ONE-SHOTS
Sep 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Jason Scott Alexander
FABFILTER VOLCANO 1.1
FILTER PLUG-IN
Amsterdam-based FabFilter got its feet wet programming filters with its 2004 release of One, a soft synth that forged its own identity thanks to a unique-sounding cutoff-filter design and implementation. Volcano picks up as a versatile plug-in featuring two independent filters with selectable response, slope and sound characteristics; two LFOs; a triggered envelope generator; and a busy yet manageable interactive filter display. You can choose from five different filter characteristics, including selections with moderate overdrive, raw self-oscillating types and even the award-winning One filter. Frequency, peak and panning settings can be modulated by LFO or trigger envelope, and stereo balance effects are free of phase problems. The LFOs have triangle and square waveforms and can be synchronized to the host tempo.
Filter plug-ins are more than abundant today, so what sets Volcano on fire enough to shell out 140 bucks? Besides being one of the smoothest and richest-sounding pairs of filters on its own, when in combination mode, the filters interplay with such musical-sounding results that it's easy to forget you're dealing with a mere filter plug-in, not some monster modular synth. The richness and tonal contour sound distinctively hybrid, and the Smart Parameter Interpolation technology made good on its guarantee of no click or pop annoyances during extreme tweaks. Volcano comes with dozens of presets, though I quickly assembled some originals out of sheer inspiration.
FABFILTER
VOLCANO 1.1 > $139
At a glance: Analog-sounding filter-bank plug-in for Windows VST 2 and Mac OS X (Panther or higher) AU and VST 2.
Contact: www.fabfilter.com
EVENTIDE H3000 FACTORY
TDM PLUG-IN EFFECT
Plenty of people talk about harmonizers in the studio, but it's easy to forget just where that catchphrase really came from: Eventide. Now, the little New Jersey company that could has taken its ultimate Harmonizer technology over to the Digidesign Pro Tools platform, extending the company's reach in the software-effects market and answering the call of TDM users everywhere. Strategically bundled as part of the blockbuster Anthology TDM pack — which also includes replicas of the PS-101 Instant Phaser, FL-201 Instant Flanger, Omnipressor, H910, H949, H3000 Band Delays, Eventide Reverb and Octavox (from the Orville series) — the H3000 Factory scores points by bringing over all of the factory algorithms from the popular Harmonizer 3000 hardware unit. The plug-in features the ability to patch together any combination of 18 effects blocks, and you can select from delays, amplitude modulators, envelope followers, pitch shifters, filters and low-frequency oscillators. The Function Generator features 19 wave shapes, a white-noise generator, MIDI control and a sidechain input. All delays and LFOs can be locked to system tempo, and each delay, in addition to offering a lowpass filter, can be looped. The filters are selectable lowpass, bandpass and highpass with variable Q, and they can be swept and modulated without audible artifacts.
H3000 Factory hits every mark squarely: Sonically, it's a silky-smooth-sounding masterpiece of code that will charm your vocals and guitars and play marvelous tricks on your synths and beats. Staying true to the hardware interface, though, controlling it is still as unintuitive as the original ever was. With more than 200 parameters in all, the plug-in is a tweaker's paradise, with routing possibilities being nearly bottomless.
EVENTIDE
H3000 FACTORY > $1,195 (BUNDLED WITH ANTHOLOGY, NOT SOLD SEPARATELY)
At a glance: TDM HD and Accel plug-in for Mac and Windows XP.
Contact: www.eventide.com
NATIVE INSTRUMENTS SYNTHETIC DRUMS 2
KITS FOR NI BATTERY AND KONTAKT
Rebounding on the success of SD1, Native Instruments hired the services of renowned international artists from various electronic genres to put together a most-eclectic collection of dance kits for Battery 2 and Kontakt. Recorded as 24-bit, 44.1kHz WAV files, some 4,500 samples occupy nearly 600 MB of disk space. The samples are arranged into 36 kits, each optimized into KT2 and NKI formats, making heavy use of the varied sound-processing features such as filters, loops, velocity, effects and modulation. Typically spanning five or six octaves and 3 to 59 MB each, the kits are extremely diverse, covering house, hip-hop, IDM, techno, trance, R&B, drum 'n' bass and more. Surprisingly, or not, the library feels completely solid and focused despite its breadth, and kits can traverse musical styles with ease.
Kits range from solid groove makers to more minimalist sonic-seasoning eccentricities. Across the board, I was knocked out by the quality and obvious abundance of time that went into crafting each sound. And the kits themselves are superbly crafted and sit perfectly in the mix; sound choices are coherent and complementary (kick/reverse kick, snare/variant-pitched/variant-envelope snare and so on) to the point that you cannot possibly make a lame groove with this stuff. The end product always sounds like a tweaked-out custom loop production that you've slaved at for hours.
NATIVE INSTRUMENTS
SYNTHETIC DRUMS 2 > $119
At a glance: Drum and percussion kits for Battery 2 and Kontakt 1 or 2. Stand-alone or VST 2, DXi, RTAS, AU.
Contact: www.native-instruments.com
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