Antares Audio Technologies announced the release of Antares Tube, a multi-format plug-in designed to model a wide range of analog tube effects as well as effects unavailable from any actual hardware.

Based on technology from Antares's Microphone Modeler plug-in, Tube is designed to be extremely easy to use and so DSP efficient that even a modest native system will support dozens of tracks' worth. (In Antares's informal tests, a Mac PowerBook G4 400MHz was able to provide well over 40 instances of Tube.)

Tube provides two basic tube models. The "heavenly" blue tube adds the warmth of a classic tube preamp to vocals, acoustic guitar, horns, strings, synth pads, in fact pretty much anything. The"devilish" orange tube provides the deep, warm distortion of an overdriven tube amplifier. It can be used in moderation to impart a subtle (or not-so-subtle) effect to almost any track. Or cranked up on electric guitar, bass, synths, even voice for more dramatic distortion effects.

In addition to the tube models, Tube includes a unique OmniTube function. Without OmniTube engaged, Tube functions exactly like a tube preamp, i.e., only the regions of the input signal that exceed the clipping level (typically transients) are affected and all other regions are passed with no change. With OmniTube on, a compressor is inserted into the signal path before the tube model. This compressor is set to compress the signal and then apply sufficient makeup gain to ensure that Tube's Drive control can drive the entire signal above the clipping level. After the tube effect is applied to the entire signal, an inverse gain function restores the signal's original dynamics.

Antares Tube is available now for RTAS (Mac and PC), VST (Mac and PC), DirectX and MAS at a U.S. MSRP of $129.00. Mac RTAS and VST versions currently require OS 9.x. OS X versions will be available in early March and will be free upgrades.

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