AudioSauna Gets Fresh New Look and New Features!

Each instrument channel has its own color.

The AudioSauna Studio app was just updated to version 0.402 beta. The update brings several improvements, including a revamped new interface, new tools and performance improvements.

Note edit tool in action	The most important thing audio wise is the new Note edit tool, which enables editing note velocity and note cutoff values. To edit the note's velocity, click on a note and move the mouse up / down. The note's color will change when the velocity changes so it's very easy to spot different values from the background.
Creating a fade out with just one mouse stroke.	You can edit velocities for all notes of the pattern by clicking anywhere on the piano roll's background. Clicking the background will display a row of lines showing the change in the velocity value. Just move the mouse around and see how the notes change. Try it with cutoff for your analog baseline and you'll instantly get that classic acid sound. Works like a charm!

The other additions included in the latest update are:

• Fresh new look and revamped interface
• Each instrument channel has its own color
• Alt + Drag a note to create a duplicate
• Progress bar added for Open Song
• Improved performance for Open Song and Save Song
• Improved performance for loading your own Wav and Mp3 sounds to the sampler
• Audio engine's CPU usage reduced by 5%

AudioSauna Goes Space Echo!

AudioSauna's delay is loosely modelled after the classic tape delays of the 1970's.

We are extremely happy to announce that we have just updated the channel mixer's delay effect with a new set of features and controls!

If you have used the AudioSauna's delay effect before, the new interface will seem very familiar. The only visual update is the new knob for adjusting the delay's damage level.

The damage knob is what controls the overall vintageness of the delay. At the extreme damage settings the effect will smoothly overdrive and saturate the audio causing the delay to scream and wildly self-oscillate, just like the real deal!

Setting the damage level between 50-75% will result in more usable and smoother Dub-like delay with less noise and graininess. At the 0% damage level the effect will act as a regular digital studio delay with no added modulation for the audio. Try different combinations between feedback and damage to find the best balance of self-resonance.

The effect can also sync to tempo. Switch the sync off by just clicking the delay time display above the delay time knob. This will enable you to control the delay time in milliseconds.

Tape Delay Features:

• Includes controls for delay time, feedback, damage and level.
• Accurate tape delay emulation.
• Smooth tape-like delay time changes, just like in the vintage models.
• Tempo sync option.
• Classic unpredictable self-oscillation at extreme damage settings.
• Works also as a clean digital delay.

Check out these two demos of AudioSauna's tape delay sound with some live knob tweaking:

New Channel Mixer!

We re-designed the mixer and added a couple more channels.

We been working hard with the synthesizers lately, trying to make the devices as versatile as possible and most importantly fun and easy to use. We added "tons" of new presets to the synths and now the sound library provides a great starting point for sound sculpting.

The synths are in good shape now, but the mixer had been sitting still since the early versions, so it was time to take a look under the hood of the channel mixer as well.

Here are the details of the latest mixer and channel update:

• The mixer's interface was improved and re-designed.
• The volume sliders now use the logarithmic dB scale to control and indicate gain settings.
• The maximum number of channels was lifted from 8 to 10.
• The bug which caused the panning to function incorrectly at low gain levels was fixed.
• The arrange mode's channel list has a new design and better functionality.
• The bug which caused the mutes and solos to be out of sync with the channel list was fixed.
• Separate snap to grid options were added to arrange and piano roll modes.
• FM-synth has new design on the sliders.
• Minor usability improvements and bug fixes around the application.

PS. We just recently reached 150 000 installations on the Chrome Web Store. And amazingly that's just in three months. Wow.

Presenting Drum Synthesis in the Cloud

The AudioSauna's synths are also drum machines.

We just made another update to the factory sounds of AudioSauna. While the previous update was about capturing the very essence of FM synthesis, now we created a bank of percussive sounds for the virtual analog synth. The sounds are located at the bottom of the synth's presets.

Why use synthesized drum sounds?

AudioSauna's drum synth utilises emulated analog oscillators rather than pre-recorded samples to create its drum sounds. A pre-recorded sample is static and constant, unlike the synthesized drum sound which is usually based on randomized noise. Each time the sound is played from the synth, the sound has a different and unique waveform. This sounds more pleasant to the human ear.

Using drum synth gives also greater control of the sound, since the spectral content and envelope of the sound can be programmed.

Here is an example song using only the synthesized drum sounds of AudioSauna. The song uses 5 synths to generate the sounds. If you want to see how this was made you can download the AudioSauna's .song file from here.

New Synth Presets With Classic 80's Sounds!

The new polished interface of the FM synthesizer.

We just updated AudioSauna with a complete overhaul for the FM synthesizer!

FM synthesis have it's own distinctive and bright sound, which usually works best for metallic and percussive sounds. Therefore the most authentic new presets are located in the vibraphone and bell banks. Overall there are more than 20 new patches added to the synthesizer.

AudioSauna's FM synth models the digital circuitry of Yamaha's DX-21 from 1985, and it can emulate most of the patches from Yamaha's legendary 4 operator synths from the 80's. The inspiration to the new sounds come from the actual patches of Yamaha's synths from over 25 years ago.

FM synthesis has a very special place in our hearts, and we feel it's equally useful with Analog synthesis in modern audio production!

More about today's update:

• Improved and polished interface for the FM synth.
• Fixed wrong tuning from some of the presets.
• Maximum song length set to 256 bars (thanks for the notion Chris).
• Minor update to Mixer GUI.
• Bug fixes.

Growing Pains...

Due to the great popularity of AudioSauna, we exceeded the bandwidth limit of our virtual server, switching the site offline last night. Out of the blue.

Turns out AudioSauna was consuming the entire month's bandwidth in just few days, so no wonder our local server host provider had to cut us off!

Now we have moved the service into a better suited international content delivery system with high data transfer speed and unlimited bandwidth, making sure using AudioSauna will be a smooth sail every time.

Thank you for your patience and sorry for the inconvenience!

Recording notes with the Computer's Keyboard

The recorded notes appearing in the piano roll view.

We listen to the feedback we get very carefully, and one of the most requested features has been the possibility to record notes. So today AudioSauna gets a major improvement as you can now use the computer's keyboard to record notes.

Today's update brings two different ways to record notes to the song:

• You can record notes live as the song is playing.
• You can record notes using the AudioSauna's step sequencing feature.

For recording notes live, simply press down the play and record buttons, and everything will be recorded to the selected track. The notes can be quantized live as you record by toggling the "Snap" button on the tool bar. For example, select 1/32 from the menu to quantize everything you play to 1/32 notes etc.

By pressing down just the record button, the played notes will be added to the track step-by-step, each note following the next. Like in the live recording mode, the step size is the same as the Snap size. So to record 1/16 notes, simply select 1/16 from the menu and make sure the "Snap" button is pressed down.

Happy recording!

AudioSauna is Going Viral!

Wow, we had more than 50 000 visitors last week, and now it looks like we will be doubling that number this week!

Also, AudioSauna is currently the 5th most downloaded application in the Chrome Web Store, topping such applications as Angry Birds and Facebook.

And this is without any promotion from our side. Thank you, thank you & thank you!

Once we calm down from the amazement, this will greatly help us to improve the AudioSauna's free service and pursue our goals in the mobile platforms as well.

Dj Tool renamed as Until AM!

The shiny and new Until AM website is now open!

After a month of our initial release of AudioSauna DJ Tool, it started to look like the DJ app is being overshadowed by the mighty AudioSauna Studio.

Originally we decided to make the AudioSauna's landing page a portal. From there the visitor would select between the Studio and the DJ Tool. We expected that this would boost the total traffic of the site, and earn us a better Google rank etc.

But turns out this was not the case -  more than 95% of the people landing on the front page were just using the Studio, and would never touch the DJ Tool.

The DJ Tool is a powerful application and first of its kind enabling realistic turntable effects in the browser.  It's too cool to hide in the background, so it definitely needed a great name and a sexy domain.

So therefore we separated the DJ tool and the composing studio into individual services. And we made a great discovery for the DJ Tool's domain name, the app is located at: mix.until.am

Both services are still being developed by the same crew, so production-wise nothing has changed.

To stay up to date with the development of Until AM, follow this blog, the Facebook page and the Twitter feed. Remember, this is still an early beta and we will be releasing new features and other improvements on a regular basis.

Happy Mixing!

Website:	www.until.am
DJ Tool:	mix.until.am

Ambient Sound Test With AudioSauna's Synths

This is a short ambient sound test featuring 5 FM-synths and 3 analog synths. The song was exported from AudioSauna and updated to SoundCloud without any post production.

The sounds are all preset sounds, with some tweaking added to distortion, LFO, filter and envelopes.

If you would like to open this in AudioSauna, you can download the song in AudioSauna's song format from here:

Ambient_Sound_Test.song

New Piano Keyboard and Improved Audio Quality

The analog synthesizer's new user interface displaying a C-major chord being played.

We just updated AudioSauna with improvements to audio quality and additions to the user interface.

Most importantly, the bug which caused the release time of sequential notes to be cut off is now fixed. In some cases this bug was a real show stopper, since it caused nasty and audible clipping in very basic situations, like laying out a basic 4/4 base drum beat.

The piano keyboard's responsiveness was also improved. Now the down pressed keys are highlighted, giving feedback about the actual position of the currently played notes.

We also updated the analog synthesizer with a new and shiny user interface in addition of minor GUI refinements all over the application.

Next up: perfectifying playing and recording notes with computer's keyboard!

Export Song as Audio File + New Sequencer Features

Pattern's MIDI-notes are now displayed on the pattern block.

We've been hard at work creating updates and improving the creative flow of AudioSauna's studio software. Most importantly we added the very basic feature of saving the song as an audio file.

To convert your song into an audiofile, simply set the loop points to the beginning and end of the song. Choose "Export Loop as Audio Fíle" from the file menu. AudioSauna will now render the song as a stereo 16-bit 44.1 kHz wav-file, which can be used in any other audio software. This is very convenient for taking advantage of AudioSauna's unique synthesizing possibilities with other devices and software.

We've also greatly improved the creative flow of the sequencer's user interface. Here are some of the updates:

• Double click the pattern to directly edit its notes on the piano roll
• Pattern's notes are displayed on the pattern block
• Improved piano roll view
• Improved selecting of notes and patterns
• Use shift + click to add notes to active selection
• Improved audio response while moving playhead randomly
• Improved audio response while editing the loop range
• Fixed possible crash while opening a song
• Fixed bugs from copy, paste and delete commands
• Copy / paste between patterns and songs enabled
• etc etc...

Stay tuned, more updates coming soon!

AudioSauna Introduces Its Own Song Format

AudioSauna updates to version 0.103 and features a powerful file-format, bug-fixes and new preset synth patches.

We are very happy to announce that we've just updated AudioSauna with the possibility to open and save songs to your local hard drive.

Now you can create a complete song with multiple tracks, complex patterns and custom synth patches and save it to your hard drive. Opening the song will simply revert the application to the previously saved state.

The smart file format even supports importing your own samples to AudioSauna's sampler devices - all the samples and settings will be included in the compressed and light-weight song file!

AudioSauna's song format in detail:

• Filename extension: .song
• Supports importing wav- and mp3-samples to the samplers
• AudioSauna's preset sample kits are always opened from the cloud
• Because we store all the preset samples in the cloud, the format's file size will allways stay minimal
• Imported audio is compressed using a non-destructive algorithm
• Opening a song completely regenerates the saved state of the application

Install AudioSauna as Google Chrome Web App

As of today, AudioSauna can be installed as a free Google Chrome Web Application.

Install AudioSauna from here.

AudioSauna Updated With New Sampler Presets and Bug Fixes

Change the tool by using the shortcut keys
1, 2, 3 and 4 from your keyboard.

After receiving a lot of feedback, we made a bunch of bug fixes and added some of the most wanted features to AudioSauna.

The Eraser and Pan tools are now working as they should. We also added some keyboard shortcuts for improved workflow.


The most requested feature has been the possibility to save the song. We're on it folks, and that shall be the next big update!

Here is a complete list of new features added in today's update:

• Eraser Tool was added
• Pan Tool was added
• Double clicking the mixer's channel label shows / hides the selected device
• Setting the reverb or delay time to zero won't mute the application
• Shortcut keys 1, 2, 3 and 4 switches between the selected tool
• The § -shortcut key shows/hides the selected device
• Plus many other minor fixes

We also added these new preset sounds to AudioSauna's sampler: Bass Guitar Kantele Jazz Drum Kit

Bugs? Where? At least not here. :)

Featuring Audiosauna’s Virtual Analog Synthesis

AudioSauna's Virtual Analog Synthesizer.

Audiosauna’s analog synth is a classic polyphonic subtractive synthesizer with 2 oscillators. The oscillators are capable of producing saw, square, triangle, sine and noise waveforms.

The synth has a very warm and smooth vintage sound and it can also emulate the iconic Roland TB-303 sound quite faithfully. Great source of retro-electro material!

List of features

• Unlimited polyphony!
• 2 Oscillators with envelopes
• Oscillator waveforms: saw, square, triangle, sine and noise
• 2 low-pass filters and 1 high-pass filter
• Amplitude envelope
• Filter envelope
• Filter and pitch LFO with triangle, square and random waveforms
• Frequency modulation Osc2 --> Osc1
• Portamento
• Chorus, distortion and bitrate effect processors

Audiosauna Comes Out of Private Beta!

Audiosauna's Pattern Arrangement View.

We are happy to announce that we have just released the very first public beta version of Audiosauna’s online audio workstation!

Audiosauna is developed by Naïve Solutions, a fresh audio startup company based in Helsinki - Finland. For any inquiries or question you can drop us a mail at audiosauna@audiosauna.com

You can start making funky tunes at: http://www.audiosauna.com/studio - Enjoy!