;
- Alter/Ego voice bank;
- Sampled world instruments;
- Loudness meter;
- Exciter/enhancer;
- Multiband compressor;
- Scratcher;
- FFT randomiser;
- Zampler RX cinematic soundbank;
- Guitar FX (Kontakt);
- Distortion pedal;
- Dynamics Processor;
- Kontakt Microtuner;
- Snare buzz effect;
- Distortion effect;
- Rompler based on Zampler RX;
- Virtual analog guitar amp;
- Stereo spread effect;
- step sequencer.
I’m sure I’ll eventually work my way through most of them eventually but there were a number that initially jumped out at me:
Slam is an analogue drum machine by Extent of the Jam which features multiple velocities and sounds not commonly featured such as finger-snap and tambourine.
Lagrange is a granular delay by Ursa DSP
Yooz BL303 is a TB303 inspired synth by Yooz Music
Random midi arranger is a standalone Windows based program by gradywerks that can generate random midi songs which can be exported to a midi file.
T.Rex ArgenSynth is a 2 oscillator synth with arpeggiator and step LFO by Max Project
Marie Ork is a death metal vocal pack by Karoryfer for the Alter/Ego singing synth by Plogue. I’ve used this on a couple of tracks and it’s great to see another voice bank created for it.
Spaceship delay by Musical Entropy offers a range of delay effects with modulation, attack and looping options.
Darkmoon for Zampler RX is a collection of 86 patches for cinematic and atmospheric sounds by Reusenoise
Malefica is a high gain distortion pedal based on original schematics by Evil Sound Lab.
Noisetar is a synthesiser dedicated to the generation of many different noise based sounds by NUSofting
The qyooo is a polyphonic synthesiser by Full Bucket Music
antiknot is a randomisable stereo signal processing effect by iraisynn attinom
Drumdrone is a web based random drum loop generator by JD TECH
I was also very pleased to see my entry on the list, one initial problem was that I underestimated how many downloads there would be which combined with the limits that Dropbox impose meant that the public link keeps getting suspended. After much searching I found a suitable free alternative hosting site which is included in the description if the dropbox link doesn’t work but if you have any problems please let me know and I’ll sort it out for you.
I’d highly recommend checking out all of the entries for yourself, I’m sure you’ll find some creative inspiration. If you’re a member of KVR you can also vote for your favourites with voting closing on December 18th and the winners announced on the 19th December.
Congratulations and good luck to everyone who entered.
