Unconventional Plug-ins
-
- KVRAF
- 2545 posts since 15 Jan, 2013 from L'Écosse
I have to say a lot of the Audio Damage stuff are unconventional and quirky (in a good way).
-
- KVRist
- 42 posts since 11 Jul, 2009
I adore this thread too much, I discovered it through http://www.kvraudio.com/news/what-happe ... week-28979
The unconventional-yet-highly-useful is a specialty of mine — more awareness will drive market demand, along with alternative controllers that can play odd sounds more effectively. Modern means of expressivity should not be limited to rare, "boutique" instruments.
Too many plugins sound similar, like a gross saturation of virtual analogues when leaders in the field (incl. customer service) have already surged so far ahead. It is why I have a pref. for those plugins who generate results (not just the sonic output, but integration in workflow and cohesive elegance) that nothing else can convincingly replicate.
Ridan, I am in alert agreement with what you originally posted. NI Kinetic Metal is one of my faves, and I encourage you to also seek out Jeremiah Savage's (THE MAN IS A REMARKABLE AND GRACIOUS TALENT!) past works — Acoustic Refractions and Sonic Fiction — which become more rare with time due to the obsolescence of the Kore platform. Despite my sadness over that, the sounds are still very playable (and morphable) in modern Mac OS X Yosemite. (As earlier observed, Alchemy will attain this status too, since some of its soundbanks are so warped... and wherein such digital synths become more distinct due to scarcity.)
You may also enjoy this article: http://www.emusician.com/buyers-guide/1 ... ries/46576
And of course, in the grand paradox of matters, I highly recommend Spectrasonics Omnisphere, whose psychoacoustic and many other presets using creative combos of synthesis are truly unique to it... not to mention the default modulation routings. It's like a mothership of electronic music history across the entire timeline and leading the way into the future. Disappoints me highly when a synth stunts its own potential by not mapping preset mod wheel to something cool (go beyond vibrato and filter cutoff, even...). CAN'T WAIT FOR V2 WITH THE MUSICAL STALACTITES, DIEGO STOCCO'S MADCAP EXPERIMENTS, ETC. (Curiously, Speakerphone may be considered a philosophical counterpart to Omnisphere, in its meticulous and versatile museum-approach to recreating physical spaces.)
Tentatively, I'm also going to recommend UVI Sparkverb in here — so, some of you may raise an eyebrow akin to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and wonder why, since it can sound so realistic — I will point out that the RANDOMIZATION/DICE button and PRESET VOYAGER of exploring/blending between presets are utterly unique to reverbs, or other instrument/effect plugins in general. Refreshing ways to get great results quickly.
While I'm on the randomization tip, I'm also going to put my hat in the ring for Sugar Bytes' Looperator, which encapsulates what separate glitch plugins have done UNDER ONE HOOD. Truly a unified field theory of the form, and it's SOCOOL how you can have segments randomize on each playthrough. Again, a blend of (as Eno put it) CONTROL + SURRENDER. The whole Sonic Charge catalogue embodies this aesthetic as well.
I'm missing some faves out while recounting from the top-o'-my-head but just wanted to add to the fine picks shared earlier.
Oh, there've been some past pins on my Pinterest that attest to the underexposed vibrant sides of the sonic universe, as well: https://www.pinterest.com/torley/electr ... c-culture/
I wish you many awesome musicmakings in considering tools that not only sound great, but have a lovely look 'n' feel that inspires creativity!
The unconventional-yet-highly-useful is a specialty of mine — more awareness will drive market demand, along with alternative controllers that can play odd sounds more effectively. Modern means of expressivity should not be limited to rare, "boutique" instruments.
Too many plugins sound similar, like a gross saturation of virtual analogues when leaders in the field (incl. customer service) have already surged so far ahead. It is why I have a pref. for those plugins who generate results (not just the sonic output, but integration in workflow and cohesive elegance) that nothing else can convincingly replicate.
Ridan, I am in alert agreement with what you originally posted. NI Kinetic Metal is one of my faves, and I encourage you to also seek out Jeremiah Savage's (THE MAN IS A REMARKABLE AND GRACIOUS TALENT!) past works — Acoustic Refractions and Sonic Fiction — which become more rare with time due to the obsolescence of the Kore platform. Despite my sadness over that, the sounds are still very playable (and morphable) in modern Mac OS X Yosemite. (As earlier observed, Alchemy will attain this status too, since some of its soundbanks are so warped... and wherein such digital synths become more distinct due to scarcity.)
You may also enjoy this article: http://www.emusician.com/buyers-guide/1 ... ries/46576
And of course, in the grand paradox of matters, I highly recommend Spectrasonics Omnisphere, whose psychoacoustic and many other presets using creative combos of synthesis are truly unique to it... not to mention the default modulation routings. It's like a mothership of electronic music history across the entire timeline and leading the way into the future. Disappoints me highly when a synth stunts its own potential by not mapping preset mod wheel to something cool (go beyond vibrato and filter cutoff, even...). CAN'T WAIT FOR V2 WITH THE MUSICAL STALACTITES, DIEGO STOCCO'S MADCAP EXPERIMENTS, ETC. (Curiously, Speakerphone may be considered a philosophical counterpart to Omnisphere, in its meticulous and versatile museum-approach to recreating physical spaces.)
Tentatively, I'm also going to recommend UVI Sparkverb in here — so, some of you may raise an eyebrow akin to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and wonder why, since it can sound so realistic — I will point out that the RANDOMIZATION/DICE button and PRESET VOYAGER of exploring/blending between presets are utterly unique to reverbs, or other instrument/effect plugins in general. Refreshing ways to get great results quickly.
While I'm on the randomization tip, I'm also going to put my hat in the ring for Sugar Bytes' Looperator, which encapsulates what separate glitch plugins have done UNDER ONE HOOD. Truly a unified field theory of the form, and it's SOCOOL how you can have segments randomize on each playthrough. Again, a blend of (as Eno put it) CONTROL + SURRENDER. The whole Sonic Charge catalogue embodies this aesthetic as well.
I'm missing some faves out while recounting from the top-o'-my-head but just wanted to add to the fine picks shared earlier.
Oh, there've been some past pins on my Pinterest that attest to the underexposed vibrant sides of the sonic universe, as well: https://www.pinterest.com/torley/electr ... c-culture/
I wish you many awesome musicmakings in considering tools that not only sound great, but have a lovely look 'n' feel that inspires creativity!
Friendly greetings! I'm Torley. I amplify your awesome.
My music and more are @ torley.com!
My music and more are @ torley.com!
-
- KVRian
- 551 posts since 28 Jul, 2011 from USA
-
- KVRist
- 42 posts since 11 Jul, 2009
So nice of you Greg, thanks! 
Friendly greetings! I'm Torley. I amplify your awesome.
My music and more are @ torley.com!
My music and more are @ torley.com!
-
- KVRAF
- 4321 posts since 26 Jun, 2004
Heavyocity Damage is a good one if you are into Kinetic Metal.
It gets so much weirder though...
Im super into 'weird' stuff, and I find that really weird instruments, especially commercial ones, are kind of rare. But people make all kinds of super weird effects in their bedrooms and whatnot.
Big +1 for Reaktor though. For the 'weird' enthusiast, its a must have.
Many many unmatched weird synths and effects in the UL.
It gets so much weirder though...
Im super into 'weird' stuff, and I find that really weird instruments, especially commercial ones, are kind of rare. But people make all kinds of super weird effects in their bedrooms and whatnot.
Big +1 for Reaktor though. For the 'weird' enthusiast, its a must have.
Many many unmatched weird synths and effects in the UL.
-
- KVRist
- 42 posts since 11 Jul, 2009
@highkoo Very cool thing with Heavyocity Damage is how tactile and expressive it feels. It truly sounds great out-of-the-box, er, disc. There are an alarming amount of soundalike "cinematic percussion" libraries out there that don't even use velocity-switching, round-robins, or other subtle yet intuitive methods to make it easy to play realtime sequences with dynamic and TRUE IMPACT. After bangin' on some of the Damage kits, it became apparent how easy it'd be to get great results out of it in realtime, even on some of the seemingly-deceptive "few keys are mapped, but on each one of them is a fat stack of variations". (Addictive Drums isn't unconventional, per se, but it too has this property and a lovely, lovely UI to match.)
On a thematically related note, I'm reminded that I recently helped my friends with demos for http://www.spaectrumarts.com/products/thecontainer which takes obsessive deep-sampling of one "thing" to a higher level... I originally heard of them from their previous library, Percussion Hits, which has both realistic and manipulated orchestral-style hits that are choice to layer with other impacts — very refreshing and variant sound design in some of those — and also exceptional because there's (again) an alarming amount of orchestral hit sounds out there which sound too distant and rumbly... some try to pass it off as "hall noise" but I'd prefer to have the choice of microphone mixing (or heck, put it through Speakerphone, ha!). Which brings us full circle to the mic control on Damage, too.
Thing I'd like to see better done with Reaktor is how NI really sets a great example with their own UIs, like how Skanner XT helps you grok what it really does with wavescanning — yet there are a lot of cool-sounding user ensembles that look ugly and scare away people who are curious to explore more... it gets frustrating not having potentially-capable stuff that is poorly-or-nonexistently-documented and looks unappealing. If more instrument designers paired with interface/experience designers, we'd all be better for it... is there even an easy hookup directory for that? Aside from browsing Dribble and Behance et al. That being said, I point towards Chet Singer for inspirational physical modeling work that is clean if not gorgeous: http://www.native-instruments.com/de/co ... ll/300659/ and if anyone else knows of ensembles in the vein of Boscomac's BEAUTIFUL CANON WHO HAS SOME EXPERIMENTAL AND AWESOME FREEBIES (the sheer amount of tip-to-toe care he puts into each one must be experienced!): http://boscomac.free.fr/ I'm of course all ears!
On a thematically related note, I'm reminded that I recently helped my friends with demos for http://www.spaectrumarts.com/products/thecontainer which takes obsessive deep-sampling of one "thing" to a higher level... I originally heard of them from their previous library, Percussion Hits, which has both realistic and manipulated orchestral-style hits that are choice to layer with other impacts — very refreshing and variant sound design in some of those — and also exceptional because there's (again) an alarming amount of orchestral hit sounds out there which sound too distant and rumbly... some try to pass it off as "hall noise" but I'd prefer to have the choice of microphone mixing (or heck, put it through Speakerphone, ha!). Which brings us full circle to the mic control on Damage, too.
Thing I'd like to see better done with Reaktor is how NI really sets a great example with their own UIs, like how Skanner XT helps you grok what it really does with wavescanning — yet there are a lot of cool-sounding user ensembles that look ugly and scare away people who are curious to explore more... it gets frustrating not having potentially-capable stuff that is poorly-or-nonexistently-documented and looks unappealing. If more instrument designers paired with interface/experience designers, we'd all be better for it... is there even an easy hookup directory for that? Aside from browsing Dribble and Behance et al. That being said, I point towards Chet Singer for inspirational physical modeling work that is clean if not gorgeous: http://www.native-instruments.com/de/co ... ll/300659/ and if anyone else knows of ensembles in the vein of Boscomac's BEAUTIFUL CANON WHO HAS SOME EXPERIMENTAL AND AWESOME FREEBIES (the sheer amount of tip-to-toe care he puts into each one must be experienced!): http://boscomac.free.fr/ I'm of course all ears!
Friendly greetings! I'm Torley. I amplify your awesome.
My music and more are @ torley.com!
My music and more are @ torley.com!
-
- KVRAF
- 4321 posts since 26 Jun, 2004
+1 on lacking documentation in the Reaktor UL...
The wonky GUIs dont bother me much, but it does seem like the weirdest stuff is often the least documented- and also, often a big hit on the cpu...
Oh, great thread for this!
Case in point, the weirdest-
http://www.native-instruments.com/en/co ... l/1793753/
Insane GUIs, insane sounds, insane CPU hits, but genius!!
Easily too much for a 'serious' musician, but I really love them.
His YouTube vids are amazeballs;
https://www.youtube.com/user/UMBAHproject/videos
I think we need more stuff like this, what with all this technology available to all of us. We can use some of it for wacky experiments.
The wonky GUIs dont bother me much, but it does seem like the weirdest stuff is often the least documented- and also, often a big hit on the cpu...
Oh, great thread for this!
Case in point, the weirdest-
http://www.native-instruments.com/en/co ... l/1793753/
Insane GUIs, insane sounds, insane CPU hits, but genius!!
Easily too much for a 'serious' musician, but I really love them.
His YouTube vids are amazeballs;
https://www.youtube.com/user/UMBAHproject/videos
I think we need more stuff like this, what with all this technology available to all of us. We can use some of it for wacky experiments.
-
- KVRist
- 42 posts since 11 Jul, 2009
@highkoo Ah yes. CAL SCOTT/UMBAHproject's YouTube channel makes me SMILE SO MUCH, so playful and fun. (I mean, all this from a guy who does BAGPIPE DUBSTEP HARDROCK @ https://caberman.bandcamp.com/ ) They are like alien dioramas or terrariums with different parameters represented by alien lifeforms. Up there in my book with Boscomac for an impressive portfolio (even if a number of them are mods, they are as far beyond "reskins" as Apocalypse is beyond typical mutants), maybe one of the most standout Reaktor ensemble collections out there. I had forgotten his name but remembered watching before — how vigorously I laughed at some of those descriptions too, like how's this for marketing:
HAHAHA. I think a sense of humor is really important to spark new ideas... I want to see more bridges between glitch music + glitch visual art too, because the sheer WTFness cross-pollinating quasi-nostalgic memories of futures' past (a number of these wild minds draw from 80s sci-fi and videogames) is delightful!
Gah, and with that in mind, another shout-out for the Sonic Charge Patternarium: http://soniccharge.com/patternarium/ What a profound idea... what if we could grow/mutate our beats like ever-evolving entities?
etc.FEATURES: HIGH FREQUENCY RECODER SPECIALIST
+ 6 AUTOMATED BREEDER GENS THAT SPAWN MECHANOIDS
+ SYSTEMIK UBER DRIVER + BITKRUSH
+ STUTTER FREEZER GUN, BRAIN DERANGER
HAHAHA. I think a sense of humor is really important to spark new ideas... I want to see more bridges between glitch music + glitch visual art too, because the sheer WTFness cross-pollinating quasi-nostalgic memories of futures' past (a number of these wild minds draw from 80s sci-fi and videogames) is delightful!
Gah, and with that in mind, another shout-out for the Sonic Charge Patternarium: http://soniccharge.com/patternarium/ What a profound idea... what if we could grow/mutate our beats like ever-evolving entities?
Last edited by Torley on Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:43 am, edited 2 times in total.
Friendly greetings! I'm Torley. I amplify your awesome.
My music and more are @ torley.com!
My music and more are @ torley.com!
-
- KVRAF
- 4321 posts since 26 Jun, 2004
Yes I love that he laughs and is surprised by the sounds he makes in the videos. He is loving it.
Boscomac, oh yes!
I use Artefact and Floodverb way too much.
Boscomac, oh yes!
I use Artefact and Floodverb way too much.
Torley wrote:They are like alien dioramas or terrariums with different parameters represented by alien lifeforms.
-
- KVRAF
- 7796 posts since 28 Apr, 2013
UVI and Spectrasonic are too conventional and mainstream.
Certainly, anything can be used unconventionally, which would make this thread pointless and falling to the same KVR disease of naming every plugin on our drives. But that is to be expected also.
A couple of Kontakt libraries I could add as different from the start though would be VIR2's Fractured Guitar and Violence.
And along the Reaktor front would add these too (if you can handle the neon GIs):
http://www.everythingturns.com/ET-V2/re ... ctive.html
Certainly, anything can be used unconventionally, which would make this thread pointless and falling to the same KVR disease of naming every plugin on our drives. But that is to be expected also.
A couple of Kontakt libraries I could add as different from the start though would be VIR2's Fractured Guitar and Violence.
And along the Reaktor front would add these too (if you can handle the neon GIs):
http://www.everythingturns.com/ET-V2/re ... ctive.html
-
- KVRist
- 42 posts since 11 Jul, 2009
@BBFG# I'd civilly disagree with you there because I do not equate "popular" with "conventional"... Omnisphere has a chockload of BIZARRE PRESETS (presets!) that don't get the use/love that some of the better-recognized sounds from it do. For every Burning Piano there're 10 Shivering Glitches, or something. It's like they're there but get overlooked in the long list, and can easily be varied via the Orb — which is relatable to Ridan's original suggestion of Kinetic Metal, where you take some unusual but very playable soundsources and can vary them for unique, personalized results in seconds. Oh, I suspect this trend will exponentially increase with Omnisphere V2. All that is different and more specific than "naming every plugin", although it is rational and fair to observe that Omnisphere contains the amount of content that a whole army of plugins do (keeping in mind it includes past products like Atmosphere and "best of" sample CDs rolled into it... incl. Distorted Reality which is one of the early thangs to spark off the cinematic weird found sounds craze — yup, waterphones and rusty oil can scrapes have become more popular since then in movietrailerland, but still so much to be mined just beneath the surface).
Also, if you haven't tried the aforementioned Sparkverb features, they are very simple at heart but elements I'd like to see in less-common types of effects. So I should clarify while the effect itself isn't unconventional, the features are — though they shouldn't be.
The more dangerous trap here are plugins/libraries that purport to be unique, yet do not really sound that way, or are not playable to be of actual use. As I mentioned, too many soundalikes but there are many market niches awaiting to be capitalized on... including fusions between software and hardware for greater playability...
Also, if you haven't tried the aforementioned Sparkverb features, they are very simple at heart but elements I'd like to see in less-common types of effects. So I should clarify while the effect itself isn't unconventional, the features are — though they shouldn't be.
The more dangerous trap here are plugins/libraries that purport to be unique, yet do not really sound that way, or are not playable to be of actual use. As I mentioned, too many soundalikes but there are many market niches awaiting to be capitalized on... including fusions between software and hardware for greater playability...
Friendly greetings! I'm Torley. I amplify your awesome.
My music and more are @ torley.com!
My music and more are @ torley.com!
