Eventide Anthology X Plug Ins
Soundtoys 5 18 Plug-in Bundle
Focal Trio6 Be Studio Speakers
Young emerging musicians may not hear bells ringing when they read the word “Eventide H3000” (a powerful rack effect processor from the ’90s), but ask any engineer over 35 and you’re likely to get a series of “wow”’s! (By the way, Ken Bogdanowicz, the owner of Soundtoys, had an important role in engineering it.) Young guitarists will surely be familiar with Eventide’s very popular stompboxes, used by edgy six-string gods such as Annie Clark of St. Vincent and Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, which is a testament to the NY company’s ability to successfully reinvent itself. (The first pedal was introduced in 2007.)
With their playful approach to audio plugins (reflected in the company’s name) Soundtoys has emerged as a leading manufacturer in the field. It offers powerful effects fruit of top level, non-emulative engineering that’s both imaginative and inspiring. Hardly any mixing engineer, for example, can resist the temptation to hit the “punish” button in their “Decapitator” plugin. It’s Soundtoys’ most popular, and regarded as one of the best saturation virtual effects, on the market. And if that doesn’t sound satisfying enough, you can resort to the “Devil-Loc” plugin, labeled on the interface itself as an Audio Level Destroyer. Let’s just DO that!!!
Those who take mixing seriously can’t really afford to compromise on speakers. Why? Because mixing is all about trying to improve what you hear, and if what you hear isn’t true, you’ll be prone to mistakes; your mixes, in all likelihood, will sound bad. But that’s not all. It is also important to listen to your songs on different systems. A song that sounds great on a top studio speaker, for instance, might not sound so good on the average radio or TV speaker, which is what most people use when listening to music.
As of 2015, Eventide placed a renewed focus on effect processors, releasing a plugin bundle comprised of seventeen mixing, mastering and multi-effect plugins based on 40 years of experience, but also including new effects like the UltraChannel, UltraReverb, Quadravox and Octavox.
FYI, the Burlington, VT based company recently released version 5 of their 18 plugin bundle, which sells for an astonishingly affordable $499, and includes inspiring tools ranging from several echo- and delay-processors (including the Crystallizer, a granular echo synthesizer), filters, automatic panners, tremolos, and phase shifters among others.
Focals’ new Trio6 Be powered speakers have the unique feature of being able to solve both these problems at once. The French company has built a super-solid reputation for reference-grade performance, and the Trio6 Bes only improves on previous designs, delivering audio reproduction as accurate as it gets. But these babies also offer a unique feature that allows them to act as “two speakers in one.” A switch lets you turn off the subwoofer separately from the other two cones, which allows the Trio6 Be to emulate the sound of… your average radio or TV speaker! File under: why didn’t I think of that?
the deli Winter 2016
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