Christmas is a time of giving, and in the music software realm it’s rapidly becoming the season of free plugins.
One developer that we can always bank on for a festive giveaway is Baby Audio. This year’s freebie has just arrived in the form of Warp, an audio manipulation plugin lifted from Transit 2, the brand’s recent plugin collaboration with Andrew Huang.
While this three-element setup is fairly simplistic, Warp has the capacity to be a powerful sound-shaping tool, ideal for creating either subtle tape-style wobbles or more extreme sound mangling effect.
Warp is one of 28 effect modules that make up Transit 2, Baby Audio’s recent collaboration with YouTuber and musician Andrew Huang. Transit 2 is a multi-effect that puts a lot of emphasis on movement, making it ideal for creating transition effects and bringing static loops to life.
Features:
Pristine, artifact-reduced varispeed control to effortlessly speed up or slow down audio.
Use the Stretch knob to control pitch independent of time for unhinged audio mangling. (Set to 50% to retain the pitch).
Powered by Transit 2 and developed with Andrew Huang.
Warp is available alongside other Baby Audio freebies including the Beat Slammer compressor and Magic Dice randomised delay/reverb. It comes in VST, AU and AAX formats for Mac or PC. An iOS version is also available on the Apple App Store.
Back in late November, Telepathic Instruments shared sneak preview for Orchid, an advanced chord generating hardware synthesizer, that the company says is “a tool for anyone who wants to step outside their musical comfort zone.”
Today, Telepathic Instruments has shared details on how exactly music-makers can purchase an Orchid. An initial run of 1000 instruments will go on sale next week, Wednesday December 18th, as part of a limited beta release in advance of a wider release in 2025. Orchid is priced at $549.
The company says that the response to Orchid has “far exceeded” their expectations, and for this reason they’ve put a special system in place to “manage the demand, security risks and ensure fairness of this sale.”
If you’re hoping to get your hands on an Orchid, you’ll need to sign up to The Garden, Telepathic Instruments’ Patreon community, where they’ve been sharing product demos and behind-the-scenes insights into the development of the instrument, including an AMA with Orchid developer Tom Cosm.
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll need to head over to the Patreon on Wednesday at 5PM PST/8PM EST to find a password that can be used to unlock the company’s website, which will be temporarily password-protected. With that password, you’ll be able to access Telepathic Instruments’ online store to snag an Orchid, some merch, or both. There’s a limit of one Orchid per customer.
Telepathic Instruments will be updating its website on Monday to give you a chance to browse the site and view detailed product information in advance of Orchid going on sale.
Orchids purchased next week will ship in February next year, and if you’re outside the United States, you’re out of luck, as only US-based customers can get involved.
