Airwindows

TapeFat

TL;DW: TapeFat is the tone control from TapeDelay.

We’ll start off 2019 with something kind of fun :)

TapeFat is just the tone control from TapeDelay. It works like an averaging filter that you can use to either roll off highs (or eventually mids), or subtract the effect to create a highpass and take out the lows.

The reason this is interesting is, that tone control is completely bizarre. It’s an averaging filter, but on a pile of delay taps arranged according to prime numbers. Works more like an ambience control, but more densely packed. If you put an impulse through it you don’t get a smoothed-out lowpass so much as a bizarre micro-reverb. Since it’s using primes, it doesn’t reinforce any particular frequency. Since it’s an ambience, it doesn’t have any pre-echoes like linear phase EQs, and the artifacts it produces become a tone of their own (either in-phase, or inverted).

You can hear it on the video, which has a number of things updated, not least this: the new audio is directly captured analog sorta-house music out of my livestreams. This way you ought to be able to really hear the way my plugins retain analog qualities, because now the demo music is essentially AAD: not products of other DAW mixes or digital synthesis, but source material. You can also download those tracks at full 24/96 off SoundCloud. (I use an old Audacity to SRC them to 44.1K for plugin-video making purposes)

Patreon is how I do all this, and I appreciate people using it. I like it better than Kagi, which I used to use to get paid. If you can, please jump on the Patreon at a level equal to buying one this year (for $50 perpetual license, with no DRM, full support as long as I’m alive, you get the source code and the right to make derivative plugins: you know, NORMAL plugin licensing terms :lol: ) and after a year you’ll have paid $50 of which I get nearly all. Then, next year, we’ll look back and see if I made another plugin that you would have bought :) (and if there’s more than one, so much the better: I provide tiers up to five plugins a year and worked out the math up to seven)

See ya Monday at 11:00 AM EST for the Q&A livestream, and Tuesday 11:00 AM EST for the music jam!

Date January 6, 2019
Author Chris
Comments 7 Comments

Crystal

TL;DW: Crystal is a tone shaper and buss soft-clipper.

Crystal

We’ll step away from strange inventions this week, to plain old ‘phat buss mojo’ tone shapers.

Crystal’s the first of the Character reissues, by request: I know there’s the possibility for this to become people’s favorite plugin, because it already is one user’s favorite buss plugin and he begged me to rerelease it with updated code and VST compatibility. This is the result. Tonally it’s exactly the same as the classic ‘magic’ Audio Unit, but it’s got the denormalization and noise shaping to the floating point buss of 2018 and beyond.

The controls you’ll be interested in are Hardness and Personality. Hardness applies the same algorithm that was in ‘New Channel’: though it’s not a replacement for what made Channel special, it’s got its own uses. It lets you define the onset of clipping, whether soft-clip saturation or digital hard clipping. Though this dirties up the sound a little, it lets you dial the ‘fatness’ of the saturation effect and gives you a tonal parameter that no other Airwindows plugin gives you. Think of it as a slider for how much the roaring, overdriven midrange sticks out.

Personality is a precursor to what became BussColors (and there are other flavors to come) but in Crystal it’s a little different. The BussColors algorithms are taken from hardware convolution impulses, and there’s a time-constant making the interpolation between ‘loud’ and ‘soft’ impulses happen over several samples. In the Character plugins, this didn’t happen. It was sample-by-sample, so on the one hand there was no dynamic behavior, just each sample got a fixed convolution behavior.

On the other hand (and it took me a while to properly understand this) every convolution sample got its own, separate dynamic behavior. The curve was different for each one, so it became a more tightly controlled little kernel rather than a set of possible kernels. There are still people who swear these were the great ones, and I’ve learned to pay closer attention to such things.

And the thing is, Crystal’s not using a hardware sample. Unlike anything in BussColors, Crystal’s using a data set that comes from doing a brickwall filter: if I remember correctly, two different ones at different Q/steepness, and then generating the dynamic behavior out of that. So it’s doing a treble-restricting EQ behavior (a FIR filter), but then it manipulates that. The question is, do you like what it does? Some people really, really liked this one. Not everything about it is in line with how I usually do things. That’s why it’s different. Maybe it’s right up your alley? Let your ears guide you, and have fun checking it out.

All this is supported by my Patreon and the better that does, the more freedom I have to do interesting things. Right now, that means a couple of weekly livestreams on my YouTube channel on top of my plugin posting: Mondays at 11:00 AM EST I answer questions about my plugins and audio, a tech support stream that’s been running a couple hours long (I will go longer if I need to). Tuesdays also at 11:00 AM EST I’ll do a music-making stream for a couple hours, and then upload it to my Soundcloud at 24/96 FLAC, if I haven’t forgotten to hit record like last week :)

Date December 30, 2018
Author Chris
Comments 5 Comments

RawTimbers (and RawGlitters)

TL;DW: Just the quantization from Dither Me Timbers… and the opposite, as a brightener.

RawTimbers

So, Dither Me Timbers isn’t really a dither. I keep saying that even though it’s got noise shaping and gets a sound that stands up to comparison with Not Just Another Dither: it’s different, but good.

This is ‘essence of Dither Me Timbers’, no noise shaping… and the inverse, just because I can.

All RawTimbers does, is choose between truncating to fixed point upwards or downwards, from any given point. Like Dither Me Timbers, it runs one sample of latency in order to do this choosing. Unlike Dither Me Timbers, it has an opposite plugin: RawGlitters. I see this stuff as ‘level-dependent EQ’ and always thought it seemed useful to dull and soften the quietest sounds and let loud noises seem brighter: it didn’t make sense to me to brighten the quietest sounds and let loud noises be duller (might be worth a rethink of this, but I’ve been sick this week and can only do so much: this is after all vanguard stuff and I need to get it right, or try harder to get it right)

Anyhow, this is RawTimbers and RawGlitters. It does the exact same thing as Ditherbox ‘Truncation, 24 bit’ except it’s an EQ: RawTimbers softens the audio and rolls off highs (and actually generates more and different bright quantization noise, so it’s not like it makes the noise floor itself seem darker), and RawGlitters brightens the hell out of the audio and sort of merges it with the noise floor. Both drastically change the nature and quality of the truncation noise floor: they’re undithered, and each is super different from plain old truncation. I discovered making the video that if you hit RawGlitters first and run that into RawTimbers, you get a third sound that’s interesting and pretty good… and if you run RawTimbers into RawGlitters, it’s pretty terrible but I’m not your mom, go ahead if you want. :)

In listening to these, remember the intense EQ effect (as in, cut treble up to 90% relative to mids and bass) happens ONLY at a fixed loudness that is barely over the 24 bit noise floor. If you play around with BitShiftGain you can check it out more easily, as I did on the video. All the effects only touch the noise floor area. These don’t have noise shaping so they can’t change overs or add excess energy: they’re ‘safe’ in that they’re predictable behavior, though you might have an interesting time exploring what they do to the tone.

They can be used for 16 bit CD-making as seen in the video: BitShiftGain -8 bits, RawTimbers/Glitters, BitShiftGain +8 bits gives you exact CD dithering.

They can also be used for conclusive double blind testing: since this is strictly two opposite ways of quantizing audio to the same fixed point output, you can make matching files for use in ABX testers. Use BitShiftGain to dial in the output bit depth you want, save all the results at 24 bit if you like (the quantizations will be the same) and listen for the brightening and difference in atmosphere of RawGlitters. On an ABX tester you’ll be able to audition Timbers and Glitters all you like, and compare to X, which will be one of the two. You can use quiet sounds if you like, to help hear what’s happening: it’s totally legit to tailor audio that will reveal this stuff more easily, as it’s the threshold you’re interested in. I think it shows class to use volume levels where you could still stand the loudness of normal audio and not blow your speakers, even if the actual test audio is way quieter (cranking it up will help, and you don’t have to blow your eardrums up as part of the comparison process, just keep it sane enough that the loud bits wouldn’t be damaging)

If you do this and correctly predict X for whatever bit depth you’re attempting, you’ve conclusively shown that you can always hear stuff at that bit depth and nobody can contradict you. I’m pretty sure literally everybody will hear 12 bit even over YouTube on whatever casual listening stuff you’re using. I also think 14 bit is relatively trivial, and 16 bit is doable given the right example audio and some care and attention (this is a contentious claim, but I still think so). I don’t think anybody can actually do this with full-on 24 bit audio… but if you did, over whatever fantastic (and very treble-accurate, and very low-noise) mastering rig you used, it would be conclusive proof of it.

And you still ought to dither, even to 24 bit, ‘cos it’s the principle of the thing. But this is something different to do, and it’s a legitimate choice. I suspect there’ll be a lot of electronic musicians who take a liking to RawGlitters just because it airs up the digital noise floor in an interesting way…

All this is supported by my Patreon and the better that does, the more freedom I have to do more interesting things and expand my horizons. Right now, that means a couple of weekly livestreams on my YouTube channel on top of my plugin posting: Mondays at 11:00 AM EST I answer questions about my plugins and audio, a tech support stream that’s been running a couple hours long (I will go longer if I need to). Tuesdays also at 11:00 AM EST I’ll do a music-making stream for a couple hours, and then upload it to my Soundcloud at 24/96 FLAC. That way, if you liked what you heard, you can hear it in full-on serious mojo high resolution awesomeness. Those captures are NOT dithered, but they’re direct captures so it’s not like I have a higher resolution file to dither from: you get the jams hot off the MOTU 16A inputs, untouched. Sort of a ‘analog in digital bar’ to reach, in a situation where every little calculation takes a toll.

Date December 23, 2018
Author Chris
Comments 6 Comments

TapeDelay

TL;DW: An old school tape echo with pitch swerve effects.

TapeDelay

Surprise! It’s another plugin. In this case, kind of a toy.

Tape Delay is the reissue (in updated and VST-ified form) of one of my first plugins. This is a precursor to Iron Oxide: it uses a technique for tone shaping that’s like a simplified Iron Oxide. Instead of being a direct EQ, it’s a huge cluster of delay taps, and also a little bit like a convolution impulse combined with an averaging: you get an averaging of just prime-numbered sample delay times. This turns out to work quite well (a direct version of this tone shaper by itself is also coming out)

The delay part is what makes this a fun toy. It can do some outlandish things, and also has some gotchas. It chases the delay setting in such a way that you get wild pitch bends from manipulating the control, not just buffer-smashings and dropouts. But, you also get buffer smashings and dropouts, so I wouldn’t dignify this with calling it ’emulation’: it’s just a way of fooling with the delay time control, live. If you’re rough with the control, it’ll get quite choppy. Also, if you intend to use this without glitches, you’ve got to enable the plugin and give it maybe a quarter or half second to chase to its desired setting, or you’ll hear a pitch zoop as the plugin starts up. That’s because this one starts at zero delay on reset, so if there’s audio happening it’ll get caught in the initial zip of the delay time.

If you can work with that, or don’t mind the weirdness, then you can enjoy this blast from the past that used to be AU-only for years and years: there’s a lot of interesting stuff like that, for instance Glitch Shifter. This one can give you mad dubby effects, either decaying into heavy Memory Man-like darkness or doing a tape slapback or decaying into bright airyness. Because of the prime-number based tone shaping, regeneration doesn’t produce reinforced artifacts, just continues to emphasize the tone shift you dialed in. (the tone-only version of this that’s coming, could be used in Blue Cat’s Late Replies plugin to make that a Tape Delay-alike, but without the delay time weirdness.)

Again, be careful using this on audio regions that are tightly trimmed to the very beginning of the sound: this one needs a second to stabilize if you’re using it to sound like a normal delay. Or, you can just do whatever you like :) all this is supported by my Patreon and the better that does, the more freedom I have to do more interesting things and expand my horizons. Right now, that means a couple of weekly livestreams on top of my plugin posting: Mondays at 11:00 AM EST I answer questions about my plugins and audio, a tech support stream that’s been running a couple hours long (I will go longer if I need to). Tuesdays also at 11:00 AM EST I’ll do a music-making stream for a couple hours, and then upload it to my Soundcloud at 24/96 FLAC. That way, if you liked what you heard, you can hear it in full-on serious mojo high resolution awesomeness. This stuff is probably going to replace my old audio examples for 2019 and beyond. Because I’m mixing analog and capturing through my Magneto-Dynamic Infundibulator, I don’t need to do post-processing, so when you download you’re getting my reference for audio quality: UNTOUCHED 24/96 capture. Kind of like if I was able to do direct DSD captures (which would be neat, but I think 24/96 is enough when done properly).

I’ve got a couple more plugins for December (one of them being the EQ-only version of Dither Me Timbers that includes a brightener version) and then it’s on to 2019. Thanks for accompanying me, it’s been a momentous, challenging, and meaningful 2018 :)

Date December 16, 2018
Author Chris
Comments 8 Comments

Chris

TapeFat

Crystal

RawTimbers (and RawGlitters)

TapeDelay

handsewn bespoke digital audio

Kinds Of Things

The Last Year

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