Tone Projects

One of my first vst. the sound is not so good, it hard to obtain something here.

But is simple, low CPU usage and can be used for starting .

32-bits only.

i use it on some tracks.

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What originally started as a search to find the best sounding bitcrush/samplerate reduction solution, turned into me stumpling upon this little gem. Fell in love with the demo almost instantly, after feeding it several drumloops, 303's, chipsound riffs and basic synthesizer waves. Although I started by flicking thru the presets, within a couple of minutes I'd strayed from the beaten track and was tweaking away, moving from section to section and getting a feel of the range and quality of sounds this can do.

I'm very much into the lo-fi sound, I grew up with the crunch of both the Amiga computer's 8 bit sample-based sound system, and the 12-bit crunch of the Akai S950, tapes and record players. These systems are all flawed in a way the modern DAW is not, and recreating some of this old crusty, dusty magic is something I haven't seen an application for in the VST world so far, until now.

Because Sonitex is a collection of effects in one suite, it provides a holistic approach to adding depth and texture through imperfections. Because everything is so interlinked and many of the effects are dynamic or have the ability to change over time subtly in various ways, a true 'mulching' effect is possible, rather than simply 'filtering' or 'degrading' the sound. You can whip it up into creamy peaks or bring out certain characters of the sound in a way that working with single effects can't achieve. A freely assignable LFO and envelope follower is there to modulate virtually any parameters in any combinations, furthering the possibilities for creative, breathing effects. Furthermore, there are filters and gain stages EVERYWHERE, and because of the following effect stages, they can have a big impact on the timbral effect of the plugin.

Just about every effect required in lo-fi duties is provided, and there's no need for me to list them. I will say, however, that I frequently found myself creating effects far beyond simple muffling, noising and distorting! Mixtures of distorted flanging, enveloped or triggered-LFO filter sweeps, pitch instabilities, weird splatterings, formant effects, dymanic rhythmic effects, phasing, and generally exotic colouration jumped out at me, all with a delicious, crusty, musical character. Of particular note is the bit-crushing section (called "Sampling") which has a LOT of options to grain up and generally smash your pristine audio - one particular setting for the sample reducer is quite unlike anything I've ever heard on any effect section of this genre. This is gourmet filth, alright!

The creator has described his aims for this as both a sonic texturing plugin (hence Soni-tex, just call me Sherlock) and as a toolkit and playground (or laboratory) for lovers of the impure to cook up their own recipies for degrading, colouration and impact sweetening. In this I'd say he's succeeded triumphantly!

The last point I'd like to bring up is the GUI. It's just brilliant to look at, and to use. The little lights around the dials which show modulation, the 'traveller' style bandlimiting filter screen, the easy on/off switches for every section and some sub-sections, and the quick section-specific preset buttons all add up to making this a dream to operate.

No, this will not make you sound like a 70's rare groove band with the turn of a knob, as some might be hoping. It is simply a box of very well calibrated, musical-sounding tools. Apply imagination and talent as per requirements.Read Review

BassLane is a GREAT little utility plugin! If you have issues with a certain area of the spectrum being too wide, this is the solution for you.

For instance, you're mixing live drums but don't like the wide sound of the kick and/or snare. Pop this on the overheads, turn the width knob to mono, and select a frequency between, say, 300 Hz and 1 kHz (or whatever). Instantly tightens up the low end of the kit while preserving the space of things like hi-hats and cymbals.

Another application is wide synth basses, which are common in modern soft-synths. Use BassLane to make the lows and mids dead to center while leaving stereo content in the upper region.

Yes, this stuff can be accomplished with a standard filter plugin and multiple tracks, but it's a pain in the butt. BassLane makes it quick and easy.

No complaints about the interface, it's straightforward and simple. You can listen to the dry and wet portions of the signal, to quickly tell how the plug is affecting the material.

All in all, I find this an indispensable mixing tool, and best of all it's free!Read Review

This multi-effect unit is pretty much the last word on getting lo-fi grit into your recordings, apart from cutting the wax yourself and dropping it on a turntable or loading up that 12-bit sampler with drum loops. It modifies audio in rather unsubtle ways, but does so with a keen eye to character that makes its sound very musical. This, and the fact that it covers just about every method you would want to grunge up things, gives the STX-1260 a leg up on all its lo-fi competition.

The effect is split into six sections, each of which can be enabled and disabled. In a rather smart move (and one of my favorite features), each section has its own "sub-presets" making it extremely easy to quickly dial in the sound you want. The MIX section deals with the typical wet/dry mix plus dynamics. I haven't fiddled with the compressor too much, so I can't comment on its sound. DISTORTION allows you to drop tape sat or a number of other distortions. The distortions are warm and subtle to my ears, making them perfect for adding just a touch of color without getting out of hand. The VINYL section gives you control over vinyl effects like warble and silibence. The silibence control here is particularly outstanding -- it's basically a harmonic exciter that just nails that "hissy" quality to vocals on vinyl. The TONE section gives you a colorful hig/low pass EQ, which, by itself might not be spectacular, but sound just right in the context of this plug. NOISE gives you the typical vinyl pops, clicks, and noise. Again, otiumFX gets it right with a very musical character of the grit, much moreso than iZotope's Vinyl. It also introduces interesting artifacting at high levels of noise, which can get pretty wild. Finally is the SAMPLING section, which is a bit-depth reducer with major teeth. The STX-1260's reduction sounds much more like "hardware" than any other reducer I've played with.

The plugin itself is solid, I've never had it force a crash. I have had trouble dropping it into a track while audio is play in both my sequencer and multitrack.

Overall, the VFM of this plug is excellent. It provides top notch grit with a nice entry level analog/warming functionality.Read Review

I recently discovered Basslane when I was looking for a way to center/mono the deep bass frequencies of a Chapman Stick track I had recorded that featured a tempo-delay on it, while leaving the upper frequencies unaffected in the stereo field. Originally the track had everything ping-ponging left and right and when mixed with the backing tracks, the deep bass notes were completely lacking in punch, as you usually want bass as close to center to achieve that.

Basslane was the perfect solution for this: after setting the cutoff frequency of its LPF (the pre/post monitoring options really help with this) and collapsing just frequencies below that to mono, the deep bass tones became solid and punchy while leaving the upper frequencies to bounce around in the stereo field.

I imagine this could also be really useful for situations where you have a full stereo mix of a song where the bass was recorded in stereo and lacking punch. Running such a pre-mixed track through BassLane would let you zero in on the bass frequencies and pull them in towards center.

Highly recommended. :-)Read Review

This is the second rewrite of my first Compadre review, to keep up with the latest version, now at 1.1.

For a basis of comparison, I often use the UAD-1 plugs, and I like UA's emulations of the LA2, the 1176, and I also really like Waves' SSLs. Each of these are of high quality, and though I wouldn't give them up, I find Beatpuncher occupies its own niche and gives me sonic options that the others simply can't provide.

Compadre can function as a typical compressor (though the "snap" and "non-linearity" controls let you control the personality of the sound in useful ways), but the really unique trick of this comp is what happens when you put it into "shaper" mode. This accesses a variety of user-chosen amplitude curves that act independently of the actual peaks in the program material, with fascinating and fantastic results.

The interface is beautiful and well-designed, as with all of Otium's products, but you have to have a light touch. The threshold is critically important in "shaper" mode, as are the attack and release times, and you have to be careful with your mouse while setting it. On the other hand, when you hit a fortunate combination on a drumloop, you can get mindblowing, very groovy and musical results. Sometimes, working with material that has a lot of "air" around it, Compadre can give you a "fluffy" sound that I've not heard from any software compressor. Pretty unique.

This comp has a filter sidechain that enables me to radically alter the frequencies to which the compressor is reacting. VERY useful. The afore-mentioned "snap" and "non-linearity" function allow you to control the tone in innovative ways. Lots of options for tone creation here.

There's a secondary "auto" compressor as well as a limiter, both optional, as the audio heads out of the signal path. These offer additional tone creation tools, as well as further methods for crushing the snot out something. You can control the amount of compression of course, but also the mix of dry to wet signal, if you want to save the CPU cycles of sending your drums out to another buss and compressing that.

I've worked with drum loops in "shaper" mode and in short order had them twisted into funky, totally usable, totally unrecognizable rhythmic elements. They really sounded as if I'd spent ages slicing hits and reversing them; the way this compressor lets go of the beat sometimes gives you the most luscious "whooosh" of air you could imagine. Really, it's ability to squeeze air out of the most unpromising of loops is what made me such a rabid fan so quickly. Again, in "shaper" mode the threshold is vital and has to be set with some sensitivity, and the release and attack times change the results quite dramatically, so it may take some a moment to find something you like, but you should hear its potential right away, and once you hit a good combination, the sounds are surprising and cool.

The 1.1 update actually provides a vital improvement -- the ability to absolutely clamp down on the signal within the first fraction of a millisecond. The first version let a little bit of the sound escape, which would sometimes result in clicks or other artifacs, making extreme shaping settings less useful. This negative effect is now gone, I'm happy to report, and the coding is tight and the plug is now CPU-optimized.

It's not for everything, but what compressor is? Its rhythmic tricks simply can't be replicated by other compressors. It's rare to find a compressor with such personality, in plugin or hardware form.

For 49 bucks? Come on. It's a steal.Read Review

User Interface: Boasting a lovely photorealistic interface, the ergonomics are clean and elegant.

Sound: Fantastic. If you are looking for something that will instantly give you a vintage pumping compressor sound, look no further. The sound is rich and thick, and you can dial up (or down) that character to taste.

Features: Compadre was optimized for loops and drums, and the feature set offer a very broad range of options for that application. Within minutes I was able to come up with a very cool syncopated pumping effect. Alternately, I was able to pull out "stick", snare attack, or paper in the kick. Very flexible and lots of fun.

Documentation: Certainly enough to get your started!

Presets: Lots. More than enough to showcase what it can do and you should have no problem finding a starting point for rolling your own. Simply adjust the threshold and you are in action.

Customer Support. Excellent!

Value for money: A great value.

Stability: No crashes yet!

Bottom line: I own and use several hi-end compressors. They all have uses and stengths. That said, Compadre is unique in a lot of ways. If you want to add heft and attitude to drums, its a no brainer. Surprisingly, it has proven a life saver several times on vocal tracks. None of the compressors I had were taming a wild voal track the way I wanted, so I tried Compadre. It nailed it in 5 minutes. I was more than impressed. In short, for me it is a "character compressor" - but what character! When I am looking for "that sound" this is the one I use.

I love it.Read Review