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 I 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.

Further my post concerning BeatBurner, I got around to installing it onto my DAW. Figured if I was gonna run my mouth off…

Though I downloaded the full package, I haven’t yet installed the included beats. While BeatBurner only processes 16bit wavs - we’re digital lofi so we don’t let that stop us, do we? - I have plenty of fodder for this thing. More than a few folders full of my early ACID loop collections, various freeware loops, stuff culled off Brit music mag cover disks - a bunch of crap to be sure, but some that have stood me well over the years - mostly shopworn breakbeats, but some other oddball stuff I’ve picked up. I thought I’d run them through it, let me evaluate the ‘burners potential on material I am well familiar with.

And it is indeed very cool. So, yes, not a beat-slicer. More like a very musical audio modulating filter synth wave-shaper thing. Every loop I loaded up sounded great and made me want to squirrel it away for later use. With just a bit of fiddling you can coax some unique sounds out of it, depending on what you’re feeding it. It’s a one trick pony, more or less, but it’s a great trick that sounds fantastic once you know what you’re doing, more or less.

It seems petty to fault the program’s shortcomings since it’s a few years old and, you know, free. They are what they are - off the top of my head I can think of 4 things I wish it did or did better - but since we’re all more or less in agreement that what sounds good is good no matter what goddamn bit-rate it was recorded at, it is a nice tool for getting some new use out of old sounds, and has a lot of inspiration potential. Tip: Disengage the sync on the delay and lfo for instant dub fun.

So I’m definitely going to kick into the coffer once the next paycheck comes in.

EDIT: Okay, so I’ve spent some more time with it, and not so right with the “one trick pony” thing. It actually has quite a few tricks up its sleeve. It would be great if it did 24bit samples, just for the breadth of shit you could throw at it. So, it’s not Kontakt. But it’s way more capable and interesting than a lot of commercial synths.

Chris @ AI is running an interesting open thread inviting readers to dream up their own plugins/software.

Being the software geek I am, this is something I’ve thought about before. So, to further refine my initial idea:

A 12×12¹ MPC-style grid. The cells can be triggered individually or in groups, and rows and columns can be triggered horizontally, vertically or, why not?, diagonally. Grouping could be done by color. Each cell can contain either a MIDI or an audio clip (REX, wav, aiff), play either looped or as a one-shot, forward and reverse. Drag ‘n’ drop between cells. MIDI cells can contain note and/or control data. Each cell, group, row and column can be mapped to a MIDI trigger.

Integrated Piano roll MIDI editing and a beat slicer.

Now here’s the thing: the MIDI can be routed completely internally. So the MIDI in one cell can modulate various parameters on any number of other cells: the MIDI-steps in one cell routed to the CC# of another cell, or the velocity of another, or to the clock-division of the whole engine. If you can think of it, it can be wired up in the matrix. Throw in a hosting engine, so you can put in put in your synths and effects, or build chains, and the steps of the MIDI cells can be routed to the exposed plugin parameters of the plugin. Or MIDI VSTs can be hosted and send/receive data through the matrix.

Oh yeah, you can record directly from one cell to another, or from one output routed back into an empty cell. No multi-channel audio recording, but a single stereo in would be useful. 16 configurable outs, though. Right? So, a real sampler.

The whole thing can run stand-alone or as a plugin - or ReWire or Jack I suppose - and it outputs multi-out audio *and* multi-out MIDI. So you could build a complete sequence/song in the software, wire it up to your host, and record the complete ball of wax. Or perhaps there could be a “track” sequencer, that in a record mode records the sequencing of the channels and cells.

Obviously, this is hugely based on the GrooveMatrix of Project5. It may be glaringly similar to Live; I wouldn’t really know. There’s a bit of Tenori in there, too. And some energyXT as well. Basically, I’ve just cobbled together all the bits I like about other software/plugins and put it into one package. But in my software there is minimal bloat.

^{1Originally I thought 32×32 but doing the wireframe I realized this is way too much information for a GUI so I whittled it down.}

EDIT: Due should also go to cakewalk form member “b rock” Tom Brockway for doing the heavy lifting on this one. The whole MIDI-routing thing was something he was talking about in one of those old threads wish-list thread I can’t be bothered to dig up.

Okay, as long as Antares still produces hardware units that can keep aging popstars in tune during the national anthem or the American Idol Tour on something resembling pitch night after night, Autotune isn’t likely to go anywhere. Besides, the name Autotune as entered the vernacular, like ProTools or Q-Tips, where people use a brand name as shorthand for the task performed rather than a specific product.

But in terms of the software used for pitch correction, Autotune is about to be totally pwned.

I’ve been using Melodyne since it’s first version (in its cre8 iteration), when it still didn’t integrate into other software but at all (lots of exporting and importing) and have kept up with the updates as the software has progressed, despite the fact that I don’t actually use it that much. (Not because I sing that well, just that most of the music I’ve been working at present on is sans vocals.) I didn’t buy the plugin version but I did get their “Medolyne Bridge” working, more or less (tempo changes tend to throw it for a loop).

I avoided Autotune mostly because of its PACE copy-protection, and because once I tried the demo of Melodyne, the Autotune plugin felt cramped and fiddly. And I couldn’t get nearly the same quality of results. I just grokked with Melodyne. Even if you’re not using it to tame woolly vocals, it’s great for mashing up samples and loops, or taking uninteresting spoken vocal samples and making them melodic.

And now Celemony has announced the next generation of Medolyne with something their calling DNA: Direct Note Access. Which means you can take polyphonic material, say a guitar or piano chord, and split it up into its constituent notes and tune those individual notes. Here, watch the video. If it works 3/4 as well as that video we’ve moved into a whole ‘nother level of musical deconstruction.

Before you get too excited, keep in mind it’s scheduled for fall of this year, so it’s actual appearance is a ways down the line. The first of the Celemony Melodyne line to get it will be the plugin, and if you register between now and when this is released the update is free. The plugin is on sale at various online shops and at Mega-Lo Guitar Mart so now is a good time get in on this. They also offer many upgrade paths for all their products so visit their web shop and see what you qualify for.

I guess it’s time for me to buy the Melodyne Plugin.

Well, after a few posts of looking at and celebrating cross-platform plugins, I’m going to whip the wheel back and bring up a Windows-only environment that I think has some pretty brilliant moments, thanks to a few individuals.

I speak of course of SynthEdit, the loved/hated/bashed/celebrated plugin development environment. It’s hard not to get into the pro/con argument even though it’s really fuckin’ tiresome. It’s easy enough to bash considering some of the crap it’s spawned - a vast field of gewgaws that is distracting to the uninitiated, many of which are barely indistinguishable, as well as the occasional dodgy developer who uses it for some sort of VST Three-card Monte. The latest round of bluster has to with the well-documented and over-discussed multi-core bug (multiple instances of the same plug will take down its host). And I suppose it could shoulder some blame for the user who thinks that DSP development is as easy opening an object-oriented software program. But every time I’m fully over it I am reminded of some of the brilliant things some people can do with it. Because so much of the environment is open to raw DSP coding, in the right hands, even imperfect as it may be, it can be truly inspiring.

First up, developer Ugo has released a few new goodies that promise to be as good to look at as they are fun to play - I say without having actually played any of them. No demos, you ask? I don’t download demos any more unless it’s something I might be able to afford. So when I’m skint why torture myself, or why try something just because? If it endures and it’s something I might use when I have the funds then I’ll download the demo… But I digress. I’m not sure which of these I’ll eventually buy because they all look so unique and interesting. M-Theory, the 2nd coming of his popular String Theory synth, promises to be gorgeous and useful. But the loop mangler Disturbance is really unlike anything I’ve seen produced with SynthEdit, and looks like it would fuck shit up but good. And the beefed up Ironhead looks tempting, better sound, more control. Additionally, we Metallurgy users got a nice update on that as well, though to be honest I haven’t really used my Metallurgy all that much. (Note to self…)

Also on my radar is KvR favorite xoxos who has a great imagination when it comes to synth design. His new CIRCUIT plugin, “probability based MIDI sequencer that joins short phrases together to create natural feeling rhythms” looks especially clever. I love tools that generate MIDI data you can throw at tracks to, create sounds you wouldn’t otherwise come up with bashing on the keys and tweaking the filter. This looks to be a very nice addition to energyXT.

And I would be remiss when talking about commercial SynthEdit creations not to mention ChordSpacePlaya. Have I written about it before? Who knows. Nevertheless, it’s a brilliant piece of programming. I use it mostly as to develop melodic ideas. And for strings and pads it’s dead useful. And it’s author, or at least his/her public KvR persona, is one entertaining mofo. I don’t use it often but when I do it always helps me come up with things I’m too feeble to do on my own.

What have I missed?

I’ll finish up my series of posts celebrating cross-platform plugins with an elder statesman of the cross-platform plugin world, SonicCharge’s absolutely awesome µTonic (or microTonic).

I bought this back shortly after it was released, or at least when it was reviewed and demo’d in Computer Music. I made the decision like 15 minutes after installing the demo. It is really that fabulous. It is both simple - the presets are by and large brilliant - and really, really deep. To this day I’m constantly surprised by the sonic interest it adds to my music and the sounds I can get out of it - and I use it a lot.

I’m bringing this up for few reasons:

• It fits in perfectly with my cross-OS celebration, natch.
• A few months ago SonicCharge updated all the code for today’s top-o-the-line Macs (and a built a new Vista installer, though the program itself worked fine).
• In conjunction with said update they also released a new folder full of patches.
• To give away a little freebie pack of patches for use with µTonic.
• To make you suffer through a lot of back story.

All of this after the jump.
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