What's the state of entry-level basic FX these days?

[original flipper]

HI

IMO a really nice Multi-fx unit would be nice: where I think a lot of companies miss out on is producing something that has a lot of routing possibilities built into the product.

It would be nice to be able to set up chains within the plug-in in both parallel or series (and any combination of that) - although I think Spin audio has something like this.

I think the individual component treatments have to be top notch though - and also as mentioned else where, will need a twist to make them stand out.

I would say reverb, phase, flange, delay, pan, eq, compression, gate, chorus, wah, amp sim module are all potential candidates for a multi-fx - as might be a step sequencer, ring mod, distortion/overdrive, vocoder and filter.

As I and others have said though, I think something 'extra' need's to be offered up to make it a 'seller'.

What might that be?

Good pricing, high quality fx elements, a large selection of individual fx, easy fx chaining - perhaps even a side chain with frequency dependent operation kind of module that could really create some wild possibilities!

I don't know if anyone has really made the kind of 'beast' of a multi-fx plug that I am thinking about here!

I love fx: probably more than the average guy.



Flipper.

[mandolarian]

We have a situation now where many VST plugins sound great in mono, but collapse to crap in mono.

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't. Time for a great 5.1 chorus.

[Frippertronix]

Most needed:

Affordable native reverb that compares with h/w favorably.

Second most: filters that sound like h/w are always good.

Least needed: dunno, but another compressor would probably just get lost in the shuffle.

[Frippertronix]

We have a situation now where many VST plugins sound great in mono, but collapse to crap in mono.

This is so true...

[deleted]

DELETED

[M'Snah]

Just wondering:

Re: multi-FX, I would believe that E-Fex, Ronin and SFX Machine do a reasonable job there?

Re: filters, what would you suggest that's not covered in e.g. Filterscape or Quad Fromage?

(No criticism intented, just trying to learn about the things that are still missing).

[dry bones]

Apart from running Rubytube into mda Combo, there aren't any Mac OSX VST amp sims around ( without paying loads for Amplitube and its' ilk ). I'd pay up to £50 for a good Class A two channel emulation with channel switching...

[brambos]

Re: multi-FX, I would believe that E-Fex, Ronin and SFX Machine do a reasonable job there?

Ronin is an *excellent* multi-FX indeed. And don't forget the awesome CamelSpace and the freebie from Luxonix (LFX 1310 or something)

But I agree that effects like that, which let multiple effects interact rhythmically, and can be routed within their own GUI are an interesting area where clever innovation is still possible.

Cheers,

Bram