Looking for testers – new FX plugin

[starflakeprj]

Wow, this looks really interesting! Espacially being able to load plugins into it, and with the X/Y addition. Really miss that feature from Bitwig in other DAW's. Bitwig also has a similar one where you can X/Y between 4 different instrument plugins, so if you ever want to create a plugin like that, it would be an insta-buy for me

[vurt]

Hey everyone! I apologize for being a bit slow with the DMs, I've been really busy working on the plugin. but I have some updates and new features to show off!

First: Shoutouts to @3lu5iv3 for the XY controller idea, we've incorporated it!

- The Blend feature lets you blend up to 4 plugins at once, which can lead to some pretty gnarly sounds.
- When you hit the dice to generate, it'll pull 4 random plugins and randomize the parameters, so its quick to get going. If you like what you create you can save them as presets in your collection. - Finally, the automation is pretty neat, it's based on polar coordinates and we expose Angle and Distance as parameters, which lets you do fun things like make the blends move in a circle, amongst other things.

We just released it yesterday, I'll get back to those of you who've messaged me about testing soon.

FUTURE PLANS
1. I started experimenting with allowing you to load your own plugins inside as well, so you can use the Blend with your whole library of VSTs and mix-match with what's included. It's pretty wild and works well, I think we can get it done and shipped within the next few weeks.
2. The AI plugin builder was shelved for the moment, it works, but its a bit wonky, and I figured the base features needed some more oomph first. We'll get back to it though.
3. Honest truth: We experimented with in-app purchases, and people hate it, so we're going to remove it as fast as we can and just have everything bundled with the plugin.

That's pretty much it, thanks again for the interest and I live for feedback, so please if you test it let me know what you think. Cheers and happy weekend everyone!

thats looking pretty cool
good luck with the project!

[audiojunkie]

No Linux support?! Linux usage is growing by leaps and bounds!

[NickyDiamondz]

Alright! We did a release yesterday that make the Blend mode to make it easier to use (better controls on the UI, randomization on the dry/wet when generating a new blend), and we removed the in-app purchases. There's a free 7 day trial from our website below, so if you guys want to try it please I'm still looking for some feedback, and who knows, maybe I'll toss a few keys around to unlock as well.

Get it here: https://playgrndfx.com/

Few comments:
- I got the external plugin loading to work, so this will be the next release! Basically blend and morph between whatever you have, and also ability to randomize params for anything that's loaded within. Maybe week or two and this will be a free upgrade (the installer is also an auto-updater, which is nice)
- @audiojunkie Linux is definitely possible, but I think the plugin would need to catch on a bit more before I'd invest the effort in this.
- We'll still build and gradually add a few more FX, but we're at 52 right now which already feels like quite a bit. The next ones we'll probably collab with a few people to get some fresh ideas and inspiration in there
- For the techies here, the frontend of the plugin is actually made with Unity, I'm pretty sure we're the first to do this. So we can do basically almost an unlimited amount of insanity with the visuals, but I dunno what to do with this yet honestly. There's a balance between animation, clarity, and letting the CPU focus on the audio that we need to strike, so I'm being careful about how we choose to move forward with this. Still, we'll do something... anyway, rant over, hope you guys enjoy the plugin and leave some feedback, I'm keen to turn this into something amazing!

[starflakeprj]

At that price, it was a no brainer, I bought it instantly!

As I mentioned in my previous post, a plugin that lets you load four different VST3 instrument plugins and morph between them using an X/Y pad would be amazing. As far as I know, nothing like that exists yet.

You could apply the same concept as Playground FX, but instead of built in effects, you'd be able to load your samples (delivered with the instrument, or your own, multi layered or not), and even host VST3 instruments. That would open up some truly creative workflows.

And of course, per input effects, either built in or VST3.

[NickyDiamondz]

@starflakeprj Thank you so much for your support!

And yeah I hear you, blending between instruments could be super cool. Its definitely something short-term that I'm pretty sure we could accomplish. We have a bunch of premade little synths lying around as well that could be packaged into it. When I was making more music than code I would layer instruments in Reaper, and before that use that device in Reason that lets you load instruments and route within it (Combinator? Man its been a while), so I think it would be a modern take on all of this.

I'll try and keep this thread updated as we move forward. Again, appreciate the support and I hope you enjoy the plugin. Cheers!

[starflakeprj]

@starflakeprj Thank you so much for your support!

And yeah I hear you, blending between instruments could be super cool. Its definitely something short-term that I'm pretty sure we could accomplish. We have a bunch of premade little synths lying around as well that could be packaged into it. When I was making more music than code I would layer instruments in Reaper, and before that use that device in Reason that lets you load instruments and route within it (Combinator? Man its been a while), so I think it would be a modern take on all of this.

I'll try and keep this thread updated as we move forward. Again, appreciate the support and I hope you enjoy the plugin. Cheers!

I'm layering instruments in Studio One, and while it's pretty to easy layer them, crossfaring or morphing between four of them is a bit of extra work (a lot if you would like it to sound convincing). X/Y Instrument in Bitwig does this really well, and I have, for a long time, been looking for a VST that can load other VST's and crossfade/morph between them, without luck.

You can definitely pull of something similar in Reason (yes, Combinator (v 2 now)), but that would probably be similar to the end-product in Studio One. And if you were to use Reason Rack for use in another DAW, then you wouldn't be able to load VST instruments.

Anyway, great work with the Playground FX!

[kraster]

Here's my impressions:

Absolutely needs a master dry/wet control.

When you delete an existing effect and go to add one it should go to the explore window.

On the whole it feels like I seem to be jumping around from section to section.I think the way it is feels like some kind of vestigal remnant of when there were paid for plugins. There doesn't seem to be much rationale for having Explore and collection.

I feel like some of the fx are still too blended with the dry signal even when 100% wet.

The effects need clearer categorization.

Some kind of LP/HP on the output would be handy.

Some kind of modulation for the handle would be cool. I added a few LFOs for the handle in Live and it works very nicely.

I'm unsure as to what a lot of the parameters on the plugin are. It's a little obscure. For example, for time based effects it's just 0 to 100.

Syncing of time based effects would be nice.

A quick way to solo effects from the effect parameter page would be great.

Some of the menus feel a bit too quick scrolling wise. Some kind of inertia would be nice.

A good bit of zipper noise when adjusting certain parameters.

Sometimes the cross fading feels very abrupt like a switchover rather than a fade.

Some fx parameters are just numbers with no labelling.

Sorry if I come across as overly negative. I actually think it's a great plugin and there's some really cool weird stuff going on.

I already bought it.

[NickyDiamondz]

Ok, this is the exact kind of feedback I was hoping for, critical and honest. Really helpful and this will guide our short term efforts for sure. Really appreciate it!

[kraster]

Ok, this is the exact kind of feedback I was hoping for, critical and honest. Really helpful and this will guide our short term efforts for sure. Really appreciate it!

And just for balance:

I love the art style. Makes it really unique.

The effects are really interesting and aren't really covered by other plugins.

I love the idea of saving blends. Really personalises the experience.

I think the whole Xy control for blending is a winner. It reminds me a bit of Orbit by United plugins.

Once you did deep into the various processors you can come up with some truly unique sounds.

I know that some of my criticisms before could largely be viewed that it isn't conventional enough but that lack of convention is also part of what makes it work.

I think overall it's really intriguing and really looking forward to seeing it develop.

[pekbro]

Interesting, does purchasing give access to all the effects?

[NickyDiamondz]

@pekbro Yes you get all of the fx on purchase, including anything else that we add - new content gets pulled automatically when you use the plugin.

@kraster I appreciate the kind words and shared your message with the team! Honestly getting the details of what you didn't like helped a lot and the next release will include some of what you mentioned, such as mute/solo of plugins, better control over the output and a sync'd lfo to make automation easier. We'll also add the ability to lock plugins so that you can generate blends / randomize the params of the blends without affecting the locked plugins.

The zipper noise might be tough to solve, these plugins get complex and they aren't just raw code - they're the output of an old drag-n-drop plugin builder that we built a few years ago. We've had a couple sound designers get good with it over the last half-year or so making all of these out of a zillion little audio components and algorithms, so the rabbit hole goes deep. Still, I'll take a look at some value smoothening and see if there's anything we can do to make it a bit nicer.

Anyway thanks again, it's nice to get some feedback and we'll keep going on this to iron out the flows and make it a great experience. I'll post when the new release is out.

[NickyDiamondz]

New version out!! Free upgrade for everyone:

- Load and blend your own VSTs! You can do some pretty crazy stuff with this. Note it can be a touch unstable on mac, but ill keep tweaking this and seeing how it reacts.
- Randomize button for all loaded vsts as well
- We've added also the ability to randomize your current blend, as opposed to always generating a new one. This will take your unlocked plugins (more on that below) and randomize the parameters and dry/wet
- Added the ability to "lock" plugins so that when you randomize your current blend or generate a new one, it doesn't wipe what you had initially
- Ability to Solo plugins to help nail stuff down
- Couple small tweaks and fixes here and there

Hope its good! Thanks for all the feedback so far everyone, much appreciated.