Like a caterpillar's cocooned catharsis into a butterfly, Image Line has announced that its Edison software has "matured" into a fully featured sample editing and recording tool, and archaeologists have unearthed a sumptuous D.H. Lawrence "B-Side" poem about the software which, unfortunately, did not make it through the final edit of his poetry collection, Birds, Beasts and Flowers.

Actually, aside from its native FL Studio plugin format, Edison is now available as both a VST and standalone version. Unfortunately, it was cut from the "Juice Pack" plugin suite. Maybe it's just not juicy enough anymore, like a peach, or a lewd description of eating one.

Didier Dambrin, who is the Chief Software Architect at Image Line, claims that "Edison will change forever the way you think about editing and recording audio." I knew someone named Didier, once. He used to deliver me bisques. True story.

More topically, Edison can load into the VST effects slot of any mixer track to record or play audio from that position. You can load as many instances of Edison as your host can handle, and you can also run Edison in parallel or chained. In addition to the new formats, new features will also appeal to a variety of users.

There is a new convolution reverb effect that allows Edison to "borrow" impulses from hardware or real space to create an identical reverb. A Blur tool smudges any sound into a rich pad. Image Line also adds an Equalize tool that lets you define your own envelopes, shaped in any way and applied to your waveform. If that isn't enough, stretch time and shift pitch independently or even work with a Loop Tuner that can "loop the unloopable" while getting rid of errant noises.

But wait! If you call now, Image Line will throw in not only two extra tap lights, but your very own tapping wand, tap light fingerprint solution and a bread slicer for uncut loaves*!

Fast Features:

Optimized for sampler content (supporting sampler region(s) & seamless looping)
Drumloop slicing (auto-slicing & slice manipulation)
Quick drag & drop support (between instances or to your sequencer / other plugins)
Variable recording mode (start / stop with host, on audio input, can also work as transparent audio logger)
Time manipulation (time stretching / pitch shifting, scratching)
Effects processing (convolution reverb, blur, linear-phase equalization, etc.)
High-quality resampling for pristine sample rate conversion and pitch shifting
Detailed spectral analysis display mode
Click-free editing
Full undo history
Intuitive editing with key-feature tool-buttons
(Pascal) scripted manipulation of waveforms
Control surface support (FL Studio 8 version)

* Offer only valid until about a minute ago.