Great reference: "Enchanting Instruments" article series on u-he plugins

[p5c]

I thought I'd share this incredibly thorough series of "reviews" that covers various u-he plugins: https://www.soundhouse.co.jp/en/content ... 9&tag=u-he.

It's called "Enchanting Instruments" and has been running on the Japanese store Sound House's blog since early 2024. I haven't found it mentioned in the forums or on u-he's site, so it may not be as well-known as it probably should be:

• Filterscape VA (a whopping 10 articles):
  • 1 - Filterscape Suite, VA UI, signal flow
  • 2 - Oscillator & interactions
  • 3 - Noise
  • 4 - Envelopes
  • 5 - LFO
  • 6 - Filter
  • 7 - PWM, SYNCH, RING, FM
  • 8 - Multiband Morphing EQ
  • 9 - ARP
  • 10 - Chorus/Delay
• Filterscape Q6 (1 article):
  • Filterscape Q6 Review
• Filterscape FX (1 article):
  • Filterscape FX Review
• Satin (7 articles):
  • 1 - Overview
  • 2 - Upper Panel
  • 3 - Service Panel Tape
  • 4 - Service Panel Repro/Circuit
  • 5 - Noise Reduction Dolby
  • 6 - dbx Noise Reduction
  • 7 - Tape Delay/Tape Flanging
• Presswerk (1 article):
  • 1 - Overview, appreciation of Sascha Eversmeier
  • 2 - History of the Compressor
  • 3 - Features of the Compressor
  • 4 - M/S Processessing
• Colour Copy (1 article):
  • Colour Copy - Delay Review
• Twangström (1 article):
  • Twangström- Spring Reverb Review
• MFM2 (2 articles):
  • 1 - Delay & Plugin Architecture, Multiple Delay Lines
  • 2 - Delay Line functions (w/examples)
• Bazille (3 articles):
  • 1 - FM
  • 2 - PD
  • 3 - Semi-Modular
• Zebralette3 beta (6 articles):
  • Beta1 - "Urgent Review"
  • Beta2 - 1 - Overview & Structure
  • Beta2 - 2 - Vector-Based Synthesis, Waveforms (Editor, UHM, SVG)
  • Beta2 - 3 - Additive Synthesis
  • Beta2 - 4 - OSC FX
  • Beta2 - 5 - MESG, Morphing

The articles are in English along with most (although not all) of the various diagrams' text. The author digs into the history, intent, architecture, and use cases for various plugin features during the course of each "review." It's reminiscent of Dan Worrall's full-spectrum reviews that also manage to educate about everything from fundamentals to specific use cases—but in written form, and a meticulous focus on diagram and audio examples that also reminds me of the classic "Synth Secrets" series from Sound-on-Sound.

The author regularly observes that u-he's plugins have always been uncommonly capable and flexible—as long as you thoroughly understand the underlying concepts (both in terms of DSP and plugin design)—which they then proceed to explain in detail. This approach really makes the series shine while discussing some of u-he's lesser-known or more misunderstood plugins.

Anyway: I've been glued to these articles for the last couple hours, relearning plugins I thought I already knew. Now you can be, too!

[deeluk]

This is excellent! Thanks for sharing! Digging into the Zebralette3 articles.

[Fannon]

Thanks for sharing! Now with the Zebralette 3 Release Candidate it's a good timing to go through this!

viewtopic.php?p=9164601#p9164601

[ThoughtExperiment]

Yes, thanks for sharing:)
Reading the Bazille articles has inspired me to really dig into the 'Bazille Cookbook' again, and (try to) break my reliance on presets for this synth.

[aMUSEd]

This person knows their stuff - should show the Zebralette 3 article to everyone asking for wavetable import into Zebralette/Zebra

[koalaboy]

This is truly fantastic !

[krans]

Thank you so much for sharing, this is a great resource!
After reading the piece about Filterscape Q6, I got a bit curious. 'Cause it pinpoints something I've always felt myself:
I never reach for the Q6.
I use Filterscape a lot (the new one, OH YES, but I used the old one for years aswell), and I really enjoy FilterscapeVA, but I have never been struck by the thought "ah, this is Q6 material".
Are there frequent Q6 users here? And if so: When do you reach for Q6 and not just Filterscape?

[p5c]

Are there frequent Q6 users here? And if so: When do you reach for Q6 and not just Filterscape?

I've wondered the same thing—I haven't found a case yet where Q6 is a better choice than FX or VA.

I initially thought Q6's 6 bands would work great as tight peak/BPs filters for tuning noise into spooky chords (making a coarse comb filter), like this:



But Q6's two "extra" bands are actually hard-coded to be a low- and high-shelf filter, so it still maxes out at 4 parametric bands, just like the other plugins! At that point, you're better off using FilterScape VA in "4 Peaks" or "4 Bandpasses" mode to filter its built-in noise generator—and VA has the "Key Follow" mod source, so you can tune the bands' frequencies from a keyboard.

Q6 seems to just have less features than the rest, unless you really really want those gentle shelf bands vs the FX/VA's separate low/high-pass filters (also separate from their 4 EQ bands).