Airwindows

TransDesk

TL:DW; More of a transistory, rock desk tone coloring.

Continue the look into classic Airwindows analog modeling with TransDesk!

There’s a famous analog console known for rock mixes. It might not have the preamplifiers to hang with the APIs and Neves of the world, but it’s been a watchword for mixdowns, both for the sound and for the extreme flexibility it offers (automation, effective EQ, compression). I’m not going to name it, but I was tuning TransDesk to get into a similar area: in particular, I wanted to get a comparable aggressiveness into the highs. This isn’t a plugin for making things soft and sweet, it’s for rocking out.

That said, there are many paths to this ocean of sonic mayhem, and what distinguishes TransDesk is that it gets its sound with very little processing. You don’t lose much mojo just to get that coat of sonic paint. In some ways the immediacy of this approach is closer to the analog truth. In other ways, it’s less a would-be clone of a classic big console, more a way to get some of that energy. (Technically, I’m doing it by trying to match the overload characteristics, including power supply idiosyncrasies that affect the way energy can be drawn for the highs.)

The result is another Desk-style plugin, with a completely different sound. It’s not calibrated to work with Console (that’s the for-pay version of Desk that consolidated these and calibrated them all) and it doesn’t have special requirements for where it should go. Place it where you want that style of tone coloring: like Desk, you can use it on auxes and submixes (including ones ‘inside’ Console) to better emulate running through a lot of circuitry.

And please support my Patreon. This is just scratching the surface.

Date January 18, 2017
Author Chris
Comments 7 Comments

Desk

TL:DW; Classic Airwindows subtle analog modeling.

Desk

Now that we’re done for now with dithers (though the contest to name my best wordlength reducer ever is still going, and will run until February 1 when that one’s made public) it’s time to get into something more interesting.

Namely, the canonical version of Airwindows Desk, brought up to current standards and ported to Windows VST!

This has never been available in this form, or for free. But it’s 2017 and time to include some of the plugins that gave Airwindows a decade of active business even when selling only generic, GUI-less Audio Unit plugs for Mac only. These were secret weapons most people couldn’t get, and they were $50 each. Now Airwindows is supported by Patreon and growing month by month (it’s about time to get some reporting on this story, attn. anyone who’s looking for an amazing tale to recount) and while the for-pay plugins are still waiting to begin their release, I can start rolling out new versions of some of the greatest hits.

Desk is a little bit like a precursor to ‘PurestDrive’. It’s entirely an analog modeler, with a behavior that’s far from a plugin stomp-box distortion. It glues and thickens the sound, with a headroom of about 30 dB, much like a true analog console (those don’t turn into distorto-pedals the instant you hit 0 dB). Desk is the canonical version of this type of sound processing.

Note that it’s not tricky to use like Console4. It’s not calibrated to work as a ConsoleChannel replacement (that’s the most recent Desk3, which is one of the Kagi plugins to be released later). It doesn’t have elaborate tone colors added like BussColors3 (also a Kagi plugin). It’s not obvious in normal use, not adjustable like some of these plugins. In normal operation you’re miles from clipping it anyway, and get only a subtle glue and tone shaping.

But what it IS… is classic Airwindows tone coloring brought up to 2017 standards. You can stick Desk on any channel, any submix or buss, the 2-buss, or all of the above. The more places you put it, the more obvious the analogifying becomes. And since it’s Airwindows tone and transparency, you can put it up against any ‘analog modeler’ by anybody, at any price or subscription fee, and it should beat everything and give a bigger, punchier sound. If it’s ‘analog warming’ and tone you want, and you require the sound not to turn into digital sludge and glitter, this is the one.

Desk’s kindred plugins TransDesk and TubeDesk are coming, and I’m working on some cool things besides that. And TransDesk and TubeDesk are cool in their own right, more obvious, with more distinctive tone colors. But this plugin, Desk in its canonical form, is more important, because it’s a building block with the widest possible usefulness. And it’s dead easy to use anywhere you like.

Please support my Patreon. I’ve got lots more to do, and the more resources I have, the more I CAN do, and will do.

Date January 11, 2017
Author Chris
Comments 4 Comments

PowerSag

TL:DW; Emulates power supply limitations for analog modeling.

PowerSag

We’re going to explore the early Desk plugins (as free VSTs), so here we’ll start off with one of the underlying principles! PowerSag models the problem of analog power supplies that can’t source enough current to drive the output of the circuit. The circuit doesn’t directly distort, but the more output it’s been making, the less is in reserve. This is part of the Desk line of plugins, but now it’s a distinct component to play with.

You get a Depth and Speed control. Dial in the effect by exaggerating Depth and then exploring with Speed: it’ll create a variety of compressey or distortey effects, but since they’re sucking energy out of the body of the sound, it’s a completely different type of distortion from saturation or clipping. Then, return Depth to zero and sneak small amounts of it back in, until the desired effect is reached. You’ll get a more tubey effect with extremely slow Speed, a big-console transistory effect with very quick Speed.

The neat thing about PowerSag is that, if you like grunge and distortion, it’s capable of adding some grind to the sound while pulling the channel back in the mix, where traditional distortion and saturation pushes sounds forward. When you balance that with normal overdrive, you can get a lot of energy and character happening without everything becoming too fatiguing and up-front. Balance is good, being able to trim the body of a sound is good: if you like sculpting mixes with distortion and saturation, this might be right up your alley :)

Date January 8, 2017
Author Chris
Comments 4 Comments

Fracture

TL:DW; Soft frequency-doubling-and-tripling waveshaper.

Fracture

Hi! Merry Xmas to Xmas-ers. Here’s a truly freaky little wave-shaper. It’s of interest to distortion fanciers, those who make wubs and things, and anybody who might like the digital equivalent of an insane boutique stompbox that doesn’t sound like anything else.

It’s not exactly the sort of thing you put on your 2-buss, but you might have fun with it anyway! :)

Date December 24, 2016
Author Chris
Comments 10 Comments

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