As was guessed by several people when I recently touched upon this topic, we've trekked down in to the cobwebbed cellars of the Audio Damage IP Storage Bunker with the special low-illumination blue-beamed flashlights normally reserved for the spooky parts of X-Files and Law & Order: SVU episodes, and returned to the daylight with a dusty tome, on the leather-bound hand-tooled cover of which was written "Ronin: The Road To Madness."

The screenshot above (click for full size) shows the results of that quest. Like Lovecraft's Elder Gods, Ronin has returned from the blackest depths of the Cœlestial Æther to walk the Earth once more, sowing destruction in its wake. Changes? Many or not much. Depends on how you look at things, I suppose. Enumerated:

New UI. This is the most obvious change. I did an entirely new UI, and in doing so have hopefully made it much easier to figure out what the hell is going on. I've also inexplicably made it look like Mac OS 6. I can't explain that. It just ended up that way.

AU. Yes, there is an AudioUnits version. Ronin's undersides are now up to snuff with the rest of our product line, and this means full MIDI learn (VST) and AudioUnits.

DSP. Actually, this is worth mentioning inasmuch as it isn't changing at all. Period. The new Ronin will cross-load presets from the old Ronin, and instantiate in its place. Internally, it is as it ever was. Dare I use the word "vintage" to describe the sound engine? Yea and verily, I do so dare.

The Price. For the few (and I hope proud) that bought the original Ronin, this will be an entirely free upgrade. It will appear in your account in the AD store in place of the old one. For those brave souls willing to risk their sanity (and their tweeters), the new Ronin will be US$49.00, instead of its original price (which was, if you're curious, US$69.00.)

Now, before you Ronin nUbs get too excited, I should point out a couple things. If you're a more recent convert to Audio Damage, you might have a particular idea of the "sound" of our plug-ins. You might go so far as to say that we make things that are "rough around the edges," or "heavy-handed," or, if you're feeling salty, "Full Of Techno." Our more recent plug-ins are to Ronin as a new-born kitten is to a pit bull that has been beaten with a garden hose daily for a year straight. This plug-in is a dose of Heavy Duty.

For starters, you can route the output of any block to the input of any block, including itself. You also have full unhindered access to the feedback loop of the delays. The delays can do unity feedback, and they also have the same looping engine as Dubstation. (This plug-in is, in fact, the source of that looping engine.) As such, there is virtually no limit to how this plug-in can be routed. We normally build in limits to our plug-ins nowadays that inform how they'll be used, but in Ronin there are nonesuch, except that we're (reasonably) certain you won't set your speakers on fire.

So, final warning: it is pretty easy to get this plug-in in to an unstable configuration where it self-resonates/oscillates/gyrates/salivates. On the other hand, it's also really easy to make a simple tempo delay. But that's like using an Abrams Main Battle Tank to go pick up your Sunday paper and danish. If you're thinking to yourself "self, this has two tempo-synced delays and two filters, and panners and stuff! It's like 5 plug-ins in one! An audio toolbox!" Well... I'd reconsider that purchase if I were you.

But if you like looping, noise, feedback, or any combination thereof, filtered or not, this is your pony, right here. All you need to cover Merzbow's Greatest Hits is a little burst of noise to excite the delays and you're off to the races. I would submit that there isn't another plug-in out there that does what Ronin does. There's probably a good reason for that, now that I think on it...

Anyways, our status right now is that the Time is not quite Nigh. The Windows version is about 90% done (just missing the MIDI input, really), the Mac VST version is in more or less the same state, and the AU has been built but is missing presets. So it won't be very long. Next week at some point, I'd imagine.