Atmosphere info from 'What's Hot' from Doctor Audio (Music Software Weekly)
		
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		Atmosphere - Dream Synth Module from Spectrasonics has arrived and it is
		hot!
		
		I was amazed at the depth of this new plug-in instrument from
		Spectrasonics and amazed at the massive number of sounds that it
		contains. I have been looking for cool ambient sounds myself and this
		supplies them in droves! It also has tons great sounds based on classic
		synthesizers, plus bank after bank after bank of extremely usable and
		creatively programmed patches. There are pads, swells, solos, basses,
		sweeps and a myriad of every other type of patch. And there isn't a dog
		in the bunch. Everything I've played so far is crisp and clear and
		musical. It's got unusual sounds too... from Morphing Noises to
		Windtones to Theremins.
		
		Like Stylus, Atmosphere is going to be enormously popular and will
		doubtless be a 'must have' component of the serious composer's tool kit.
		Soon I will pass along some more info of both Atmosphere and Stylus (the
		new Vinyl Groove Module) when I've had a chance to put them through
		their paces myself. However in the meantime here is the scoop on
		Atmosphere direct from Spectrasonics...
		
		The world's most Massive Synth
		
		The Atmosphere Dream Synth Module, is a new type of software plug-in
		instrument that integrates a massive, three gigabyte core library of
		more than one thousand unique sounds and layer elements, with a powerful
		and intuitive interface for shaping new textures. Atmosphere works as a
		native plug-in instrument in all major hosts like Logic, Digital
		Performer, Cubase, Nuendo and Pro-Tools.
		
		Atmosphere was designed from the ground up by acclaimed synthesist Eric
		Persing, well known for his sound design of classic Roland synthesizers
		and award-winning sample libraries.
		
		Persing and his International team of sound designers developed the
		Atmosphere core library using over a hundred sound design devices and
		nearly every conceivable synthesis method including Granular, Additive,
		Wavetable, Wavescanning, Graintable, Neural Processing, Vintage Analog,
		Vector, Virtual Analog, FM, Plug-In manipulations, and unusual Acoustic
		sources as well. This custom core library gives Atmosphere its
		unprecedented variety of tonal textures, especially when compared to
		standard soft-synths.
		
		The range of sounds this instrument is capable of is astonishing, from
		lush ethereal pads, to powerful leads, crystalline glass swells to dark
		brooding atonal clouds, unusual synth basses, evocative ambiences, deep
		drones, complex textures, vintage analog sounds, disturbing noise FX,
		europhasers, gorgeous ambient string ensembles, thick trance/techno
		sounds, wavetable sweeps, vocoded choirs, dense vocal washes,
		transparent evolutions, and shimmering prisms of harmonic convergence.
		Sounds this rich put even the best hardware synths to shame!
		
		The stellar Sound Quality is this instrument's number one feature. The
		scope of sounds it can produce is very broad, making it extremely
		versatile in a wide variety of musical situations. This is made possible
		because there has never been a programmable synth released with such a
		massive, high resolution core wavetable to work withÉcompletely
		dedicated to sound design elements (no stock pianos or oboes!)
		
		Eric explains the recent enhancements to the instrument since the
		introduction of the Atmosphere concept in January: "Our original design
		for Atmosphere was intended for producing evolving pads and rich ambient
		sounds. However, in the evolution of the development of Atmosphere, we
		have significantly expanded the range of the core library's sonic
		palette and added new functions and capabilities to the interface, which
		now allow for a vast array of synth sounds and sound design, including
		unique leads and percussive sounds as well. We are very pleased to be
		releasing Atmosphere as a much more powerful synthesizer, capable of
		many inspiring and fresh sounds across the complete range of electronic
		music. It's also gratifying that we've been able to include these new
		capabilities without making the interface more difficult to use. No
		matter how our instruments will be evolving over time, the cornerstone
		of our design philosophy will always be to make 'powerfully simple'
		instruments, that every user can get great results with."
		
		The core library of a thousand powerful sounds is just the starting
		point for your own creations. The beauty of Atmosphere is in its
		"dual-layer" concept. You can immediately mix and match the layers of
		any of the 1,000 patches, and tweak each layer fully independently.
		That's over a million possible combinations! Each layer has its own
		multimode resonant filters, four LFOs, three envelopes and matrix
		modulation. There is also an additional master filter for quick tone
		shaping. The possibilities for creative manipulation are phenomenal...
		and yet it is so easy to use.
		
		Atmosphere is an amazing sounding instrument, designed to inspire and
		surprise for many years.
		
		* 3.7 gig core library offers vast array of textures to explore 
		* 1,000 patches by award-winning sound designer Eric Persing 
		* All NEW Sounds 
		* Powerful interface and synthesis capabilities 
		* Dynamic layering of sounds for over 1,000,000 mix combinations 
		* Easy to use... Built-in patch management system 
		* Fully programmable 
		* Total recall with your sequence 
		* Multimode resonant Filters for each layer, plus Master Filters 
		* Three envelopes per layer for Pitch, Filter and Amplitude 
		* Matrix-style modulation routing, four LFOs 
		* Powered by custom 32 bit UVI engine 
		* Cross platform plug-in compatibility 
		
		Directly compatible with Logic, Cubase, Digital Performer, Pro Tools,
		Nuendo, Musys, Fruity Loops, Orion Pro and other VST hosts *also works
		in Sonar with a VST wrapper
		                                   
		For more info on Atmosphere visit http://www.spectrasonics.net. For demos go
		to http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments/stylus/demos.html and
		http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments/atmosphere/demos.html
		
		Atmosphere is distributed in the US by http://www.Ilio.com. Contact us
		at Doctor Audio if you want one. We just got a pile of them in.
		
		'What's Hot' from Doctor Audio is presented by Doc Dosco, Professional
		Audio Consultant from Los Angeles, California. The Doctor Audio website
		is a dealer for most Mac and PC Midi/audio products, and is located at
		http://www.doctoraudio.com