And we close out the effects edition of A Few of My Favorite Things...
11. Sonic Charge Bitspeek ($29)
A specific effect to be sure, but one that I have had a stupid amount of fun messing around with. Quite simply, Bitspeek makes anything you send through it sound like it's coming from a Speak and Spell.
12. Studio Devil Virtual Tube Preamp ($129)
Of all the effects I've plugged on these posts, this is probably the one I've been getting the most use out of lately. As the name alludes, this is a software recreation of a tube preamp. For me, although software synths are getting better all the time, there is still a certain character missing from them. Virtual Tube Preamp is a great solution to that problem. This does an amazing job of adding warmth and weight to software synths, especially bass sounds and drums. And if you push it into the read, it can add some "grr" to your sounds for a more aggressive feel. Just buy it.
13. Valhalla Room ($50)
If you've done any poking around online, you've probably seen people raving about Valhalla's Shimmer plug-in. Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome sounding effect, but also quite a specific one. For my money, Vahalla Room is much more useful in a general sense. And don't let the name fool you, you can actually get into hall territory with the right settings. A nice, clean, present-sounding reverb.
Like most Waves products, this is comically overpriced, but since they seem to be having sales every other week, chances are you can pick this up for cheaper if you play your cards right. The concept here is pretty simple... a "robot assistant" that rides the volume level of a vocal track to be as even as possible. This works nicely in front of a compressor and allows you to get away with more subtle compression settings and still have the vocal cut through.
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2 comments:
Hey, Tom! :) Great series about all the possible effects that you have found useful and interesting! I must confess that I have only heard about some of them, but now, thanks to you, I know where to start looking and what to check out. As a guitar player, I usually find really odd combinations of what would work with both guitars and synthesizers. I'm really enjoying your series. Thank you! :)
Denis, you said everything I wanted to say :D
Tom this is a wonderful series, thank you!
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