AIR Updates

[GroverKen]

The latest AIR Updates are available now.

The AIR team has been working hard to bring you updates for all of our products. Here are the first updates with many more on the way!

https://view.mailer.airmusictech.com/?qs=527aaa3d6468b14891a3a739bd3a13400c1b2142546413b197236489ff11426ee129a1d094270403484a34b5306b0a4ee9b902940311f168661db1beaa52ca903e97de6617aff4e4b59129ac0505643a

[aidan o driscoll]

Havent had update from them in centuries

Actually thought they had stopped doing anything other than flogging there old plugins off at every opportunity and price point TBH

[aidan o driscoll]

No updates for STRUCTURE.

But not much love for this sampler down through the years, so much so I never bothered installing it .. takes up lots of space also. Anybody else use it, think its ok?

STRIKE is another I dont bother with.

  

[cclarry]

I don't even have these installed, and I have all of them.  I keep them updated,
but why waste the drive space.  Mind you, they are decent enough, howbeit old,
just not what I would use...

[paulo]

The updates are of no use to me, but good to know that they are still alive in some way I guess. I do sometimes use Xpand2! for it's pad layers when I just want something quick and Loom has made it onto a few finished* versions.

 

* They're never really finished are they ? ?

[aidan o driscoll]

Note ( for me on GIGABIT Bband ).

The Transfuser ( 4GB ) and Strike ( 18GB )downloads that are a few GBs in size time out download wise and have to be repeatedly started from where they last left off .. eventually get there  

Edited May 11, 2021 by aidan o driscoll

[Yan Filiatrault]

Are those products now safe to install normally in Windows?

[Fleer]

Some of them are really good. And I still love Velvet. 

[Starise]

Worth the update I think. AIR vsts are nice instruments and plugins that pack a lot of serious value for the money. 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Starise

[Monomox]

I've contributed to the hate for AIR stuff, so here's some good things I have to say about their plugins.

Xpand2 is underrated. It's also the only synth I have in which getting to the preset you want is easy, both because of the folder structure and because the names of the factory presets are actually descriptive and helpful, instead of stupid names like "Mad Max in Guandong." If you have a synth sound in your head, it's easy to get pretty close with Xpand.

Strike is great for when you want to lay the drum track in just a couple of minutes (including fills) and it doesn't sound that bad with some TLC.

Loom II is fun.

Vacuum was the first plugin interface I fell in love with. The presets are awesome. 

Transfuser is ridiculously outdated and I would not even bother with Structure. 

DB33... well, it loads fast.

 

 

[paulo]

11 minutes ago, Monomox said:

Xpand2 is underrated........... getting to the preset you want is easy, both because of the folder structure and because the names of the factory presets are actually descriptive and helpful, instead of stupid names like "Mad Max in Guandong." If you have a synth sound in your head, it's easy to get pretty close with Xpand.

Yep.

[abacab]

+1 for Xpand!2.

And the other AIR synths and keyboards Hybrid 3, Vacuum Pro, Loom II, Velvet, and DB-33 are good too, but could just use a scalable GUI and some modern browsers. Although, now that I have IK Hammond B-3X, don't think DB-33 will get much love anymore. But it ain't bad, just not even close.

I found Strike great fun to play, but encountered too many difficulties trying to export. So uninstalled it.

Transfuser has had GUI issues and crashes sometimes, so I rarely bother.

I have Structure installed, because using it as a ROMpler for some good quality off the wall samples I don't have elsewhere is occasionally useful. Especially in the 'World' category. But for roll your own types, building your own presets has become difficult, as you can no longer enter text to label anything in Structure. I suspect this broke sometime in Windows 10.

[Reid Rosefelt]

2 hours ago, Monomox said:

Xpand2 is underrated. It's also the only synth I have in which getting to the preset you want is easy, both because of the folder structure and because the names of the factory presets are actually descriptive and helpful, instead of stupid names like "Mad Max in Guandong." If you have a synth sound in your head, it's easy to get pretty close with Xpand.

Wow, I had the exact opposite experience.  I found the folders system to be very unwieldy.   Always having to go back into those folders over and over to get a different preset in a different category.    It's the same thing I don't like about  Engine. 

But when I got the NKS template from Freelance Soundlabs, it unleashed this for me.  I'd always liked it,  but just didn't use it much.

But I agree about it being under-rated.  The reason for this is obvious.  They gave it away for free for a year.  And then for $1.   If it was really priced at $99 with occasional sales for $49  I believe people would see it in a much more appreciative way.  

[Brian Lawler]

The only thing updated is the installer shells.  The VST dll's in these are byte-for-byte identical with the 2015 versions that I had.  I didn't see any difference in the content either, but I didn't feel like digging that deep with WinMerge.

[Monomox]

1 minute ago, Brian Lawler said:

The only thing updated is the installer shells.  The VST dll's in these are byte-for-byte identical with the 2015 versions that I had.  I didn't see any difference in the content either, but I didn't feel like digging that deep with WinMerge.

That's a bummer. DB-33 makes my DAW unstable and I was hoping they would correct that. Not so much because I want to use DB33, but because I'm afraid the same thing will start happening with the other AIR vsts that I do like. Oh well. 

It's kind of a scam, don't you think? They tell you "here download this update" when it's not an update at all. Maaaan!

[LAGinz]

Update installer for Hybrid3 on Windows doesn’t appear to be working here. Only options are “uninstall” or “close”. Like Fleer, I kind of like Velvet too. While I dig my Lounge Lizard, Velvet sometimes seems a bit more natural to me.

[kitekrazy]

7 hours ago, cclarry said:

I don't even have these installed, and I have all of them.  I keep them updated,
but why waste the drive space.  Mind you, they are decent enough, howbeit old,
just not what I would use...

I'm feeling that way now.  It doesn't appear their orchestra stuff was updated. 

[Topcheese]

Air were some of the first decent quality VST instruments that I picked up in a bundle deal,  after switching over from a hardware based production.  I've moved on since I was lucky enough to snag full IK and NI complete deals.  I still like to incorporate TF2 whenever I get a chance. 

[abacab]

6 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

Wow, I had the exact opposite experience.  I found the folders system to be very unwieldy.   Always having to go back into those folders over and over to get a different preset in a different category.    It's the same thing I don't like about  Engine.

If you load up the AIR instruments in Akai VIP 3, you can leverage the VIP preset browser with extensive tagging, and their unified environment. The AIR instruments also have factory patch maps included so that they are plug and play ready with VIP 3.

Note: VIP 3 supports VST2 plugins only, but the AIR collection meets that requirement. There have been a few deep sales for VIP recently, so don't pay full asking price. Because development seems to have halted on VIP... still no VST3 plugin support.

[Anxiousmofo]

Amazing that after years of AIR promising free updates with scalable GUI's we get...this. And only after their plugs broke in Windows and some retailers stopped selling them as a result.

Bravo?!?