Is AIR back?

[Big Mouth Strikes Again]

I thought AIR had been sold off to one of these companies that milk the brand value and existing product line for all it's worth to squeeze the last bit of profit out of the acquired company. And then do the bare minimum to support these products and don't release any new products under the company's brand.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see that AIR are updating some of their existing plugins and even developing new instruments.

I really hope this trend continues. I own both their VSTi and FX bundles that I purchased on Plugin Boutique for next to nothing. I can only hope AIR releases VST3 versions of these plugins so they will work in the next version of Cubase Pro (which will no longer include support for VST2 plugins).

[Astralp]

I don’t think they ever stopped, they are owned by inmusic & most of the MPC instruments & FX were developed by them & so that’s where the effort has been going, it seems to be that stuff is also materialising as VST/AU plug-ins. Most of the included MPC instruments are now also available as VST/AU & over the last year they have been making paid for instruments which also include VST/AU versions such as Fabric XL & the mini moog clone. Recently I’ve seen the MPC drum engine released too, which is a very nice drum synth engine.

[machinesworking]

Just checking this thread for any sign that any of the original Air instrument collection has been updated or upgraded. Loom II, Transfuser, Hybrid 3, Vacuum Pro etc. all abandoned for the new plug ins. Tube Synth seems to have replaced Vacuum Pro. It's a total fiasco if you owned Vacuum Pro, just rebranding with seemingly no preset sharing.

They used to come on here and say were working on VST3, resizable GUIs etc. for Hybrid 3, Loom II etc. and now obviously their old plug ins are deprecated. Fun.

[Big Mouth Strikes Again]

Just checking this thread for any sign that any of the original Air instrument collection has been updated or upgraded. Loom II, Transfuser, Hybrid 3, Vacuum Pro etc. all abandoned for the new plug ins. Tube Synth seems to have replaced Vacuum Pro. It's a total fiasco if you owned Vacuum Pro, just rebranding with seemingly no preset sharing.

They used to come on here and say were working on VST3, resizable GUIs etc. for Hybrid 3, Loom II etc. and now obviously their old plug ins are deprecated. Fun.

After looking more closely at AIR's plugin lineup, I have to agree with you. It seems that they are putting most of their eggs in the Akai "MPC Key" basket. WTF? Is anyone even buying these MPC keyboards? I highly doubt it given that the top of the line MPC Key 61 is $1,900. Who would buy one of these?

AIR must have some sweetheart deal with Akai to develop plugins for Akai's lame MPC Key keyboards.

I don't know how a company (AIR,) could have failed so spectacularly. They had a great suite of plugins that were unfortunately Pro Tools only. By the time AIR released these plugins in standard VST and AU formats it was already too late.

And now AIR is repeating the cycle by developing MPC Keys-only plugins.

[machinesworking]

After looking more closely at AIR's plugin lineup, I have to agree with you. It seems that they are putting most of their eggs in the Akai "MPC Key" basket. WTF? Is anyone even buying these MPC keyboards? I highly doubt it given that the top of the line MPC Key 61 is $1,900. Who would buy one of these?

AIR must have some sweetheart deal with Akai to develop plugins for Akai's lame MPC Key keyboards.

I don't know how a company (AIR,) could have failed so spectacularly. They had a great suite of plugins that were unfortunately Pro Tools only. By the time AIR released these plugins in standard VST and AU formats it was already too late.

And now AIR is repeating the cycle by developing MPC Keys-only plugins.

Air and Akai are owned by the same parent company InMusic. So it looks like they aren't as interested in keeping old brands up to date as they are in introducing new brands they can sell to people as new products, sometimes with the same engine underneath.

[Astralp]

After looking more closely at AIR's plugin lineup, I have to agree with you. It seems that they are putting most of their eggs in the Akai "MPC Key" basket. WTF? Is anyone even buying these MPC keyboards? I highly doubt it given that the top of the line MPC Key 61 is $1,900. Who would buy one of these?

And now AIR is repeating the cycle by developing MPC Keys-only plugins.

The MPC ONE/Live are hugely popular & the ONE is a total bargain for a hardware workstation. The keyboard is a very recent addition to the line, and the onboard AIR instruments are excellent to have when you use one.

Akai & Air are both owned by the same company & so I imagine they were purchased to produce the Akai stuff. Most if not all of the MPC plugins are also available to buy as VST/AU these days, it seems they have been gradually building a porting system over the last 1-2 years. Their business model always feels like a corporate cash grab though, which is unfortunate.

I really like the the MPC instruments myself. I do hope they update the older VST ones to VST3 & Silicon though.

[machinesworking]

Akai & Air are both owned by the same company & so I imagine they were purchased to produce the Akai stuff. Most if not all of the MPC plugins are also available to buy as VST/AU these days, it seems they have been gradually building a porting system over the last 1-2 years. Their business model always feels like a corporate cash grab though, which is unfortunate.

I really like the the MPC instruments myself. I do hope they update the older VST ones to VST3 & Silicon though.

The problem I have is they have "ported" Vacuum Pro as Tube Synth, and the electric piano etc. over, but not with any compatibility in mind, or upgrade path. Repackaging, i.e. having to completely rebuild the framework around a plug in engine happens, just there's no transparency here. The same sort of fiasco happened when MOTU and UVI's partnership ended and UVI came out with Falcon, MOTU acted like nothing happened. Some sort of privacy act was in place because to this day if you own an old version of MachFive 3 you can get a substantial upgrade to Falcon by privately emailing UVI.

Now with Air it's different, it feels more like InMusic isn't interested in keeping Air instruments like Loom II, Hybrid 3, Transfuser etc. alive, but they are interested in gutting them for new products.

[Astralp]

I might be mistaken but I’ve used both Vacuum Pro in the past & tube synth on the MPC & they aren’t the same synth at all. In fact Tube synth is one I never use in the MPC, it’s one of the first instruments made for it & is not that good compared to the later ones. I think the main design criteria for tube synth was to be CPU lightweight, from memory Vacuum is a far better synth. Also bear in mind that Tube Synth itself is probably 5-6 years old at this point.

TBH I don’t think most of the newer instruments are gutting the old stuff much at all, there has been a great Mellotron, a String Machine, a very nice multi-synthesis Macro based synth, a mini moog, a rompler, an FM synth. They are all simplified enough to make sense on the MPC & I don’t see much similarities with the old stuff. Maybe the drum synth is taken from the older ones (I’ve never owned them), but it’s a really great addition to the MPC. I’m not sure if I’d buy many of these products if I didn’t have the MPC though, although I did get the moog which I really like, it’s very lightweight and sounds good enough to pass.

I agree about the the AIE3 instruments having a low priority, I doubt they bring in much revenue these days & they’ve been sold for very little as a cash grab for the last decade. Inmusic are corporate & is probably run by accountants.

As an MPC owner if I want the VST versions of all the MPC included synths I have to buy them & they’re not cheap. There is no offer to get them for a low price/cross grade etc which is short sighted in my opinion & just ruffles feathers. I doubt I’ll ever buy them myself, whilst they are great on the MPC their value as a VST is a very different story when held against competition. So I get what you are saying about no concern for customers/loyalty.

[mabian]

Could be, but for me they're dead. They have Hybrid, Structure, XPand2, Vacuum Pro, Transfuser, Loom II... al great products badly needing a GUI overhauls and some modernization love.
Their support system was broken for years, now it seems better. Anyway, I've looked elsewhere, they don't deserve anything more from my wallet.
Royal pity, I would have used their plugins but I don't trust them at all anymore.

[Big Mouth Strikes Again]

The MPC ONE/Live are hugely popular & the ONE is a total bargain for a hardware workstation. The keyboard is a very recent addition to the line, and the onboard AIR instruments are excellent to have when you use one.

Akai & Air are both owned by the same company & so I imagine they were purchased to produce the Akai stuff. Most if not all of the MPC plugins are also available to buy as VST/AU these days, it seems they have been gradually building a porting system over the last 1-2 years. Their business model always feels like a corporate cash grab though, which is unfortunate.

I really like the the MPC instruments myself. I do hope they update the older VST ones to VST3 & Silicon though.

Thanks for the info. I had no idea how popular the Akai MPC Key keyboards are.

I really hope AIR create plugin versions of their instruments for macOS and Windows 10/11. I was always a fan of the AIR plugins.

[Big Mouth Strikes Again]

Could be, but for me they're dead. They have Hybrid, Structure, XPand2, Vacuum Pro, Transfuser, Loom II... al great products badly needing a GUI overhauls and some modernization love.
Their support system was broken for years, now it seems better. Anyway, I've looked elsewhere, they don't deserve anything more from my wallet.
Royal pity, I would have used their plugins but I don't trust them at all anymore.

That's pretty much where I'm at. Even though I can still use the bulk of the earlier AIR plugins on my Intel MacBook Pro attached to a 1440p widescreen monitor, I will be buying an M2 Max MacBook Pro and a Samsung 5K monitor very soon. So I sadly I can kiss the AIR plugins goodbye. Fortunately I bought them at a very steep discount from Plugin Boutique.

[Astralp]

I really hope AIR create plugin versions of their instruments for macOS and Windows 10/11. I was always a fan of the AIR plugins.

They are all available, but it’s a bit confusing as is everything about Akai. There are instruments that come free with the MPC, if you have an MPC you don’t get the VST versions but they can be bought separately. Then they started making separate instruments for the MPC which you have to buy which also include VST3/AU versions too. They’re all for sale on this page:

https://www.airmusictech.com/virtual-instruments.html

I think all the recent ones will be universal binaries so support silicon, I’ve just double checked & Mini D definitely is & loads into Cubase in silicon mode.

I look through an MPC lens at these plugins though as you get 8 Virtual Instrument slots on the MPC & can only load these Instruments, so they are great/indispensable in that world and most of them came along for free. For general VST usage I’d try the demo of any you would be interested in first as you will probably have other synths already that compete with them. They often tend to be simplified/focused instruments vs deep which can be seen as positive or negative. Hype for instance is a deep synth that covers most synthesis types, but it’s done via macro mode templates.

The only one I use as a VST is mini D & I really like it, it’s much better than I thought it would be. It isn’t a super accurate analog emulation, but it‘s in the Moog ballpark & uses very little CPU. I imagine the strong point of all of these MPC related plug-ins is that they are optimized for low CPU.

[machinesworking]

I really hope AIR create plugin versions of their instruments for macOS and Windows 10/11. I was always a fan of the AIR plugins.

They are all available, but it’s a bit confusing as is everything about Akai. There are instruments that come free with the MPC, if you have an MPC you don’t get the VST versions but they can be bought separately. Then they started making separate instruments for the MPC which you have to buy which also include VST3/AU versions too. They’re all for sale on this page:

https://www.airmusictech.com/virtual-instruments.html

I think all the recent ones will be universal binaries so support silicon, I’ve just double checked & Mini D definitely is & loads into Cubase in silicon mode.

I look through an MPC lens at these plugins though as you get 8 Virtual Instrument slots on the MPC & can only load these Instruments, so they are great/indispensable in that world and most of them came along for free. For general VST usage I’d try the demo of any you would be interested in first as you will probably have other synths already that compete with them. They often tend to be simplified/focused instruments vs deep which can be seen as positive or negative. Hype for instance is a deep synth that covers most synthesis types, but it’s done via macro mode templates.

The only one I use as a VST is mini D & I really like it, it’s much better than I thought it would be. It isn’t a super accurate analog emulation, but it‘s in the Moog ballpark & uses very little CPU. I imagine the strong point of all of these MPC related plug-ins is that they are optimized for low CPU.

He’s not skiing about the new mpc air plug ins, but Loom II, hybrid 3 etc. Which haven’t been updated in years, don’t really work in Rosetta etc.

[Big Mouth Strikes Again]

I really hope AIR create plugin versions of their instruments for macOS and Windows 10/11. I was always a fan of their plugins.

They are all available, but it’s a bit confusing as is everything about Akai. There are instruments that come free with the MPC, if you have an MPC you don’t get the VST versions but they can be bought separately. Then they started making separate instruments for the MPC which you have to buy which also include VST3/AU versions too. They’re all for sale on this page:

https://www.airmusictech.com/virtual-instruments.html

I'm less interested in the new plugins that are compatible with the MPC Key series than I am with the AIR Instrument Expansion Pack 3 plugins such as Hybrid and Xpand!.

I need these plugins to have resizable interfaces, Native Apple Silicon compatibility, and VST3 support. If inMusic upgraded their AIR Expansion Pack 3 with these features, they would sell a hell of a lot more plugins than to just MPC Key owners.

[Astralp]

Ahhhh sorry, I misunderstood. Xpand!2 is one I like a lot still & would love to see an update, but I don’t feel very optimistic, but who knows.