jimmarchi1's Reviews

nice and clean

decent modelled EQ and a lovely VCA compressor... I use the comp all the time because it reminds me of my RNC or an E series channel comp. Doesn't exhibit the variable time constants over threshold of a 160 so the grabbiness is very consistent without sounding like bare bones software compressors. Best for taming peaks on sounds that moved air or DIed keyboards performed with a lot of dynamics... exhibits some of the bass roll off inherent in VCA hardware designs when doing DI bass guitar or treating kicks. Love the dry blend, I just wish there were some indicators of your time constant for attack because I like to start with a precise, tempo based figure and then adjust by ear. Excellent auto-release too if you're into that. Clean and precise sound a bit like bare bones software comps but without ever getting brittle. Both EQ and comp are classic emulations that everyone should have.

the image-line porting of MDA's classic old FM plugin

bare bones, 3 operator FM engine with infinitely variable waveshape on operator 1 to allow some TX81Z sounds. It has a semi-fixed algorithm where operator 1 is modulated by operator 2 and 3 when the envelopes are engaged and then you can vary the amount operator 3 modulated 2 with the 'thru' control on 2. This is a low CPU hit and in its Fruity guise the DX10 can also receive additional envelope shaping, filtering and LFO effects like the FL sampler channels which is really cool. Makes it into a subtractive with a final envelope gen, pitch delay/modulation engine and powerful arpeggiator. All n all this is a handy plugin that caneb made to sound really good by those knowledgeable in FM synthesis and the ways of the old school fruity loops tehcniques!

pretty emat and potatoes

this is a straightforward algorithmic reverb with all the usual parameters. She responds well to the gate in fruity limiter for non-lin, 80s patches or side-chained rhytymic effects. not much to say here.... she's a low CPU hit so you can use this in fruity to setup some complex ambiance sends and split sends where like 1 is all early reflections and another is just verb with no fear of overtaxing your CPU... that's generally when I wanna use this, when I am doing like a shimmer verb with tons of modulation and stuff and gating and then I want a standalone early reflections send so everything can be getting a different balance of close and distant reflections to create good front to back.... and maybe 2 more processor intensive sends for spring and plate. When I am eating up 10% of my resources just on a few of my echo sends before I even set up delays and stuff to feed those sends then this mediocre reverb's low CPU hit is a must.

3 stars?

I give her 3 stars because, though she provides a relatively convincing and tweakable vinyl sound I just find it to be cheesy to add fake crackle and pop so overtly,e ven when doing scratch effects on freshly recorded audio in the box. I use her once in a while, but there's something that rubs me the wrong way about adding noise back into pristine audio. Limiting bandwidth and headroom with speaker simulation or a telephone fitler is one thing, but soemthign about this justs creams inauthentic. but I have it and it tempts me from time to time. I used in an intro recently but tis was very subtle.

go get this and have a laugh

this plugin is just stupid fun although I doc it 2 stars for its genuine lack of utility.... it does 1 gimmick in a handful of shades and there are so many situations where if you're in FL like I am most of the time you will get more outta gross beat.... however this is super fun and a tiny CPU hit in part thanks to the host-based GUI. but you don't need a fancy GUI for something so overt and obvious.

gets the job done

Sounds just like the old Fruity Parametric but it ahs a bigger, more attractive GUI and a built in spectrograph. Very functional and surgical plugin for sure. Personally I seldom use it because I don't like tos ee the music unless my ears are completely stymied.

small pricetag but hguely useful

this thing evolved from the ass-kicking TDR slick EQ... its like 2 modified slicks stereo-ed together as a program EQ and is fantastic for adding character to a group, mix bus or fx send while fine tuning the response. Particularly useful after an SSL style bus compressor to correct any frequency related artifacts with way more precision than pultech inspired program equalizers. I really like this and I have been breaking it out a lot. Soemtimes just slapping it on the bus with a little saturation is enough to add back some mysterious depth or air back into a heavily compressed mix that's subtle but definteily missed when the effect is bypassed.

thumbs way up

this is a really nice little graphic EQ from SPL and its free.... you'll find yourself using it a lot for quick frequency notching as its got a more neutral character to tis cut than the waves 560 or other API emulations. It also has 1 less band and a number of different frequency centers that work on a wide variety of sources whereas I find the 560 to be very guitar-centric with its choice of bands. The Q on the bands is its own thing and its definitely useful. Another lovely gadget from SPL.... and they're just giving it away! If you have no other SPL plugins you should have this one.

sounds like an old orange squeezer and cna do stereo.

This really sounds like an orange squeezer. its skronky and grabby and mean. I've tried it on DI guitar and it adds some DI compressor pedal tone for sure but I really like it as an effect on virtual instruments right now. You can go under the hood and screw with the frequency response, time constants, threshold and ratio too, making it more or less hifi, but the stock settings are very close to an OS if that's what you want. I am thinking of trying this on a vocal some time, maybe something recorded with a decent dynamic like an SM7 or Beta57. This is free and you might as well download it because its up to the standards of a lot of pay guitar effect plugins.

Another winning 'character' compressor plugin.

I've enver used the ACME hardware but people love it or ahte it. I happen to like the emulation. I think its pretty damn cool. It reminds me a bit of an old Altec unit but maybe its just the Altec green and distinctive meters that make me think that. We are all susceptible to psychoacoustics. Anyway, this is a cool vocal compressor when you want something vintage and 'effecty' -- gives you something different than a virtual LA-2A but totally valid and cool. You just better like what it does because its basically slow, slower or molasses with time constants and it just does what it does.

Its an IR player.

Its a classic convultion reverb with the ability to laod up any IR that's been put into wav format. it hosts with a low CPU hit in FL. It has dry and wet levels, as well as stereo width for each and some basic controls like a pre-delay, stretch and self-convolve (which I don't understand but it can sound cool).... you also get a blendable graphical EQ where you just draw in the envelope with unlimited bands and continuously variable curves so you can go to town if you want shaping an impulse. Also, the screen that loads the impulses is a fully featured editor based around image line's Edison and you can dicker with an IR endlessly to create strange timbres. I actually really like this guy for hosting plate IRs and also use it 100% wet to run guitar cabinet impulses when I record my heads on a load box. This is a very good IR player all in all and is much easier on my CPU in FL than Altiverb, though man do I love Altiverb.

Its hard to beleive this is freeware.

This is just a fabulous emulation. I own an ESQ1 which came before the SQ-80. Both are basic wavetable synths with analog Curtis filters and fantastic midi implementation but the SQ80 is more fully featured and that's what this plugin emulates. Tonally this sits in the PPG wave and Korg wavestation camp though the wavetables are very simple and the 4 envelopes and LFOs aren't complex enough to make insane evolving patches like those synths are known for. I think this type of synth shines on post-FM keys patches and strange mono sync-leads. The filter emulation gets pretty close to my ESQ1 and if you set the saturation control to 'ensoniq' mode it certainly gets the whole thing in the gritty ballpark of the hardware I own. I find this guy a lot easier to program than my ESQ1 because its really easy to read the virtual display. Its pretty intuitive just like the hardware and if you've owned an ESQ1 or SQ80 you'll be right at home and dialing up killer patches right away. It maintains the ensoniq menu diving though, so not a tweak fest, but just like the ESQ1 this guy shines as a performance synth assigning parameters to wheels, velocity and aftertouch. Often I cannot be bothered to take my ESQ1 out of a closet and I roll with this plugin. Its great. Its also a lower CPU hit and easier to program than the legacy collection wavestation plugin, so if you don't need long, evolving pads from the wavestation try this guy. it can get grittier too. Its free so you owe it to yourself to try it if your DAW hosts VSTs.

simple and musical

A 3 band EQ with fixed center and Q that sounds really musical. When you just wanna paint in broad strokes because a sound is fighting to be heard then this guy is a good bet, however if you wanna add character to I find that this thing is pretty sonically neutral even though its GUI implies an analog character. You can use just about anything to achieve the results that BasiQ gets, but it won't be as fast. This is a wham-bam-thankyou-ma'am solution.

really cool, expanded SSL G sounds

A channel comp in the spirit of a G series but with a gob more features that take it into other styles of cmpression. I REALLY like this compressor and use it frequently anywhere I need VCA style compression. The continuously variable knee knob and RMS control are great for changing the squash on those below threshold notes and the tube knob seems to take her from crisp SSL into a more vintage territorywhere there's harmonics being added when the compressor is working but you still have that dbx/ssl character to the grab and squish.... I really like this thing and tip my hat to MSG again. Very underrated company.

a great virtual opto

its got the sluggish response you want from an opto compressor with fantastic control including a killer detection circuit.... this is one of those fully featured analog style plugins that can sound like a lot of the hardware pieces in its style. by shooting for one specific type of detection and providing a ton of tweakability it manages to really cover the bases its trying to cover and be a real workhorse. I mostly like this as a channel compressor over a bus compressor. But anyway, check this out on plugin alliance, its great. Gives you the best features of software with the sound of hardware we're all trained to love.

virtual 500 lunchbox with all the fixins' for 14.99 a month yearly?

for 15 bucks a month you get access to all his plugins and you can laod the virtual mix rack up with whatever you need on a critical channel ALL IN ONE INSERT SLOT leaving room for god knows what else. I really think his emulations of hardware EQs and compressors are some of the best around though for some reason I prefer the Waves CLA-76 blue line to Slate's blue series for mix rack. I also really enjoy the revival, monster and bomber as well as the air EQ. And of course I use the shit out of his Neve EQ and bus comp, smokes the waves V stuff. Hell, all the mix rack compressors kill it and the SSL EQ is my favorite emulation of the G series I've ever touched. I just wish he would work with some outside companies to port their designs to mix rack actually! Anyway, if you do a lot of in the box mixing at home you owe it to yourself tog et the demo of mix rack and think about a subscription. its really a deal. Much better value for dollar than a full waves subscription as there are NO duds and the mix rack format really allows you to make like your own custom foundation strips for certain instruments you use all the time. Just check this out.

the monthly subscription version is whats up

For a long time I had the platinum bundle I purchased many years ago back when the renaissance plugins were new and there were less of them, but I jumped over to the mercury subscription a while ago to have access to every damn thing waves makes. Now this is a mixed bag. All their plugins are good but some are really not very sueful and there are even a few I've enver even tried, hence 3 stars. I am docking 2 points for value, my credit card takes a pretty big hit every month and I really only use a smattering of these effects.... maybe I should invest in one of ther satellite processors to take the hit off my CPU so I will sue more of these bad boys on every mix. To me the standouts are a bunch of emulations (especially the waves exclusive ones) and some classics from their original batch of plugins and from the good old ren pack:

Non-linear Summer... I am ntos ure what kidna math its doing but it changes the way thigns sit together when mixing in the box. Its not like summing analog but its not the way your DAW normally sums. I try this all the time in the early mixing pahses. It might come off the master and go some critical sub groups or come out entirely but I try it. Its doing something mystical and Pythagorean.

Renaissance Channel

Renaissance compressor, although I am really coming around to H-Comp and both these comps need their own review

R-verb

tru-verb

S1 stereo imager

Maxx Bass

Sub Align

Smack Attack

Linear Phase Multiband Compressor and C4 multiband

CLA-2A

CLA-3A

CLA-76

DBX160

BSS 402

Kramer HLS channel, PIE comp & Master Tape (for the slapback echo, love it at simulated 7.5 IPS, crunchy)

the Aphex Exciter

API 2500

Puig-child

Puig-tech

Butch Vig Vocals

Mondo Mod

super tap

Metafilter

Metaflanger

Ultra pitch

W43, WNS noise suppressor, X plugins, Z noise

In-phase is super handy and I use it constantly, but I do a lot of layering of DI synths, mixing of miced amps and DI as well as non-stereo multimic recording of mono sources, so this is very helpful if I didn't get the phase sympathetic in tracking like using the little labs phase correction box when mixing analog

all 3 ultramaximizers, but L2 and the L3 multi are my favorites... I actually don't love these on the stereo bus, I use them other ways usually... ask me and I might tell you my secrets

great little compressor/limiter

this is a great, bare bones, opto limiting amplifier type compressor... sounds good on just about anything that you wanna paint with a broad brush. I frequently use this on my 303 and Volca Bass tracks to take care of the volume jumps when you get the filter oscillating and screaming. I think it handles that kinda thing really well, particularly if you have a little gentle multiband compression in front of it evening things out during the more subdued acid sweeps and squawks.

it vocodes

this is a good, meat and potatoes vocoder based around 70s phone company and military hardware like Kraftwerk used... pan one signal hard right and the other left, pop this on a stereo subgroup and pop those hard panned channels into it. Start tweaking until your dub-step cover of 'we are the robots' is perfect.

wanna bit-reduce? they got ya

a nice, simple bit crusher, sounds fine, uses the native gui for a super low CPU/ram hit.... great stuff