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.

Here’s a cool one for the Gift Guide that has nothing to with holidays, or specials or Q4 sales incentives. **** DDMF-The home of Equalizers-DDMF ****.

Try as I like, I’m not an EQ geek by any means. I respect the hell out of those that really understand this shit on a deep level but not only are the nuances lost on me but so is a lot of the science. I’m kinda a masher when it comes to EQs. I don’t use presets, but I just shape and sweep until it sounds like I want it to.

Nevertheless, I tend to follow these discussions like a good trainspotter. And I pick up little bits here and there. And fortunately there are developers and engineers out there that *do* get this, and who make this stuff available to punters such as myself.

In recent months a lot of discussion has been going on here and also at gearslutz about how all IIR equalizers are basically the same. While the topic is still not completely settled, it is clear that the differences are at most rather subtle and that the basic ingredient of basically all IIR equalizers is a variant of the good old RBJ cookbook formula.
This was the reason I’ve assembled ColourEQ: it is a 4th order IIR equalizer and follows a completely different approach to generate its frequency response. Nevertheless it is zero-delay and almost-zero-CPU. Due to it’s higher order there are more degrees of freedom to play with, which is why it is (to my knowledge) the first “super-parametric” EQ: basically there are four knobs per band instead of three!

What really makes this project a thing of wonder is that the developer has adopted a Pay-What-You-Will policy that is a total gift to we users. Sliding scale is something that more software companies should factor into their pricing plans.

A lot of minds and ears way better than myself are gushing over this new addition to the DDMF line. I bought it and tried it sight unseen and it’s a great EQ.

The long and short of it
My Lynx L22 audio driver is not agreeing with my OS, in my case Windows XP Pro SP3. The last software I installed before my recent woes uses PACE copy protection.¹

My supposition and arugement
PACE copy protection software has somehow altered the fundamental workings of my operating system in such a way that is incompatible with my Lynx audio driver’s control software. I can’t say with 100% certainty that PACE specifically hosed my system; but I will say with 90% certainty, if not more, that it was this notorious copy protection that took me down.

The history
First, let’s step into the Wayback Machine: 2002, music tech writer Rip Rowan documents PACE kernel driver taking down his system. (This page was also written about the same time.) Obviously, ancient history in computer audio terms. I mention it here because this was written shortly after I had undertaken my journey into computer-based home production. Along with other DRM concerns happening at more or less the same time, it helped shape my software investing habits.

More recently, Adam Schabtach (1/2 of Audio Damage) took to his blog and chronicled his grief-by-PACE and vowed to boycott their products. That he is a professional in the audio software field gave the post a little more traction and punch than these things get. After being picked up by CDM it really began to take on the first whiffs of smoke.

(While looking to cure my problems, I also came across this. So computer audio musos aren’t the only ones who are occasionally taken down. Gamers are also another group you’ll frequently see dealing with PACE copy protection gone awry.)

PACE and Me
Sometime last week I was across town on Big Box Store Road, checking out the new Trader Joe’s. (Yes, I like it. Though no booze. Damn New England blue laws!) And so I stopped by the local MegaLo Guitar Mart and wandered around. (Yes I am a gear slut, even if I’m just flirting.) In the “Pro Audio” section in the “bargain”/used cabinet I was lured by fancy M-Audio packaging and what looked to be a good deal.² And honestly, I did look to see if there was an a dongle requirement, or if it said anything copy protection; there wasn’t and it didn’t.

Also, a note on software packaging: boxes are fucking stupid.³

Anyway, during the install, after agreeing to the licensing and choosing my folders and it installing the dll and supporting files, up pops a PACE-branded window asking me if I want to register an iLok or via digital signing. Sure, kudos to the developer for the options, and he/they maintain the PACE digital registration is not a kernel-level driver. I am only reporting on my own experiences; draw your own conclusions.

In for a penny, in for a pound, I finished the install, and opened it up in Sonar in demo mode; I even generated my key to send for activation. But in a fit of indecision, I uninstalled the plugin while I deciding if this was a copy protection I wanted to invite myself in on, considering it’s history of randomly singling users out to f**k with. I was paying particular attention the PACE directories in the C:/Documents and Settings/. I figured an uninstall/reinstall will tell you a good amount about how any software reacts to your system in the long run. Unfortunately, I didn’t test how said uninstall would play out. In the same way I took a chance on the install, I took a chance that it would uninstall.

Friday night my friend/band Mark came over and we were plugging him in and I went to launch the Lynx L22 mixer, which is a direct access of driver, from the system tray. Sure enough XP decides to reboot. No BSoD, no error logs. Just straight to the BIOS resetting itself.

When it comes back on, Windows can’t find the device driver. Even after re-installing the latest driver package from Lynx, nothing. The L22 driver will not register, even manually, and the device sets to unknown in the system devices.

My guess, some other software I have uses some iteration of PACE driver digital signing, and the version this installer uses triggered or caused an instability or conflict, the direct result of which was causing my audio driver to become unstable. Something is happening at the core level of my OS that has caused or revealed a vulnerability with my audio driver.

I’ve tried all the usual recipes for bailing myself out of this. I’m relatively resourceful when it comes to operating Windows. I even managed, after a bit of mucking about, to use system restore to an earlier point, before I installed. Nope. For a brief second Windows remembered the Lynx, all it took was for me to launch the Lynx mixer to re-boot the system. Now it’s gone again.

I don’t need this headache.

Frankly, with the wealth of software out there, and the amount of time I’ve put into tweaking and fixing and upgrading my DAW, a piece of software better tickle my balls and freshen my coffee before I’m willing to put up with the aggravation of it fundamentally altering my system. And with all due respect to the coders, certainly not a VA VSTi. There are enough developers around that make quality software, at a reasonable price, or at least with a native copy-protection scheme, that I can make a stance that is both principled and practical.

I’m inclined to think is the last straw. Whether it was actively this PACE installer, or some other software, or even some other system driver falling over, I pretty done paying to be a beta tester. Now more than ever, I’m interested paring the system down to only what has historically worked, by and large, for me. What is the essential free/payware that I use on from session to session. Not the software I think would be cool to use; not the software everyone else thinks is essential. I will invest only in those products I know to be viable, support projects I think are worthy. I want my machine to be 128 track computer workstation. Sure it will crash, but at least I can limit the variables to a smaller pool.

Anyway, just adding my voice to the public record of what PACE iLok drivers can potentially do to your system. Like I said, draw your own conclusions.

–

^{1For the one or two people who might happen upon this that might not already know about it, PACE is a company that makes and licenses software copy protection. They make several different flavors of poison but they’re most known for their iLok USB dongle. They also have a pure software version that works by digital marking your machine and keeping track of said digital mark. Historically, the digital signing is invasive and clandestine.}

An argument sometimes made in favor of PACE/iLok by users is that it somehow protects the user, making it simpler to recover from crashes, as if this somehow makes it more viable in the long run than other C/R systems. But as a whole PACE faults can be triggered by software/hardware changes you could make on your machine tonight, let alone 2 years from now. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that one of the biggest failings of any DRM system is that they are invariably *not* future proof. For them to be effective they have to continually be updated to maintain effectiveness. Dongles do not ensure against obsolescence, they insure that you don’t “loan” your copy out to your “friends.” As in, insurance for the company.

Companies need to keep track of how many users are out there – I will support those companies that to it with the least possible hoop-jumping and margin for error for me. While I find DRM to be a digital folly, I fully see the need for online registrations and activations. And, honestly, we’re not talking about Verizon or GE here – these are small companies with a comparatively small profit margins that count on the revenue from their products. They do not have huge corporate accounts like say, Adobe or Avid/Digi, to offset the rampant piracy of their software. Having some sort of digital signing or registration in place cuts down enormously on casual piracy – friends passing around software – installing, say, iZotope software on a buddy’s laptop. Unless you go primarily open source there is little way around it, esp. if you want to use a certain level of product.

But let’s not kid ourselves, there’s a lot of variables for error on a digital system, and shit happens. With any software, at some point you may just be SOL. This is why we’re all licensing software not buying it, right? Those EULAs we all merrily click through aren’t about protecting us, no?

^{2Out of respect for the producers of this software, because he/they genuinely seem like decent individuals who are interested in supporting their product, I’m not going to call it out the name. Obviously, distributed by M-Audio, a VA that’s not produced by GForce/GMedia. It seems like a fairly clever software, but, alas I will never really know. Also, it turned out to be not much of a bargain and more the standard going rate for it. So, impulse buy.}

^{3This box contain a pamphlet “user’s guide” with a serial number sticker on it, and the CD tucked against the side. It would have fit easily in a envelope. Companies should just make one display box for a store, and then cut out all that stupid packaging.}

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.}

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.

I know it may seem redundant to purchase an application that more or less replicates a lot of built-in functionality for a program, but if you’re a user of Cakewalk’s Sonar or, especially, Project 5, you will probably be well served by Agitated State’s forthcoming MenuMagic v1.0.

MenuMagic extends your control over plugin organization in both of Cakewalk’s flagship sequencers in just about any way you might care to have them extended, from global renaming to cross-application synchronization to intelligent categorization and beyond.

This has been in development for quite a while – I think it was first announced shortly before Sonar 6, and to be honest with you, not only had I forgotten about it, once Sonar got the plugin manager I thought it would probably go away.

Fortunately, it did not. The built-in Sonar plugin manager is quite handy, but even it has its limitations. This appears to address most, if not all, of those.

What really sold me on this is that it takes care of a major oversight in the Project 5 v2.5 update. Hey, swell, we got the plugin manager, but for some odd reason there is no plugin organization in the program itself. Being that the primary focus of Project 5 was as a softsynth studio this is a rather bizarre omission. And since that update was, what, a year ago? one wonders if once again Cakewalk doesn’t really have any idea what to do with the program and that sooner or later, when they milk the last few dollars from it, they’ll retire it for good. Which leaves one wrestling with absurdly messy plugin management.

Anyway, MenuMagic will now take care of this, one of my two biggest gripes about the program (non-configurable hardware outs being the other; seriously, if I’m not using outs I should be able to not have them cluttering up my workspace). So even if/when Cakewalk lets Project 5 wither on the vine I’ll be able to squeeze a few more years of life out of it.

And now is the time to act. Agitated State is extending the pre-release price of $24.99. Which is about the perfect price for such software.

Sweetwater’s patented Superficial Appearance Demarcation (SAD) technology…

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.