Oct.3
2007
Three of 'em...
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I'm working on a full-page ad for the upcoming Computer Music Special Issue which will feature all three of the mod effects. Here's a test render (obviously not the finished product; I'm working on the lighting right now) so you can get a little taste of Vapor.

As to what Vapor is, that probably requires a bit of explanation. What I need is a word that can describe the effect, since it's sort of a New Thing. Mentally, I use "psychosomatic frongulator," but obviously that sort of nonsense won't Increase Shareholder Value. It needs to be a word like "chorus" or something, a simple word that says what it does.

And what does it do? It has delay modulation, like a chorus, but it has diffusors, like a reverb. More or less. This is a semi-unstable network, and at extreme settings can make Intergalactic Robot Noises; it can also give a nice sheen to most any sound at more temperate settings, or knock the corners off pretty much anything. I'll put up some sound samples later today, but we're still touching up the code a bit, so these might not be 100% indicative of the finished product.

All that aside, this is really our first attempt at building something New, as most all of our products have been either clones of existing hardware or the logical continuation of well-liked effects. Coming up with new effects in 2007, when most common effects are half a century old or more, isn't the easiest thing in the world, so we look forward to your feedback and criticism viz. Vapor.

EDIT: Okay, here's a couple audio samples I bashed out quick-like:

Drums : Here's a simple mono drum loop. Dry, then I automate the "MIX" knob of Vapor up to 100% over 2 measures. This gives you a good idea of what the diffusors do. Very little mod in this one. If you don't use any mod, Vapor gets very metallic, so I've been tending to goose it a bit just to get the ringing out. However, we're going to leave the ability to ring in, in case it's something that may be useful.

Synth : Here's a simple pad-ish kind of thing from my MKS80 (Oh, how I love you, MKS80!) It starts out dry as a bone. Then I automate mix up to full, then rate from about .07Hz up to just under 1Hz, then I automate depth from about 10% up to 100%. You can plainly hear the top-end crystaline stuff that is added to the signal, and also the nice body the pad gets as mod is applied. Vapor has a tendency to accentuate the very top-end of the signal; this means that stuff like pads can become clear in a mix without having to add a ton of mod to them, or taking up too much of the soundstage with something like a big chorus.

Anyways, you get the general idea. This effect is meant to be quite subtle, as a way to give background synth, strings, or guitar some life, but as you can plainly hear on the drum sample, it can easily be used as a special effect. I'll put up some more samples once we get the DSP really dimed in.

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Or Sean Hannity.

posted October 4, 2007 by Heretic_D™
I wasn't immediately awestruck with the preliminary samples like with the other siblings... But still sounds very good.

posted October 4, 2007 by vae
Here's a slogan

"VAPOR" - For when yo audio is just feel'n too damn ashy"

posted October 4, 2007 by neB

Ack, yeah, I meant MKS80. I don't know why I misread that as CS80... Either way, it sounds great.

I had an MKS30 for a while-- that's a nice fat little synth, and I think very underrated. You can convince it to do a sort of oscillator sync, even.

posted October 4, 2007 by Solipsist Nation

Not one word, but it does the same thing as the first part of the "Wonkavision process" I think. Sounds extremely useful. Another gold star for you guys.

posted October 4, 2007 by thesimulacre
That effect sounds amazing on the pad. And I wouldn't worry too much about coming up with the perfect "_____er" word to describe it; "AD Vapor" will be quite enough once people hear what it does.

Brilliant work on the UI for all three of these, by the way. Chris and Adam, thanks again for running the best plugin company around.

c.

posted October 4, 2007 by blinkman

"I was offered the most pristine perfect CS80 in existence, fully and thoroughly serviced, for a very reasonable price just the other day. And I can even afford it. It'll tell you something about my mental make-up that I turned it down."

Heathen. The CS80 is one of my top-five most desired synths.


posted October 4, 2007 by noisegeek

Regarding feedback in Vapor: I haven't tried it, but I think it probably wouldn't help any. The things within Vapor have feedback of their own, so adding a global feedback path would probably just tend to make the thing ring unpleasantly. I recognize that such things are subjective, but Chris has a particular sound in mind for this plug-in and adding feedback would take it further away from that goal.

Also, he wouldn't let me put more than five knobs on it.

--Adam


posted October 5, 2007 by studio nebula

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