These Plugins Sound AMAZING… Except One

video upload by Keith Crosley

"Space Age Strings, Traveler 1.1, Arturia MiniFreak V, and Liminal Space 2 RC6: three plugins I'm excited about, and one that's... fine. Your old pal Keith demos vintage strings, custom wavetable import, Bloom and reverse reverb, and gloriously backward shoegaze. Grab your mod wheel for another episode of your favorite talky synthesizer content show!

First up: Authentic Soundware's Space Age Strings, with gorgeous legatos, vintage ribbon-mic character, and serious Mancini energy. We pair those nine violins with Liminal Space 2's new Space Age Scoring Stage preset and compare the library's built-in reverb with some algorithmic spaciousness.

Then we revisit Traveler! Version 1.1 fixes the big wavetable-workflow frustrations from my previous review: now I can point it at my existing KRC Mathwaves folders without duplicating gigabytes of content. Cue polygonal bells, Morlet wavelet vowels, and a much happier Keith. We also try MiniFreak V's new user-wavetable import. It's great to have it, but I've got opinions about the workflow, the effects, and whether the software version floats my boat.

Finally, we explore my Liminal Space 2 RC6 reverb for macOS and Windows: MIDIverb II-inspired Bloom sounds, reverse-style swells, ACTUAL reversed audio, and instant imaginary Cocteau Twins guitar with Native Instruments' Electric Sunburst Deluxe. We build Bloom effects on piano, shape them with curves and wavetables, and explore Reverse Capture's Diffuse and Clear modes. Then we get dark and wobbly with Clockwarp and the new Vulture 224 filter, inspired by Alex at Vulture Culture. Woot!

Disclosure: Authentic Soundware kindly supplied Space Age Strings; this is not paid placement. I purchased Traveler myself. Liminal Space 2 and KRC Mathwaves are my own products. Liminal Space 2 is demonstrated in RC6; the RC7 Follow feature is teased for a future video."

You can find wavetables and additional resources by Keith Crosley available at https://www.wavetables.lol.

CHAPTERS:
0:00 Opening sounds: a little space-age spy music
0:45 Four plugins and what's new in Liminal Space 2 RC6
1:07 Space Age Strings: vintage violins and Mancini magic
4:23 The sketch: Jazz Anthology Drums and Space Age Rhythm
6:30 More articulations and Space Age Scoring Stage
8:07 Dry strings, vintage ribbon mics and room sound
10:02 Built-in IR reverb vs. Liminal Space 2
11:46 The Sound Test Room and Vulture Culture
14:06 Traveler 1.1: revisiting the wavetable workflow
16:03 Polygonal wavetables and supernatural bells
17:52 Importing folders without duplicating your wavetables
20:28 Morlet wavelets and wavetable modulation
22:01 Traveler 1.1 verdict
22:57 MiniFreak V: new user-wavetable import
26:10 MiniFreak impressions and modulation
28:53 Importing your own Mathwaves
31:48 MiniFreak effects vs. Liminal Space
35:57 RC6 guitar demo: Bloom and reverse reverb
37:20 MIDIverb II inspiration and shoegaze sounds
38:41 Preset search and the 45 / 49 Bloom sounds
41:58 Scattering and Micro Pitch: hello, Cocteau Twins
43:25 Reverse-style swells vs. actual reversed audio
45:44 Building a Bloom patch from scratch
47:02 Rise Amount, Rise Window and curve shaping
49:10 Early reflections and how Bloom spreads energy
51:03 Rounded, Swell and Wavetable shapes
53:31 Sometimes It Blooms: modulating the effect
54:26 Reverse Capture: Diffuse and Clear modes
56:40 Capture length, splice and dispersion
57:55 Clear Return: bringing out the backward attacks
59:50 Vulture Culture, Clockwarp and Lexicon-style motion
1:02:46 The idea behind the Vulture 224 filter
1:04:23 Derez, aliasing and Sand Reduction
1:06:26 Vulture 224: Single and Double filtering
1:08:33 Comparing the analog and digital filter responses
1:09:54 Coming in RC7: Follow, and final thoughts