Berlin, 9 May 2019     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New multi-plugin adapter software "Unify" announced at Superbooth 19

Today at Superbooth, veteran sound designer John "Skippy" Lehmkuhl (PlugInGuru.com) unveiled his first commercial software product, called UNIFY.

UNIFY is a plug-in which loads other plug-ins, in order to create composite sounds using any combination of software instruments with MIDI- and audio-effects. It will be available as both a plug-in (VST, VST3, and Audio-Unit at launch, AAX later), and a stand-alone application, for macOS and Windows.

UNIFY differs from established plug-in aggregation products (e.g. Metaplugin by DDMF, PatchWork by Blue Cat Audio, or the "Combinator" built into Propellerhead's Reason) in three main ways:

  1. It offers a familiar, DAW-like design and work-flow.
  2. It ships with a library of composite sounds, many of which are built entirely with free plug-ins, so it's ready to play "out of the box".
  3. It's intended primarily as a platform for future multi-plugin sound libraries, several of which are already in development by Lehmkuhl and other well-established sound designers.

As a "wrapper" for other plug-ins, UNIFY offers some highly useful capabilities:

  1. It allows DAWs to use plug-ins which they could not use directly, e.g. VST or VST3 plug-ins can be used in Logic Pro X, which normally can host only Audio-Unit plug-ins.
  2. On Windows, built-in support for jBridge allows it to load legacy 32-bit VST plug-ins into 64-bit-only DAWs like Cubase.
  3. Multi-threading capability allows complex plug-in combinations on a single DAW track, taking advantage of multiple CPU cores in ways the individual plug-ins cannot. This is essential for DAWs like Logic Pro X, which assign only one CPU core per track.

As a tool for creating, saving and playing composite presets using multiple plug-ins, UNIFY will simplify the process of sharing sounds, even with people who use different DAWs. It's effectively a "portable Combinator". On the same platform (Ableton to Logic Pro on Mac, Reaper to Cubase on Windows) this is easy. Going from PC to Mac or vice versa involves additional conversion steps, for which UNIFY provides some support.

Finally, live performers will appreciate the ability to develop composite sounds inside a DAW in the studio, then take them unchanged to the stage using the stand-alone UNIFY apps for both Mac and PC.

UNIFY is being developed as a collaboration between Lehmkuhl and Canadian software developer Shane Dunne, author of the free NetVST project and a core contributor to AudioKit. It is expected to be available the third quarter of 2019. Pricing has not yet been announced, but Lehmkuhl promises it will be "very competitive" with established offerings.

At Superbooth 19, Lehmkuhl will be demonstrating the prototype UNIFY each day at 17:00, at the new U-He Lounge at booth H524.

A brief demo/introduction video is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/0XhVVB7cRgY.

For more information: John Lehmkuhl, admin@PlugInGuru.com.

Click here to download the Unify Superbooth Press Card (PDF)