ANTARES FILTER
Apr 1, 2004 12:00 PM, BY JOHN McJUNKIN
Antares has given musicians some wonderful products, including the ubiquitous Auto-Tune plug-in — a tool that has been used on practically every vocal in every track on every album in every genre for the past five years. And there's a reason why people use Antares products: They're good. Also, Antares is not afraid to color outside the lines. Most of the company's products (except those ideas that have been “borrowed” by other developers), such as Microphone Modeler and Kantos 1.0, are unique and not available anywhere else. So when I approached Filter, I thought, “Wow, what is Antares up to with such a seemingly pedestrian plug-in?” That's before I delved into the details and discovered that Filter is a whole lot more than just a filter.
WHAT IT IS
First of all, Filter (RTAS and VST for Mac and PC, MAS for Mac only and DirectX for PC only) is not just one, but four identical filters. All four are true stereo processors, affecting left and right channels discretely. Each works in lowpass, highpass, bandpass or notch mode. The Q width, which is represented numerically as a percentage, is adjustable and yields realistic self-resonance at high values, nicely approximating real analog filters. Slope is also adjustable with four available settings: 2-pole (12dB/octave), 4-pole (24dB/octave), 6-pole (36dB/octave) and a supersteep 8-pole (48dB/octave). The filters can be linked, as well, in three different modes. In Single Master mode, a single filter is used as the master, and all filters linked to it are affected by changes in frequency. In Series Link mode, multiple filters are linked in a series, with the first controlling all subsequent filters, the second affecting the third and the fourth and the third affecting only the fourth. The Combo Link mode empowers you to combine the other two modes with a boatload of possible permutations. This is a powerful feature.
Each filter has its own associated delay, which can be used with or without filtering and can be inserted pre- or post-filter. I like to be able to have a filter open or closed throughout the long decay of a delay. The delay times are continuously variable from 0 to 2,000 ms, or, when synched to the host, available note values range from 32nd to whole notes, as well as dotted and triplet variations. The delays feature feedback and mix controls, too. Each filter-delay combination has level and panning and a phase-reverse switch. A really nice graphical display shows you exactly what you're doing, with each filter's spectral curve represented by a color: yellow, blue, red or green. There is a vertical and horizontal line on an x-y axis in the display corresponding to each filter. You can grab the intersection and drag it where you want it — if you're lazy like me, and you don't care to turn knobs or type in the frequency or Q settings.
ADD TO THE MIX
Filter also sports four function generators, each with an LFO and an ADSR envelope generator. The limited space in the GUI results in only being able to show the LFO or the EG at once in each of the four filters, but all four LFOs and all four EGs are online and available at all times. The LFOs sport 10 different waveforms: sine, triangle, ramp up, ramp down, square, short pulse, long pulse, random hold, random slew and random ramp. True pulse-width modulation would be nice, but with 50/50, 75/25 and 25/75 duty cycles available, you're in pretty good shape. The random shapes are really interesting. The random hold is the traditional one that you know, but the random slew changes smoothly from one point to the next rather than abruptly like the traditional type. The random ramp waveform starts each cycle at a random level, then ramps down to the minimum point before jumping back up to a new random level — pretty slick.
The EGs are plain vanilla ADSR but have some other infrastructure tweaks that make them quite useful. They can be triggered by either of Filter's internal rhythm generators or externally via MIDI. I like that a lot! The MT (MIDI Trigger) mode simply triggers the envelope you've developed while MG (MIDI Gate) mode hangs at your predetermined sustain level until a Note Off message comes along, and then it decays — very nice! You can also set a delay between the trigger and the execution of the attack, and you have a choice of setting the times in the envelope in either milliseconds or a percentage of a beat. Obviously, the point of setting times in percentages is to retain relative time when tempo changes, but note-value settings would be a nice addition here. My lazy brain hates to do math! Envelope values can be entered by graphically dragging the display or by typing in the numbers.
Among the other modifiers available is an envelope follower, which is useful for creating auto-wah effects. Also, as said before, there are two rhythm generators: clocked drum-machine-style units that provide user-programmed rhythmic information to the modulation matrix or triggers for the EGs. Tempo for these generators can come from the host, internally or from MIDI, as you might expect. When tempo is controlled by the host, the grid cells correspond with the selected beat division (from 32nd-note triplets to two tied whole notes). The “repeat point” of each generator can be set independently, enabling odd time-signature “sequences.” The generators can be synched to the host yet take tempo information from an independent MIDI source. One particularly neat trick there is to turn the output of a filter on and off rhythmically with control from the generator, like you'd do with an externally triggered gate.
Both of the remaining controls are essentially routing matrices. The filter-routing matrix affords six different signal-routing combinations, including parallel, serial and various combinations thereof. The modulation matrix is a key part of the entire package, enabling the modulation of whatever parameters you like with any number of control signals. Twelve patches are available in this matrix, probably more than you'd ever really need. Among the available control signals are the four LFOs, the four EGs, the envelope follower and the two rhythm generators. External control signals are also available to you via MIDI. You can set up as many as four independent channels of MIDI control, each corresponding to Note On, Note Off, velocity, mod wheel, pitch bend, pressure, volume and pan. Regardless of the name of the controller, they can be assigned to any of Filter's controllable parameters. Specifically, these parameters are filter frequency, Q, gain and pan, followed by delay time and feedback. The real power there, however, is in the “special modulation parameters,” which give you four channels of modulation that can be fed to other modulation patches — a controller controls a controller, if you will. This can be a little mind-boggling, but once you play with it, you'll discover that it can yield some nice effects for you.
THE FINAL BOUNCE
So how does it sound? Marvelous. These are good-quality filters that closely emulate analog boxes. The high-Q resonance is nice, ranging from a shrill whistle up high to hooting down low. They don't remind me of any particular analog filter in terms of character, but they just sound great. They really add some thickness in the low mids, as well. I toyed with running vocals through the software, which was great, but the most fun I had was to take various soft synths, open the filters wide (or leave them out of the path altogether) and use Filter to do the job. There, it really sounded huge. Put the quality of the filters aside, and look at the tweakability yielded by the modulation matrix, rhythm generators, LFOs and EGs, and this is a really powerful tool. The program just begs for me to put together a drum 'n' bass track using a triplet figure from the rhythm generator to open and close a lowpass filter on a ripping bass patch. As a matter of fact, I'm going to stop writing now — I want to get back to playing with Filter right away!
Product Summary
ANTARES
Filter > $199
Pros: Intuitive design. Excellent sound quality. Flexible routing. Highly responsive.
Cons: None.
Contact: tel. (831) 461-7800; e-mail info@antarestech.com; Web www.antarestech.com
System Requirements
MAC: Any compatible OS 9.x/10.2 or later RTAS- MAS- or VST-based host program
PC: Any compatible Windows 98/2000/ME/NT/XP RTAS- VST- or DirectX-based host program
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