Re: In search of a NEW effect --- was: Fill my rack!

[Jeff Larson <Jeffrey.Larson@Sun.COM>]

Travis Hartnett wrote:
> What software-only effect has come out in the last five years that's
> established itself as a modern classic?  I'm not being facetious, just
> asking for an informed overview from those who have been keeping track
> of that area of sound modification.

I think it's a little early to declare any "classics", at least for
live performance tools where hardware still (rightly) reigns supreme.
In the studio though where you're already working in the digital
domain, software effects are rapidly taking over.

The loved and hated Antares Auto Tune is certainly wildly popular (and
overused).  They also package this as a dedicated hardware unit, but
only because the demand is sufficiently high.

Antares Kantos isn't very popular, but is a good example of an
innovation that you could not justify producing as hardware.

The general category of "convolution reverbs" probably qualifies as a
classic, there are several vendors of those.  But this is more of a
studio tool, not a live performance tool.

And of course, Chopitch is destined to be a classic ;-)

What I hope to see more of in the coming years are synchronized
effects, like the AdrenaLinn with more control and a graphical
interface.  Also, modelers like the VG-88 where the source signal is
not necessarily present in the output signal.  And something
along the lines of the Vortex.

One of the consequences of it being easy to produce software effects
is that there are a LOT of them and the quality is not uniformly high.
There are probably over a thousand "delay" and "distortion" plugs that
you could sift through looking for something good.  There could be
potential classics lurking in there but unless you have the money to
advertise, it is hard to find them.  Forums like KVR help, but the
signal to noise ratio is still pretty low.

Further, the plugins that are good in some categories are often
relatively similar, so it is harder for any one of them to stand out
as a classic.  A plugin that contains unique DSP algorithms that are
difficult to duplicate stands a better chance.  But as you say a lot
of these are unusual effects with limited use.

Jeff