In today’s over-saturated virtual instrument market there are plenty of powerful samplers out there vying for the attention (and green) of your average music software consumer. This is much more apparent on the PC end of things where there are dozens upon dozens of alternatives both in plug-in (Kontakt, HALion, DirectWave, etc) and standalone (Gigasampler, Reason’s NN-XT, etc.) forms. It’s tough for a small company to really stand out amongst such strong competition. One such company that has been trying to make a name for itself is Vember Audio, makers of the powerful Surge synthesizer and Shortcircuit sampler. Their design philosophy bucks the current market trends in virtual instruments by delivering quality products designed around the needs of sound designers rather than preset users in much the same way as Native Instruments circa 2001. Their interfaces are logical, but stripped of much of the flash that the big names have (no 3D rendered hardware-style “pots” here). Instead of focusing on huge libraries of sounds, they deliver great platforms for users to create their own sounds from scratch.

Now their sleeper hit sampler Shortcircuit is being released for FREE!

Details after the jump.

Applied Acoustics make some of my favorite instruments. Their Lounge Lizard, Ultra Analog, and String Studio instruments are ones I’m always coming back to for their organic feel. So I’m going to take it as a sign that the week I finally get an Intel MacBook, they deliver Intel-native versions. My sets for next week at Macworld is secure.

Full impressions of these instruments on the MacBook — they do tend to be pretty CPU-hungry as they’re modeling-based — in an upcoming Core Duo roundup. In the meantime, here’s what’s new, beyond bug fixes: