Products of Interest

Unfiltered Audio Byome and Triad Plug-Ins

BYOME (Build Your Own Modular Effect) is a plug-in from Unfiltered Audio that features more than 40 effects modules, including delays, distortions, dynamics, filters, granular, mixing, modulation, and reverbs (see Figure 1). Among the reverbs available are Deep Reverb, which features infinite echoes for creating atmospheric sounds; Renoun reverb, which offers the user modulated reverbs that can morph between classic room spaces and geometrically impossible room spaces; and the Lofi Reverb, which is based on classic reverbs from early computer music pioneers.

The plug-in includes some of the company's well-known algorithms, such as their Sandman Pro Instant Delay and the frequency shifter from their Fault plug-in. BYOME also has a new phaser that can have up to 48 stages with variable harmonics, a Granulator with pitch shifting of ± four octaves, and a Resonator Bank with four parallel comb filters.

A Stereo Image module provides easy to use controls and eight mixing options, including Micro Delay, Micro Pitch (applies a subtle pitch shift to both channels), a mid-side equalizer, and Rotation, which spins the sound around a designated circle in space.

In terms of dynamics, there is an Auto Compressor, a deeper Compressor, a Limiter, and a G8 Noise Gate. These can be used with external sidechains. A three-band equalizer has Unity Gain and Panner functions.

The BYOME plug-in has an Input Follower that can monitor the main input or an external sidechain to generate an envelope for modulation. A new Spectral Follower can be used to generate an envelope follower based on the brightness or noisiness of a signal. A new probability function has also been added to the modulators. Randomization is available per section, effect, and modulator.

The plug-in comes with more than 400 presets for individual effects and modulators. These include 70 presets for futuristic drums and percussion that have been designed by Ivo Ivanov of Glitchmachines. It is compatible with Native Instruments' Native Kontrol Standard (NKS) and all presets are tagged. BYOME is compatible with Macintosh and Windows and is available in AAX Native, AU, VST2, and VST3 formats.

Unfiltered Audio has also released TRIAD, a plug-in that splits the signal into three bands so that BYOME effects can be separately applied to each band. It uses a flat sum frequency splitter with adjustable cutoff points and individual band gain controls. The slopes of the cutoffs are variable from 12 to 72 dB per octave. The plug-in has a fast Fourier transform visualizer and individual bands can be soloed or muted. Auto Cutoff can be used to balance the frequency distribution across the bands and there is a Unity Gain function for controlling the ratio of the amplitude without affecting the overall volume of the signal. The frequency splitter can also be used for other threefold processing, including parallel and serial, mid-side, and left-right. A Permutation feature allows the user to nondestructively apply processing from one band to another. TRIAD can load all BYOME presets. This plug-in is compatible with Macintosh and Windows and supports AAX Native, AU, VST2, and VST3 formats.

The BYOME plug-in is listed for US$ 249 and Triad for US$ 299. Contact: Plugin Alliance, 518 Ocean St, Suite A, Santa Cruz, California 95060, USA; Web www.plugin-alliance.com and www.unfilteredaudio.com.

Initial Audio Master Suite

Master Suite from Initial Audio is a plug-in tool for creating audio masters. It has industry-standard loudness features and intelligent algorithm settings to assist the user.

A Loudness feature is provided for increasing and decreasing the loudness of the track in decibels, and a total harmonic distortion (THD) function can be used to increase the perceived loudness of the master track. An intelligent compression and limiting algorithm is built in to the plug-in to facilitate maximum loudness, without causing distortion. An industry-standard LUFS meter is also available. There is a ceiling feature that allows the user to set a maximum loudness for peaks. A Soften (soft knee) function can be used to soften the compression curve. An Analog function produces a more analog sounding frequency response.

The...