Martin Eastwood Audio

I'm suprised that this one hasn't garnered a review yet, so here goes.

I'm no real expert on reverbs - I've tried most of the free/cheap ones and I'm familiar with their limitations; mainly that they tend to sound grainy or metallic. Even the expensive ones aren't really getting close to a realistic number of reflections. What piqued my interest in this one is that it's based on Dattorro's figure-of-eight reverb structure - search for the theory online if you're interested. Basically, it's different from the normal comb filtering and allpass filter approach. So you expect it to sound a little different from all the me-too cheap algo reverbs. And it does! Very different! Very nice, in fact. It's much smoother than you have any right to expect for the amazing price of NO dollars. Not only that, but it's also open source. Yup, Mr Eastwood is generous enough to open up the code for all to see.

The controls are simple - all the controls have meaningful labels which do what you expect. And the CPU overhead is surprisingly low.

If I had to gripe, I'd mention a couple of things. All the controls are calibrated 0-100. I'd like to see some kind of units on the controls where that makes sense eg the predelay calibrated in milliseconds. And a bit of documentation would be nice. But it's really the sound that counts. If you're a reverb junkie, or you just need a simple, great sounding verb, you've just found it. Big thanks to the author for this great plugin.

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I decided to try Duet based on Compressive previously released by Martin Eastwood Audio and was not disappointed.

Duet is double/tracking harmonizer effect similar to the legendary Eventide Harmonizer used by Bowie and Led Zeppelin among others. It take a stereo input and creates additional voices that can then be subtly pitch-shifted, delayed and panned to make it sound like you have more than one singer, guitarist etc

I have used Duet extensively now on electric guitars and it gives you that ‘wall of sound’ effect in seconds and adds a wonderful pro-sounding gloss to the audio. It can also add a delicate sheen to acoustic guitars as well.

I have also been using it on vocals and it works wonders for improving the sound quality. I am a very average singer and this makes my life much easier as the additional voices really help mask any weak areas. Provided I am close to the correct note then at least some of the harmonies produced by Duet are likely to be in tune :)

The manual that came with the plugin is reasonably short and there are not too many presets. But this is not a problem as the plugin is so quick and simple to use and the presets cover most areas – guitars, vocals, synths etc.

The GUI is very clear and nice to work with as it has been designed by Designer Monkey (Rick Christy) who has been involved with lots of great plugins.

I have used Duet for a few weeks now and have not had a single crash yet so stability seems to be good. I have been in contact with Martin Eastwood a couple of times regarding Compressive and as with many independent developers the support has been quick and reliable.

Duet easily compares with any of the software competition available and is a fraction of the price of Waves Doubler so it is definately good value for money so give the demo a try.Read Review