Airwindows

NonlinearSpace

NonlinearSpaceDemo is a universal binary Audio Unit plugin for algorithmic reverb. It extends on what its predecessor Space offered, by adding Nonlin behavior in two ways!

You’ve got a Sample Rate control that sets the overall size of the reverb tank. This isn’t meant to be switched while the reverb is live, so if there’s a problem bypass it and turn it back on: it should be OK.

There are Treble and Bass controls, which are not simply EQ on the output of the reverb: they tie into the guts of the reverb shaping the sound as it continues, so you can get many different reverb tonalities. The Treble is particularly good at setting reverb sounds into the distance, but even at full crank NonlinearSpace is very deep: compare it with other algorithmic reverbs. It has a character all its own, and now…

With the Nonlin control, you can do dial-an-eighties, or crazy unique things! This is a behavior normally found in isolated reverb algorithms, but I found ways to put it on a continuum. If you keep the liveness very low and ADD Nonlin, you get an Airwindows version of the classic gate-y Nonlin reverb sound, ideal for drums and keeping a mix from getting muddy. If you control your input sounds well you can do outrageous things with this! It seems particularly good at tom fills, and all the sounds are shapeable with the Sample Rate option and the Treble and Bass controls. This can be used on synthetic elements, too, not just live instruments!

Then, if you tire of that, try the reverse! Run a sporadic sound into a channel with NonlinearSpace, set Nonlin to -1.0 and crank up the Liveness, crank everything up until you have infinite sustain. What’ll happen is, the extreme Nonlin negative setting will force the output to not get too loud, but if you feed new audio in you’ll replace what was there. This is the ultimate tool for making eternal reverbspaces and ambient washes: if you’re using something like a volume pedal, you can literally paint in new sound as you go, balancing or replacing it on the fly, never getting runaway feedback. And since it’s a continuous control, every setting can be given a touch of nonlinearity just like you’re dialing in the reverb tone, helping you shape the spaces of the mix.

NonlinearSpace, like Space before it, wants to be on a stereo track, the better to fill up the atmosphere behind your mix. If you’re not finding it in the menus, check that you’ve got a stereo track for it to go on.

This is all on top of what was already a damn good sounding algo reverb anyway. Space was already an innovative design with many special Airwindows tricks in things like its comb-filters and allpasses, but NonlinearSpace takes it to a whole new level—and brings everything to the 80-bit processing of the Purest line of Airwindows plugins, which is great for reverb tones that are all made up of subtleties. NonlinearSpace is huge fun, and hugely effective, and I’m just loving it: I hope you do, too.

NonlinearSpace is $50, and people who owned Space get updated to NonlinearSpace for free :)

Date February 9, 2015
Author Chris
Comments 1 Comment

PurestSquish

PurestSquishDemo is a compressor Audio Unit plugin for maximum transparency and organic squishiness! I’ve designed it for the 2-buss, but it’ll work for many things. It’s got two basic modes: you can use it very gently to ‘float’ the mix elements in a barely perceptible way, or you can lean into it harder for more textural effects.

PurestSquish is one of the Purest line of plugins, which means certain things. It doesn’t emulate any known hardware device, it just brings the squishiness and fluidity to the sound while trying very hard not to touch the tone color in ANY other way. These are transparent plugins, be careful about over-applying it just to hear an effect. It also means PurestSquish is implemented using 80-bit math internally, with carefully designed algorithms to apply the effect with as few math operations as possible. This is somewhat controversial as the noise floor of these ‘superfluous math operations’ I’m avoiding is very low, but typical plugins waste a lot of CPU overprocessing. The Purest line is about going the opposite direction, as hard as possible.

Finally, one of the things PurestSquish has is a highpass on the sense circuit for bass. Using this, you can bring hugeness to the lows of the mix. Since it’s just on the sense it’s not in the audio path, but because the compressor ‘turns down’ what’s a gain boost going in, the Bass Bloom control can be used like it was a boost: apply the compressor, and then work in enough Bass Bloom to have a giant low end. This, plus the way PurestSquish preserves textures going through it, makes it a fantastic compressor for cranking up the size and scale of electronic music—or any sort of music, really! But the highpass Bass Bloom stuff comes from EDM.

Shoot this out against any compressor, from Airwindows or otherwise. It really has its own sound, it really is exaggerated as far as squishiness and transparency are concerned, and there is a real usefulness to applying just only the compressedness to a mix. You can get your color or ‘classic tone qualities’ in lots of other ways. PurestSquish is distilled squishiness, concentrated to keep the flavors of your mix pure while it changes the texture.

PurestSquish is $50.

Date January 20, 2015
Author Chris
Comments 1 Comment

DeEss3

DeEss3Demo is the latest DeEss: returning to the unrivalled sound of the first classic Airwindows DeEss, but with 80-bit internal math and a new Sense Monitoring switch, by request! This is the ultimate De-Esser, now with new ease of use and deeper tone.

This plugin’s made a lot of interesting friends… very competitive, significant friends who seized onto the original DeEss as a secret weapon. It seems that if you really knew what you were doing with the filters and such, you could get the thing to tame sibilance with incredibly little damage to the audio. It took expertise, because there was no metering or monitoring then: you had to be able to hear supersonics and you needed the experience to know what you were aiming for.

The second version tried to simplify the effect and make it more approachable, more a one-size-fits-all effect. This fizzled. Less experienced people weren’t reassured, and the power users weren’t excited about losing functionality, even sticking with the old version (which was updated to 64-bit to ensure everyone could keep it working if they wanted to).

Live and learn! DeEss3 is EXACTLY the first DeEss, right down to some of the quirky behaviors that gave it its tone, but with an 80-bit buss and noise shaping to the 32-bit output word. It actually is better than the first DeEss, in the only way it can be: more accurately reflecting that first algorithm, at higher fidelity. And it’s got a new control that makes it WAY easier for both pros and newbies: use the sense monitor control to adjust your settings, so you can hear exactly what it’s taking out, against a backdrop of impressive silence. That by itself is a powerful argument for just how good DeEss3 is: you can hear how little it touches the rest of the audio.

The video will show you how to work DeEss, so this secret-weapon plugin can finally be less of a mystery. Normal people can use it effectively now!

DeEss3 is $50.

Date January 14, 2015
Author Chris
Comments 2 Comments

PurestAir

PurestAirDemo is a universal binary Audio Unit plugin for enhancing treble up near the Nyquist limit! It specifically tweaks that sonic area, wherever it is, with special Airwindows algorithms. The idea is to get ‘air band’ boost without the coloration of a normal equalizer, and in line with the Purest style of plugins it’s done with a really simple and elegant algorithm.

There’s also an ‘Air Limit’ control, and what this does is kick the previous control down if the energy gets too high. It’s not properly a de-esser by itself, but it does work to moderate the brightness effect. You can use it without air-band boost, to function as a tone softener.

PurestAir is really clean and maintains the tone quality of what’s passing through it, adding little color of its own. Part of the secret to that is the way it operates relative to the Nyquist limit. What that means is, PurestAir is a different plugin depending on what sample rate you use. If you’re at 44.1K it’ll have the most obvious effect as it’ll be working at around 22K. If you’re at 48K, it’ll center on 24K and so on. Still functional at 96K (with a boost at 48K but some effect in the audio band), probably no longer useful on 192K. Be aware that this isn’t a normal EQ algorithm and is dependent on your sample rate.

PurestAir is $50.

Date January 5, 2015
Author Chris
Comments No Comments

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