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moosers
Published on 04/08/10 at 00:30
Digidesign's AIR (Advanced Instrument Research) Ensemble is a plug-in that can be found exclusively with the newest version of Pro Tools, version 8. It comes free with the software, and you don't need to do anything further to install the plug-in once you've installed Pro Tools 8, as it takes care of it when you do so. The interface of the plug-in is very simple and easy to adapt to. Like all of the AIR plug-ins, it has a pretty bland looking interface, but this does make it easy to follow everything going on. The plug-in consists of parameters for rate, depth, delay, shimmer, stereo width, and mix. All of them come in the form of knobs, so they are easily manipulated without having to put much thought into it beyond what you're looking to achieve. I don't think that they make a manual for AIR Ensemble or for any of the other AIR plug-ins.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
I just recently upgraded to Pro Tools 8 from 7.4, and I'm very happy that I did. I'm now running Pro Tools 8 and the AIR Ensemble plug-in on a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. I run Pro Tools 8 LE with a Digi 002R audio interface. Although I had a lot of previous experience with Pro Tools 8 on an HD system, it wasn't until I upgraded to 8 at home that I tried out the AIR Ensemble plug-in. This plug-in takes up a very little amount of processing power, so as long as you have a system where you can currently run Pro Tools and some plug-ins on it comfortably, you'll be fine with this one and most of the other AIR plug-ins.
OVERALL OPINION
Basically, the Digidesign AIR Ensemble is a plug-in that adds depth to your sound by emulating the multi-tracking of the track on top of it's self. Of course you have all sorts of controls to work with, so it isn't this simple in practice, but essentially that is what the AIR Ensemble plug-in will do for you. It differs in tone quality to the AIR Chorus plug-in, but is generally in the same vein. The plug-in actually has a very clean sound, but this isn't the type of plug-in that I'm using all too often. However, since it was free I'm quite happy to have it around, and makes for just another reason that you should upgrade to Pro Tools 8 from earlier versions if you haven't done so!
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
I just recently upgraded to Pro Tools 8 from 7.4, and I'm very happy that I did. I'm now running Pro Tools 8 and the AIR Ensemble plug-in on a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. I run Pro Tools 8 LE with a Digi 002R audio interface. Although I had a lot of previous experience with Pro Tools 8 on an HD system, it wasn't until I upgraded to 8 at home that I tried out the AIR Ensemble plug-in. This plug-in takes up a very little amount of processing power, so as long as you have a system where you can currently run Pro Tools and some plug-ins on it comfortably, you'll be fine with this one and most of the other AIR plug-ins.
OVERALL OPINION
Basically, the Digidesign AIR Ensemble is a plug-in that adds depth to your sound by emulating the multi-tracking of the track on top of it's self. Of course you have all sorts of controls to work with, so it isn't this simple in practice, but essentially that is what the AIR Ensemble plug-in will do for you. It differs in tone quality to the AIR Chorus plug-in, but is generally in the same vein. The plug-in actually has a very clean sound, but this isn't the type of plug-in that I'm using all too often. However, since it was free I'm quite happy to have it around, and makes for just another reason that you should upgrade to Pro Tools 8 from earlier versions if you haven't done so!