Progress reports and random thoughts from the front lines.
The Night Before Bent Spool
It is exciting and slightly nerve wracking to launch a new plugin into the world, and tomorrow is the day for Bent Spool. This one is special to me, because it represents a lifelong fascination with tape loops as a music making tool. One of the most exciting moments of my music making life was plugging a guitar into a Roland Chorus Echo and switching it into sound-on-sound mode and being amazed at the instant sound collage that ensued. Bent Spool is not an emulation of a tape echo, but channels the spirit of that era of tape delays, as well as vibraphone's tremolo motor, with all of their warmth and quirks. To get started, try this: plug in an electric piano, or your favorite electric piano plugin, and start with a gentle warble of TREM mode, then switch into LOOPS, turn up fuzz, and discover an entirely new version of your musical creation.
Bringing it all together: quite a racket
I am a sucker for loud distorted guitar tones, and like when I can generate something sonic with Plastic Factory tools. Here are three upcoming desktop plugins: Particle Chimes Pro, Bent Spool, and Crooked Comb, the last a dedicated filter plugin.
Particle Chimes, Bent Spool, and Crooked Comb
Small Update to Grainsmith Field
Hat tip to Fidel, who provided the very helpful feedback that the recent additions of key aware pitch modes were really hard to use in a performance because they were buried in the settings menu. Now those options are one tap away within the top bar of the app.
Scale and key, one tap from the top bar. Field 1.6 on iPad.
Particle Chimes 1.1 is out!
Particle Chimes was updated today with three main areas of focus. First, the Studio mode layout for iPad is now much more dialed in, with clearer access to effects, the Auto mode transport, and Particles controls. Second, the additional Clouds algorithms have been added to Particles: Loop and Stretch. Loop creates a multi-tap delay effect when recording live, and turns into a pitched micro-loop effect when the buffer is frozen. Stretch allows you to change pitch and speed independently. Pitched-down plucks sound great. Third, a new visualization pack, with a whole set of black and white themed visualizers. Also, lots of new presets to show off the range of sounds that are possible. I am proud of both the name and the sound of the preset "Dorian Grey Gardens."
Dorian Grey Gardens, with the new Bands visualizer.
Why REPEAT clicked on plucked notes
I'm currently polishing Bent Spool for release. It's a creative multi-effects plugin that includes a note repeat mode. With some material it introduced clicks and awkward pauses on pitched material, worst on sounds with sharp attacks, less so on drones. The slice edges were hard cuts, and 2 ms fades at each slice fixed the clicks. Adding a "repeat" option filled in the awkward pauses where they were unwanted.
Bent Spool 1.0 on iPad.
Picking a hand-lettered font for Bent Spool
Not the most important decision in this plugin's life, but that didn't keep me from spending too much time on it. Bent Spool is FUN and nothing says fun like a handwritten font. I tried several different versions before going back to the one I started with: Caveat.
