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Blockfish
by digitalfishphones
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KVR Rank: 309 186 303 [30-Day: 306; 7-Day: 359; Yesterday: 411]
39 members are watching Blockfish for news
Product Blockfish
Developer digitalfishphones
Primary Type Dynamics (Compressor / Limiter)
Price (MSRP) Free
Plug-in Formats
Effect(s)VSTAudio Unit
Operating System Availability
Operating
System
Latest
Version
Download Is it
Available?
Windows 1.1 Free DownloadReleased
Mac OS X 1.0/1.1 Free DownloadReleased
Miscellaneous Information
Copy Protection None
Average User Rating Average rating - 9.625
Compatibility Unknown
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Blockfish
Blockfish is a versatile compressor with countless ways to shape the incoming audio.
Unlike many other digital compressors, Blockfish has 'soul'. It likes to bite, but it can be tamed easily once you've learned how to use its potential.

You can remove the front plate and make further adjustments on the circuit board.
Everything is possible: clean, transparent, loud, punchy, silky, subtle, fat. But still with a unique sonic character.

User Reviews by KVR Members for Blockfish.

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By kritikon
On 27th January 2004
Version: 1.1

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kritikon


8 of 8 people found
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  GUI
Sound
Features
Docs
Presets
Support
VFM
Stability
It's definitely a character compressor - it adds flavour to your channel. It can be made to be fairly clinical, but it's not crystal clear, nor is it meant to be.

Features - very simple on the front panel - two huge knobs for compression and speed - it really couldn't be any easier than that. You don't have to know what threshold attacks and releases etc do - if you want that level of control then use a different comp, basically. You simply twiddle those 2 knobs until your sound is what you want. There's a stereo button (works in mono if not lit), locut and air (go on...have a guess what they do!), VCA or opto (VCA being a little more severe than opto, and quicker), a "complex" button (more of which later) and a switch to get to the inside panel for more detailed controls.

Documentation - separate d/ls that are an excellent read - well recommended.

Presets - covers all the main bases - guitars, basses, vocals, drums etc - all good presets well programmed to work with the instruments.

Stability - rock solid.

VFM - free. And still competes with expensive commercial comps.

Sound. A character comp - not crystal clear (although can be made to be pretty subtle). It's one that you'd use if you like to impart a distinct flavour to your compressed channel - much closer to analogue comps than most VST dynamics FX out there. With the speed on quickest and on VCA it doesn't let any transients through at all - obviously not how you'd always set up a comp, but good to know it will tame those difficult signals - and with high compression and quick speed, you'll hear more obviously the character of the comp - warm and ever-so-slightly grainy.
The real bonuses are the locut and air buttons - with heavy compression you might get too much bass - locut chops it out nicely, and air adds a great sparkle to those lost high frequencies (which if you didn't know - good h/w comps often lose highs - so it's not a fault - it's the nature of compression) Air is great for bringing accoustic guitars back to life after compression, and using both locut and air definitely helps with drumtracks - it means you can compress more heavily than you naturally might without ruining the nature of the channel.
Inside the panel is the real detail - you can alter the frequencies of the locut and air filters, and many details of the compressor itself to quite drastically alter the nature of the compression - or you can just subtly tweak it to get into some fine perfectionist detail. Often you won't need it, but it makes it very well-spec'ed.

"Complex" - changes it into a dual compressor linked in series. Useful if you want to use it more for groups or even as a master comp - a more subtle compression for each module that lets you compress more heavily with less audible pumping you'd get with just one compressor at the same compression level.

Not a do-everything comp - great for most situations though, full of character and alot more flexible than it first looks.
 
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Products by digitalfishphones

Product: Blockfish
Developer: digitalfishphones
Type: Dynamics (Compressor / Limiter)
Price: Free
OS: WindowsMac OS X
Formats: VSTAudio Unit
Blockfish is a versatile compressor with countless ways to shape the incoming audio.Unlike many other digital compressors, Blockfish has 'soul'. It likes to bite, but it can be tamed easily once you've learned how to use its potential. You can remove the front plate and make further adjustments on the circuit board.Everything is possible: clean, transparent, loud, punchy, silky, subtle, fat. But still with a unique sonic character.... [more]

 
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If you were searching for a tool to shape the envelope of a signal, giving you total control of the signal's attack & sustain phase, dominion is certainly something for you!Features: Envelope section. Adjust attack & sustain independently, regardless of input level. Plus, you have control over the envelopes' time constants. Imagine pulling a drummer up front or pushing him to the background by dragging just a single slider! Feel like moving the walls around him? Again, a single push enhances the room information or can make the sound really dry. Saturation stage. Following di... [more]

 
Product: Endorphin
Developer: digitalfishphones
Type: Dynamics (Compressor / Limiter)
Price: Free
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Features: Two independent frequency bands (low and high frequency processing). Switchable stereo or M/S mode operation. Two basic compressor designs: Modern VCA mode with soft-knee characteristics and manual time constants. This mode provides an instant response behaviour and deep compression, using a feed-forward circuit. Vintage-style opto (photo resistor) mode, modeled after ancient opto-electrical compressors. The time constants stay manually set, but they are also affected by the signal's energy. This mode has the ty... [more]

 
Product: Floorfish
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Floorfish is a simple expander / gate device, easy to set up and offers a broad variety of processing, ranging from slight expansion, background noise attenuation to extreme gating effects. What's different from similar units is the ability to scan the source and adjust the transition curve accordingly.... [more]

 
Product: Normalizer
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Ever heard of the denormalisation problem? Upgraded to a P4 processor and got problems with load spikes like never before? Does a certain plugin consume all available CPU power whenever there's NO signal coming in (or out)? Denormalisation is an issue with some audio hosts that don't switch off the plugin's audio task when the song is stopped or a track contains silence (or with instruments: no key is pressed while a sound decays). The problem happens when the CPU (precisely: the floating point unit (FPU) inside of it) detects extremely small num... [more]

 
Product: Spitfish
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OS: WindowsMac OS X
Formats: VSTAudio Unit
Spitfish is a dead-easy to use de-esser, aimed mainly at mono or stereo vocal tracks. Just like classic analog de-essers, this unit dynamically filters out harsh, annoying s-like sounds that would otherwise 'spit' in your face.... [more]

 
Product: THD
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This is no typical high-gain distortion device, nor a 'decimator' or bit crusher but it is some sort of saturator. It is intended for a mixer's insert path to act as a preamp stage. It smoothes out the transients, gives more overall gain and warms a bit.On good days, it behaves similar to a tube input stage, adds some gentle warmth to the input signal, brings up the overall level and just sounds as if it's consisting of analog circuits. On bad days it creates muddiness, sounds confusing, crappy and digital as hell.Features: Soft Saturation Simulator. Gain, Punch, Clip shape &... [more]

 
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