These are the new features in Waves’ ILLUGEN 2.0 update

A 2.0 update for Waves’ ILLUGEN sample creation tool has arrived, introducing a new sound engine with improved prompt accuracy.

ILLUGEN was launched in May last year, and is an AI-powered text-to-sound engine that can work from specific or even weird prompts. At its release, Waves stated that the model was trained “exclusively on documented, legally owned material”, and that “ethical AI development is a top priority” for the brand.

The biggest new feature as part of the 2.0 upgrade is a new Studio Engine. This new sound-generation engine joins the original Creative Engine, but is trained to deliver “exceptionally high-fidelity and musically realistic production-ready loops and samples for professional music creation”.

Its dual-engine design lets producers choose between polished studio-grade output and raw sound design material within the same workflow. And, in response to user feedback, ILLUGEN also now offers a lock to key feature, a loop length control, and a stereo control, so you can control the stereo width, from tight mono to wide stereo.

Check out more in the video below:

A couple of months following its launch, Adam Crute reviewed ILLUGEN for MusicTech. Its pros included being able to use natural language to create sounds rather than hunting through sample libraries, and that the sounds you produce remain yours to keep, irrespective of subscription status.

However, results were reliant on the AI’s understanding of a phrase, meaning credits could be wasted on results that didn’t quite work. With the new 2.0 features, this should now be improved.

At the time, Adam wrote: “Illugen’s results don’t always hit the mark, but, in theory, should improve over time, both in understanding your specific phrases and a general understanding of what people mean by certain words and terms.

“Key to this is the ability to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down reaction to the three results it presents and, in so doing, help Illugen learn what you like and what may be meant by the words you’ve entered.”

If you’re not already a subscriber, you can try out ILLUGEN 2.0 online for free. Find out more over at Waves.

Rachel is a DIY musician who began learning guitar and keyboard from her bedroom at 14. She has written news and features for MusicTech since 2022, and also has bylines across Kerrang!, Guitar.com, and The Forty-Five. Though a lover of heavy music, her guilty pleasure is 2000s pop.