TL;DW: PlatinumSlew is the best easy-to-use slew clipper.

PlatinumSlew.zip(495k)

This is something I’ve specialized in for a while: types of processing that aren’t common. Slew clipping is like what you see out of certain op-amps, circuits that can’t keep up with high frequencies and are given semi-magical qualities having to do with just the right IC and so on. And you can program that, and I have (for instance my Channel plugins, or Guitar Conditioner).

And then I discovered, in GoldenSlew, that you could cascade slew clippings and it’d actually give you a unique sound, unlike just using one slew clipping.

And then it went beyond, as I tried to incorporate another previous sample and bring in the rate of change of the direction of the slew, and ran into strange audio bugs that were the digital equivalent of my circuits blowing up or short-circuiting, unable to handle what I was asking of them…

…and came out the other end with PlatinumSlew (and a plan for a more complicated, control-laden plugin where I can get really detailed control over everything that happens in the plugin).

The original Slew, and GoldenSlew after it, is a bit of an audio chainsaw. For instance, if you slam it to full crank it acts as a sample and hold, because that’s literally what you get when you cut slew to 0.0: permanent holding of whatever voltage you had. Good for use in the VCV Rack port, not so good for subwoofers. So, don’t use those for swooping the audio down to bass and then silence, especially not fast, or you’ll trap energy.

PlatinumSlew explores a new space in slew clipping where its algorithms don’t hold energy in the same way. But what does it sound like? It sounds like a record. It sounds retro. What happens is, you can control the transients of the high-end, but then as you push further, as it gets darker, it also begins to alter the subsonics, the bass… which is something I’ve never been able to do, not like this. It’s not a filter, this is a clipper. But it’s not clipping the bass… it’s hard to explain.

Crank it way up and hear the odd things it does when you push it way too far… and know that you can bring in just tiny amounts of that very unusual, very retro, very vibey flavor. This tech is central to where I’m going with the new Console designs, as I come up with stuff that really truly sounds like classic desks. It immediately found its way into my music, taking my legit analog gear that last little distance it needed as post processing. It’s mastering friendly if your tweeters and ears are good enough to hear its subtlest effects. And unlike the swiss army knife version I’m still developing, this one is one slider which can’t be set wrong, and it’s free and open source, and it’s yours. Hope you like it :)

download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg
download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg
download LinuxVSTs.zip
download LinuxARMVSTs.zip for the Pi
download Retro 32 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac AUs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac VSTs.zip
Mediafire Backup of all downloads
All this is free and open source under the MIT license, brought to you by my Patreon.
VCV Rack module

TL;DW: GoldenSlew is a multistage slew clipper based on the Golden Ratio.

GoldenSlew.zip(492k)

Slew clipping is a fairly uncommon effect: it takes the bright off sounds, but replaces it with a distorty edge. You’ve already got Slew to do slew clipping with, and if you like Channel part of what you like is its built-in slew clipping… but what if you could expand on what slew clipping does?

GoldenSlew is a chain of slew clippers becoming increasingly restrictive as they go, each one scaled by a factor related to the Golden Ratio (if it was applied to the ‘slew’ control). You would think this would produce a simple result: the sound would always be restricted to the smallest amount in the chain, and it’d sound just like Slew.

Except it SO doesn’t… because each new value’s working from what the previous one was clipped to. And so, when you apply slew clipping as a chain, you get a completely different effect. And what it sounds like… is distant, roaring, big, loud, powerful in a way you just don’t get from slew clipping alone.

Be warned: for this plugin, like Slew, if you have audio going through it and you crank the slew clipping ALL the way to 1.0, what you’re telling it is ‘stop slewing completely, don’t budge’ which means sample and hold which means you’re stuck on a DC voltage. There are reasons why you might do this, for instance if you’re in VCV Rack and using it on a control voltage and you want to do sample and hold on that voltage. Don’t crank it up to 1.0 on audio signals or you might hurt your speakers if they’re DC coupled.

This is one of a series of plugins starting with Slew and continuing with GoldenSlew, where they’re refinements of a tone I like using for analog emulation. When used for that, you typically want to keep the setting fairly low, less than 0.5 certainly. It’s for controlling the digital-ness of the highs without apparently making them quieter: remember this is a clipper, not an EQ, and it’ll kick in only on LOUD treble. There will be more explorations of this concept because I’ll need a really good test-bed to use for when I start dialing in sounds of actual classic analog consoles: it’s not just the maximum restriction of slew (like in the Channel plugins), it’s about the sound character as we hit that limit.

You can use GoldenSlew on things like drums, final mixes: anywhere you want the effect of extreme loudness, but don’t want the treble coming forward and poking at you. Hope you like GoldenSlew!

download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg
download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg
download LinuxVSTs.zip
download LinuxARMVSTs.zip for the Pi
download Retro 32 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac AUs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac VSTs.zip
Mediafire Backup of all downloads
All this is free and open source under the MIT license, brought to you by my Patreon.
VCV Rack module