Nembrini Audio gifts off the season of giving by offering you a free Wah plugin
The countdown to Christmas has well and truly begun, and in this season of goodwill, Nembrini Audio has just released a free Wah Pedal plugin.
This is modelled on a classic wah pedal that was created by the Thomas Organ Company, manufactured by JEN Italy and released in 1966.
The plugin is designed to be used to add the familiar wah effect to existing tracks in your DAW. Guitar parts are ripe for being processed, and other instruments like bass, brass, keys etc may benefit, as well. The effect can be controlled either by DAW automation or MIDI pedal control.
Wah Pedal is available now as a free download for iOS, PC and Mac (VST/AU/AAX). Find out more on the Nembrini Audio website.
The Plus version of the free BPB Dirty Filter plugin offers more flavours of filth and increased control
The free Dirty Filter plugin released two years ago. Now, Bedroom Producers Blog has released a ‘Plus’ version. This is a completely overhauled edition of the original version of this dual filter and multimode distortion plugin that gives you four Dirt Modes, separate Slope controls for the filters, a compressor module and a new, resizable GUI.
The original BPB Dirty Filter Plus Dirt mode is now joined by three more. Acid is said to sound similar to the way your recordings would “if sprinkled with acid”; Dust promises an instant lo-fi sound; and Cyber reduces the bit depth and sampling rate to give you a bitcrushed tone.
Now comes with four dirt modes, separate Slope controls and a compressor. As before, you can ramp up the distortion and filter intensity with the Dirt knob, but with those four modes to choose from, you now have more potential flavours to work with. Slope controls for both the high- and low-pass filters enable you to keep one filter transparent and make the other more aggressive.
The compressor is “highly transparent” and suitable for glueing your signal together, increasing loudness and bringing out detail without comprising the transients.
Designed to be used both subtly and at more aggressive settings, BPB Dirty Filter Plus can be downloaded for free, though it’s actually a ‘pay what you want’ product with a suggested price of $5. So, if you loved the first one or plan on using it a lot, consider making a donation.
Valhalla DSP has released an update to Valhalla Supermassive to mark its 2.5 year anniversary. A popular free reverb for Mac and Windows, adding two new modes: Scorpio and Libra.
The Scorpio mode is similar to the Gemini mode in many ways: fast attack, rapid build of echo density, more of a “conventional” reverb. The feedback path in Scorpio, though, is very different than Gemini, with lower DENSITY settings, and can sound like a complex ping-pong delay. The Low EQ and High EQ filters in Scorpio are included within the feedback paths, versus outside the feedback path like in the Gemini mode.
These are seemingly subtle changes, but they make a HUGE sonic difference. The complex feedback path in Scorpio creates a lot of stereo width, as well as a more “open” frequency response. By incorporating the High EQ filters into the feedback paths, the Scorpio mode can create far more realistic reverb sounds, where the high frequencies decay away over time. The Low EQ filters can be used to take out a little bit of the low frequencies for a less boomy reverb decay, or can shave off a lot of the low end for a reverb that gets thinner sounding as it decays away.
The Libra mode in ValhallaSupermassive has a somewhat slower attack than Scorpio, and can sound like a delay at 4X the displayed DELAY length when WARP and DENSITY are both at zero. Turn up the WARP control, and Libra quickly transforms into a very lush reverb, with balanced modulation. The DENSITY control will start to bring in shorter recirculating delays, and is very useful in smoothing out the reverb attack and decay. Every delay within the Libra mode is filtered by Low EQ and High EQ filters within the feedback paths.
The upshot of all of the above: the Libra mode is the best mode in ValhallaSupermassive for lush modulated reverbs with a natural decay. The Low EQ is useful for filtering as much low frequency content as you do or don’t need. The High EQ creates organic high frequency damping. The balanced modulation results in smooth sounding chorusing.
An example of Libra in action:
This track, by developer Sean Costello, features Libra mode for reverb, and ValhallaDelay is being used for tape echo and backwards pitch shifting. The Take 5 from Sequential is being used for the synth tracks.
ValhallaSupermassive is a free plugin, available for both Windows and Intel/ARM Macs.
