Recording - December 2015 - 25

Audio Damage Bitcom and Mangleverb
$39 and $49; www.audiodamage.com

I make no excuses for the fact that I love Audio Damage
plug-ins. Chris Randall and Adam Schabtach are gaining a
lot of attention in the world of modular synthesizers these days
for the gorgeous modules they're building, but they got their
start in the world of software, and their catalog of "l33t" plugins is second to none for sheer audio madness. For this year's
Buyer's Guide, here's a quick look at two really cool effects
we missed on our last pass: Bitcom and Mangleverb.
According to its manual, Bitcom came about as the result of
an argument. The details are amusing, but you can read them
for yourself; the basic question underlying this plug-in was:
"We know how a bit crusher works... you turn off bits in an
audio word that are less significant and
keep the ones that are more significant.
But what if you were to turn off some
bits in the middle of every word?"
The answer is: "Really weird disturbing
dirty delicious stuff." And that would be
enough reason to go get Bitcom, but
there's way more than that under the hood.
Bitcom controls these bit on/offs via a
sequencer that cycles through 1 to 16
steps, with a different bit pattern on each
one. Each step's pattern can be randomized, shut off, or blended with a simple
onboard synthesizer to add tonal texture.
The sequencer syncs to your DAW and
can run at 8th, 16th, or 32nd note per
step. You can blend the dry signal with
the crushed for more subtle effects, add
swing to the stepping, and more.

The result is a rhythmic distortion that subtly or completely changes its
character with every step. Its obvious use is on drum loops, but it's fun on
rhythm guitar parts and basslines too. If you want distortion that's out of the
ordinary, Bitcom is about as far out of the ordinary as you can get.
Well, until you start playing with Mangleverb, that is. This plugin does what it says: it mangles reverb. The first module is a simple
algorithmic reverb with control over color (EQ tilt), decay time (with
an infinite-reverb freeze button), and wet/dry mix. At the bottom,
the Pre/Post switch puts the reverb either before or after the other
modules, which, as you can imagine, produces drastically different
sounds.
Next up in the audio chain, there's a resonant multimode filter with
overdrive, and finally a VCA to control the signal's overall level. The
filter cutoff and VCA can be controlled with a synchronized LFO with
shapable waveforms and/or an Envelope follower that reacts to the level of the input signal,
the level of a sidechain input, MIDI notes, or
the LFO. Realtime scrolling displays show what
the LFO and Envelope are doing at any given
moment. The final section offers a feedback
control for more craziness, overall wet/dry
mix, and basic VCA controls.
Mangleverb's output character entirely
depends on the Pre/Post switch in the reverb. In
Pre, you get a thick reverby character, chopped
up and distorted by the filter and giving more of
a tonal texture than a sense of space. In Post,
your audio is crushed and chopped before
being stuffed into the reverb, for damaged
audio in space rather than damaged audio containing space. Either way, the mixture of spatial
depth and tonal trashiness is a lot of fun to play
with and well worth your attention.-MM


http://www.audiodamage.com http://www.mil-media.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2015

Contents
Recording - December 2015 - Intro
Recording - December 2015 - Cover1
Recording - December 2015 - Cover2
Recording - December 2015 - 1
Recording - December 2015 - 2
Recording - December 2015 - 3
Recording - December 2015 - 4
Recording - December 2015 - 5
Recording - December 2015 - Contents
Recording - December 2015 - 7
Recording - December 2015 - 8
Recording - December 2015 - 9
Recording - December 2015 - 10
Recording - December 2015 - 11
Recording - December 2015 - 12
Recording - December 2015 - 13
Recording - December 2015 - 14
Recording - December 2015 - 15
Recording - December 2015 - 16
Recording - December 2015 - 17
Recording - December 2015 - 18
Recording - December 2015 - 19
Recording - December 2015 - 20
Recording - December 2015 - 21
Recording - December 2015 - 22
Recording - December 2015 - 23
Recording - December 2015 - 24
Recording - December 2015 - 25
Recording - December 2015 - 26
Recording - December 2015 - 27
Recording - December 2015 - 28
Recording - December 2015 - 29
Recording - December 2015 - 30
Recording - December 2015 - 31
Recording - December 2015 - 32
Recording - December 2015 - 33
Recording - December 2015 - 34
Recording - December 2015 - 35
Recording - December 2015 - 36
Recording - December 2015 - 37
Recording - December 2015 - 38
Recording - December 2015 - 39
Recording - December 2015 - 40
Recording - December 2015 - 41
Recording - December 2015 - 42
Recording - December 2015 - 43
Recording - December 2015 - 44
Recording - December 2015 - 45
Recording - December 2015 - 46
Recording - December 2015 - 47
Recording - December 2015 - 48
Recording - December 2015 - 49
Recording - December 2015 - 50
Recording - December 2015 - 51
Recording - December 2015 - 52
Recording - December 2015 - 53
Recording - December 2015 - 54
Recording - December 2015 - 55
Recording - December 2015 - 56
Recording - December 2015 - 57
Recording - December 2015 - 58
Recording - December 2015 - 59
Recording - December 2015 - 60
Recording - December 2015 - 61
Recording - December 2015 - 62
Recording - December 2015 - 63
Recording - December 2015 - 64
Recording - December 2015 - 65
Recording - December 2015 - 66
Recording - December 2015 - 67
Recording - December 2015 - 68
Recording - December 2015 - 69
Recording - December 2015 - 70
Recording - December 2015 - 71
Recording - December 2015 - 72
Recording - December 2015 - Cover3
Recording - December 2015 - Cover4
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