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Looper's Delight
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This weekend, I have been exploring the world of virtual computer/software based effects, virtual guitar systems, racks, etc...my brain is about to explode and I feel like I'm drinking from a fire hose. I'm like Dave Bowman on 2001...."MY GOD, IT's FULL OF STARS!" I don't have any doubt that in less than a year, my 8 space rack will be replaced with a slim but powerful laptop for all my tone mangling effects, reverb, chorus, delay, etc...all controlled via MIDI. Who knows, maybe I'll even go with Live and replace my Echoplexes. Anyway, I'm just overwhelmed by the options there are out there, plus how much some of these companies charge for VST and RTAS effect plugins....up to $3000 for some packages! Wow. Since the soundcard on my laptop is such a piece of crap, I decided to explore other temporary options. I did download AudioMulch (thanks to Tony K on our list here) and was impressed with it as a simple "harness" to insert VST plugins, route them like a real effects rack, mix, etc. Since my soundcard is horrific, I am setting that option aside for the time being until I get a new soundcard or laptop. In the meantime, I have been using my Digidesign mBox and ProTools LE, and then finding all sorts of free or demo RTAS effect plugins that will work as plugins in my effects inserts. Unbelievable. I found an RTAS plug in for Lexicon PSP42, and many other demo effects like Antares Kantos, which is capable of producing all sorts of great synth sounds that blow my VF-1 and Boss GT-3 away. And I don't even need to control this stuff via MIDI when I play. I just create an effects AUX fader for each of the effects I use, and then mute or unmute it, with my right hand. I have 5 effect inserts on each of my ProTools faders, plus 5 busses...so feasibly I could have 10 effects plugins ready to mute or un-mute at any time. The mBox method is cool because I can run it through the aux loop of my Mackie mixer board. I will be exploring the possibility of controlling the RTAS effect parameters and changing presets via MIDI, however....if that is possible??? That will be the icing on the cake to make this work for me as a total system. Does anyone have any good places to go to download free RTAS plugins (not VST for now)? I'm looking for a high quality, but simple stereo chorus, reverb, and delay, and eventually pitch shifting and other filter/mod effects. Oh, how I long for the day of not carring gigantor racks to my gigs. I'm dreaming of the day when I can walk into a gig like Kid Beyond (who sang and looped at Y2K4 last year) with my guitar, two powered PA speakers, a laptop, and a MIDI controller on the floor. I'm even ready to buy a new commercial, centrino notebook in the next 6 months to make all this work. I'm just blown away by the quality of these plugin effects, and how they make a graphical depiction of an actual effects unit with nobs, etc. That's just the cat's meow. ************************************************************************ ************** Krispen Hartung http://www.krispenhartung.com info@krispenhartung.com View improvisational / real-time looping videos: http://www.myweb.cableone.net/chagstrom2/music/kris-hartung/catalogue.ht m#videos Interactive tour of my gear: http://www.boisemusicians.com/gear.htm