ONE-SHOTS
Mar 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Jason Scott Alexander
UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLATE 140
UAD-1 EFFECT PLUG-IN
Invented in 1957 by German company EMT, the now-legendary EMT-140 plate reverb was a 600-pound monstrosity that used a 458-foot resonating sheet of metal, coupled with a pair of transducers and a mechanical damper, to create wonderfully lush and distinctive stereo reverb tones that put basic spring reverbs to shame. Unfortunately, only those with $10,000 of bling in their back pocket could afford it. Fast-forward half a century, and Plate 140 brings this classic major-studio sound to Universal Audio's UAD-1 platform.
Available in Audio Units, VST, DX, MAS and RTAS formats, the plug-in emulates the sonic signature of three unique EMT-140s (bright, medium and dark) lovingly housed at the Plant Studios in Sausalito, Calif. Featuring a dead-simple GUI closely based on real plate system components, Plate 140 provides control of plate selection, discrete reverb times/damper placement per plate (approximately one to five seconds), predelay (0 to 250 ms), percentage width (stereo pickup placement on the plate) and dry/wet mix with handy always-wet override button. Also included are low (20 Hz to 2 kHz) and high (200 Hz to 20 kHz) shelving EQs, each with 12 dB of cut and boost. Plate 140 added unmistakable character to everything I threw at it, producing incredibly smooth and dense reverb tails containing complex reflections that consistently tickled the ear. Dialing through the 32 presets, I treated acoustic piano to some radiant new stereo presence and instantly back-dated sampled string arrangements to such a silky state that even the fifth Beatle would be proud. Drums felt best through medium Plate B, but for a punkier lo-fi, '70s feel, I loved the darkness of Plate C with a smidge of predelay. On vocals, Plate A sounds absolutely superb: thick and pillowy just like the original. And, faithfully, it doesn't obscure the source.
UNIVERSAL AUDIO
PLATE 140 > $149
At a glance: Classic German plate reverb brought to the UAD-1 platform.
Contact: www.uaudio.com
WHITE NOISE AUDIO SOFTWARE ZERO VECTOR 1.0
VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT
With his latest piece of code, WNAS founder David Wallin combines virtual-analog, digital-wavetable and vector-synthesis techniques into a Windows-only VSTi with a far more versatile and distinguished sound than the simplistic interface would have you believe. Three oscillators each offer a choice of 66 waveforms (classic analog and hybrid digital/sampled) as well as FM, sync and ring modulation. A Clone control creates a detuned copy of each oscillator, effectively making ZV a six-oscillator synth. The dual 12dB/octave filters are real gems, including some cool vocal-formant eccentricities, capable of being routed in series or in parallel and colored with varying degrees of analog-style clipping to nastify things. Two basic ADSRV amplifier and filter envelopes pale in comparison to the rather extravagantly designed dual multienvelopes found in ZV's eight-slot, 21-source, 19-destination modulation section.
Of course, the tripole Vector Pad is central to ZV's main forte of sweeping, ambient pads; lush strings; and glistening washes. Designed to mix among the three oscillators along any recordable path, freestyle pad-programming by mouse is a snap. Punchy analog/digital hybrid basses and searing lead sounds are also strong points, benefiting from some of the most colorful and musical filters in any synth I've tweaked. More than 500 fabulous-sounding presets are packaged to get you going, but thanks to an intuitively quick user interface, you'll surely find Zero Vector's greatest reward to be in rolling your own.
WHITE NOISE AUDIO SOFTWARE
ZERO VECTOR 1.0 > $149
At a glance: Analog, wavetable VSTi featuring tripole vector synthesis. Windows-only.
Contact: www.whitenoiseaudio.com
SAMPLELAB DISCOGRAPHY
SAMPLE COLLECTION
From relative newcomer SampleLab of the UK, this three-CD collection of highly inventive dancefloor material manages to stand out among today's crowded breakbeat and genre-specific construction-kit discs. Representing a bumper crop of infectious, interchangeable and stackable electro-acoustic breaks and rhythm-instrument loops (such as electric bass, disco/wah guitar and assorted hand percussion), Discography successfully captures the live charms of early disco (thankfully minus the cheese) while injecting progressive studio elements through killer beat programming and meticulous TDM processing.
The emphasis is on a powerful mix-and-match style of groove building, around which you can later add your own melodies and synth parts — so don't expect to see any complementary lead lines, hooks, transitions, drop effects or pads. Not confined to the thematic hard arrangement often dictated by conventional construction kits, the 600-plus loops are loosely grouped by style (albeit variations of four-on-floor club) and broken out by tempo (120, 122, 125, 128 and 130 bpm) or key. In use, the beats simply demand attention and act as absolute sonic anchors to a mix. Busy and full — often with integrated reverb, tempo-synchronized delays, flanges and doses of distortion — they're truly some of the most intricate and best-produced and mixed loops I've heard. If the stylings of Basement Jaxx, Groove Armada, Oliver Lieb or Peter Rauhofer are up your alley, this library is for you.
SAMPLELAB (DIST. BY EAST WEST)
DISCOGRAPHY > $99.95
At a glance: Multiformat (audio/WAV/EXS24/HALion/ReFill) 24-bit sample library chock-full of bootylicious progressive disco beats and phrase loops.
Contact: www.samplelab.com or www.soundsonline.com
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