Antelope Audio announces six Synergy Core effects for its critically-acclaimed audio interface namesakes

Trailblazing pro audio manufacturer Antelope Audio is proud to announce availability of COMP-4K-STRIP, COMP-4K-BUS, Marble White AutoWah, MES-432C, MG4, and Adaptive Vibrato — six new Synergy Core effects for use with its Discrete 4 Synergy Core, Discrete 8 Synergy Core, and Orion Studio Synergy Core, cutting-edge audio interfaces that work with Synergy Core effects (using ARM-based DSP to free up any DAW-hosting computer’s CPU to improve system stability and reduce buffer size to record and monitor with sub-millisecond latency by bringing a wider range of creative effects to an efficient, low-latency proprietary platform while FPGA chips handle all audio mixing, dynamics processing, equalisation, and reverbs, with effects modelled from legendary studio gear).

Although it almost goes without saying that musical tastes vary considerably, chances are that a so-called ‘4K’ series large-format mixing console left its musical mark on almost anyone’s favourite records. Indeed, it is still in use in many major studios to this day, despite being superseded by more modern technology — albeit, arguably, never bettered. But the ‘4K’ was certainly the console of choice for Eighties rock and synth-pop alike, and remains revered as one of the best-loved large-format mixing consoles ever made. Fast-forward to today, then, and bringing COMP-4K-STRIP to its Synergy Core cutting-edge effects platform really ranks as one of the proudest moments in Antelope Audio’s high-standing history — enthusiastic as it has always been about great analogue sound. And rightly so since, in this case, an actual channel strip was carefully removed from a well-preserved ‘4K’ series large-format mixing console before being painstakingly analysed and its digital recreation rigorously tested to take pole position amongst the most faithful ‘4K’ reproductions out there. Today, users of Antelope Audio’s acclaimed Discrete 4 Synergy Core, Discrete 8 Synergy Core, and Orion Studio Synergy Core audio interfaces are able to enjoy the classic punch, glue, drive, and saturation of that iconic large-format mixing console with next-to-no latency and zero CPU load, thanks to the DSP+FPGA Synergy Core processing platform built into their audio interface. Initiate instances of COMP-4K-STRIP all across a session to record, monitor, mix, and master through the sought-after sound of that time-tested circuitry. COMP-4K-STRIP looks as great as it sounds, and is easy to use, courtesy of the following features and self-explanatory controls: ON/StandBy; COMPRESSOR (THRESHOLD, RATIO, RELEASE, and FAST ATK); EXPANDER (THRESHOLD, RANGE, RELEASE, EXP/GATE, and FAST ATK); FILTERS (Low-pass Hz, Hi-pass kHz, routable pre- and post-dynamics processing with switches); and GAIN (for final volume adjustment).

Arriving through the same family background, COMP-4K-BUS realistically recreates the famous ‘mix glue’ bus compressor that rose to prominence in the Eighties, residing on the master bus of a fondly-remembered series of vintage British consoles. Creatively, it was designed to bring together instruments and performances from multiple channels into a larger-than-life cohesive whole, while decades later nothing sounds quite like it — until Antelope Audio’s COMP-4K-BUS, that is! It is the gold standard of mix bus compressors, brought back to life on the Synergy Core platform. Put COMP-4K-BUS on any DAW’s master fader to start mixing right into it, or apply after everything else when the mix is ‘said and done’ to transform it into a balanced, homogenous production with no need to worry about latency or CPU load, thanks to the beautiful combination of DSP+FPGA forming the Synergy Core processing platform! Onscreen features include a vintage-style VU meter alongside THRESHOLD; ATTACK mS (milliseconds); RATIO; MAKE UP; RELEASE S (seconds); SC FILTER Hz (Hi-pass sidechain filter); wet/dry MIX (for parallel compression); and RATE S (seconds) controls, plus an AUTO FADE mode.

Marble White AutoWah realistically replicates a boutique auto-wah pedal from Finland whose circuit is originally based on a rack-mount wah, and refined further to sound like a real wah pedal. Put it this way: musically, Marble White AutoWah is in a league of its own, with fast tracking, amazing accuracy, and responsive controls, which works equally well on guitar and bass. Better still, its bespoke DECAY control allows adjustment of the filter frequency fall speed, so Marble White AutoWah can drench every note in wah or be better behaved, so-to-speak — as expected from a more traditional autowah pedal. Powered by Antelope Audio’s acclaimed Synergy Core platform, Marble White AutoWah works in real time with no perceivable latency. Feel free to calibrate it with Shred Guitar Amps & Cabs to obtain a formidable guitar and effects rig inside the Discrete 4 Synergy Core, Discrete 8 Synergy Core, or Orion Studio Synergy Core audio interface that works without any associated CPU load. Little in the way of controls — SENSITIVITY, BIAS, RESONANCE, and DECAY — can deliver a lot of variation in the resultant auto-wah effect.

Effectively recreating Sontec’s mastering equaliser, MES-432C reclothes an absolute standard. Since its introduction in the late-Sixties, subsequently refined in the early- Seventies, it has remained the go-to mastering equaliser for fortunate old-school pros. Put it this way: with the inventor of parametric equalisation itself serving as its co- creator, the resultant design is, in all likelihood, destined — in its many reincarnations — to last forever. First listening can be deceptive, due to the EQ’s subtle-sounding nature lacking in any obvious mojo, maybe, but dig deeper into its controls and any audio benefits from particular and pleasant character enhancement.

Everything seemingly sounds better — even poorly-executed equalisation choices! Antelope Audio’s MES-432C emulates exactly what that top-end mastering EQ does best, by squeezing extra drops of sweetness out of an already excellent-sounding mix that needs little in the way of additional polish. Indeed, it will serve just as well when put to work on a mix bus or onto individual tracks in need of frequency boosts or cuts here and there. Apply as many instances as needed without worrying about latency and CPU load. Let Antelope Audio’s Synergy Core audio interfaces handle it all, leaving more computer power for favourite instruments and effects. MES-432C likewise looks as great as it sounds, and is easy to use, including the following features: SHELVING EQ (LO/HI); LO, MID, and HI SHAPE dB/Oct (Q) controls; LO, MID, and HI FREQ (frequency) controls totalling 72 bands; LO, MID, and HI LEVEL dB (boost/cut) controls; and final volume adjustment.

Meanwhile, MG4 faithfully recreates the superlative sound of a legendary 500 Series EQ module from a highly-regarded Swedish brand that has made its presence felt sonically on hundreds of top charting records from the likes of Madonna, Snoop Dogg, and many more well-known faces of popular music. MG4 also features its innovative SKY BAND, able to add the kind of expensive-sounding gloss and sheen typically heard on singles benefitting from high-flying production teams and expensive equipment. This six-band EQ is also notable for its highly-linear phase operation — far from easily achievable in the analogue domain, duly endowing MG4 with an ability to preserve any audio being fed through it without suffering from any phase-shifting artefacts. As such, purity and clarity combine to be the name of the game when it comes to this EQ — perfectly powered by Antelope Audio’s latency- and CPU-free Synergy Core effects processing. The following features mirror those developed by that highly-regarded Swedish brand: IN/OUT (bypass button); SUB frequency (boost/cut control); 40 Hz (boost/cut control); 160 Hz (boost/cut control); 650 Hz (boost/cut control); 2.5 kHz (boost/cut control); SKY GAIN (control); and SKY BAND frequency (select control).

Closing out Antelope Audio’s additional six Synergy Core effects for its critically-acclaimed audio interface namesakes is its take on what a great vibrato should sound and look like — Adaptive Vibrato. Indeed, its development derived from closely examining some tried-and-tested circuits before incorporating those impressions into a virtual unit delivering a veritable vibrato toy box — complete with LATCH and TRIGGER MODE; RATE and DEPTH controls; five-way WAVE modulation; DELAY and RISE controls; THRESHOLD and ENDFREQ controls; plus control over the DRY/WET MIX. Antelope Audio’s appropriately-named Adaptive Vibrato is a notable new Synergy Core effect to be reckoned with! 

COMP-4K-STRIP is available for Antelope Audio’s acclaimed Discrete 4 Synergy Core, Discrete 8 Synergy Core, and Orion Studio Synergy Core audio interfaces, priced at $125.00 USD/€125.00 EUR directly from here

COMP-4K-BUS is available for Antelope Audio’s acclaimed Discrete 4 Synergy Core, Discrete 8 Synergy Core, and Orion Studio Synergy Core audio interfaces, priced at $145.00 USD/€145.00 EUR directly from here

Marble White AutoWah is available for Antelope Audio’s acclaimed Discrete 4 Synergy Core, Discrete 8 Synergy Core, and Orion Studio Synergy Core audio interfaces, priced at $55.00 USD/€55.00 EUR directly from here

MES-432C is available for Antelope Audio’s acclaimed Discrete 4 Synergy Core, Discrete 8 Synergy Core, and Orion Studio Synergy Core audio interfaces, priced at $145.00 USD/€145.00 EUR directly from here

MG4 is available for Antelope Audio’s acclaimed Discrete 4 Synergy Core, Discrete 8 Synergy Core, and Orion Studio Synergy Core audio interfaces, priced at $125.00 USD/€125.00 EUR directly from here

Adaptive Vibrato is available for Antelope Audio’s acclaimed Discrete 4 Synergy Core, Discrete 8 Synergy Core, and Orion Studio Synergy Core audio interfaces, priced at $55.00 USD/€55.00 EUR directly from here

TA Programming announces availability of Studio MIDI And CV Interface full synthesizer control system debut

LONDON, UK: following a successful showcase in October at Sheffield’s Synthfest UK 2019, billed as being the UK’s biggest synthesizer event, advanced creative technology designer TA Programming is proud to announce availability of its inaugural Studio MIDI And CV Interface full synthesizer control system — capable of controlling multiple synthesizers simultaneously via voltage control outputs and MIDI/USB with extra-low latency while keeping analogue instruments, vintage or otherwise, perfectly in tune with each other.

According to TA Programming CEO/CTO Tim Aviss, “We designed this interface to be not just a solution to problems that we’d encountered when controlling synthesizers in the past, but to unlock a whole new world of creativity with synthesizers from one interface.”

Indeed, TA Programming’s debut design does just that, thanks to its innovative implementation of complimentary connections, comprising MIDI In and MIDI Out alongside USB I/O for MIDI and serial bus connectivity, together with four universal CV CONTROL outputs. On the face of it, then, the Studio MIDI And CV Interface full synthesizer control system is creatively kitted out to target the hotly-contested competition out there already. After all, those four universal CV CONTROL outputs can perform any function regardless of whether it is for producing Pitch, Gate, or Aux signals. Saying that, an unlimited number of universal CV CONTROL outputs can quickly be created by daisy-chaining multiple interfaces via the MIDI ports. Also, any source — such as Pitch, Note On/Off, Velocity, Aftertouch, any MIDI CC number, signals from a DAW, and more besides — can be selected via USB or MIDI.

Fortunately for anyone putting the Studio MIDI And CV Interface to the test, the voltage of the configured output is completely user definable between -9V and +10V, providing plenty of range to satisfy the requirements of almost all synthesizers, past and present. Put it this way: with this level of versatility, the Studio MIDI And CV Interface provides its users with complete control over note range scale — from microtonality all the way through to the limits of the connected synthesizer.

Thankfully, TA Programming’s proprietary tuning technology is capable of handling even the most stubborn scaling issues, effectively eliminating scaling and tuning issues on any analogue synthesizer, including non-linearities. This technology is built upon a six-point multi-mapping system that uses advanced interpolation and modelling algorithms all within a floating-point mathematical model before conversion to control voltages are applied in real time. In other words, once a tuning profile has been configured for the synthesizer concerned, TA Programming’s proprietary tuning technology works out the control voltages said synthesizer needs, regardless of tempco (temperature compensating) resistor variation, in order to produce pitch-perfect notes in real time — a must-have for owners of vintage or more modern analogue synthesizers alike!

Additionally, the Studio MIDI And CV Interface is MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) compatible, capable of sending out full MPE via MIDI DIN or mapping single channel/polyphonic MPE out of the universal CV CONTROL outputs. As all five control dimensions are natively supported, users can be sure that their synthesizers will be as musically expressive as allowed by the MPE method.

Meanwhile, the interface itself has internal circuitry powered by USB. Ultimately, however, TA Programming pushed itself hard to ensure that the power supply can tolerate variances in input voltage so that the resulting supply is always as clean as possible, providing the highest control voltage accuracy, as well as preserving tuning and configuration regardless of the USB host.

Having said all that, TA Programming’s powerful control software allows anyone to completely configure their Studio MIDI And CV Interface. In addition to this, they can host USB MIDI controllers in the software itself, thereby bypassing their DAW, if desired. Said software also provides plentiful MIDI processing features — from LFOs to BPM-locked arpeggiators, keyboard splitting over MIDI, and much more. TA Programming plans to regularly update the interface’s firmware and control software so that its users can always access the latest features following their initial purchase.

Last, but by no means least, the Studio MIDI And CV Interface always automatically stores its user’s current configuration with no need to click save. So feel free to travel between recording studio and performance venue safe in the knowledge that their current configuration will automatically load when the interface is powered back up. Upon connection to their computer, the control software will automatically pull the current configuration from the interface itself to allow for easy editing. And as if this was not exciting enough, an unlimited number of presets and profiles for all the synthesizers in anyone’s setup can be saved to the computer and reloaded into the interface at any time.

TA Programming looks all set to play to win with its inaugural Studio MIDI And CV Interface. Owners of vintage and more modern synthesizers simply owe it to themselves and their treasured instruments to test TA Programming’s debut design. It is no ordinary MIDI-to-CV convertor, clearly!

The Studio MIDI And CV Interface is initially available for purchase — priced at £249.00 GBP — directly through TA Programming

For more in-depth information, please visit the dedicated Studio MIDI And CV Interface webpage

Watch TA Programming’s Studio MIDI And CV Interface introductory video here: https://youtu.be/X0Vrqw3NESE

Review of Atlas – Chillwave Loops by Mode Audio

Mode Audio has introduced Atlas – Chillwave Loops, a 563Mb collection fusing the lush, Shoegaze-influenced guitar riffs and warm, analog electronics of Chillwave with the dynamism and presence of uptempo live drums.

It is available in Wav, Rex2, Reason refill and Ableton Live pack formats from Mode Audio (£18 regular price).

This review is for the Wav sample pack which contains the files in four different folders, namely ‘Atlas Loops’, ‘Atlas Tail Samples’, ‘Drum Samples’ and ‘Midi’ folders.  All loops range from 86 to 130 bpm.

‘Atlas Loops’ contains a number of sub folders – basses and bass guitars, drums and percussion, drums (full loops), electric guitars, electric guitars (dry) and synths and SFX and all of these samples are either 100 or 120bpm.

There are 25 bass and bass guitar loops including a range of excellent sounding grooves with a punchy, deep bass. I really like how the bass guitar loops give you a different element from other sample packs.

There are 44 drum and percussion loops containing a range of kick, tom, shaker, claps and top drums that allow you to layer your drum and percussion sounds for a full or more stripped back feel.

There are 19 full drum loops that combine the above loops into a full punchy drum sound with just an edge of saturation.

There are 33 electric guitar loops with a range of acoustic and slightly distorted grooves, leads and riffs in clean and processed (reverb, delay) versions.

There are 49 synth and FX loops containing piano, synth riff, synth lead and pad sounds with a full, warm saturated sound.

Atlas Tail samples are an addition we’ve seen in other Mode Audio packs. On the face of it they allow you to apply a natural reverb tail to sample loops which is really useful in itself. However, they are also excellent sound sources in their own right that can be manipulated and mangled to add interesting elements to your tracks or could even be used as a starting point for new tracks. There are 69 tail samples in the pack, primarily for guitar, synth and and pad samples.

The Midi loops folder is a very welcome addition to the sample pack and contains 76 fully featured midi loops. Typically 4 bar loops, these can be used with your own sounds or edited to create subtle or stark contrast and variations.

The drums sample folder contains 68 individual samples of kicks, toms, snares, shakers, hats and more that allow you to tailor drums to your particular sound and create your own rhythms.

Verdict

This is an excellent value sample pack containing a superb variety of loops with a warm, saturated sound that create moody, atmospheric tracks. As well as the potential to mix and match loops based on bpm and key, the loops hit that sweet spot giving the best of an electronic sound and live instruments. They layer and combine well together, the range of loops allows you to create a whole range of sounds from full to stripped back as well as the ability to use individual sounds as building blocks.

The tail samples are excellent and allow a natural decay, often an issue with other sample packs. The inclusion of midi loops are also very welcomed to give even greater flexibility and potential.

I’ve created the two-track EP ‘eternally | against the flow’ embedded at the beginning of the post to highlight the sort of sounds that you can produce with the pack. It’s a cross between indie, chillwave, downtempo and shoegaze.

Loops are processed with various Eventide Effects – Ultrachannel, SP2016 Reverb, H949 Dual Harmoniser as well as khs delay and limiter. Vocal loops are from Function Loops.

All tracks arranged, produced and mastered in MuLab 8 using Magnetite (Black Rooster Audio), Elevate (Newfangled Audio), Stage (Fiedler Audio).

Review of Evie of the Deepthorn by Andre Babyn published by Dundurn Press (Pub. date March 2020)

An ARC copy was provided by Netgalley and Dundurn Press in exchange for an honest review.  I’ve written the review as spoiler free as possible.

Evie covers some heavy and serious ground – death, loss, grief, small town syndrome, struggling to cope with anxieties, struggling to fit in. Yet it does this in an easy to read style. It’s eloquently written that makes it effortless and absorbing to read. 

It’s written from three perspectives.  Firstly, Kent. The recounting of his brother’s death is really moving, it’s told in a series of flashbacks yet you don’t get the full details of what happened i.e. how old he was but you can feel the after effects through Kent’s perspective.

The second perspective is Sarah’s, about eight years later. They were at school together but never met until Sarah returns to Durham. The story gets a bit surreal towards the end, the perspective changes between Sarah and Kent with Evie putting in an appearance. 

The third perspective, Reza’s, is where it starts to get very surreal. I had to re-read earlier chapters and this section several times, I felt I missed a whole chunk of the story. This part is set a few years after Sarah’s. Reza talks about how he was Jeff’s boyfriend, had a cat called Carl and goes looking for Kent Adler the poet – who initially comes looking for him in a dream but initially is only known as ‘Adler’ but there’s no connection that he’s Jeff’s brother. Kent Adler was born in 1952 and died in 1976. This means he died probably before Sarah was born. The implication is that Jeff was young when he died which contradicts with Reza’s account of being in Jeff’s apartment and receiving an email a few weeks before.  His relationship with Sarah is quite unusual, strained, very similar to Sarah and Kent’s. 

Kent’s perspective gives no indication of time frame, however, given that he was using a video recorder, Sarah’s perspective is about 8 years later and mentions Facebook suggests it was at least 1990s, probably 2000s. Reza’s perspective is a few years after this. 

This surreal element seems to transcend time, perspectives merge, the narrative changes but it does this seamlessly so you question whether you misunderstood something or missed a vital part of the story.  Yet for me, rather than confusing or detracting from the story, it added to the mystery and really makes you think about the possibilities that the author is
writing about.

The characters are very honest with their accounts, you feel like you get to know them intimately. I certainly didn’t question the reliability of their accounts, it’s almost like the central themes of Evie, the forest and the clearing suggest some kind of fantasy, echoes of the past or future like some kind of ghost story or alternate realities. 

Review of Phase Plant – a limitless hybrid synthesiser (VST/AU/AAX) by Kilohearts

Introduction

New-generation audio plugins creator Kilohearts is proud to announce availability of Phase Plant — pushing the creative sound design envelope as a truly limitless hybrid synthesizer plugin that can be used either directly in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) as VST (Virtual Studio Technology), AAX (Avid Audio eXtension) and AU (Audio Unit) audio plugins or as building blocks in a Phase Plant patch.

Phase Plant represents the pinnacle of the snapin eco-system that Kilohearts has been busy developing since the 2015 release of its award-winning Multipass modular multi-band host. Combining the power of snapin effects with new modules for signal generation and modulation, Phase Plant is a hybrid synthesizer capable of what has previously only been possible in classic modular setups. Indeed, it empowers users with more options than they can shake a stick at, allowing anyone to make their thing as big or small as they need it to be.

Phase Plant is available directly from Kilohearts in different pricing brackets dependent upon the number of bundled effects. Details are copied from the Kilohearts website and shown below:

For more in-depth information, please visit the dedicated Phase Plant webpage

Note that Kilohearts has a single installer for all its products — available as 64-bit VST, AU, and AAX plugins for Windows and Mac, downloadable from here

Summary

There are many synths that you can load, select a preset and you’re good to go. This is not designed to be one of those synths. The default screen is blank, encouraging you to experiment and create your own sounds. Of course it does have presets, some 300 of them, and they include an excellent range of instruments and sounds that are ready to use but that kind of misses the point.

That’s because it’s very easy to create your own sounds. Select your signal generators, modulators and effects, it’s quick and incredibly flexible. Whether you want 1 oscillator, 4 of them or 8; a wavetable, noise, FM, a sampler, ring mod you can have any or all of these, in any combination up to 32 generators. Modulators can be envelopes, LFOs, randomisers or maths and you have a huge range of effects (dependent upon the number you’ve purchased) to choose from that you can use in serial or parallel in 3 effect lanes.

Bear in mind that this is all done on one screen using a click and drag approach with very easy to assign modulation options. This makes the process incredibly quick and best of all, very enjoyable.

Often you wouldn’t necessarily pay too much heed to built in effects, but with Phase Plant it is an important consideration. I say this because you can easily apply simple or complex modulation to these effects which would be much harder, maybe not even possible, when using external effects. Kilohearts snapin effects are designed for ease of use, they have a straightforward interface and most importantly, sound excellent. If you don’t own the effects, factory and third-party presets will still work but you won’t be able to adjust effect settings. The basic version of Phase Plant includes Kiloheart’s free effects – 3 band EQ, Chorus, Delay, Gain, Limiter and Stereo which is more than enough to get started. There are 28 snapin effects in total, covering filters, bit crusher, reverb, trance gate, tape stop, compression, distortion, resonator and many more.

It’s an incredible sound design tool, I’ve barely scratched the surface discovering the potential it offers. Phase Plant is equally at home producing simple or extremely complex patches with superb sound quality.

In Use

When you open Phase Plant, it feels unusual for a synth that you are presented with a blank screen.

The menu bar is located at the very top. 8 macro knobs sit beneath this with the generators occupying the upper left, effects the upper right and modulators at the bottom. Clicking the keyboard icon on the lower right reveals the on-screen keyboard.

Generators are what produce the sound. There are 4 different kinds – analog oscillator, noise generator, sampler and wavetable. They automatically mix their output on top of the signal coming from above. You can group them together to break the signal flow which is useful for layering sounds.

The analog oscillator has a number of waveform options, sync, pulse width and unison controls.

The noise generator supports 3 types of noise, two of which are key tracked and has slope and stereo controls.

The wavetable oscillator has a number of wavetables and you can also load wav and flac files provided they are in the required format (256 frames, 2048 samples). There are also frame and bandlimit controls.

The sampler is well featured with root note, offset, start, length, crossfade and various loop options. A number of samples are provided but you can load your own.

Other generators include filter and distortion effects and the utilities of group, aux, mix and output.

The output is a very important module, if you don’t add this you won’t get any sound, as I found out when I first started using Phase Plant and couldn’t figure out why. It also allows you to send the enveloped signal to other parts of Phase Plant. I added one to the analog oscillator image to show signal routing.

There are three effects lanes with a range of controls – enable, poly, mute and solo with gain and mix controls at the bottom. You can route effects from lane 1 to lane 2, lane 3 or master; lane 2 to lane 3 or master and lane 3 is routed to the master. This allows you to use effects in series or parallel, apply specific effects to particular groups etc.

Modulation options in Phase Plant are extensive. The macro knobs can be routed to any parameter so that you can control many aspects of the patch with a single knob. They can also be used for automation within your DAW, most won’t support automation of parameters within Phase Plant.

The modulator lane at the bottom of the display allows you to add envelope, LFO, Random, midi modulators, multiply and min / max.

LFOs have sine, square, triangle shapes and the typical controls but also a very handy editor – click the pencil – where you can create interesting and unusual waveforms.

The envelope is a standard ADSR with the added controls of delay and hold.

The random modulator has the same waveform shape but you can vary this extensively with the jitter, smooth and chaos controls.

Assigning modulation is where things get very interesting. It’s a simple case of clicking on the orange plus at the bottom right of the modulator. Any modulatable parameter will have a similar orange plus and you can see that this includes nearly any generator, effect or even other modulator parameter.

To assign modulation, simply click on the orange plus on the modulator and then on the orange plus for the parameter that you want to modulate and they are linked. You have a small knob underneath that sets the amount of modulation, this is also duplicated and labelled on the modulator so you can adjust the amount there too.

If that’s not enough modulation, hovering over the lower right-hand side of a generator reveals a green plus and this can be used for audio rate modulation of other generators.

The album embedded at the top of the post uses Phase Plant for all sounds, except some drum loops and vocal loops. It’s a minimal / minimal techno / techno sound. I’ve created a number of patches and modified some of the presets that I’ve used on the album. This one is a fairly simple sampler based one with automation of the sampler and some effects to produce background glitched drum loop effects.

This one uses a combination of sampler and wavetable with numerous modulation options.

These highlight the benefits of extra effects in Phase Plant, being able to modulate the bitcrusher and filter in the first example produces exactly the glitchy sound I’m looking for. You could do this without Phase Plant, but it’s much more difficult.

I’m very impressed with the delay effect. I am slightly obsessed with delays as you may have noticed from the numerous reviews of several delay effects but sometimes you just want a simple delay and I’m particularly impressed that it sounds so good and is very quick and easy to set up.

Another effect I’ve been very impressed with is the limiter. I’ve not had much success with these in the past, this one you dial in the threshold, adjust the release and in / out gain if required and it works, perfectly. This will be used a lot in many projects and live recording where I often have issues with volume peaks.

Review of Shades album by Nathan Moody

A superb feel to this album, it’s atmospheric, dark and edgy with a great contrast between ambient and harsher sounds. There’s huge attention to detail, each sound is superbly crafted and has it’s place; layering and use of effects is spot on to highlight each sound and allow them to evolve. It’s a masterclass in dark ambient, an album that grabs and holds your attention and evokes many different images each time you listen.

The Initiate

A pulsing bassline creates an ominous feel to the opening, a riff adds a contrasting ambience with background sounds adding an excellent element. 

Coming From Within

Atmospheric evolving opening, contrasted against with a metallic / distorted sound that creates an edgy feel with great use of delay. 

Beckoning

A pulsing, metallic opening, superb layering of sounds creates an intricate, detailed soundscape with a superb edge of tension. There’s a kind of call and response feel between the riff and soundscape. 

The Order Collapses

An evolving opening with emerging rumbles and metallic sounds, gnarly distorted bass and layered riff and effects. It’s a dark, edgy sound that moves and evolves, building tension

Unspeaker

The sounds are really hard to describe, it’s like the lovechild of a Geiger / Lovecraft unspeakable beast making throaty, growly sounds, having a disembodied voice and creating a metallic rattling / shaking of its body from sudden movements. There’s a brilliant tension to the song. 

The Dose Makes the Poison

Great contrast between deep, gnarly bass and riff, it’s like a distorted string section from a ghostly orchestra. 

The Return of the End

Superb movement in the opening riff, there’s subtle layering that creates a complex soundscape with atmospheric, sound effect and chime type sounds. It’s an edgy, metallic sound. 

The Last Supplicant

Edgy bass to open, a call and response feel with emerging background sound effects creating an intricate and edgy soundscape. 

Review of Camp Howard s/t album on Citrus City Records

A solid debut release, Camp Howard have a tight knit sound with superb vocals, excellent guitars backed by solid drumming and bass. 

An excellent variety of styles, there’s slacker / stoner rock, indie pop, Seattle sound and even some Spanish lyrics for good measure. 

Holding Her Tight

Feedback and effects lead into an uptempo stoner rock groove from bass and drumming. Nice release as the vocals enter, there’s a simmering tension released at the end of the song. 

You’ve Been Misled

A kind of jangly 60s pop / psych feel to the song, superb vocals again and a jazzy feel at times. A laid back groove. 

Dog

An upfront opening and a superb groove with catchy hook, the song has great changes in feel. Vocals have a great laid back style building just an edge of tension. 

Veins

There’s a brooding quality to the opening from distorted chords and riff releasing to a more mellow verse with excellent vocals again. Excellent contrasts through the song, like a call and response. 

Granada

Superb laid back groove from natural percussion sounds, guitar adds a momentum. A laid jazzy feel, it’s an instrumental with a positive, upbeat vibe. 

Heavy Blow

A laid back groove to open, vocals are excellent again. It’s like a stripped back, slowed down stoner rock groove with a jazz feel. 

Llorando Y Fumando

An 80s kind of vibe to the opening of this song, its a jangly groove with a subtle solo. It has an edgy feel, subtle tension. 

She Doesn’t Mind

Laid back groove, superb vocals weaving around guitar chords and riffs. Nice changes of feel to a more edgy sound with a dirty solo and nice release. 

Anybody

Uptempo jangly riff propelled by drumming and shaker, its an excellent groove with subtle changes in feel. Great release to a half time kind of feel building the tempo with riffs and drumming again to a final release. 

Wasteland

Acoustic riff to open, shimmery chords and subtle drumming, it’s a stripped back feel with great edge of angst in the vocals.