Arturia is the latest company to encourage you to stay home and make music, and it’s giving you some free music software to do it with. The biggest news is that iSpark, the company’s iPad drum machine app, is free until 30 April, but Arturia is also showing some love to PC/Mac users, who can road-test the Pigments 2 plugin synth for free between 2 April and 3 July.
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iSpark is a pretty well-regarded drum machine that offers a large library of drum kits and sounds taken from classic hardware (there are 640 instruments and 40 kits in all). You can play and record patterns in real-time and tweak sounds on the fly, and there’s a 64-step sequencer. You get effects and a mixer, and patterns can be chained together into songs.
iSpark is compatible with Arturia’s SparkLE controller and Spark 2 desktop software, and has retailed for as much as $16/£16. You can use it with other apps via AudioBus, Inter-App Audio and Ableton Link. Download it now for free on the Apple App Store.
Pigments 2, meanwhile is a dual-engine, dual-filter synth plugin with a bountiful supply of effects and a built-in sequencer. Version 2 added a new sample engine, a granular mode and an improved sequencer. It’s available for PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats and can be downloaded from the Arturia website.
Finally, if you feel like flashing some cash, it’s worth pointing out that Arturia’s V Collection 7 bundle is currently being offered for €249, which is half the regular price.
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