Desk4
TL;DW: Distinctive analog coloration.
Though I’ve put out BussColors to mimic existing audio hardware, it was always my intention to create analog-ifying plugins that weren’t about cloning existing gear: that produced their own distinctive sound. The first Desk plugins (Desk, TransDesk, TubeDesk) were made in this way, using audio DSP which isn’t typical.
As this line of experimentation evolved, it led me to what we’ve got here. Desk4 is the latest refinement of the Desk line, now for Mac and PC VST (as well as AU)… and free.
The drive control is a boost as you might expect. Turn it up for more slam and dirt. It’s very soft, textured, rich-in-nutrients dirt, but it’s basically ‘distortion’.
Treble Choke is more unusual: don’t overcrank this control or you’ll generate artifacts such as uncontrolled DC. It’s not a normal algorithm and not a traditional EQ or even a saturation: as you can tell from the weird behavior when you crank it. Use it subtly and you’ll have a brightness conditioner not found outside quality analog gear. Since it’s a plugin, you can also push the extremes of the behavior, just don’t get too carried away. It’s designed to let you break it with extreme settings, so it’ll be flexible across different kinds of audio.
The power sag and frequency controls are the heart of some behaviors in the earlier TubeDesk and TransDesk: you can make your imaginary analog hardware overload its power supply. Cranking the frequency slider moves the area of interest down, for tube power supply sag behaviors. Tiny settings work over a tiny range of samples, causing the effect to hit higher frequencies. If you hear an obvious effect, you’re probably applying too much… unless you intentionally want to crap out the audio, in which case this is a uniquely aggressive way of doing that. It’ll add grunge in an entirely different way from simple distortion, so you can do both.
These things are made possible by my Patreon. If I get it to more than $800 a month, I’ll begin open-sourcing these plugins, and that’ll open up the world of plugins in a whole new way. I’ll also make available my templates so that people can more easily begin coding their own stuff (which doesn’t mean it will BE easy, but it’s a way to help new coders and people like me who have more DSP ideas than systems coding expertise). Currently, I’m putting out one a month from my Greatest Hits list, an extra from the more obscure and unsung end of that list, plus additional plugins out of my library of successful AU plugins.
Also, if the Patreon gets some more patrons (not money so much as just new patrons), I can appear in the top 50 of Graphtreon.com’s Gamer charts! I’m currently at 51 on that list, and it’s possible being more visible would help me and Airwindows, so I’m excited to see what’ll happen there! I will be by far the lowest income creator on that top 50, because I give people more while asking less. But it’ll be great fun to know I’m in the top 50 of something Patreon-related :)
Hi Chris. Thank you for making all this available to everyone; that is very trusting, and very useful for someone like me who couldn’t justify spending $50 on a plugin which I wasn’t sure I would use! Hopefully many people will subscribe to your Patreon, as I have.
Now a question: you mentioned once (I can’t remember where) that Desk3 was calibrated to work as a ConsoleChannel replacement. Is that also true of Desk4? And have I understood correctly that Desk3/4 can be used instead of ConsoleChannel to feed a bus with ConsoleBuss? I have tried this and it seems to work well for sound-gelling (though my equipment is considerably cheaper than ‘studio-quality’, a bit like my ears), and was wondering whether it was intended to work this way.
I realise the answer might be in one of your videos somewhere – I have watched most of them – but it can be hard to find the answer to a specific question this way. I wonder whether you might be able to host a wiki with pages for each plugin, and thus let the community write manuals for you? Just an idea.
Thanks once again, Ben
Hey Chris! Quick workflow question. I’ve been using Console 4 wrapped into Protools. I do a lot of processing of channels on buses so the easiest way for me to use it is to set up a “summing desk” using Busscolours inside the project. So, all my drum channels go to my drum bus which in turn is routed to my Drum Sum bus with Busscolours on which then goes to my 2 buss via ConsoleBuss. Will it mess with the way Console works if I used Desk as part of my processing on channels or groups before the audio hits Busscolours?
Thanks for the awesome tools btw. You’re absolutely changing how I see digital audio…. Love it.
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Thank you Chris for your generousity, you are the man who help people make music cheaper and easier from your simple but effective plugins.. THANK YOU!
Holy molly, the dry wet combination sounded heartbreakingly beautiful. Glad that’s in there now.