Let’s keep this going with a couple of donationware plugins that are a wonderful little present to yourself.

the ((vacuumsound)) plugins.

Over at KvR they’re raving about the ADT – Artificial Double Tracking plugin, and indeed it looks to be potentially fun/useful. I actually haven’t tried it yet. However, the other night I dicking around with some of my new tools/toys, and was floored at the excellent sound of the Poor Plate Reverb.

I ran a drum loop from the Homegrown collection, through this and the ColorEQ, and the results were pure Portishead circa Dummy. I freely admit I don’t know my ass from elbow when it comes to the finer points of reverb. But this little piece of code that was designed to match the plate reverb algorithms of an earlier age, well, it just shines. My go-to room reverb will likely remain smartelectronix Ambience, but I imagine this will be my go-to plate.

These both come in all the essentials flavors, so everyone can play. There is no GUI. No problem for you Mac users, but we Sonar users are hosed in this regard. I can’t speak to other Windows DAWs but the Sonar host plugin GUI is fuggly beyond belief. It really looks like some engineer spent a day or two on it back in 1999.

But that’s neither here nor there. The point is that Poor Plate is a deceptively simple plugin that is fantastic.

Now, this is how it’s done: Create Digital Music » On Demand: CDM Winter 2008, with Gift Guide, Bending and Slicing Tutorials, More.

Rather than just assembling a collection of gear porn, deals and curiosities for his year-end/seasonal/holiday post, the estimable Peter Kirn over at CreateDigitalMusic.com has put together a full-on publication that covers some of his favorite topics.

This is the real deal. Fonts and design and print resolution and real articles. Free pdf and $19.99 for a print-on-demand publication.

So, thanks, Peter. This looks really wonderful. Thanks for another year of a great site.

More new old news for the “How did I miss this?” file.

Independent developer(s) Genuine Soundware/GSi have ported the bulk of their very singular product line over to VST/AU mac format. So now Mac users have another reason to stop bitching about how there are no good bargain plugins. (Does that even make sense?)

To be honest, I never paid much attention to this company when they were known by Soundfonts.it, which always read to me as a soundfont distributor. But I’m thick like that. I’m certain that I must have clicked through to the website once or twice. But I’ve only just downloaded them now, and until I figure out why my Lynx is MIA as far as my OS is concerned, I won’t be trying them presently.

So, take from this what you will. And while some might quibble about the GUI, which I would describe as utilitarian, you got to admire the spirit of these creations.

WatKat is a digital “clone” of a Wem Watkins “Custom” Copicat. It sounds very lo-fi, noisy, irregular. When you turn it off and leave the tape loaded, the tape bends in proximity of the capstan, and this turns into a periodic pitch fall during echo playback; plus, it gets hot and the background hum gets worse in time… you should turn it off every now and then; the tape is never completely erased, and the capstan motor flutters… and it gets worse if you touch it while it’s spinning; heads tend to get dirty very soon, infact you should clean them often. This is true for the actual hardware unit, and for the digital simulation as well!

That’s from the pictured WatKat plugin. It was the one which instantly got my attention, and, bonus!, it’s also free. If I like it I’ll definitely support this endeavor. Very reasonable prices, even with the fluctuations in the market.

I’m nicking this from a post by Analog Industries reader “quantize”.

Springtime for Hitler, indeed.

In other news, my Sonar 8 is on the truck, so maybe I’ll have some time do some posting next week.

As I’m sure will be news to no one who reads this blog, Audio Damage have released a new, free¹ compressor plugin: Rough Rider.

Because I’m in the middle of moving and because I have way too much work, I haven’t had a chance to “strap it on” anything, but when watching the Colbert Report the other day I got an extra chuckle at the joke above.

So big thanks and apologies² to Adam and Chris. This is a nice gift, boys. I’m looking forward to trying Automaton.

Also in my absence, another Digital Lo-Fi fanboy favorite SonicCouture have produced not one, but two new products: the hugely intriguing Bowed Pianos and the menacing looking Temors.

For the same reasons, I haven’t had a chance to explore either of the these products, but I hope to have a full review of one soon(ish). However, I will stand by my claim that they will be indeed top-notch. Get them for your favorite sampler now!

So, lots more news, leaks and product announcements. I’ll try to pick the pace over here.

^{1That’s right, this fucker is free. How awesome is that?3}

^{2That would be for over-stating the joke, intentional or not.}

^{3Most. Most Awesome.}

I was, this morning, pondering the fates of DAWs and my use of them. On one hand, I have a working setup and no desire to upgrade seriously; I’m not getting paid for this and I just want to make some music already. On the other, there may come a point where I want change my mixing or in/out structure, want to take advantage of some new technology, or I’m just sick of whatever bugs are getting in the way of making said music.

More or less my DAW fate will be dictated by what Cakeland¹ decides to with its product line.

If they upgrade Sonar 8 in such a way that it deals with some of the programming deficiencies, without loosing what works, I’ll certainly stick around with it; if they figure out what to do with Project 5, I’ll stick with that.

If they drive Sonar off the cliff, the question becomes what will I use for tracking, editing, and mixing? If they finally admit that they’re not going to anything with Project5, then what?

Live is all the rage and I’m sure and it’s a good VST performance host. But I personally have no conception of recording audio tracks into Live. I mean I know you can do it, but more, will it work for me?

I once again looked at the Reaper screenshots, and, yeah, I just can’t get behind that GUI. I know it’s skinnable and all, but there’s just something about the core aesthetic that I find ungainly. I’m sure if I used it and got used to it it would be fine, and I could strip it down, but why is everything so wide and squat?

So, like a lot of my musings, this is all academic. Cakewalk provides everything I need right now, I’m used to working with it, I’m rededicating myself to taking advantage of shortcuts, templates, fx-chains and using it efficiently. I don’t need/particularly want to drop vast sums money and time into my DAW. The occasional new plugin or soundware. But, I’m really beginning to like the idea of using last year’s tech. There’s just the whole, “if it breaks” thing.

^{1Cakewalk + Roland= get it? Yeah, it’s dumb.}

Every once in a while on a forum or blog some one gets around to asking, “What was the first commercial plugin you bought?” I suppose it’s something like junkies describing their first fix, or remembering your first cigarette or beer: a mixture of nostalgia, reverence, and regret.

If my email archive is to be trusted, aside from Vintage Warmer and M-Tron, my earliest plugin purchase were a couple synths from Muon Software. And, to be frank, I didn’t get much use out of them; I think shortly afterward I got Rhino, impOSCar and Albino in short order and I sort of began to learn synths through them.

I hadn’t thought much about ‘em other than to wonder why they went so quiet. Now they’re better know for developing a few of the ComputerMusic Suite of software instruments, which is probably what persuaded me to buy them. I guess I softa just figured they went a lot of smaller music developers go.

Come to find out, via the noble Rekkerd.org, that are they not only still chugging along, but recently updated there commercial plugins.

I wrote them about updating, since the info they had on me was from an entirely different web era, and they quickly got back to me with new software.

I guess it’s time to take these for another spin.

As I mentioned a while back, long-time plugin developer Voxengo have undertaken an overhaul of their product line. Starting with the somewhat baffling, gorgeous sounding totally free OvertoneGQE, they followed up with the VariSaturator and the Voxengo Crunchessor.

Since I was in the market for a new compressor, I took advantage of a new release special offer (now unfortunately passed) and got in on this last one. If you’re familiar with Voxengo you know that he never stops working on his product, and we’ve already been treated to a couple of bugfixes. You’ll also know, even without a discount they’re well reasonably priced.

So, I’ve had a while to use it and I’m relying more and more on it. I’m not one of these gearslutz who can discern between a Fairchild and Pultec¹ but this thing works great. It can be as transparent or characterful as you’d like. Though I don’t think anyone would have argued that Voxengo haven’t always produced top-o-the-line DSP.

What’s most impressing me about the new Voxengo plugins is how vastly better looking they are. As much as I relied on them in my productions – Voxformer and GlissEQ are particular favorites – they were functional looking at best. Well, while they were overhauling their development platform, someone over there also spent some serious time thinking about the GUI. Not only are they smartly configured to respond to your interaction, and softened with a nice “Web 2.0″ sheen, if you don’t like the color scheme you tweak it to your liking.

So, not as singularly unique and characteristic as the Audio Damage GUIs, or with the gear porn gee-whiz photo-realism of, say, the new offerings of Waves. But nevertheless, a real feather in the cap of one of the best deals in DSP.

^{1Yes, that’s a joke. Though feel free to point out how wrong I got that.}

_{Awesome yearbook photo uploaded by Kristin Smith (her mother), via stock.xchng.}

Here’s something well worth reading: What Have I Learned, in which our author and blog host, a one James Kirsch (nom de guerre: general fuzz), ruminates on what it means to be an independent musician and self-producer, making music for the shear joy and intellectual satisfaction of it, only to release it to the perceived indifference of the Web.

So, not a prescriptive cataloging of EQ and compression tips as the post title might lead you to believe; no “How to build a super saw patch” here. What we get are some thoughtful excogitation for we project studio jockeys, huddled over our screens of Project5, Logic, Live, et al, filling up our hard drives with sound collections and virtual instruments, inflicting the results on girlfriends, family, newsgroup acquaintances. I’m not full agreement with everything Mr. fuzz is offering but the spirit of it is %100 on the money.

The irony of it is with this one post the general negates a lot of what he was writing about. He has generated a whole lot of feedback, made a lot of people who weren’t previously aware of his music, and collected I’d imagine a bunch of new fans, many of whom would gladly buy his music.

I for one am chuffed to have discovered the collected works of general fuzz. Nice downtempo tunes with a breeze of jazz blowing through the spaces, full of hooks and well-considered instrumental embellishments. Perfect for an early morning work session, such as I’m enjoying as I’m writing this. I’ve paid for albums that weren’t half this good. Click on the album cover above to check out his complete discography.

General, I salute you. (Groan…)

Allow me to present for your consideration one of his fine songs, off his latest release, Cool Aberrations:
general fuzz, “reasonable ability”:

I don’t think I’ve done much writing about GForce Software on these threads. Which is odd. GForce Software are, without question, among the elite of commercial independent audio developers – along with fxpansion, SonicCouture, Audio Damage, Ohm Force – that are cool beyond all reasoning.

I know, “cool”… what does that mean, right? A word so overused as to be meaningless, a verbal tick slightly better than people who stammer “you know” every three words. But I feel about these developers the way I felt about certain independent record labels during my formative music years, labels like Homestead, Touch & Go, SST: creative, adventurous, with a lot of attitude and the taste to back it up. In some ways, as a fan, it felt you had a relationship with these companies because they were run by a few individuals who knew their shit. I didn’t always like everything they were putting out, but it was almost always interested and had respect for their choices.

Imperfect and over-thought analogies aside, you get the point.

The first GForce product I procured was the MTron, which I still love, though, let’s face it, has limited use. (Disclosure: I don’t have the 3rd Tape bank, so I’m about 20 sounds short of the full sounds. I’m holding out for the promised MTron Pro.) But I’m fascinated by vintage sounds so this was one of the first VSTs I bought. Then I got impOSCar, which is still my go-to softsynth. Really, I can’t stress enough how much I love that software. The beauty of GForce products is that in addition to sounding great they seemed to be designed by actual musicians. While sometimes it’s fun to tuck into a multi-page synth that makes you feel like you’re trying to solve a rubic’s cube, the amount of milage GForce get out of a single screen on impOSCar is truly impressive. And, yes, it screams like a bastard.

(I just bought Oddity; I haven’t really had a chance to explore it or utilize it.)

So I was very excited when I heard that GForce were producing a sample-based instrument of the great string machines of years past. I was listening to M83 a lot at that point, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, when it finally was released I was skint, so it wasn’t until a few months ago that I finally got around to ordering it.

Not that GForce products are expensive; they’re really cheap compared to a lot of other synth makers, especially considering the quality. I was just really broke and short on work.

And, yep, it’s already been used on a few tracks. I’ve heard some people write it off as a “one trick pony” on boards and a few bone-headed reviews. This couldn’t be more wrong. The depth of sound is perhaps not all-encompassing but it’s certainly not limited. It is very versitile. And with the additional control built into the smartly designed but still classy GUI it can do a hell of a lot more than just lush pads.

Though, if you like lush pads this shit is a no brainer.