Texturize
TL;DW: Texturize is a hidden-noise plugin for adding sonic texture to things.
It all started with snake oil… or should I say secret snake oil?
There’s talk lately of a plugin which has gotten a rather critical reception: a plugin said to put subliminal noise into the sound, to produce near-magical enhancements of tone and all good things. But you can’t hear it directly… you gotta vibe it, listen and embrace the magic, and then you’ll believe…
People were, shall we say, critical of this approach :)
Since I’m free to code what I like, thanks to Patreon and all (and thank you, all who’re pitching in there) I took an interest, and now you have Texturize. It is NOT literally this other plugin, or their patents, or the specific method by which they make the magic concealed noise that makes everything better.
But what it IS, is a riff on several previous plugins I’ve had for years and years, to produce a very similar function… but THIS one, you can tweak and you can also crank it up and listen to only the noise to hear what it’s like. Ruin the magic… but learn how the trick is worked. And it turns out it is really not snake oil at all… it’s just another thing to do with audio, and it does seem to work, and everyone making a plugin of this nature will have their own ‘take’ on it: if you like mine maybe you’ll try out the other folks’ plugin with more of that open mind, having proved that the concept is sound. Or just use mine, which is open source and free :)
You get three controls. Bright makes the effect key off high frequencies more aggressively, to the point of hyping up energy, and Punchy varies between a softer, fuller sound and a real spiky choppy effect. And then there’s Dry/Wet, the heart of the plugin, where settings of 0.5 or less are probably going to keep the noise entirely inaudible, as it’s meant to be. Not heard… but felt. And the sonic transformation’s really interesting, all the more if it’s not obvious. It reminds me of how tape flutter can bring texture to pure tones, chorusing against nearby reflections for a fatter sound, but here it’s just noise… but noise doctored to act like the music and hide behind it.
And then of course you can crank it up until you plainly hear hints of the noise… or slam it until you only hear the noise. But to actually use the plugin properly, keep things at 0.5 and don’t push Bright or Punchy or especially Dry/Wet to where it’s gone too far: tweak it on that subliminal level, turning Wet down if you need to, and see what you get.
I might well start using it. It really does seem to work. Go ahead and fool with it and strip all its secrets… and see whether you believe, too :)
download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg
download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg
download LinuxVSTs.zip
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.
Been playing around with this today. Definitely not snake-oil! Love it on synths and drums so far!
I’m really enjoying the concept, but am currently getting a DC offset on the output, varied by the Dry/Wet ratio.
This sounds fantastic. Thanks for your great work! My understanding is that vst no longer works in the latest version Cubase or Nuendo. Is there any chance of a vst3 version for mac?
Sounds awesome! I’m curious, what is the subliminal plugin alluded to?
Whoops sorry I was wrong about Cubase and Nuendo, turns out they will support vst 2 for another 2 years. Although I think on Apple M1 vstv2 will run under rosetta.
yeah so this just fixed everything three songs in a row, not touching anything. just thought you should know. i’m in a slight shock.. so.. thanks? thanks! i’m a patreon the moment I get my sh** together.
I Have been using vsts for 20 years now and i just found you today because i was searching for a pitch delay plugin.
What a loss, but better late then never.
I think that your work is amazing!
You are special!
Shall life always smile at you.
Greetings from Germany
Volker
+1 to the DC offset. otherwise great plug!
@Ian H.: It might me the one discussed in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG6sj0Q7FMI
Go ahead and fool with it and strip all its secrets… and see whether you believe, too :)
Thank you. Always
just got around to trying this out, i love what it’s doing but i’m experiencing some bugs. i have it on a kick and there are strange inconsistencies in its behaviour, the character of it will shift for sustained periods of time, sometimes for a while it’s fluffier, sometimes it’s more punchy and gritty, sometimes it’s less active altogether. i’ll also note that it outputs dc offset at varying levels when input ceases. i would greatly appreciate a fix for this as it’s doing exactly what i want to my kick (sometimes)
whoops, sorry, i meant to write comment this on “TexturizeMS”. i have not tried this version