Airwindows

BitGlitter

BitGlitterDemo started out as a universal binary AU plugin for emulating the sound of the classic Emu SP-1200 sampler, widely used in rap music—and then grew into kind of a monster.

People don’t always ‘get’ why you’d use an old digital device with limitations to the sound and frequency response, not to mention a 12 bit resolution, for fundamental parts of the mix. It seems crazy, but it’s not. Here’s what happens when you do that.

Primitive old digital (and for that matter, almost every shiny new digital plugin) produces aliasing—harmonics that bounce back off the top of the sampling rate and become added noise masking the sound. It’s very damaging for some purposes. It makes the sound more shallow, more opaque, and harder to focus on—seen in a lot of in-the-box mixes, especially before the advent of oversampling and antialiasing techniques.

It can also add solidness and opaqueness to the lows, throwing in aliasing that’s not brittle and high, but low and dissonant. The effect is a little like a low cluster on piano, jangly and with a lot of presence. When you apply this effect to, say, drums, it becomes more obvious why that is desirable. The drums (or the ‘beats’, which includes backing music built into the loops) get more punchy and solid.

The thing is, even this can be purposeful. If the whole production must have loud rhythm but focus attention on the vocal, one way to do that is wreck the beats with old sampling—letting them stay just as loud, hit more in the midrange, and make a lot of space for the vocal, which is typically not going to be bit-crushed (except for effect or something) and might even be doubled or cut with a very detailed, high-resolution mic. The contrast can be huge between the resolution of the beat and the resolution of the voice, allowing for very loud beats but total focus on the voice.

This slider can be automated, so it can do sweeps or flick to a specific spot for individual words or breaks. The barking or slammed stuff throws a lot of extra aliasing in, so it works like an accent and pops out of the mix without additional volume automation- then you can go back to near zero for the ‘vinyl-like’ straight sampler low-res sound. BitGlitter also has no latency, so it can be used live wherever you can use an AU. Bypass it to shut the low-res tone off. Very simple and effective :)

BitGlitter is $50.

Date July 15, 2012
Author Chris
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ADClip3

ADClip3Demo is part of the ADClip development. In 2012, what ADClip was doing was working on incorporating the lessons learned from 3DClip, the one that adopted ‘energy redistribution’ techniques like Slate’s old FG-X. (ADClip4 still does this.) It soaks up clipped-off treble and bass energy, and works them back into the audio again where they’ll fit. This allows high-energy transients to hang on to some of their character.

ADClip3 came out with a single slider, which is a gain control from -3 to +24 db. It’s not as good at bypassing itself as ADClip4 is, so it has ‘a sound’ that may or may not suit you. As with all older versions, if it’s this one you want, buy the current version and ask for the older one, and I’ll send it along. As far as ADClip goes, I think it’s the current version you’ll want, but I’m not the boss of you :)

Date July 15, 2012
Author Chris
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Desk3

Desk3Demo is a universal binary AU plugin that takes the original ‘Desk’ plugins to a new level! Unique modes of analog overload give the ultimate dial-a-warm. The ultimate Airwindows saturation yet, and 96K ready!

Desk3 works really well as two things- as a ‘generic analog console sound’ with a really slick fat overdrive that can run 96K where BussColors can’t, and as a ‘internal mixer stage’. If you wanted to take BussColors (which already imitates a large format analog console exactly) and say, now let us model the wiring harness or longer mic cables or lower the power to the whole console, Desk3 is capable of making those kinds of adjustments, either on the 2-buss or on individual channels or busses (including busses you weren’t including BussColors instances on).

The Overdrive control is what you’d think it is, but Airwindows style—articulate and fluid beyond what most software can do, thanks to the very latest generation of anti-aliasing algorithms. Push it to see what the tone is, then dial it back to use as a subtle enhancement. There is no ‘clip point’ to it, it’s one continuous curve whatever the setting, so don’t go too saturated by mistake expecting to hear a clipping edge appear—it won’t!

The Hi Choke control is unique to Desk3. Go ahead and push it, but you’ll be happiest if you keep this one subtle too. It breaks up in a really unusual way that might be good on snares, but it too is best used as a subtle tone shaper, as the original Desk plugins used it. It’s just that now you can abuse it if you wanted.

Power Sag has two controls, Power Sag and Frequency. You can crank Power Sag to the max to hear where it’s hitting, but then back it off to add dimension and articulation to your sounds in many interesting ways. It basically acts like an analog power supply crapping out, but over a range broader than you’d ever see in real analog gear. Very low values give the SSL haze, very high values do things to the bass. Experimenting is the key here, and you can always keep it extreme if you hit on something that really works :)

Desk3 is $50.

Date July 15, 2012
Author Chris
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Wider

WiderDemo is a universal binary AU plugin for adjusting stereo image in two ways: manipulating the space of the side channel, and manipulating the space of the mid channel (using a mid/side matrix). I say manipulating the space, because rather than just change levels, it’s using algorithms that bring stuff more upfront or set it back in the soundstage.

That means the two simple controls work more like lens correction tools on an image (such as to correct ‘pincushioning’) rather than the usual ‘more widerer’ plugins. Here are some situations you can look for and correct using Wider—apologies if the language seems awkward but there isn’t really a way to describe this stuff as tools didn’t exist to directly work on it in this way.

If the stereo field seems too narrow, you can increase Width to ‘un-pincushion’ the image and widen the back wall of the space. This is not a substitute for panning, don’t go for overkill—it won’t generate new information. Try to listen for the outline of the envelope of the space, rather than listening to isolated instrument images within it.

If it feels much too heavily centered, try pulling Center back to negative values. Doing that should make the instrument drop back spatially and enhance what width it has. If the stereo-ness seems to recede relative to the mono-ness, this is a good option for locking in a convincing image.

If it’s convincing spatiality you’re after, and the (mainly centered) image is indistinct and not well located, you need to dial Width back to negative values, wrapping the sides of the space in slightly. Doing this allows stereo imaging to persist, but cuts back on the distraction factor of poorly imaged stereo miking. If you want a sound source to feel precisely located, small cutbacks in Width can do a lot to anchor floaty stereo imaging.

If the main thing is having the stereo sound source direct and upfront, boosting Center will help. It brings the sound into the foreground without spreading it, giving a spotlighting effect without losing spatiality.

Remember, the way the algorithm works, having matching boosts or cuts is NOT the same thing as just trimming the overall gain—or even processing L/R using the same type of effect. Just think of it as bringing sides or mid forward or back in space. Some sounds might surprise you—for instance you might not think ‘cut the center drastically’ on a stereo drumkit, but if pushing it back in space drastically and bringing the sides forward a bit gives you a fantastic image, there you go.

Wider is $50.

Date May 14, 2012
Author Chris
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Chris

BitGlitter

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Desk3

Wider

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