Recording - October 2012 - 40

PLUG-IN OUTLET
Nomad Factory MAGMA
By Devon Brent
Once it’s installed, getting in and around the MAGMA plug-in “wrapper” is also very easy and intuitive. Pick the effect from a drop-down list of categories and then drag and drop each module between slots to your heart’s delight. Each of the plug-ins themselves is very straightforward and easy to follow. Take note while you’re demoing MAGMA—while most of the modules are a single page, some modules do have two pages. You’ll need to look carefully on the right-hand side above the level meter for an indication to see if there are additional parameters to twiddle. Listening up Bang for the buck, the quality of the individual effects is actually pretty darn good. Their quality is very much on par with the effects suite from Cubase, and often with a few more parameters than average. Even better, the effects are also friendly on the CPU. As I expected, they did not compete with my top-tier individual effects, but said effects often cost as much by themselves as the entire MAGMA bundle itself! Without reviewing each plug-in (we don’t have ten pages to spare!), I’d honestly say that I found real winners in pretty much every category, allowing for my own personal tastes and allowing for things that I personally didn’t enjoy but other users might find a perfect fit for their music. About the only effects I didn’t find immediately compelling were the reverbs, which I found too metallic and ringy for my tastes. The exception there was PurpleVerb, which offered a bit of that 1990s reverb charm when tweaked just so. In contrast, I felt that the Dynamics (especially the Tube Limiter and the “Devil” effects on guitar) were easily the best of the bunch. Those of you big on modeled distortion will likely welcome the variety of distortion effects to choose from as well. The included 600+ presets gave a nice variety of fully configured racks and individual presets for each of the modules. Expect for each individual effect to have anywhere from two to 10+ programs apiece. The only change I’d like to see is a tweak to speed up the drop-down menu system employed for every preset selection menu. With

Nomad Factory’s MAGMA Virtual Studio Rack is an effects-processing wrapper that includes a total of 65 modules for processing audio—see the list in the sidebar. But what really makes MAGMA special, in addition to the sheer number and variety of its effects, is its semi-modular routing ability. You can load in up to 16 processors in four racks with four positions apiece. From there, all the racks can be routed in six different ways with a variety of serial and parallel processing configurations. Starting up Installation of MAGMA was quite simple. I registered the plug-in with my serial number on Nomad Factory’s webpage and in turn it emailed me an authorization code. I copied in the authorization code during installation of the plug-in, and I was up and running. Thank you, Nomad Factory, for making copy protection on MAGMA easy and painless. MAGMA’s Many Modules - alphabetically by category Amplifier (Lead Guitar) Analysis (Spectrum Analyzer) Cabinet (Yellow Cab) Delays (Radio Echo, BPM Delays, and Super Echo) Distortion (Fat Drive, Flying Drive, Full Fuzz, Orange Tube, WurliDrive, Radio Drive, and Super Distortion) Dynamics (Devil’s Touch, Max Limiter, Opto-Tube, Spectra Gate, Tape Hammer, Tube Limiter, and Devil’s Boost) EQ (DJ X Tone, Graphic EQ-12, Parametric EQ-1, Parametric EQ-2, Retro EQ3, Retro EQ4, Tone Shelf, and Graphic EQ-31) Filters (Band-Pass Filter, Hi-Pass Filter, Lo-Pass Filter, Moogfer Sweeper, Presence Booster, Presence Filter, and Frog Filter) Generator (Sweep Generator and Tone Generator) Harmonic (Claritone, Fat Bass, Stereo Imager, and Stereo Maker) Modulation (Autopan, MFX Chorus, MFX-Flanger, MFX-Phaser, Retro Flanger, Retro Phaser, Tremolo, Vibrato, Phase Shifter, Super Flanger, Pitch Detune, Super Chorus, and Super Tremolor) Reverbs (Plate-Verb, Reverb One, MFX-Spring, Studio Room, and Purple Verb) Special (Destructor, ChromaZone, Insanulator, and Trance Gate) Utility (Phase Inverter, and Stereo Reducer)
40
RECORDING October 2012



Recording - October 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2012

Recording - October 2012
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
A Silver Celebration—25 Years of Recording!
Grace Design m502 500-Series Optical Compressor
Edwards Audio Research LE-10 Mic Preamp
Celeste Lear
AEA KU4 Unidirectional Ribbon Microphone
Reviewed and Revisited: PreSonus Interface Cascading
Plug-in Outlet: Nomad Factory MAGMA
Approaching The Mix
Roland R-MIX
Dangerous Music Bax EQ
Plug-in Outlet: Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machines
Mojave Audio MA-301fet
Reviewed and Revisited: Toontrack EZmix 2
Mixing—Rethinking The Process
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 10: Signal Flow Part 2
Readers’ Tapes
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - October 2012 - Intro
Recording - October 2012 - Recording - October 2012
Recording - October 2012 - Cover2
Recording - October 2012 - 1
Recording - October 2012 - 2
Recording - October 2012 - 3
Recording - October 2012 - Fade In
Recording - October 2012 - 5
Recording - October 2012 - Contents
Recording - October 2012 - 7
Recording - October 2012 - Talkback
Recording - October 2012 - 9
Recording - October 2012 - Fast Forward
Recording - October 2012 - 11
Recording - October 2012 - A Silver Celebration—25 Years of Recording!
Recording - October 2012 - 13
Recording - October 2012 - 14
Recording - October 2012 - 15
Recording - October 2012 - 16
Recording - October 2012 - 17
Recording - October 2012 - 18
Recording - October 2012 - 19
Recording - October 2012 - Grace Design m502 500-Series Optical Compressor
Recording - October 2012 - 21
Recording - October 2012 - Edwards Audio Research LE-10 Mic Preamp
Recording - October 2012 - 23
Recording - October 2012 - Celeste Lear
Recording - October 2012 - 25
Recording - October 2012 - 26
Recording - October 2012 - 27
Recording - October 2012 - 28
Recording - October 2012 - 29
Recording - October 2012 - AEA KU4 Unidirectional Ribbon Microphone
Recording - October 2012 - 31
Recording - October 2012 - 32
Recording - October 2012 - 33
Recording - October 2012 - 34
Recording - October 2012 - 35
Recording - October 2012 - Reviewed and Revisited: PreSonus Interface Cascading
Recording - October 2012 - 37
Recording - October 2012 - 38
Recording - October 2012 - 39
Recording - October 2012 - Plug-in Outlet: Nomad Factory MAGMA
Recording - October 2012 - 41
Recording - October 2012 - 42
Recording - October 2012 - 43
Recording - October 2012 - Approaching The Mix
Recording - October 2012 - 45
Recording - October 2012 - 46
Recording - October 2012 - 47
Recording - October 2012 - 48
Recording - October 2012 - 49
Recording - October 2012 - Roland R-MIX
Recording - October 2012 - 51
Recording - October 2012 - Dangerous Music Bax EQ
Recording - October 2012 - 53
Recording - October 2012 - Plug-in Outlet: Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machines
Recording - October 2012 - 55
Recording - October 2012 - Mojave Audio MA-301fet
Recording - October 2012 - 57
Recording - October 2012 - Reviewed and Revisited: Toontrack EZmix 2
Recording - October 2012 - 59
Recording - October 2012 - Mixing—Rethinking The Process
Recording - October 2012 - 61
Recording - October 2012 - 62
Recording - October 2012 - 63
Recording - October 2012 - 64
Recording - October 2012 - 65
Recording - October 2012 - 66
Recording - October 2012 - 67
Recording - October 2012 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 10: Signal Flow Part 2
Recording - October 2012 - 69
Recording - October 2012 - 70
Recording - October 2012 - 71
Recording - October 2012 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - October 2012 - 73
Recording - October 2012 - 74
Recording - October 2012 - 75
Recording - October 2012 - Advertiser Index
Recording - October 2012 - 77
Recording - October 2012 - 78
Recording - October 2012 - 79
Recording - October 2012 - Fade Out
Recording - October 2012 - Cover3
Recording - October 2012 - Cover4
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