Waves Audio, a developer of professional audio technologies and plugins, announces the release of ILLUGEN 2.5, featuring a new collaboration with Steinberg that brings sample creation into Cubase 16’s native production environment. The update also introduces ILLUGEN as a plugin for all DAWs.
ILLUGEN is a sample generation tool that enables music producers to create original samples from simple text prompts. Producers can describe the exact sound their music needs, from custom vocals and melodic elements to textures, one-shot samples and sound effects, and generate new, original audio on demand.
With ILLUGEN 2.5, this creative process becomes part of the DAW workflow itself. Now available as a plugin in all DAWs, ILLUGEN allows producers to generate and audition sounds in sync with their project’s tempo and musical key.
The collaboration with Steinberg introduces a dedicated workflow that connects ILLUGEN directly to the musical context of a Cubase 16 project.
Accessible from Cubase 16’s right project panel, ILLUGEN can automatically follow the session’s attributes, like tempo, musical key and loop length. When linked to the project, ILLUGEN reads the tempo from the timeline, follows the project’s key signature track, and adjusts generated loop lengths to match the project’s locator positions.
As producers make changes to their arrangements, ILLUGEN follows automatically. Once they’ve generated a sound they like, a simple double-click creates a new audio track in Cubase, named after the sample, ready to be used in the production.
Ariel Gorlik, ILLUGEN product manager, Waves Audio, remarks, “One of our goals with ILLUGEN is to give producers the ability to test out new musical ideas quickly while working on a song. With Steinberg, we had the opportunity to take that idea further and make ILLUGEN feel like a natural part of the production environment. The integration with Cubase is about keeping producers in their creative flow, from the moment an idea comes to mind to the moment it’s playing in the track.”
Matthias Quellmann, senior marketing manager, Steinberg, notes, “Cubase has always been about giving musicians the tools to realize their creative ideas. With ILLUGEN, we’re bringing a new kind of sound creation directly into that environment. Its ability to respond to the musical context of a project makes it a natural addition to the Cubase workflow, opening up new creative possibilities without taking producers away from their music.”
The standalone app also remains available, with a shared sound history across the app and plugin, so producers can move freely between both workflows and pick up their ideas wherever they left off.
ILLUGEN also offers two distinct sound-generation engines: Studio, designed for high-fidelity, musically realistic samples and loops, and Creative, which takes a more experimental approach to sound design.
Unlike AI platforms designed to create complete songs automatically, ILLUGEN is built to work alongside the producer, providing original musical elements that can be edited, arranged and developed using familiar production tools.
ILLUGEN 2.5 is available now as a plugin in all DAWs and as a standalone desktop application. All new users to ILLUGEN can receive a free one-month trial. Cubase 16 users can receive an additional two free months of ILLUGEN.
For more information, visit waves.com.
