Beam by Lunacy Audio - Multi Effect plugin

[kraster]

Here's an interesting new plugin from Lunacy Audio.

It's a convolution reverb, granular processor and filter.

What's particularly interesting is the routing. You can split the "beam" into up to six Parallel paths.

You can nest parallell paths within each path.

You can have up to three of each effect in a patch.

It also has two LFOs for modulation and each LFO can be edited shaper box style.

And it sure is pretty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EElBlnBGXc&t=168s

[Funky40]

https://lunacy.audio/products/beam/

[idoru97214]

I bought this within 5 minutes of getting the email. But I'm at work - so I can't play with it until tonight, sadly. The demo was very nice sounding to me, and the people who contributed work top notch. And 59$ seems pretty fair for an effect that looks and sounds like it competes directly with Portal.

[gnu23]

DATABROTH also has a short video up.

[kraster]

I bought this within 5 minutes of getting the email. But I'm at work - so I can't play with it until tonight, sadly. The demo was very nice sounding to me, and the people who contributed work top notch. And 59$ seems pretty fair for an effect that looks and sounds like it competes directly with Portal.

I bought it too within five minutes!

It's fantastic. The whole USP is the signal routing and it's brilliantly implemented.

It makes it really flexible.

I love portal but this is much easier to use.

The granular node is pretty great. It can double up as a delay, pitch shifter, reverser and of course a granular processor.

I love the controls on the convolution. You can trim start and the end of the IR, fade it in or out, reverse it, stretch or shrink it (which is effectively pitching it) and add predelay. The mix control for the convolver can be automated by it's own shaperbox style MSEG and the controls for editing your own LFOs/MSEGs are fantastic.

The only thing that's a bit underwhelming is the filter node. It sounds fine but is just a pretty vanilla filter with a resonant LP, HP and BP.

It is useful for a kind of multiband setup by putting a bandpass before each parallel stream.

They did say in the video that they will be adding more nodes but it's pretty great as it is.

[kraster]

Some nice uses here from Dash Glitch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyhXw4XpBHo

[Dirtgrain]

Is there a way to make feedback loops with the pathways?

[Greenstorm33]

Looks nice but does it really get you anywhere you can't go with a granular plugin, a convolution reverb, and FL Studio Patcher or a similar plugin chainer?

[kraster]

Looks nice but does it really get you anywhere you can't go with a granular plugin, a convolution reverb, and FL Studio Patcher or a similar plugin chainer?

That's true of any multi effect plugin but you always end up with "we've got X plugin at home, dear".

Having everything in situ with its own ergonomics is what these things are all about.

[Greenstorm33]

Looks nice but does it really get you anywhere you can't go with a granular plugin, a convolution reverb, and FL Studio Patcher or a similar plugin chainer?

That's true of any multi effect plugin but you always end up with "we've got X plugin at home, dear".

Having everything in situ with its own ergonomics is what these things are all about.

There's definitely something to be said for workflow but I just don't see that this particular one really buys you anything. The effects don't really look like anything special and you've only got three different ones. You're trading flexibility for not having to pop up an external window which doesn't seem like a great value proposition to me. It's not like Kilohearts' stuff where you can have the UIs for 10+ different plugins and modulators on the screen at the same time ready for you to tweak. That I can see the definitely see the value in.

I guess here the nodes do have their own presets, so maybe that's the appeal? Quickly drag around and audition different node presets?

Edit: Also the modulation could definitely be a selling point, depending on what you've already got and/or what DAW you're using.

[Funky40]

I love portal but this is much easier to use.

looking from outside, that was my first thought, that this could be the case.

Having everything in situ with its own ergonomics is what these things are all about.

totally.

still not entirely convinced.*
But looking at the "who we are" @Lunacy Audio.....that´s quite interesting.
might jump next month anyway. New month, new approval for budget, haha.*


* just, i personally deal with one major setback:
i´m really NOT interested to add more manufacturer names to my Bin

edit: how much latency ?

[worldfever]

instantly bought since I liked Cube and the demo for this - I have a lot of granular effects like Silo, Fragments, Portal, Graindad already...but I kinda like this.
might not the most fully featured granulator, but the combination of these 3 relatively simple effects works kind of magic.

Surely you could recreate this in your daw with patcher/racks, but as kraster has said, sometimes its just about how things work together within their own interface, giving you a nicely tuned/curated plugin. I like the interface as well, invites exploration and pretty to look at, though certainly will not be everybody's cup of tea, not super practica. If I knew exactly what i'm shooting for, I'd probably reach for Portal or something more straightforward instead though

What kinda sells it for me though, and what would be certainly not easily reproducable yourself is the random feature/"Preset generator" that comes up with all kinds of routing constellations and mod assignments, instant madness and gives really usable stuff. I find the three building blocks in there compliment each other pretty well

[kraster]

I find the three building blocks in there compliment each other pretty well

That's what I think.

The convolution can do a lot, from reversing the signal to adding tonal or noise elements and of course reverbs. It's also very configurable with the ability to adjust the start/end and fade in out, stretching/condensing etc. You can then add rhythm to it by adjusting the dedicated mix LFO and also if you have a tonal based IR modulating the stretch parameter with an LFO can give you melodic elements.

One exceptionally cool feature is the ARP on the granular section that adds a lot of potential for harmonic content.

I'm always on the lookout for plugins that have a good feature set capable of complexity but manage to be relatively uncomplicated in use. I think that's where Beam er...shines!

I also think the visual representation of the routing as well as being pretty is probably the best I've seen. It's effectively a signal flow representation. It's very easy to see what is going where.

I do think the filters are a bit underwhelming. They're definitely useful in taming the sound but a bit too utilitarian.

More filter types like notch, formant and comb filters would add a lot.

More LFOs would also be welcome. They're really well done and can double up as step sequencers.

Some kind of envelope follower would also add a lot.

Also at the end of the video in the OP they mention that there will be more nodes and features added.

[Funky40]

whats the reported latency please ?
(since i´d use it for realtime-play things)

[kraster]

whats the reported latency please ?
(since i´d use it for realtime-play things)

Both Ableton 12 and Pro Tools (latest version) are reporting zero.