Groove tools

Phaser plugins This time around I´m putting phaser plugins to the test. Going into this test I imagined I would roughly be able to get the same sound from all of the contenders, but they were in fact very different beasts.  As always, you´ll find samples below. How I tested This time around I used a guitar and a piano loop, and played these through the plugins while monitoring the output in order to level match them at approximately the same loudness level (the phase peaks did introduce some challenges).  I typically used presets and went for a subtle/standard, slow and fast effect, and sometimes I had to tweak the preset slightly to fit the material. Phasing revisited A phaser is yet another delay based effect, but this time it produces the effect by changing the phase of a signal using an LFO, and mixing it back in which introduces phase cancellation. As the LFO sweeps, notches will appear at different frequencies and adding further stages will introduces even more

UPDATE! This is an update to the evolution review  I posted a while back.  What it is Wave alchemy seems to have a thing for drum samples, and their their  revolution  kontakt library focused on vintage drum machines has long been popular with producers. This was followed up by the Evolution drum library, which is focused on more modern drum sounds. Wave Alchemy mentioned there an update quite a while ago, but instead of calling it 1.1 they renamed the product to Drumvolution , which is a free update to registered users (thanks!). What you get Evolution is a kontakt library, so you´ll need kontakt (player) to use the product. The library comes with a pre-compiled sample pool  with both clean and tape processed versions, but you can't import your own samples. The library is however Native Instruments NKS compatible. What it does The library comes with over 28 000 samples (and 400 presets) based on various acoustic and electronic sound sources and covers a wide ra

Delay plugins If you´re anything like me you probably have at least 10+ delay plugins in your plugin folder. A delay is a very simple concept so do we really need more than a few? Today I´m trying a bunch of different delays to try to answer the eternal question. How many delays does a man really need? How I tested I took a guitar solo snippet a put it through a bunch of different delays, and then normalized the output volume. The purpose was to see if there´s any real difference, so I used whatever tone shaping features available to subtly tweak the tone without going into a special FX territory. Check out the audio examples and my findings at the end of this post. Delay features revisited I´ll be mentioning these features throughout the test, so I just thought I´d go over these quickly to avoid repetition Auto ducking Auto ducking allows you to "duck" the wet delay signal whenever the dry audio is playing, This will clear up your dry signal from av avoid muddy

Saturation plugins You can never have enough saturation plugins, or can you? Today I´m  testing a few of them just to see how much variety we can expect and if we really need all of them.  I took all of the plugin on a spin for both guitar and bass, and you´ll find the related playlist at the end of this post.  Saturator X  IK-Multimedia makes the excellent T-racks range of plugins, which includes  Saturator X . This plugin is versatile overall and covers a lot of ground. My only issue with the GUI would be the omission of a mix button, but it has an auto-gain feature which is great. Saturation can add to the overall volume, which makes it difficult to compare before/after results so an auto-gain feature is very handy. The results were quite subtle when driven lightly, but quickly turned into a more distorted and brighter sound when pushed hard. This isn't a bad thing though and I can see this one becoming a go-to when I´m going for some edge. Elysia Karacter

Bass enhancers I´ve had a bunch of bass enhancers in my toolbox for a while, but never really gave them much thought. These type of processer can however be very useful so I decided to try them all out to se what I´m been missing out on. The line up: Waves RBass Waves MaxxBass Waves Lo-Air PSP Mixbass BX_subsynth I also decided to through in a saturation in the form of  Waves Vitaminic plus a sample using the Cubase stock EQ to see if I could achieve similar results with them. Test setup All the channels were normalized to about the same audio level using a metering plugin, but the perceived loudness, as you´ll see, still varies a lot. I used a small DI bass-loop to test the various plugins, and more or less just called up the default preset on the plugin and tried to push the level until I hit the same audio level as the other plugins (again using metering). I tested them on both electric bass and an electric guitar, see audio samples below. Audio examples are avail

UPDATE! An update to Evolution called Revolution has been introduced, check it out here .  I´ve updated this review with new video clips as Wave Alchemy pulled all the old Evolution clips off youtube.  What it is Wave Alchemy has released a number of sample/loop libraries over the years, mostly focused around electronic drum sounds. Their revolution kontakt library focused on vintage drum machines was a big hit, and since they have followed up with Evolution which is what we will be looking at today. Finding the perfect drum plugin has been a quest for years, and when I heard about Evolution I thought it might be it. It certainly ticks many boxes: Mix of electronic and acoustic drums Ability to conveniently layer sounds  Powerful drum shaping tools Professional and creative sound library Usability - getting to results quickly Evolution is certainly ticks a lot of boxes.  Those on the same quest may also want to check out the review of UVI Drum Designer .