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KVR Audio Celebrates 10 Years with a Year-Long Giveaway - Over $10,000 in Prizes to be won!

In February 2010 KVR Audio celebrated 10 years as the number one news and information resource for audio plugins! To mark this special occasion we had a huge giveaway contest for the whole year (until the end of Jan 2011)! Every month we gave away a prize from a major software developer, gear manufacturer or educational institution.


KVR Audio - A Brief History

The KVR Logo Through The Ages 2000 2001 2001 2002 KVR

FEBRUARY 2010 - It's hard to believe that it was 10 years ago that KVR Audio's journey began. Steinberg was breaking new ground with Cubase VST, now complete with VST instrument support and the free Neon synth! David Waugh at Muon Software had just released the Atom VST instrument synth plugin - which sounded great and was free! This was a very exciting time, in a way that is, possibly, hard to grasp in the present day when we are spoiled for choice with such an amazing array of instrument and effect plugins to choose from - many of which are free. Back in 2000 the idea that you could create music from one application using plugin virtual instruments was very exciting.

From About KVR:

I (Ben Turl) started KVR Audio Plugin Resources in February 2000 for something to do to pass the time, and to teach myself this web design malarkey;) VST Instruments (Virtual Studio Technology Instrument - VSTi) burst on to the scene in late 1999 with the introduction of version 2.0 of Steinberg's VST SDK and the release of Cubase VST v3.7, the first VST 2.0 host. My initial plan was to upload a few banks of patches for the nascent VSTi scene, Neon, Atom, er, LM-4, the SC plugs and maybe add a few more every now and then...

However, it wasn't long before it became glaringly obvious that there were loads of other Plugin addicts hungry for news about the latest instruments so I started reporting news of new releases and updates. One thing that has always frustrated me is staying up to date with news and versions of the software I use so I appreciate a site that is fresh and current!

To expand on that a little: KVR started as "K-v-R VST Instrument Banks" and was a place for me to upload some free plugin banks and patches to share with the world and encourage others to send theirs in to share too. This quickly evolved into "K-v-R VST Instrument Resources" with the creation of the Plugin Database and regular posting of plugin instrument release news and of course the forum! Obviously the initial focus was VST instruments but DirectX and AU instruments were added as they became available and of course effect plugins were added to the mix too. We even started reporting news regarding the non-open standards of RTAS and ReWire last year.

KVR's first home was on some free web space I had at http://k-v-r.freeserve.co.uk, followed fairly swiftly by kvr-vst.co.uk and kvr-vst.com on some paid for hosting (on a virtual server) once I realised that there was an appetite for such a site. We got our first dedicated server in 2002 and have moved servers twice since then.

The biggest change in KVR's history was in October 2003 when Muse Research acquired KVR and took me on as a full time web manager allowing me to work on KVR as more than just a hobby. Muse Research went on to launch the groundbreaking RECEPTOR Hardware Plugin Player and we're looking forward to the launch of the MuseBox this summer.

By 2004 the KVR-VST.com domain name had become a bit of an albatross, as we had been supporting multiple formats for several years, so it had to go and we became "KVR Audio Plugin Resources" / "KVR Audio" / KVRaudio.com on December 10th, 2004.

The look of KVR has changed a bit over the years - the Wayback Machine has some snapshots of KVR of the past:

2000 2001 2002
2000 2001 2002
2003 2004 2005
2003 2004 2005

What does the future hold? Well in the short term the forum software will be upgraded to PHPBB3 in the next couple of months, along with a revision and clarification of the rules. Several other changes are planned for the coming months but announcing them now will only disappoint you when they get delayed...ayed...yed...ed...d...d...

What Does "KVR" Stand For.

Just to be clear, KVR never stood for anything more than the prefix on the catalogue numbering system I used for a small record label I ran for a year in the mid-nineties (Knoxville Recordings; KVR001, KVR002, etc.)! I had the web space "k-v-r" and just used it. I don't know why I hyphenated it and lowercased the "v" like it was "K versus R"... Sometimes you just do things without thinking.

Ben.


We teamed up several leading software, hardware and sample library developers to bring you a fantastic selection of prizes - with a value of more than $10,000! A big thank you to these companies for being so generous.

Sponsors

The Winners Hall Of Fame

August 2010

Geert Oddens from The Hague, The Netherlands, won August's Ohm Force ALL-Live bundles.

August's other prize goes to Mike Pillittere from Georgetown, Texas, USA. He gets the u-he Complete Bundle.

July 2010

Eric Hodge from Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, won July's Ohm Force ALL-Live bundles.

July's other prize was Vir2 Instruments Electri6ity, which should now be in the hands of Timofei Seryakov from Minsk, Republic of Belarus.

June 2010

Arnulf Becker from Markt Indersdorf, Germany, won June's Ohm Force ALL-Live bundles.

Francesco Celati from Pisa, Italy, is the lucky winner of Arturia's generous prize offering: Hip Hop Producer, minimoog V, ARP 2600 V, CS-80V, Moog Modular V and Prophet V.

For Maurice Tindle from Tulsa, OK, USA, life is now Komplete, thanks to Native Instruments sending him a copy of its flagship Komplete 6 plugin collection, which incorporates the latest Absynth 5, Kontakt 4 and Guitar Rig 4 Pro versions, which add significant creative capabilities over their predecessors, complemented by Battery 3, FM8, Massive and Reaktor 5. A $499 value.

May 2010

James Gabarretta from Naxxar, Malta, won the Berkleemusic course, a $1,000 value! The online school of Berklee College of Music will provide tuition for one free online music course of the James's choice.

Danny Schwohl from Berlin, Germany, won May's Ohm Force ALL-Live bundles.

April 2010

Eric Zang from Sedona, Arizona, USA, won Big Fish Audio's Vir2 Instruments MOJO: Horn Section, the flexible and innovative approach to pop, funk, jazz, and big band horns in a Kontakt-powered virtual instrument. A $499.95 value! Thanks to Big Fish Audio for this prize.

Ruslan Efendiev from St. Petersburg, Russia, won this month's Ohm Force ALL-Live bundle. This fantastic downloadable plugin bundle includes Quad Frohmage Filter Bank, Ohmicide:Melohman Distortion and Symptohm:Melohman Synth. Thanks to Ohm Force for donating this superb bundle every month - a €199 value.

March 2010

Richard Krauch from Reisterstown, Maryland, USA, won a boxed version of Ableton Live 8, the fantastic composition, songwriting, recording, production, remixing and live performance app. A value of $550. Thanks to Ableton for donating this fantastic prize.

Jason Corlett from Vancouver, Canada won the Ohm Force ALL-Live bundle. This fantastic downloadable plugin bundle includes Quad Frohmage Filter Bank, Ohmicide:Melohman Distortion and Symptohm:Melohman Synth. Thanks to Ohm Force for donating this superb bundle - a €199 value.

The Prizes

2CAudio

2CAudio will give one lucky winner Aether 1.5, the ultimate-quality, self-modulating algorithmic reverb which offers several industry-leading and unique features including Proprietary Spectral Modulation, Attack & Sustain Envelope, Variable Q Damping Decay Curve, Variable Quality Modes, Extreme Off-line Render Modes, Oversampling, Double Precision DSP, Band-limited Interpolation, Mid-Side modes, Cascade Control, Complex Stereo Modes, 0-Sample Latency, Frequency Profiles, Huge Parameter Value Ranges, Comprehensive FX Presets, and much more. A $249.95 value.

Ableton Ableton is offering one lucky winner a boxed version of Live 8, the fantastic composition, songwriting, recording, production, remixing and live performance app. A value of $550.
Arturia Arturia is providing a plethora of prizes, including two copies of Hip Hop Producer and one each of their emulations of classic hardware synths: minimoog V, ARP 2600 V, CS-80V, Moog Modular V and Prophet V - a total prize fund value of $1,503 / €1,403!
Berkleemusic Berkleemusic, the online school of Berklee College of Music, is providing tuition for one free online music course of the recipients choice. Study Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Reason, SONAR, Digital Performer and more with Berklee's renowned faculty from anywhere in the world. A $1,000 value. Learn more...
Big Fish Audio Big Fish Audio is offering a copy of MOJO: Horn Section, Vir2 Instruments' flexible and innovative approach to pop, funk, jazz, and big band horns in a virtual instrument, a $499 value, and Electri6ity, the ultimate electric guitar virtual instrument, a $399 value!
Blue Cat Audio

Blue Cat Audio has donated the fantastic Blue Cat's All Plugins Pack! Worth $1299, it contains all Blue Cat Audio plugins released to date: 19 products, including 6 award-winning audio analysis tools, 3 powerful dynamics processors and 8 premium equalizers. All plugins are available in VST, RTAS, Audio Unit and DirectX formats on both Mac and PC, for 32 or 64-bit applications.

Camel Audio Camel Audio is offering one lucky winner a copy of the sample manipulation synthesizer Alchemy plus the BigTone, Atmospheric and Electronic expansion soundbanks for Alchemy! A $426 value!
discoDSP

discoDSP has given us Discovery Pro and Vertigo (A $299 value): Discovery Pro is a 12 oscillators Virtual Analog Synthesizer featuring 4 layers, WAV and SF2 support, PADSynth, 2X over-/under-sampling, built-in arpeggiator, sync, FM, 12 filter types, panning modulation, stereo delay and gate effects, graphic envelope modulation. Imports and export Nord Lead 2 SysEx data. Vertigo is an Additive synthesizer able to import WAV and PNG files into two morphable layers, each with up to 256 oscillators. Includes 8 built-in effects, dual filters and FFT view.

Flux:

Flux: is giving away three copies of the Elemental Pack, the comprehensive toolbox with the elemental components needed to take control over the dynamic processing when recording, mixing or mastering: Pure Compressor produces a wide range of compressions from ultra clean subtle compressions to classic heavy pumping ones. Pure Expander produces a wide range of expansion process from subtle expansions to hard noise-gate. Pure Limiter is using exquisite proprietary Flux: algorithms generating a release-envelope producing no artifacts on the processed sound achieving a transparent limiting. The Elemental Pack has an MSRP of $319.

Please note that an iLok or proprietary Flux dongle is required to store the license for this prize (neither of which is included as part of the prize).

FXpansion FXpansion will give one lucky winner DCAM: Synth Squad, the plugin suite that delivers the satisfaction of playing real analogue instruments in software! Advanced modelling technology carefully reconstructs the soul of dusty vintage circuits within your computer for the unmatched vibe of hardware at a fraction of the cost. A $249 value.
IK Multimedia IK Multimedia is giving three fantastic prizes: a copy of AmpliTube 3, IK's brand new guitar and bass tone gear modeling software, T-RackS 3 Deluxe Mastering, the suite of 9 analog modeled and digital Dynamics/EQ processors, and SampleMoog, the SampleTank-powered comprehensive collection of Moog sounds! Over $1,000 in value!
iZotope iZotope's Mix, Master and Restore Bundle gives musicians complete solutions and not single answers. Containing the newly released Alloy, Ozone 4 and RX, each plugin is an entire toolkit when it comes to the product's focus. This is a bundle to take a project from start to finish. A combined value of $847.99.
Kong Audio

Kong Audio is providing one free license of Essential China package, valued at $246 US. This contains five core classical Chinese instruments covering the needs for authentic Chinese sounds.

Native Instruments Native Instruments has given us a copy of its flagship Komplete 6 plugin collection. Komplete 6 incorporates the latest Absynth 5, Kontakt 4 and Guitar Rig 4 Pro versions, which add significant creative capabilities over their predecessors, complemented by Battery 3, FM8, Massive and Reaktor 5. A $499 value.
Nine Volt Audio Nine Volt Audio is providing a $400 gift certificate - choose from existing top-mark loop libraries like Pop Rock Guitars, Action Drums: Cinematic Edition, Melodic Rex and more. Or use it to get products from their upcoming Kontakt format sample libraries!
Nomad Factory The Integral Studio Pack from Nomad Factory contains everything you might ever need to get the best out of your audio sequencer host application in a professional studio environment. From the warm analog sound of the Blue Tubes Bundle V3 to the professional processing capabilities of the Analog Signature Pack, and much more, you get all of the Nomad Factory software (48 plugins) for Mac OS X and Windows (32- and 64-bit), VST, AU and RTAS formats. Valued at $1499!
NUGEN Audio NUGEN Audio has given us the NUGEN Audio Master Edition, a bundle that contains all of NUGEN's plugins and is worth $499! Included are two mastering grade equalisers, three stereo enhancement & manipulation tools and Visualizer, the market leading audio analysis suite containing level meters, spectrum analysis, spectrograms, phase scopes, correlation & stereo meters and more.
Ohm Force Ohm Force is providing twelve (!) copies of its ALL-Live bundle (one each month). This fantastic plugin bundle includes Quad Frohmage Filter Bank, Ohmicide:Melohman Distortion and Symptohm:Melohman Synth.
Resonant Vibes Resonant Vibes is offering several rv_samplepacks, Resonant Vibes' line of quality-driven sample packs. Typically ranging from 100 MB to 600 MB+, each pack is created by a handpicked producer. A $209 value.
SoundToys

SoundToys is giving the SoundToys Native Effects bundle to one lucky winner! Rhythmic. Creative. Inspiring. Fat analog sound. That's how users describe the SoundToys Native Effects bundle. Featuring the award-winning EchoBoy, the new Decapitator and PanMan, as well as FilterFreak, PhaseMistress, Crystallizer, Tremolator, and Speed. Professional effects for VST, AU, and RTAS. A $495 value.

Toontrack Music Toontrack Music is providing Superior Drummer 2.0, the professional virtual instrument for producing drums in a digital recording environment, together with its three SDX expansion packs: Lost New York Studios SDX, The Metal Foundry SDX and Custom and Vintage SDX. Over $800 in value.
u-he u-he is offering the u-he Complete Bundle, which includes, as its name suggests, all u-he plugins released to date (ACE, Filterscape, MFM2, Uhbik, Zebra + soundbanks), worth well over $700!
Universal Audio Universal Audio is offering a "User's Choice": UAD-2 SOLO Powered PlugIns Card or a UAD-2 SOLO/Laptop Powered PlugIns Card. This single-processor PCIe card provides access to the World's most authentic analog hardware emulations and audio processing plugins — including licensed emulations from Neve, Roland, BOSS, Empirical Labs, EMT, Fairchild, Harrison, Helios, Little Labs, Pultec, SPL, Teletronix and more.
V-Plugs V-Plugs is providing 3 great plugins for one lucky winner: Uranium, a brand new innovative compressor with unique sound and features, Echo Trip that offers an accurate emulation of vintage tape-echo machines, and Emphasizer, a unique plugin that presents a new approach for tone shaping and frequency manipulation. A total value of €237!
Vocal Downloads Vocal Downloads is offering a Vocal Downloads Annual Membership, which, valued at $365, offers unparalleled value to DJs, film and music producers, and industry professionals. You receive access to all Vocal Mini Packs, Harmony Packs and everything else in their growing catalog, which contains more than 3,500 supreme-quality vocal samples. All samples are clearance-free, royalty-free and hassle-free.
Zero-G Zero-G is offering a great prize for sample lovers: The winner can choose any Zero-G sample library downloads (excluding Vocaloid titles) to a total value of one thousand dollars, from the entire range of over 200 titles available in the Zero-G Download Shop!