Recording - September 2017 - 58

Plug-In Outlet
Toontrack EZmix
Ambient Delays,
Packs:
Ambient Reverbs, Filters & Modulation
By Mike Metlay

I'm a big fan of Toontrack's EZ line of beginner-friendly software instruments and effects like EZdrummer 2 and EZkeys.
My personal favorite is EZmix 2, which is about the shortest
path from "total beginner" to "great-sounding mix" that any
DAW user could hope for.
For those of you who are new to EZmix 2, it's a virtual rack of
nearly two dozen effects: compressor, EQ, stereo enhancer, tape
delay, echo, reverb, guitar amp, and a whole lineup of guitar
stomp boxes, all created by the plug-in experts at Overloud. These
effects are chained together, tweaked, optimized, and baked into
a list of presets that the user can browse by source instrument,
insert or aux use, musical genre, or creator (some of the presets
are created by famed engineers like Chuck Ainlay and Mark
Needham). Collections of new EZmix presets, called EZmix Packs,
are affordable add-ons that expand on the basic library; there are
45 Packs as of press time, with more coming out regularly.
All of the controls on all of the effects in any preset are
ganged together into two knobs that the user adjusts, which
control multiple parameters at once for quick and easy tone
shaping. You choose the preset, set levels, adjust two knobs,
and you're done... and you get excellent results without having
to cobble everything together yourself. EZmix 2 won't replace
a rack of top-end effects, but it's a great way to get in the ballpark quickly and efficiently while sounding great, especially if
you're working in an unfamiliar genre.
Toontrack's latest EZmix Packs are aimed at ambient music:
Ambient Delays, Ambient Reverbs, and Filters & Modulation.
Each Pack has 50 presets, centered around the types of effects
that are ambient's bread and butter. As an ambient musician
who's done everything from sound design to soundtracks, I
delight in these offerings, as they're right in my wheelhouse.
Filters & Modulation starts with chorus, flanging, phasing,
autopanning, vibrato, and octave-down synthesis, and then
adds filtering that ranges from subtle to drastic. Many of the
effects rely on synchronization with the project tempo, with
the time knob (if any) choosing a multiple of the bar or beat
for the sync. All 50 patches are designed for use on inserts;
they're intended to replace the dry signal, and they're too
drastic to use on a whole mix via an aux bus. Ambient newcomers will find these effects way over-the-top, but that's the
idea; in ambient styles, the effect is part of the sound, and it's
supposed to change the original source beyond recognition.
Ambient Delays takes advantage of ambient music's common
use of echo as a means of keeping time; repeating echoes
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RECORDING September 2017

form the pulse of much ambient music, and a good ambient
delay setup lets the user dial in as much or as little as needed.
All but a handful of these patches are designed for aux buses,
so they can be blended to taste with multiple tracks and form
a general timekeeping framework. They sync to project tempo
and add all sorts of fun twists like LFO panning, dubstyle tapespeed changes, reverse envelopes, bitcrushing, and distortion.
Here, the effect takes on an identity of its own, conjoined with
and yet separate from the original source.
Ambient Reverbs are where ambient's needs are the most
distinctive. Reverb always gives a sense of space to music, and
various genres benefit from the spatialization of their unique
reverbs: plates for pop, springs for surf, tight dry rooms for
indie rock. For ambient music, space is the place-reverbs
need to be deep, wide, and tonally rich, because they're as
much a part of the music as the sounds they envelop. This Pack
delivers! Most of these reverbs have such long decay times
that they'd be overwhelming in other genres, but here, that's
their job. Halls, plates, and springs are spiced up with panned
echoes, wah, phasing, tremolo, and more, once again to give
them a specific character that's distinct from the dry audio.
As I auditioned these patches, I thought of myself as a sort
of docent in the Museum of Ambient, walking visitors around
and giving them an appreciation for the unusual and extreme
sorts of effects that characterize the genre. Musicians interested
in creating these sorts of soundscapes can be easily intimidated
by how different the required effects are from those in
conventional genres. Fortunately, adding these Packs to EZmix
2 provides a great introduction to ambient sound design for
even the most timid novice. What fun!
Delivery: Web download
Format: Toontrack EZmix 2 (required for use)
Copy Protection: Challenge/Response
License: Single user, up to two computers
Documentation: none included
Price: $49 each
More from: Toontrack, www.toontrack.com

http://www.toontrack.com

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