"United Plugins introduces Instant Audio’s QuickMuse as ultimate plug-in to ignite creativity powered by magic of randomness
'QuickMuse is my to-go inspiration muse as one of the easiest and best multi-effect plug-ins in my arsenal; two to three clicks and you have a vital, spacey sound with multi-faceted textures.'
- Future Bass- and Future Pop-specialising songwriter, composer, and producer Flashback One, 2023
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC: independent development teams federation United Plugins is proud to announce availability of Instant Audio’s QuickMuse as another cross-brand collaboration between founding partner SounDevice Digital (forever fine-tuning tools based on longterm experience of mixing many recordings in its namesake SounDevice Studio) and FireSonic (famed for its always-searching-for-a- shortcut attitude) — duly delivering a multitude of instant yet unique results, injecting fresh and unpredictable elements into compositions, productions, and sound design as the ultimate plug-in for igniting creativity powered by the magic of randomness — representing the latest in a series of tools to instantly assist anyone in achieving their desired sound, as of November 1...
FIRE, EARTH, AIR, WATER, and AETHER It is unfair to simply call QuickMuse an audio plug-in since there are five unique effects — FIRE, EARTH, AIR, WATER, and AETHER— at its creative core. Combining to unlock a world of sonic possibilities, all are inspired by their elemental namesakes. Needless to say, QuickMuse is simple to use as a smart randomising multi-effect; quickly clicking on the centralised ‘random button’ instantly generates inspirational settings using all five elements, as well as rearranging the ORDER in which they are processed in the effect chain. Thankfully, the random algorithm at its heart is ‘smart’, so it intelligently selects combinations of settings that work well together to give good results — read: no nasty or weird results. Repeatability is far from likely, however, given the sheer volume of hidden parameters it controls. (Ultimately, users can choose to manually control that ORDER by simply dragging and dropping those elements’ symbols accordingly, as well as bypassing their corresponding effect by double-clicking on any element, so random single effects are also achievable.)
United Plugins puts past into present with JMG Sound Retronaut, realised as LoFi Nostalgia Machine multi-effect plug-in
“I hate to overuse superlatives, but, it has to be said, within a minute of trying out the amazing features of the Retronaut plug-in, I was astounded. Its versatility will work across all manner of instruments, from guitars to drums; I even tried some of the effects on a piano piece, and the results were extraordinary. This is going to be a great asset for film and media compositions, as well as my commercial recordings.”
- Chris Payne, orchestral composer for film and television/synthpop pioneer (co-writer of Visage's 1981 hit single ‘Fade to Grey’/former Gary Numan backing band member), 2023
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC: independent development teams federation United Plugins is proud to announce availability of Retronaut from founding partner JMG Sound — swinging back into action and putting the (analogue) past into the (DAW-driven) present as a so-called LoFi Nostalgia Machine multi-effect plug-in, perfectly capturing the vibe of old analogue gear by mixing bucket brigade chips, cassette tapes, VCFs (Voltage-Controlled Filters), vintage choruses, vinyl records, and more to transport its users back in time to explore their magical (musical) memories — as of February 15...
Explore the past History has it that mankind has not only travelled the world and the ‘Seven Seas’ but beyond that to take one giant leap to touch down on the Moon, meaning the sky is not the limit. Steps still need to be taken to literally leave future footprints further away from the natural satellite of Earth, yet reality reasons that humanity cannot physically step back in time to explore the past in person, however, rather relying on history to tell its story. Saying that, Retronaut, JMG Sound’s so-called LoFi Nostalgia Machine, musically transports those interested in exploring their magical (musical) memories from where they originated; after all, music has a miraculous ability to transport anyone back in time. Therefore, seatbelts should be securely fastened in readiness for an ‘analogue’ expedition through history!
LoFi Nostalgia Machine Make sure, then, that those seatbelts are securely fastened, for an ‘analogue’ expedition through history awaits as Retronaut is assuredly announced as a multi-voice vibrato and chorus plug-in, pulsating with lo-fi effects. Indeed, it is inspired by old analogue gear with which wisened ears welcoming warmth will already be familiar — think bucket brigade chips, cassette tapes, VCFs, vintage choruses, and vinyl records... Retronaut revisits that nostalgic musical magic of the past, putting it into the (DAW-driven) present with multiple ways to age and DEGRADE the signal being processed, thanks to controls for FLUTTER (adds random fluctuations to the modulation shape, simulating tape flutter); DUST (adds noise to the modulation shape); FAIL (adds random glitches of pitch and level drops to simulate old failing gear); WARP (adds pitch drift and a little tremolo at half-rate to all the VOICES globally); DIRT (controls the amount of tape-style saturation); FEED (controls the amount of cross-feedback by taking the outputs of the VOICES and feeding them into each other); and MONO (switches the signal to mono, simulating old gear with only one speaker, such as radios).
DIVERGE, MOD, MIX, and more Meanwhile, it is possible to offset the multi-voice engine — enabling users to MIX from a single vibrato voice up to 4 VOICES, resulting in a rich chorus — in various ways to create organic and evolving movements via the DIVERGE section: SPREAD (offsets the LFO phase in the left and right channels); LAG (introduces a time delay for each voice); PHASE (offsets the LFO phase for each voice); V2 SCALE (offsets the voice 2 modulation rate from the main modulation rate); V3 SCALE (offsets the voice 3 modulation rate from the main modulation rate); V4 SCALE (offsets the voice 4 modulation rate from the main modulation rate); and RESYNC (resets the LFO phases). But beating at the musical heart of Retronaut is its MOD (modulation) section with HP MOD (controls the modulation depth of the virtual analogue high-pass filter in both positive and negative polarity) and LP MOD (controls the modulation depth of the virtual analogue low-pass filter in both positive and negative polarity); dialling down the modulation depth for the vibrato effect with the associated VIBE control and then using other effects encourages that warm, woolly, and compressed tape sound. Shape the tone with the VCF section — anchored around those virtual analogue high-pass and low-pass filters, switchable between 2 (12dB per octave) and 4 (24dB per octave) POLE slopes, with RESO (resonance) control — and MIX to perfection. Possibilities are endless, almost: add lo-fi to drums, rich chorus to synths, and lush reverb to anything... ask orchestral composer for film and television/synthpop pioneer Chris Payne (Visage, Gary Numan), who was well versed in working with original analogue gear — of the kind that inspired Retronaut — on a number of historic hit records. “I particularly love the DEGRADE section, which can add a huge amount of expression to any sound you use,” he enthuses, ending on an equally high note: “I’ll certainly be building up a huge library of sounds using Retronaut over the coming months, and cannot wait to get started with it on my forthcoming projects.”
Key features: Captures the vibe of old analogue gear, mixing bucket brigade chips, cassette tapes, vintage choruses, and more in one powerful multi- effect plug-in Smoothly mix from a single vibrato voice up to four, resulting in a rich chorus Add that nostalgic lo-fi (musical) magic with the DEGRADE section — age sound from gentle dust and warmth to old, broken gear Control each voice independently with the DIVERGE section — offset them in various ways to create organic and evolving movements
JMG Sound’s Retronaut is available to purchase for a time-limited introductory promo price of only €24.00 EUR until March 19, 2023 — rising thereafter to its regular price of €89.00 EUR — as an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-compatible plug-in (using internal 64-bit audio processing capable of handling any sample rate) directly from its dedicated webpage (https://unitedplugins.com/Retronaut/), where a 15-day, fully-functional trial version for macOS 10.10 and newer and Windows 8/10/11 can also be downloaded for free.
Note that no iLok, dongle, or internet access is required for Retronaut activation. (All United Plugins software uses license files for activation and owners can freely use purchased software — with free-for-life updates — on all their computers, as long as they are the user.)
United Plugins announces availability of JMG Sound Cryostasis SPECTRAL INERTIA effect enabling progressive audio smearing until infinitely frozen in time
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC: independent development teams federation United Plugins is proud to announce availability of founding partner JMG Sound’s highly-creative Cryostasis plug-in — an appropriately-named SPECTRAL INERTIA effect enabling progressive smearing any audio of until it is infinitely frozen in time, thanks to spectral effects and controls that shape the character of the frozen tail to blur audio into atmospheric soundscapes — as of October 6…
Cryostasis itself is defined as being the reversible cryopreservation of live biological objects; on the face of it, then, it is also an appropriate name for an effect plug-in placing music into a state of inertia — if it is possible to imagine such a thing. Thankfully, the imaginative team at JMG Sound have come up with a spectral freeze effect called Cryostasis to do just that, so users can concentrate on taking their music into a different direction, both speedily and easily, thanks to its spectral effects and controls that shape the character of the frozen tail to blur audio into atmospheric soundscapes. All are controlled by a continuously variable ‘freeze’ knob or an auto switch that can be timed in milliseconds or musical measures. Manually control the freezing process with the aforesaid knob or tell Cryostasis how quickly to take the sound from normal to frozen, in other words.
What is more, though, is that there is more to the superficially simple-looking Cryostasis plug-in than might first meet the eye. Examples of this include the SIZE parameter, which will change the time length of the spectral window, which will in itself completely change the sonic character — lower values sound unnatural and robotic, while higher values sound smoother and atmospheric. And balancing out the easy-on-the-eye GUI (Graphical User Interface) is WASH, which controls the amount of reverb that is used to diffuse and smoothen the ‘freeze’ effect into a lush and smoothly modulated reverb tail. Try creating spaced-out ambience and soundscapes that dissolve into the ether — surely sweet (ambient) dreams are made of this, while it can even be used as a sound design tool to create frozen vocal loops to load into a sampler!
Saying that, users can quickly fine-tune the resulting frozen sound colour with four filter controls — PITCH (controls the depth of pitch shift scaled by the ‘freeze’ control, with a range of -24 to +24 semitones); FILTER (controls the HP — high-pass — and LP — low-pass — filtering depth scaled by the ‘freeze’ control); LOFI (controls the amount of BITS and RATE reduction scaled by the ‘freeze’ control); and SHIFT (controls the frequency shifting scaled by the ‘freeze’ control, with a range of -1kHz to +1kHz) — to achieve even more unique results. Creatively coupling that LOFI magic with lower SIZE values makes creating dirty robotic glitches to washed-out dusty soundscapes a breeze. It is also possible to create a tape-stop-type effect — whereby the sound appears to slow down over time until it is completely frozen forever — by coupling the ‘freeze’ effect with the built-in PITCH shifter.
And as if that was not enough to get Cryostasis users shaking with excitement — and hopefully not from an energy crisis-induced cold when working with Cryostasis in colder climes, it is well worth noting that it also has continuously variable freeze functionality — unlike most other freeze plug-ins, so users can smoothly transition between freeze states, or even partially freeze to create time-smearing effects.
As always, JMG Sound’s highly-creative Cryostasis plug-in shares several admirable attributes with fellow family members now numbering 26 plug-ins, each playing their part in United Plugins’ proliferating product portfolio, providing maximum audio quality by using internal 64-bit audio processing as well as being able to handle any sampling rate — why not try it at 192 kHz (or even higher)? — and also the fact that it intelligently detects whether it makes sense to perform any processing at all; if not, it temporarily turns on sleep mode, meaning it requires virtually no CPU power at all, thereby saving computing resources for other processes. Putting a photorealistic 3D yet flexible GUI to the test with Cryostasis, likewise, leaves its users with the impression that they are working with real world hardware; however, it easily adapts to their needs since they can always drag the arrow at the bottom-right corner to change its size — smaller to save precious ‘screen estate’ or larger to make it easier on the eye and, as a result, even easier to use than it already is.
It is fair to say, then, that there are (almost) endless possibilities for Cryostasis users to craft creative transitions that are applicable to single tracks or whole songs in the studio or on stage. Surely getting frozen has never been so much fun — or so quickly reversible!
JMG Sound’s Cryostasis is available to purchase for a time-limited introductory promo price of only €19.00 EUR until November 13, 2022 — rising thereafter to its regular price of €79.00 EUR — as an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-compatible plug-in (using internal 64-bit audio processing capable of handling any sample rate) directly from its dedicated webpage (https://unitedplugins.com/Cryostasis/), where a 15-day, fully-functional trial version for macOS 10.10 and newer and Windows 8/10 can also be downloaded for free.
Note that no iLok, dongle, or internet access is required for Cryostasis activation. (All United Plugins software uses license files for activation and owners can freely use purchased software on all their computers as long as they are the user.)
Syntheway Virtual Musical Instruments
Published on Aug 29, 2017
"http://syntheway.net - X Men from 1990s Animated TV Series (Ron Wasserman) using 8 presets sounds of Zephyrus Hybrid Synthesizer and a bit of Syntheway Percussion Kit VST Plugins
- Zephyrus VSTi (Presets: Hard Lead, Electro-Harpsichord, Percussive Organ, Electro-Flute, Power Synth, Soft Lead, Solo Synth 2, Rocker-Synth)
http://zephyrus.syntheway.net
* Note: 'X Men' was composed by Ron Wasserman for X-Men, also known as X-Men: The Animated Series, an American animated television series which debuted on October 31, 1992, in the United States on the Fox Network, as part of its Fox Kids Saturday morning lineup."
Hi everyone! As you know Barry Schrader will be giving his farewell concert at CalArts on September 26. The following is the beginning of my interview with him. I opted to post the questions and answers as they come in. New QAs will get a new post so you do not miss them and they will be added to this post so we have one central post for the full interview. This should make it easier for all of us to consume in our busy lives, and it will allow you to send in any questions that may come to mind during the interview process. If you have anything you'd like to ask Barry, feel free to send it in to matrixsynth@gmail.com. This is a rare opportunity for us to get insight on a significant bit of synthesizer history, specifically with early Buchla systems, and I'd like to thank Barry for this opportunity. Thank you Barry!
