Intelligent Sounds & Music (ISM) has announced the release of SCAF, a new Sidechain-Controlled Amp & Filter VST effect plug-in for Windows. It costs €32. ISM has also updated MuSiCX to v1.03.

SCAF consists of a filter and an amplifier section. Both can be controlled by any track in your project. The routing between the tracks is done via internal host-independent side chains. The sections are independent so the filter's cutoff frequency might follow the volume envelope of one track's signal while another track conducts the amplifier.

You set the start and endpoints for gain and cutoff frequency. So the amp section can work in compressing or expanding mode. And the filter can sweep from low to high frequencies or vice versa while the controlling signals volume rises from zero to full scale.

Fixes in MuSiCX v1.03:

• A side chain will be released now when the transmitting instance of MuSiCX is switched off.
• The last buffer sent before a side chain was released was repeated in the receiving instance till a new transmitter took over the same side chain.
• Disabled sliders were not repainted correctly in the previous version when the editor was closed and reopened.