w e i v Re Don’t Crack V.I.P. Plug-in Bundle Part 2 by Adrian Frost
In December's issue of WSM I had the something years later I still have a good fortune to be able to present to soft spot for the humble flanger so it you the recently released "V.I.P. Plug- is with great relish that I introduce in Bundle" from Don't Crack. As you to the DC Classic Flanger. It previously mentioned the current follows the same basic "look" as all of bundle contains 22 high quality effects. the other plug-ins in the bundle so In that first article I took a slightly there are no surprises there. Controls more in-depth look at three of them: are basic but do the job nicely. Retro Compressor, Monster Boost and Digital Reverb. I also said that I would The main control is "Speed" which you probably have more to say about can either set by ear or, if you flip the Don't Crack's V.I.P. Bundle, so this "SYNC" switch, you can synchronise month I'm going to look at three more your flanging with your host (oo-er...) plug-ins. Don't Crack have said that "Depth" obviously controls the amount they are hoping to bring the total bundle up to 40 plug-ins by the end of 2012; I'll see if I can keep up! Classic Flanger Before turning to the world of computer music I was (and still am) a bass player and one of my favourite effects was a flanger that I picked up for about 15 quid when I was at University in the glorious city of Leeds, North England. I don't think I ever found a terribly practical use for my flanger while playing in bands but when I was practising (or messing about) at home the flanger got plugged in and my sound was mercilessly... flanged. Some twenty-mumble-mumble68
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of the effect that is applied to the incoming signal and "Feedback" does exactly what it says it does. Generally the more feedback you throw in the more hollow the sound becomes and it also takes on a swirly edge that, actually, is rather hard to describe if you've never used a flanger before. I tend to think of it as sounding like you're playing inside a large pipe that is rolling down a hill. Maybe others think the same, maybe not... DC Classic Flanger offers three different flanger types: Classic, MTron and Stomp. There is little information in the bundle's manual about what exact types might be being emulated but each type certainly has its own voice. To my ears the smoothest sounding was the Stomp. M-Tron has a slightly grittier, hard edge and Classic, well Classic just sounds good. Each type responds differently to the Depth and Feedback controls so it is hard to try and give a definitive "This sounds like..." statement. Depending on how you adjust them they're going to work well with different instruments and styles of music. Overall though Classic Flanger is a great sounding effect with plenty of variety available through the minimal set of controls.
February 2012