Airwindows

MoNoam

TL;DW: MoNoam gives you variations on mono, mid, and side in different channels.

Sometimes you just want to lend a hand :)

Stuff’s a little chaotic in Airwindows-land right now. I’m trying to revamp things about my studio, since thanks to the Patreon I can upgrade some stuff like my grotty webcam (always reinvest in your business, kids! And have a real accountant so you can get the benefits of doing that!), therefore you can expect some interesting side-videos: be sure to be subscribed to the YouTube channel and notification bell yada yada, because there will be some more content that only turns up there. Stuff like how to get the Tommy Mars Electrocomp ‘synth horn’ sound without an Electrocomp, or (if all goes well) the correct way to hook up multiple Arturia Keysteps without them flaking out the whole time.

So, today’s one of those days where I just put out a plugin that maybe just helps one person. Because I can, and because sometimes it’s nice to just do that and not worry about whether the thing will be popular. So, meet MoNoam. It’s named sort of after the person who wanted something like it, and sort of after the concept ‘Mono’. Because all it does, is switch around some mid/side type things for your convenience.

You see, the new Monitoring is getting ‘Aurat’ settings that give you that but as mono coming from literally one speaker (you pick). Seemed like a good way to replicate what is literally a mono mix check speaker. But I got requests for that on straight mono audio… and on side, for that matter… and a lot of stuff I can’t put in Monitoring without it getting way complicated. The thing is, if I do a ‘massmarket’ generally useful plugin like Monitoring, part of that is me choosing to leave stuff out, and what’s left in takes on greater importance as stuff I think you should be doing. But there are always exceptions…

So, MoNoam (almost symmetrical, like a palindrome) gives you mono/mid and side (directly) in such a way that you could sum them to get the stereo back again. But it also gives you mono in either one or the other channel, to come out of only one speaker. And it gives you ‘mono-ized’ side: this will be fuller-sounding than the true side, because the true side is out of phase between channels. And you can put the mono-ized side in one or the other channel if you want. If you’re recombining things it’ll get weird, but if you just want to hear it then this is your chance. And maybe you might have tricky situations having to do with mid/side, or you’re doing odd things in Blue Cat Patchwork, or just making complicated signal routings, and need one of these options. They’re odd enough to require a lot of fiddling if you were doing them just in the DAW. Now they’re one simple plugin :)

Have fun. I don’t think this is going to be a popular plugin, but it’s nice and clean and convenient and simple. What’s not to like?

Date October 6, 2019
Author Chris
Comments 3 Comments

PurestAir

TL;DW: PurestAir is a brightness experiment.

PurestAir.zip(350k)

A while back, I got reminded of this plugin. Someone said, ‘you haven’t put this out, when are you going to?’ and I said ‘Oh, that’s right, I haven’t’.

So here you go. It’s a bit weird. Normally ‘Purest’ plugins are ultra-simple. This isn’t quite like that and I don’t remember why. It’s sort of like Air or Energy, an air-band boost or cut, but it’s also got a limiting factor where it’ll refuse to boost past a certain intensity of treble. In that way, it’s like Acceleration. Except it’s not exactly Acceleration, not exactly a slew clipper… heck, it’s not even like Air or Energy. It’s a little like a de-esser in Bizarro World? Working oppositely?

Anyway, it’s yours if you want it. There are many odd ways to do EQ code. This is clearly one of them, and it seems to be not exactly like anything else I’ve done, and it sure does crank up the extreme air band if you want that. And it’s got that clamping factor to cap it (though similarly to Acceleration, it’ll give you trouble trying to hear what’s being done). I guess check it out, and if your ears are amazing WAY up in the ultra-treble, and you also like the sound of it, you’ll probably be able to hear the action of the limiter just fine.

Me, I’m more interested in dark reverbs and deeper spaces and bass, so this was never my pet plugin: maybe it can be yours :)

Patreon is how I keep doing all this, including the bigger and more generally useful things I have in store (much like Monitoring, and yes, I still have revisions to do on Monitoring and a more intense Cans headphone-crossfeed to deliver). It also pays for vital stuff like food and firewood, and neat stuff like electronics kits. I’ve bought some, and I hope to put out some nice meditative ‘sit with me while I assemble a kit, like from Erica Synths or Music Thing Modular or Bastl’ videos. I’m also getting interested in doing some just relaxing in Minecraft, which can also be a stream: perhaps people can join me. But I’ll be getting back to the plugin-mongering, it’s a regular thing with me as you know :)

Date September 29, 2019
Author Chris
Comments 7 Comments

Biquad2

TL;DW: Biquad2 is the Airwindows biquad filter that’s more sweepable and synthy.

Biquad2.zip(378k)

This time, it’s time for the impossible!

As in, there was a reason nobody was doing sweepable, ‘synthy’ biquad filters…

Turns out it simply doesn’t work. One uses a different type, like state variable filters, for the synthy stuff. The reason is that, while biquads can sound pretty great (especially implemented like I do ’em), they fundamentally can’t cope with changing the filter coefficients mid-calculation. They flip out: you’ll hear some of that, especially at the frequency extremes. Low Q makes low frequency motions flip out, and high Q (and boy do I have a high Q for you this time) makes ultra-high frequency motions flip out in a really wild. glitchy way.

So obviously I gave up.

nope! Instead, I just kind of forced the filter into zones where it mostly is controllable. This is partly through REALLY smoothing the filter cutoff, especially at low Q and low frequencies. If you try and update biquad coefficients every sample (and I already changed the form from the more CPU-efficient to the more stable form: didn’t help much at all) the algorithm gets super twitchy, so part of what I’ve done is just stabilizing things. I tried for ages to come up with some bizarre hack to force the filter back into stability: no dice. So, the range has been limited a little, the Q doesn’t adjust below a Q of 1, and it reacts really slowly, because that was the only way I could get it to behave at all. (the original Biquad can sometimes be better behaved, because it’s only recalculating coefficients every new buffer. So, zipper noise. When you get rid of that your troubles get infinitely worse, with biquads)

I’ve also got the resonance (on low and highpass) working differently. I’m scaling back loudness, but I’m also applying a distortion, then averaging after that, to try and get an ‘overdriving filter effect’ not present in the purer original Biquad. You can go quieter into Biquad2 and avoid this, or not use as much resonance: I feel it’s kind of like the Roland Alpha Juno filter resonance distortion, not an everyday thing but when it pops up it has its own distinct quality that’s interesting.

Anyway here’s Biquad2 ;)

Patreon is how I’m able to stick around doing this stuff, and/or fixing up stuff that needed fixing. It’s become clear from the response to Monitoring (yes, I’ve got an update coming) that among the things that need fixing are ‘you make too many plugins!’ Since I can’t go and throw most of ’em away, I’ll need to do two further things: one, do more ‘combination’ plugins such as one that includes the MANY Airwindows distortion and saturation types. Two, come up with ‘sets’ of starter plugins meant to work together, which may include custom versions of plugins like Console, and three, get some more building blocks like basic EQs out there. Whoops, that’s more than two :) anyway, even if I can’t design a DAW directly, I ought to be able to tailor versions of Console and tone shapers and channel strip parts together and produce cohesive sets of plugins that are waaaay more approachable to the Airwindows neophyte. Since MV, I’d also like to do reverbs and really get a whole tapestry of mixing together.

We shall see. Enjoy the sweep-ier biquads :)

Date September 22, 2019
Author Chris
Comments 5 Comments

Channel7

TL;DW: Channel7 improves slew clipping and lets you blend Channel 6 and 5.

Channel7.zip(352k)

Short and sweet. You know how Interstage got an update because the slew clipping was too intense on high sample rates? This applied to Channel, too. So, Channel7 now handles high sample rates better than any previous Channel.

There’s more: Channel5 was the last one with the ‘Density’ algorithm, that’s extra fat-sounding. Channel6 got the Spiral algorithm, much purer and clearer… but without that fatness effect Density gets. My attempts to make a special algorithm that does both gave me Mojo and Dyno… neither of which are Channel or a replacement for either Spiral or Density.

So, Channel7 simply goes to 200%, not 100%. Up to 100% it’s the same as Channel6, but with the slew clipping fix. From 100% to 200% it does a crossfade into Channel5’s Density algorithm—so it ends up being best of all possible worlds. You can seamlessly go from perfectly clean, to the purest saturation there is, and beyond that to add any degree of fatness you like to the sound (and it fades between Spiral and Density, so there’s extra subtlety to the way it transitions).

Channel7: yeah, you’re pretty much going to want this upgrade no matter which Channel you liked. It is all of the best, more effective than ever.

If you ever jumped on the Patreon because of a version of Channel… you should take this for free ‘cos it’s an update to something you already have :D I guess if you never joined the Patreon, and you were impressed by Monitoring, and you never tried Channel, and all of it leads to you wanting to throw money, then go ahead and join (or I have a Ko-Fi as a backup plan you could use, or paypal or something). But this one’s Channel version 7. If you use Channel you should have this and not feel like I’m trying to squeeze more money out of you so definitely DON’T feel obligated to up your patronage just over this. Keep an eye out and I’ll try to do more that justifies more support. This one’s me giving back. You should get updates for free when I’m able to improve things a little more each time. Enjoy :)

Date September 15, 2019
Author Chris
Comments 5 Comments

Chris

MoNoam

PurestAir

Biquad2

Channel7

handsewn bespoke digital audio

Kinds Of Things

The Last Year

Patreon Promo Club