FireSonic have unveiled their newest VST plugin – FireCharger – with the goal of using smart algorithms to enhance and supercharge your sound.

FireCharger includes emulations of analogue tape and advanced exciters for spectral charging and “instantly bettering the sound”.

Audio Ordeal reviewed a copy of the plugin and I can confirm that it does just that.

Having tested the plugin on drums, basses and synths, I can say (in my personal opinion) that it works best on drums. The main thing that pops out is the added brightness to the sounds running through the plugin, as frequencies are enhanced and excited.

One thing that really stood out to me was how well it worked on tracks with reverb. While I normally advocate placing reverb on the sends, I found this plugin really brought out a lively character when placed immediately after a reverb plugin.

I’d recommend you watch out though and make use of the Bypass feature because this plugin does take out some of the punch of certain transients even at low levels.

About FireCharger

It’s creators say it works by analysing audio material “to get it as close as possible to what its active audio engineering creators consider to be ideal”, resulting in a “better-balanced richer sound”.

SEE ALSO: Native Instruments Supercharger GT – Compressor Review

The plugin is designed to be scalable to fit any screen, and for quick use, the single Dry/Wet knob is said to suffice.

DRY/WET defines overall level of enhancement, starting with CHARGE, which is the main control for FireCharger’s spectral dynamics processing: smooth and improve the signal with one knob and its intelligent analysing and processing algorithm.

ANODIZE adjusts the amount of energy that the treated track(s) will temporarily gain using the CHARGE when required. But be careful not to burn the track(s) being treated!

Meanwhile, MAGNETIZE controls the advanced vintage tube tape machine saturation simulation, making it possible to add additional warmth and a live feel to the sound being treated.

The TONE control is a “special sophisticated dynamic height exciter”, helping higher frequencies become more pronounced and making the treated track(s) become brighter sounding as a result.

FireCharger also comes with input and output peak meters, and the developers recommend that users keep their input level between -10dB and -30dB for optimal results.

The developers describe it as a versatile plugin, with applications in both mastering and individual track enhancement:

“Use FireCharger as a mastering plug-in — positioned at the end of the host DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) output chain — as well as to improve single tracks.

“Whatever way anyone chooses to use it, rest assured that it will add body and brightness to acoustic guitars and vocals, improve drums and bass guitar tracks, and charge electric guitar performances. Put it on everything!”

FireSonic’s FireCharger is available to purchase for a time-limited introductory promo price of €19.00 EUR until December 6, 2020 — rising thereafter to €129.00 EUR — as an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-compatible audio plug-in directly from United Plugins here:  https://unitedplugins.com/FireCharger/

The post Intelligent algorithms could supercharge your mix with FireCharger VST appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

A new polysynth called Generate takes chaos to the next level, developed by Newfangled Audio and distributed by Eventide.

Available at an introductory price of $99, Generate combines standard synth features with “revolutionary” chaotic oscillators to create complex pads, warm moving keys, jittery sequenced basses, out-of-control leads, and “oh my God” textures.

With Generate, what initially looks like randomness contains underlying patterns, interconnectedness, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, and self- organization.

Each of Generate’s five chaotic generators brings out these underlying patterns to create an oscillator that can smoothly fade from a sine wave to total chaos, with an expanse of territory to explore in between.

The musical textures created include distortion, harmonics, grunge, static, and noise – all of which can be predictably or unpredictably modulated.
Generate’s chaotic generators are routed through a Buchla 259 Complex Waveform Generator wavefolder, or novel Animated or Fractal wavefolders, each adding unique overtones. ]

SEE ALSO: Pioneer launches the CDJ-3000 with jog display and improved touch features

The signal chain includes a low pass gate inspired by the ideas of legendary synthesizer designer Don Buchla with added controls for Poles and Resonance.

These modules combine to give Generate a versatile and musical voice with its own unique flavor.

Every parameter in Generate’s voice can be modulated by a combination of two Envelope Generators, two LFOs, a Sample and Hold/Random generator, an 8-step Sequencer, and MIDI and MPE sources, the latter allowing amazing control from expressive controllers.

With up to 493 simultaneous modulation routings from its main page, the innovative modulation user interface allows users to easily and quickly patch any combination of sources to any destination, creating sounds that move, and which move listeners.

All modulation sources have multiple outputs generated at once, as a modular synth should, and every mod output being tied to every control delivers up to 493 modulation routes in an intuitive single pane.

SEE ALSO: Native Instruments launches Maschine+ as standalone hardware on October 1

The Double Pendulum, Wavefolder, and Low Pass Gate modules each have animations to show how each module responds to input, and to modulation.
The Generate radical chaotic oscillator has five types:

• Double Pendulum
• Vortex,
• Pulsar Discharge
• Turbine

Generate’s voice is followed by unparalleled EQ, Chorus, Delay, Reverb, and Limiter effects, all combining to launch chaotic sounds into outer space or right into listener’s faces.

Over 450 Presets, including sounds developed by renowned artists, provide a launch point for creative experimentation while three unique color schemes let users customize Generate’s look.

Newfangled Audio’s Generate requires an iLok account, but no dongle is necessary.

For macOS 10.9+, Pendulate is compatible with 64-bit AAX, AU, VST2 and VST3 protocols.

For Windows 8.1+, Generate is 64-bit AAX, VST2 and VST3 compatible.

To learn more, visit https://etide.io/generate.

The post Newfangled Audio turns chaos into sound with latest VST synth appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

Transmutator, a novel cross-fading plugin which challenges simple volume fades claims to open up a whole new level of creativity.

Starting life as the latest release from founding plug-in partner JMG Sound, Transmutator takes advantage of complex processing techniques balanced with easy-to-use controls.

The commonplace crossfade effect — simply speaking, making a sound be heard gradually as another disappears or becomes silent — can be useful, but the plugin’s creators claim Transmutator can up that transition for you.

READ MORE: Newfangled Audio turns chaos into sound with latest VST synth

Designed for many uses, it can transition between different sections in tracks (from verse to chorus or build-up to drop, for example), mixing between two songs (such as in a DJ set), or complement sound design (by fusing and morphing two elements together in various ways).

To use, it is simply a case of inserting the audio effect plug-in in a track, then feeding a second track into its side-chain input.

JMG Sounds’ Transmutator is available to purchase for a time-limited introductory promo price of €19.00 EUR until September 30, 2020 — rising thereafter to €69.00 EUR — as an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-compatible audio plug-in directly from United Plugins.

The post Change the way you cross-fade song elements with Transmutator appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

If you are missing the wow-factor in your kicks, the latest free plugin from renowned producer KSHMR – Kick Essentials – has left me really impressed.

A cut down version of his new plugin called Essentials, Kick Essentials is the free version with an assortment of controls to tighten up and enhance your kick drum.

With a similar idea to Infected Mushroom’s Pusher plugin, Kick Essentials combines all the effects you need into simple controls in a single plugin.

The controls are easy and clear to use and really add punch and brightness to kick samples and sounds, as well as fattening them up and adding warmth so they can be heard on lower-end speakers.

Showcasing how much time he puts into mixing his kicks, KSHMR’s Kick Essentials allows deep control of the main components of the sound.

The sub control allows for tuned enhancements so you can keep your kick boosted in the right key, while the mid and air controls have enough oomph to brighten up a dull sound.

The pressure control is a juicy multiband compression effect, clearly with a lot of thought put into the ratios and maths, as it is an instant improvement, even if you don’t touch any other control in the VST.

The tape control adds some subtle distortion, which works, but can be a bit scratchy, so in my tests, I didn’t lean on it much at all. The compression control, likewise, does its job but won’t beat a dedicated compressor plugin.

The final control is the width, this one was perhaps the least useful in my tests, generally causing the click of the kick sample to pan left or right.

The main plugin

KSHMR Kick Essentials is the “Lite” version of KSHMR Essentials, which not only covers kicks, but also has tabs for basses, vocals, drums, and synths.

It is available on Splice’s rent-to-own payment plan at a cost of $4.99/month for 20 months, after which you own the plugin forever.

The post Killer kick drum enhancements in new free plugin from KSHMR appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

VST developer Tritik has released their latest plugin, Irid, a reverb plugin that sets out to give you deep control of reverb textures.

With a “specialised reverberation algorithm” and three tunable voices, Irid allows the user a wide range of sounds and creative control.

Expect anything from “grainy delay-like effects to rich and lush sounding spaces”.

READ MORE: Tritik Krush Review

The three voices take on pitch shifters and a frequency shifter, which allows for many more textural and ambience options compared to a standard reverb plugin.

Each voice features an output level control and a ‘reverse’ option for expanding the timbral possibilities by time-reversing the sound grains.

Irid includes more than 80 presets designed by Richard Devine, Emptyvessel, Audilepsy, and Tritik.

Key features:

• Three tunable voices with independent output levels and ‘reverse’ modes;
• Two pitch shifters (-1 octave to +2 octaves);
• Frequency shifter (-100 Hz to +2000 Hz);
• Versatile and transparent reverberation algorithm;
• Freeze function;
• Pre-delay with host-sync option;
• Modulation and Width controls;
• Low-cut and high-cut filter section;
• Fully resizable high-resolution interface.

Tritik Irid is available for €49, with a special introductory price of €29 until July 31, 2020.

The post Tritik launches new ‘tunable’ reverb plugin for deep textures and control appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

I don’t normally review products before they launch. Recently though I was beta-testing the latest plugin from GMH audio, Wave Destroyer, and was so impressed that I thought I’d give you a preview of what’s to come.

Note: This plugin is still in Beta so the following information may be subject to change. This article is very positive, but not sponsored. I did however receive a free copy of the VST for Beta-testing purposes.

UPDATE: The plugin has now been published and is available here. It allows you to decide the pricing you think is fair.

What is Wave Destroyer?

Wave Destroyer is an audio distortion plugin with a huge amount of sound control, from subtle warmth, to all-out decimation.

It is centred around three stages of sound design, with an EQ on input and output, and a distortion control in the middle of the chain. It also features the much-coveted Dry/Wet knob that is so simple, yet something so many developers neglect to include.

Developer Greg Hendler, Founder and Engineer at GMH audio, described it to me: “It was initially inspired by a mix tip I saw somewhere years ago, that involved EQing before and after a distortion to shape tone in unique ways.”

READ MORE: Learn how to program a VST in JUCE with Alex Rycroft

How does Wave Destroyer work?

Designed to be a “character tool” and “not too much of a channel strip”, it excels at firing up drum busses and dynamic elements.

The key to using this well, I found, was exploring the input EQ’s effect as it fed different frequencies into the distortion.

Having the option to do this in a single plugin makes life a lot easier and the level of control you have is great.

I found the ability to boost the lows to increase their saturation was a great way to bring out kicks and 808s on small speakers, and dull drum tracks could be livened with a hi-mid boost and toying with the highs.

Of course, distortion adds a lot of new sounds to a musical element and so having the same style of EQ on the output allowed me to tame the beast and get a carefully sculpted sound.

Under the hood, it is designed with fuzz pedals in mind. And with three levels of distortion available (Saturate, Distort, and “DESTROY”), it has a huge amount of depth.

“The Bias and Asym controls are inspired by guitar fuzz pedals that have bias adjustment to give spurty, gated, lofi fuzz,” Greg explained.

“I haven’t seen that in a plugin before so wanted that to be an aspect of it. I especially like how the gates sounds work with drums.”

My new drum-bus

Up until now, I have been using the Supercharger GT plugin from Native Instruments on my drum bus (I personally like my drums to be hot).

Doing side-by-side comparisons, I can tell you that Wave Destroyer does a better job – even without the compressor knob.

The reason for my affinity to Supercharger GT was because of its input saturation and output tone controls allowing for fat, warm, or bright sounds.

Well, with the Wave Destroyer, you get them – but with even more control options.

Given the fact that (and I say this very cautiously) distortion is a type of compression, Wave Destroyer can actually tame a lot of transients and fatten the audio up while still keeping the saturation silky smooth.

For this reason, all my future projects will have the dilemma of picking between my traditional choice, or this new one.

When will Wave Destroyer release?

GMH audio’s Wave Destroyer is still in the Beta-testing phase right now, however Greg told me to expect a release some time in July.

It will be available at GMH audio, alongside their other plugins.

The post Wave Destroyer is my new go-to VST for making drums hot! appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

The post How to build a VST – Lesson 3: Distortion appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

If you want to know how to layer synths and sounds for better sound design, you are in the right place.

Layering is the process of combining sounds together to make more complex results.

It is one of the best tools in a producer’s kit, because it is able to overcome the limitations of a synth or sample, by opening it up to extra sounds.

Layering can be done with several synths playing together, by editing together samples, or by combining synthesis and sampling.

I tend to layer with three parts, not as any rule, just because it happens to generally work well for me.

As such, the examples in this article all have three layers, but don’t feel like you need three, you can do just two, or many more.

The only thing to be aware of is that layers still need to be mixed together and can cause more problems than they solve.

Left, Centre, Right

One of the best reasons for layering is to add extra stereo width.

If you have a sound and want some extra width to it, try making three copies and panning them hard left, centre, and hard right.

On the left and right channels tweak a few parameters so that the sound is slightly different.

Try adjusting the LFO rates slightly, and making small adjustments to the envelope attacks so they are spread in timing too.

This will sound like it was recorded in several takes and will stop phasing issues.

This effect won’t work well if the sound is identical in each layer, but also, if it is vastly different in each ear, it can be disorientating.

Make sure that you don’t add any stereo send effects to the hard-panned tracks (unless you intend to), as this can ruin the stereo feel.

It is better to add effects such as ping-pong delay and reverb to the group so that it is processed as a whole.

I find wavetable synths especially fun to layer as the range of complex sounds in a single layer is already insane!

It is especially easy in Ableton after the latest update, which allows users to upload their own tables in Wavetable.

Bottom, Middle, Top

This is perhaps the easiest type of layering and is used in a lot of electronic music for the kick drums.

If you want to design a sound, you want a good spread across the frequencies.

Many producers will layer three different kick drums to get the exact sound they want.

The kicks are heavily filtered one has only the lowest frequencies, on will have only the punch, and the last one will have the high-end “click”.

It can also be done on synths, with many synths offering a built in version.

If you have ever enabled a sub oscillator on a synth, you are adding another layer.

Likewise, if you copy your melody into a sub-line, then you are technically layering.

By adding layers based on frequency, you get a wide spread and the frequencies don’t clash. as much.

Try choosing a synth patch and adding a layer an octave below, and a layer an octave above.

Tweak the two layers so they sound better in their respective octaves and hear how much bigger it sounds.

If you are mixing these layers together, make sure you cut some of the low end out of the top octave layer, and cut some of the high end out of the bottom octave’s layer.

These can be grouped together and glued together with compression.

Make sure you are monitoring this at a good volume as factors such as the Fletcher-Munson curve really can come into play with this type of sound design.

Intro, Verse, Chorus

Here, we have an arrangement approach.

As the song progresses, you want the parts to get louder and more intense.

This can be done in several ways, such as, adjusting the filters, automating the volume, or adding distortion.

If we play with layers though, it can get even more intricate.

Firstly, build up a three layer sound that works great in your chorus.

If you take out the bassiest part, you are left with two layers.

These two layers are not as exciting as the chorus because they lack the low-end weight.

Then for the intro, take out the second most interesting layer, so you are just left with a thinner sound, which by the time the chorus arrives, has already become familiar in our heads.

If you are using layered synths which are separate to the bass, try removing the brightest layers for the verse and intros so that when the chorus kicks in, we introduce the layer which adds the most shimmer.

Melody, Harmony, Sub

This is very similar to our “Bottom, Middle, Top” approach, but it is more musically interesting.

Try choosing two different synth presets and play melody on the beefier preset.

On the other preset, pitch it up 7 semitones (a perfect fifth).

This perfect fifth layer turns the sound into a “power chord”, but across two different synth sounds.

The third layer could either be a sub-line (just the melody a few octaves down on a simple preset), or it could be another fifth, this time the octave below (pitch down 5 semitones).

Having the melody with its fifth both above and below it can be a very powerful sound.

The relative volumes of each layer will give the track different feels so try automating the volumes for different sections.

Keep the main melody layer for the verses and add the fifths for the more intense sections such as the choruses.

Transient, Note, Ring

This is a really cool sound design trick, and works in a similar way to layering kicks.

Instead of picking the bottom, middle, and top frequencies though, we pick the time scale.

If we want to make a synth sound more punchy, we can add a layer with a fast attack.

Think about a piano, even the hardest velocities still can leave you wanting a more percussive sound, so why not layer a percussive element to it?

A pitched clang or metal hit works well on top of a piano.

It can be smoothed out with a bit of reverb too, stopping the sound being too distinct.

The other thing you might want is to have a sound ring out more.

Let’s get rid of our piano, but we will keep the hard metal clang.

It will probably end quite abruptly, but we can add some high pitched sine waves with a long release to simulate the ringing sound.

The post Top 5 layering tips for electronic music sound designers appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

To pan audio we need to attenuate the audio from one channel while boosting the other. To control the plugin we are going to modify the gain slider we created in tutorial 1.

At the top of your PluginProcessor.cpp file you will see the addParameter line of code we added last time. Change the default value of the slider to 0.5 by changing the final float value to 0.5f. 

addParameter(gain = new AudioParameterFloat(“gain”, “Gain”, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.5f));

Now scroll down to the process block, in PluginProcessor.cpp, it should look like this.

Currently the gSlider variable is used to multiply both audio channels by the same value. To pan audio one of the channels needs to be multiplied by the inverse of the other, e.g

inputL = inputL * 0.3;

inputR = inputR * 0.7;

 

inputL = inputL * 1;

inputR = inputR * 0;

With the gSlider variable we can multiply the left channel by 1 – gSlider, and the other just with gSlider.

Now we can pan audio left and right, we need to find a way to modulate the gSlider value over time. To achieve this we are going to find the value of a Sin wave at different points, then multiply these values with the channel data.  To start, we will modulate the value between 0-1 every second.

To modulate the levels the correct amount we need to do a bit of maths.

Every cycle of Sin = 2 * pi radians.

The sample rate of the DAW means that a certain number of samples happen every second, therefore

2pi radians / sample rate = Radians per Sample

For every sample, we can find Sin (Radians per Sample) then add another ‘Radians per Sample’ length to find a value for the next sample. These values can be multiplied to each channel of audio instead of the gSlider variable.

const int numberSamples = getSampleRate();

const float radsPerSample = (2 * double_Pi) / numberSamples;

These lines of code find the sample rate and then how many radians are required for each sample length. We can use const for these values as they won’t change after each iteration.  

Next, we need to add a new float variable to hold the value of the radians for a given sample. We don’t want to initialise this variable every buffer length so we will add it to the header file. Go to PluginProcessor.h and add this line in the private section.

float nextRad = 0;

Now add the following code to your ProcessBlock function in PluginProcessor.cpp.

float sinValue = 0.5 * std::sin(nextRad) + 0.5; //1

inputL = inputL * (1 – sinValue); //2
inputR = inputR * sinValue;

nextRad += radsPerSample; //3

1.Sets sinValue as the value of Sin at the value of nextRad, Sin is multiplied by 0.5 and 0.5 is added to find a value between 0-1.

2. Replaces gSlider with sinValue.

3. Adds radsPerSample to nextRad.

Build the plugin, and you will hear the audio pan between left and right channel every second.

SIDENOTE—It’s not possible to build a plugin while the last version is still active in your DAW. Remove the VST from any channels before building your code.

Currently, the nextRad variable will get bigger forever while the plugin is active, to solve this we can add an if statement to the bottom of the process block.

if (nextRad > numberSamples)
{
nextRad = 0;
}

This resets the nexRad variable after it gets larger than the numerSamples variable.

We are going to add a control to change how often the audio pans between each ear.

Add a new audio parameter float to your code. I called mine mS and set the range from between 10 – 5000. If you have trouble with this check back at Tutorial 1.

Then add this code to the process block.

float mSeconds = mS->get() / 1000;

//Replace this
//const int numberSamples = getSampleRate(); 

//With this
int numberSamples = getSampleRate() * mSeconds; 

This finds the value of the mS slider and divides it by 1000, to find the value in seconds, then multiplies this to the sample rate. Make sure to remove the const from the numberSamples variable.

Build the plugin, and you can use the mS slider to change the rate of the autopanner.

As mentioned before there is a better algorithm for panning audio. We can use a constant power panning algorithm by changing some code in the process block.

The post How to build a VST – Lesson 2: Autopanner appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

It offers three simple controls. A primary Drive control will see most use, while parallel mix fans can adjust the dry/wet blends. An output control is also present, underlayed with an “LED” meter displaying volume. As you can see, it really cuts down on the already simple interface of its big brother. 

You can get the plugin for free here.

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