Airwindows

Monitoring (Redux)

TL;DW: Monitoring is your one-stop shop for final 2-buss work!

Oh, hey, new camera! And I bent my glasses so they don’t blind you! (They still work for reading stuff though!)

But also… new MONITORING. So this outright replaces the previous one, ‘cos they’re basically the same, but with the following changes:

-Aurat now has mono-summed versions that come out of either the left or right speaker, so you can get a true mono grot-box single speaker mix check even if you don’t have one
-Phone’s now mono (no special single-speaker tricks, it’s more an afterthought but sure enough, you don’t normally get stereo cellphones)
-TWO new Cans algorithms, Cans C and Cans D.

Cans C is just ‘stronger, but basically still normal’, as requested. Cans D is something else again. It’s for really messing up the stereo, like when someone wanted to listen to old Beatles tracks and ‘fix’ the weird dual-mono mix (which I don’t normally approve of). But, since it uses SUCH a strong allpass stereo crossfeed, what you get has also got some characteristics of Peaks, without the exaggerations. So, if you can’t work with Peaks or find it disorienting, there’s a new ‘headphones energy redistributor’ in town and this one attacks exaggerated stereo too. Try it out and see what you think!

Patreon pays for a lot: it helps me upgrade my gear so people can take my operation more seriously. But it also leads to other stuff: not only all the livestreams, but also side-projects that can bring you new stuff in their own right. I’ve been building eurorack-module kits. I made four Radio Musics (also known as Chord Organs) and they all work great. Not only can I put out dedicated drum samples that are dithered correctly for the Radio Music (current ones are OK at rhythmic sample triggering, especially if you’re doing a backbeat that might lay behind the click anyway), but I’ll tell you now that I am going to be trying to write alternate firmware for the Chord Organ/Radio Music platform. Because they’re soooo nifty, and very affordable if you can solder up a kit. And I’m still aiming to do things with the Axoloti… so those of you who build stuff, that is your cue to take interest in the Radio Music and Axoloti if you’re not already interested.

Much like Émilie of Mutable Instruments, what I’m doing is compatible with other people running with it. So, look on it this way: if you support Airwindows so that I make some kind of amazing firmware with stuff that you could then turn around and design a faceplate for and build yourself and sell… hey, win/win as far as I’m concerned. I’ve done a lot towards trying to manufacture hardware but it’s becoming clear that I’d rather be a lighthouse: nothing would make me happier than to see my ideas out there getting used. (And since it’s all open source it keeps ya honest if you do mean to go into business on the back of my stuff: if you can, so can someone else, so be good! :) )

Talk to you later (or indeed sooner, as in ‘Monday at 11:00 AM EST’ for my Q&A stream!)

Date October 13, 2019
Author Chris
Comments 4 Comments

MoNoam

TL;DW: MoNoam gives you variations on mono, mid, and side in different channels.

MoNoam.zip(339k)

Sometimes you just want to lend a hand :)

Stuff’s a little chaotic in Airwindows-land right now. I’m trying to revamp things about my studio, since thanks to the Patreon I can upgrade some stuff like my grotty webcam (always reinvest in your business, kids! And have a real accountant so you can get the benefits of doing that!), therefore you can expect some interesting side-videos: be sure to be subscribed to the YouTube channel and notification bell yada yada, because there will be some more content that only turns up there. Stuff like how to get the Tommy Mars Electrocomp ‘synth horn’ sound without an Electrocomp, or (if all goes well) the correct way to hook up multiple Arturia Keysteps without them flaking out the whole time.

So, today’s one of those days where I just put out a plugin that maybe just helps one person. Because I can, and because sometimes it’s nice to just do that and not worry about whether the thing will be popular. So, meet MoNoam. It’s named sort of after the person who wanted something like it, and sort of after the concept ‘Mono’. Because all it does, is switch around some mid/side type things for your convenience.

You see, the new Monitoring is getting ‘Aurat’ settings that give you that but as mono coming from literally one speaker (you pick). Seemed like a good way to replicate what is literally a mono mix check speaker. But I got requests for that on straight mono audio… and on side, for that matter… and a lot of stuff I can’t put in Monitoring without it getting way complicated. The thing is, if I do a ‘massmarket’ generally useful plugin like Monitoring, part of that is me choosing to leave stuff out, and what’s left in takes on greater importance as stuff I think you should be doing. But there are always exceptions…

So, MoNoam (almost symmetrical, like a palindrome) gives you mono/mid and side (directly) in such a way that you could sum them to get the stereo back again. But it also gives you mono in either one or the other channel, to come out of only one speaker. And it gives you ‘mono-ized’ side: this will be fuller-sounding than the true side, because the true side is out of phase between channels. And you can put the mono-ized side in one or the other channel if you want. If you’re recombining things it’ll get weird, but if you just want to hear it then this is your chance. And maybe you might have tricky situations having to do with mid/side, or you’re doing odd things in Blue Cat Patchwork, or just making complicated signal routings, and need one of these options. They’re odd enough to require a lot of fiddling if you were doing them just in the DAW. Now they’re one simple plugin :)

Have fun. I don’t think this is going to be a popular plugin, but it’s nice and clean and convenient and simple. What’s not to like?

Date October 6, 2019
Author Chris
Comments 3 Comments

PurestAir

TL;DW: PurestAir is a brightness experiment.

PurestAir.zip(350k)

A while back, I got reminded of this plugin. Someone said, ‘you haven’t put this out, when are you going to?’ and I said ‘Oh, that’s right, I haven’t’.

So here you go. It’s a bit weird. Normally ‘Purest’ plugins are ultra-simple. This isn’t quite like that and I don’t remember why. It’s sort of like Air or Energy, an air-band boost or cut, but it’s also got a limiting factor where it’ll refuse to boost past a certain intensity of treble. In that way, it’s like Acceleration. Except it’s not exactly Acceleration, not exactly a slew clipper… heck, it’s not even like Air or Energy. It’s a little like a de-esser in Bizarro World? Working oppositely?

Anyway, it’s yours if you want it. There are many odd ways to do EQ code. This is clearly one of them, and it seems to be not exactly like anything else I’ve done, and it sure does crank up the extreme air band if you want that. And it’s got that clamping factor to cap it (though similarly to Acceleration, it’ll give you trouble trying to hear what’s being done). I guess check it out, and if your ears are amazing WAY up in the ultra-treble, and you also like the sound of it, you’ll probably be able to hear the action of the limiter just fine.

Me, I’m more interested in dark reverbs and deeper spaces and bass, so this was never my pet plugin: maybe it can be yours :)

Patreon is how I keep doing all this, including the bigger and more generally useful things I have in store (much like Monitoring, and yes, I still have revisions to do on Monitoring and a more intense Cans headphone-crossfeed to deliver). It also pays for vital stuff like food and firewood, and neat stuff like electronics kits. I’ve bought some, and I hope to put out some nice meditative ‘sit with me while I assemble a kit, like from Erica Synths or Music Thing Modular or Bastl’ videos. I’m also getting interested in doing some just relaxing in Minecraft, which can also be a stream: perhaps people can join me. But I’ll be getting back to the plugin-mongering, it’s a regular thing with me as you know :)

Date September 29, 2019
Author Chris
Comments 7 Comments

Biquad2

TL;DW: Biquad2 is the Airwindows biquad filter that’s more sweepable and synthy.

Biquad2.zip(378k)

This time, it’s time for the impossible!

As in, there was a reason nobody was doing sweepable, ‘synthy’ biquad filters…

Turns out it simply doesn’t work. One uses a different type, like state variable filters, for the synthy stuff. The reason is that, while biquads can sound pretty great (especially implemented like I do ’em), they fundamentally can’t cope with changing the filter coefficients mid-calculation. They flip out: you’ll hear some of that, especially at the frequency extremes. Low Q makes low frequency motions flip out, and high Q (and boy do I have a high Q for you this time) makes ultra-high frequency motions flip out in a really wild. glitchy way.

So obviously I gave up.

nope! Instead, I just kind of forced the filter into zones where it mostly is controllable. This is partly through REALLY smoothing the filter cutoff, especially at low Q and low frequencies. If you try and update biquad coefficients every sample (and I already changed the form from the more CPU-efficient to the more stable form: didn’t help much at all) the algorithm gets super twitchy, so part of what I’ve done is just stabilizing things. I tried for ages to come up with some bizarre hack to force the filter back into stability: no dice. So, the range has been limited a little, the Q doesn’t adjust below a Q of 1, and it reacts really slowly, because that was the only way I could get it to behave at all. (the original Biquad can sometimes be better behaved, because it’s only recalculating coefficients every new buffer. So, zipper noise. When you get rid of that your troubles get infinitely worse, with biquads)

I’ve also got the resonance (on low and highpass) working differently. I’m scaling back loudness, but I’m also applying a distortion, then averaging after that, to try and get an ‘overdriving filter effect’ not present in the purer original Biquad. You can go quieter into Biquad2 and avoid this, or not use as much resonance: I feel it’s kind of like the Roland Alpha Juno filter resonance distortion, not an everyday thing but when it pops up it has its own distinct quality that’s interesting.

Anyway here’s Biquad2 ;)

Patreon is how I’m able to stick around doing this stuff, and/or fixing up stuff that needed fixing. It’s become clear from the response to Monitoring (yes, I’ve got an update coming) that among the things that need fixing are ‘you make too many plugins!’ Since I can’t go and throw most of ’em away, I’ll need to do two further things: one, do more ‘combination’ plugins such as one that includes the MANY Airwindows distortion and saturation types. Two, come up with ‘sets’ of starter plugins meant to work together, which may include custom versions of plugins like Console, and three, get some more building blocks like basic EQs out there. Whoops, that’s more than two :) anyway, even if I can’t design a DAW directly, I ought to be able to tailor versions of Console and tone shapers and channel strip parts together and produce cohesive sets of plugins that are waaaay more approachable to the Airwindows neophyte. Since MV, I’d also like to do reverbs and really get a whole tapestry of mixing together.

We shall see. Enjoy the sweep-ier biquads :)

Date September 22, 2019
Author Chris
Comments 5 Comments

Chris

Monitoring (Redux)

MoNoam

PurestAir

Biquad2

handsewn bespoke digital audio

Kinds Of Things

The Last Year

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