MHC tell us that their freshly-launched Industrial Tones is a synthesizer which produces sounds that can be related to the music genre often referred to as ‘industrial’ which they define as being based on sounds from industries, noisy, heavy, made of steel or just odd. They tell us that they have included the finest selection of industrial waveforms and when they are processed by the synth functions and the advanced effects engine that the result is a unique collection of sounds, which are both powerful, interesting and useful.
Industrial Tones includes 1024 presets and is available as a VST plugin for Windows and will soon be available as an Audio Unit and VST plugin for Mac OS X.
Industrial Tones has a similar architecture to MHC’s Ambient Keys, but it has a different sound, because it uses a set of industrial waveforms/samples instead of ‘ambient’ ones. Industrial Tones also has a set of filter banks which sound different compared with the filter banks in Ambient Keys. Industrial Tones plays hundreds of waveforms/samples and processes these using the plug-in's synth engine and its advanced effects processor, which has 133 different effect modes.
MHC say that if you make music with an attitude, which can be categorized as industrial, fuzzy, based on mechanical sounds or steel, or just experimental, then Industrial Tones is the synthesizer for you.
Here’s the rest of the description taken directly from their website, where, incidentally, there are a whole bunch of MP3 samples…
1024 Presets Included
Industrial Tones includes 1024 presets. 256 of them are installed with the plugin. When you feel ready for more, then just download a new "soundpack", which includes a new set of industrial waveforms and 256 new presets to explore. Three soundpacks are included with the purchase of the plug-in.
You can start with the plugin-in itself (an 18 MB download) and its 256 presets and come back later on and download a new soundpack when you need new sounds. Or download everything immediately if you wish (each soundpack is approximately 5 MB).
Effects
There are 133 effect modes, including crossfading effects and layered effects. The effects section features a large set of filter banks, a resonator, flanger, reverb, pitch shift, a sub oscillator, amplitude modulation, distortion, plus layered and crossfading versions of these effects. The filter banks have been tuned to fit the waveforms and the category "industrial".
Crossfading effects means that Industrial Tones can alternate between effects. Many of the presets make use of this feature.
The sound of the filter banks can be adjusted. The effects (except the reverb) may be controlled by an LFO with 7 different waveforms and two variations of each (14 in total). The reverb includes a lowpass filter for realistic damping. In addition, the plug-in has a dedicated ensemble section and a built-in stereo delay.
Voices
The number of voices that you'll get from the plugin is only dependant on the power of your CPU. But you may set a voice limit, if you want to, for example maximum 8 or 16 voices or any number.
MIDI Controllers
The plug-in features an easy-to-use "learn mode" to support MIDI controllers. That makes it easy for you to, say, draw a waveform in your sequencer and then let it control any of the knobs. Or hook up a a cheap external MIDI controller and control the plug-in with it.
Selecting Patches
Patches are organized into groups and they are selected using two drop down menus (one for the group and one for the patch itself). The drop down menus make it easy for you to browse through the patch collection. If you download a new soundpack, then you just have to run the installer and then the new presets appear as new patch groups (new menu choices).
Other
Each voice has its own resonant filter, which can be controlled by an envelope or with velocity. You may adjust the waveform pitch and there's a traditional amp envelope there too.
Pricing and Availability:
Available now. $99 USD
More information and MP3 demos:

• www.mhc.se
  
  
  

  More From: MHC
  • Extreme Update 06-Jul-10
  • Industrial Tones Update 16-Jun-10
  • Ambient Keys Update 02-Jun-10
  • Common Kits 18-Sep-09
  • Attack Kits 06-Mar-09
  
  Even more news...