released: Rescue MK2 – analog style modelled signal designer

Rescue MK2 is the major overhaul of the analog style modelled signal designer already introduced back in 2007. It is a sophisticated mid/side based transient processing device which not only allows detailed ‘3D’ imaging control but also fancy transient compression and distortion with dynamics that remains vibrant and alive.

Changes at a glance:

• Some internal routing changes are streamlining the workflow per channel.
• Based on true stateful signal saturation algorithms, it provides way smoother transient management and distortion.
• Better support for different gain-staging levels is introduced.
• The analog style signal path emulation is a complete rework.
• The manual is completely rewritten.

More and detailed information is included in the manual.

Rescue MK2  is a Windows x32 freeware release for VST compatible applications and you can grab your copy via the download page.

ThrillseekerLA 1.0.1 update available

Changelog for Release 1.0.1

• Stronger 2nd and 3rd harmonics added in the interstage
• Link algorithm revised and simplified
• SC lowcut filter revised

The update is available in the downloads section.

 

announcing mkII versions for NastyDLA and TesslaPRO

Variety Of Sound announces mkII versions for NastyDLA and TesslaPRO to be released during Q2/2012. By this, all the sonic bliss of stateful saturation algorithms will be made available for both, the highly regarded classic chorus echo device with tape-delay simulation and the critically acclaimed “transient aware” signal saturator.

Stateful Saturation takes advantage of some sought after analog qualities and preserves them accurately during their transfer into the digital domain:

• high frequency shimmer and sheen without digital harshness
• depth and ’3d’ imaging side effects before distortion itself becomes apparent
• audio transient dynamics that remains vibrant and alive
• natural and impressive bass response

NastyDLA mkII remains feature wise the very same but introduces the input stage modelled by this new and exciting technology and also redesigns the tape compression algorithm for an improved IM distortion performance. TesslaPRO mkII will go way further by introducing a variety of different signal coloration options, ranging from console style distortion models up to typical mic/preamp colors.

More details will be unveiled during this month. Stay tuned!

what I’m currently working on – Vol. 7

Updates, basically. I’m still struggling with a preFIX update due to some technical issues I just can’t get, errrm, fixed (some VST hosts still do not respond to reported delay changes). Well, lets see how many month or years this will gonna take to work around or maybe then those hosts are just obsolete 😉 At least, I’m pretty much sure that we will see two other updates here during Q2: First, there will be a smaller update for the BaxterEQ where small  is indeed the proper wording because it’s mainly about an additional but just smaller GUI version.

quote of the day

IMHO, its not about randomness (noise) in components at all. Its about the (very short) memory some circuits can deploy, depending on the overall load of the system. The shortcoming of the component modelling approach is still that the whole modeled system is deterministic (which is not). – bootsy

towards stateful saturation – very first audio shots

Around a year ago or so I’ve already started to look into a couple of stateful non-linear models which could be more suitable for a musical and convincing digital saturation experience. To make it even more harder, they should avoid the usual drawbacks such as huge latency or insane cpu consumption – if ever possible of course.

Meanwhile, my journey into the non-linear DSP land has made an important stopover with a first prototype implementation for such an approach, yielding a DSP core for musical harmonic distortion generation based on a stateful model. This opens the door for quite a number of interesting applications such as harmonic exciters or devices which needs convincing amp models whether thats a compressor output stage or even part of a guitar amplifier effect.

what I’m currently working on – Vol. 4

working with the oscilloscope

I’ve just polished the Blog a little bit and aside from some layout changes you will find all my actual plug-ins properly listed on the VST effects page now – including screenshots, short descriptions and some brief tips&tricks. If you would like to contribute and to share some further more of your own tips related to that stuff then this is the place to chime in – just drop them here as a comment or via eMail (if you already have my address). Furthermore I’ve collected lots of additional user comments for the testimonial page which looks really impressive after just two years of blogging here – many thanks for all your appreciation.

the Wusik Sound Magazine interview

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how it came that you started develop audio effects?

I am both a computer scientist and a musician. To the time when the VST technology had emerged I’ve also started to move towards a complete ITB production. This took some years, though. During that time I’ve missed something in most existing software processors and so some own ideas arose. In 2007 I then finally started to implement the very first ones.

NastyDLA – final teaser and release info

NastyDLA – technical architecture

simplified technical architecture

Internally, NastyDLA consists of quite a bunch of DSP processing building blocks which as a whole are summing up to an authentic signal path simulation of it’s analog models. The blocks and the according signal flow are shown in the diagram above. Basic signal flow goes from left to right except the feedback path which goes in the opposite direction.

With NastyDLA, signal path coloration already starts in the input stage which provides a complete model of both, frequency and phase response as well as dynamic saturation. It’s located in the dry path but all nonlinear processing and coloring can be disabled on demand so it remains as a simple input volume control then. But while switched in, the input stage can greatly contribute on getting the processed signal to fit right into a mix.