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All Reviews by Rathead


By Rathead
On 22nd September 2009
Version: 0.98

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Togu Audio Line TAL-Reverb

TAL Reverb is exactly what you would hope for. A very smooth stereo plate type reverb. Not designed to simulate realistic environments or any piece of existing hardware, it is a plate plain and simple. But, damn, if a plate is what you need, this is sure a good one!

I have many freeware reverbs (who hasn't tried lots of them ?) and a dozen or so commercial reverbs and I have to say this is about my favourite plate. The presets are basic but sufficient, the UI is crap-free, it doesn't have any bells and whistles, it just sounds great.
No docs that I am aware of but what's to know?
Value is undisputable (ie. free)and it is versatile - works great on drums, percussion and guitar and has onboard filtering.
Never crashed on my system and TAL have a good name for quality products so entirely trustworthy I would say.

If you need a plate, try this.

If you don't think you need a plate try it anyway. If you need to put space around guitars or percussion, there is nothing like a tiny touch of low CPU plate, suitably filtered, and I have yet to find a better tool for that job than TAL Reverb. Love it.
 
    

By Rathead
On 27th March 2009
Version: 1.00

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QuikQuak Crowd Chamber

Crowd Chamber from QuikQuak is a unique and powerful plugin.

It offers the ablity to easily create complex soundfields based on simple audio inputs such as speech, vocals or single instruments.
It is perhaps best thought of as a 'super chorus' which offers individual control of pitch shift and delay, with modulation capability, for a large number of 'nodes' (45 nodes, with close to 2 million virtual points).
This permits the creation of huge chorus/ensemble effects.
The randomising features are well thought out and quite necessary when manipulating so many data points.

The visual interface is very intuitive, if slightly disorienting at first given that there are three different views to be considered for each arrangement.

The demo is fully functional except for intermittent muting which makes more difference than you might imagine - practical use requires real time adjustment of quite a few parameters and the muting is very disruptive. The full version without muting is much more fluid to use than the demo would suggest.

I bought this plugin to solve a particular problem I had trying to create a swelling 'mega crowd' effect - it was perfect for the job. To my surprise I like it so much I have started to use it in place of normal delay and chorus effects. It is very rich and organic in character.

Often quite small adjustments are necessary and it is quite easy to create a messy, noisy shambles. A bit of effort is required to get good results but they can be quite amazing and would be difficult and time consuming to do any other way. There is also a homogenous 'feel' to a well structured arrangement that I was never able to create even with numerous tapped delays + chorus + pitch shift.

The presets are good to show the capabilities of the plugin in a broad sense but they do make it sound a bit like a 'wham bam' effect, which of course it can be. They do not however showcase the great subtlety available which is what makes the effect stand out as a long term usable addition to a VST folder already bulging with chorus and delay plugs.

The plugin cost 15 pounds (about $34 Aus) which I consider to be good value. Initially the site would not accept PayPal so I contacted QuikQuak by eMail. I received a prompt and friendly reply and was able to make my PayPal purchase. The key arrived by eMail seconds later and the job was done. Very easy.

I highly recommend this plugin. Play with the demo for a while and see if it works for you. I find a new use for it every time I start it up.

Regards,
The Ratster
 
    
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