Frohmage

I'm surprised there are no other reviews of Frohmage, so here goes...

I gave some conflicting marks to this one - it's free, therefore it's excellent value for money.

Documentation - as always Ohmforce provide manuals as a separate d/l and they are always good.

However - interface... Frohmage comes in only a "funky" skin, which I generally find to be utterly unfathomable; it's a shame they didn't release it in one of their sensible skins. If you haven't d/led the manual you'll likely have no idea what any of the knobs do.

Sound - the important bit for any filter - personally I don't like the character much. The blurb says you can get slow subtle filter sweeps - well I've never got one out of it. It will certainly scream in a distortion/overdrive kind of way and maybe that's why it's so poular - you seem to either love Frohmage or hate it. I'll catagorically state that I love every Ohmforce plugin I've got...they are geniuses, but I don't like Frohmage, so consequently I don't like QuadF either. They definitely have character, but I can't get what I call warm pleasant filtering out of them - I expected a filter that would do your standard synth filtering but also have the quirkiness that Ohmforce generally put into their plugins. I find only the quirkiness with no usefulness.
I'll amend that by saying that if you like distortion, you would probably find Frohmage right up your street - I can see uses for guitar treatment, in Industrial styles etc, but as with any filter it's almost 100% down to style and personal taste, and it's not mine.

It's certainly not a one trick pony, as you can vary the number of bands that it filters, but I find a lack of env following a big hindrance to any filter - makes it very difficult to use a filter as you would with a synth, which is what I want out of a filter.

Stability - rock solid.

Support - Ohmforce excel in this area.

I don't like to knock freebies nor Ohmforce (I love both!) but this one simply doesn't perform to what I expect of a filter. I just don't like the harshness it gives and I find it almost impossible to use it without destroying sonic quality of the source material. I would probably have given it great marks if it was labelled as a distortion/overdrive type of effect in fact.

But you should try it for yourself though - many users love this filter, and I can see why, if their tastes tend towards it's defined type of sound. But if you are expecting a synth-type filter then look elsewhere. I dabbled with using it as a guitar treatment, but I have other FX that are specialised in doing that, and I prefer their sound to Frohmage.

To defer some of my negativity though, Frohmage certainly has its own distinctive character (which is a mix of airy and nasty?) and should be praised for that. You like it or you don't and full marks to Ohmforce for providing that kind of plugin.

(Now I feel guilty for knocking it, but you can't like everything, eh?)Read Review