XNotch
TL;DW: XNotch is a distorted digital EQ, inspired by retro sampler DSP.
This is a little different from some of the X series filters. I was asked whether I could do a notch filter like the other stuff I’d been doing: all these filters with Nuke controls that do crazy things when you distort them.
This is not quite like that.
XNotch is the same topology: biquad filters, with distortion stages in there. But instead of distorting inside the filter for crazy behavior and weird noises, this one distorts BETWEEN stages of filtering and that makes it act much more normal. So… why would I include it in the weird-zone with stuff like XHighpass?
Because the combination of those things and the dry/wet control makes it INCREDIBLY useful.
What you do is, for a sound source (for instance a kick drum mic), you dial in a notch where you want it. As you add input drive, or increase Nuke, the saturation will get more and more intense, but only apply to the stuff outside the notch. You can thicken up percussive sounds very well this way, or take drum overheads and focus on the treble sparkle by notching out midrange, or sweep it around for a phasey effect (this plugin is unusually well-behaved for automation, for some reason the notch biquad takes modulation better than usual) and then bring in dry to balance the intensity of the effect.
But if you’re using it to thicken up sounds, you can continue to push the saturation or Nuke while you’re doing that, which means you’re contouring both the tone and the compression of just the stuff you’re trying to enhance, and balancing it against a dry signal that’s effectively uncompressed/unsaturated. The real reason I knew I had to put this out just as it was, is because it became easy to just dial this stuff in, with very few controls, and no fuss.
It doesn’t do crazy things (unless you count allowing for heavy distortion) but the thing it does, is a thing I’ve been needing. I think it might replace Console7Cascade for some of my drum tracks, just because it can saturate and also notch, which will give me a way broader spectrum of available, useful tones.
And now you’ve got that, too :)
The plugin zip at the top has the older Mac builds and the Win32 in a ‘Retro’ folder, as before, and the signed Mac AU and VST in a .dmg file. And here’s the downloads of all plugins, by platform type.
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.
Sounds great for filter sweeping a bass. Nice work.