Ohm Force have released Ohmicide[S], available for £88.00.
Ohmicide has quite a legacy. Created in 2007, it rose to stellar popularity when Skrillex mentioned at the peak of the Dubstep arch that it was one of his key plugins. Built upon the concept pioneered by Predatohm: “We have had multiband compressors, yes, but what about multiband compression/distortion?” it refined it and made it clear that yes, multiband compression/distortion are a pretty good thing to have.
So good, actually, that after the original Ohmicide quite a few talented competitors made their own twist on it – including recently no less than Ableton adding Roar in Live. A statement about how important to any musician that category of plugin has become.
Meanwhile, the original Ohmicide that had remained consistently popular for 18 years had also become impossible to maintain technically. People were demanding it and on our side we were now sitting on 15+ years of massive user feedback. We had many ideas, many requests, making a new Ohmicide a necessity. Enters ohmicide[S].
At the core, ohmicide[S] is still a massive toolbox to shape every sound in every way – whether to enhance a sound or transform it completely. In pure ohmforce tradition it has a lot of controls neatly organised through a convenient UI that – as opposed to a “add only the thing you want” modular design – deliberately surrounds you with options that are one click away. This makes trying stuff as frictionless as possible – a UI design approach we value in plugins because it incentivizes endless sonic explorations and happy accidents (aka: fun) at the cost of something UIs can handle way more than hardware: complexity.
Also, new stuff. The new routing. The modulations. The filters. The macros². 15 years of “what if” answered.
To make this work, we always come back to this one principle: first minute, first hour, first month. Striving to provide a great user experience at these three marks. We worked so hard on the whole “browsing and toying with Macros²” experience. That’s the first minute. Providing contextual documentation everywhere, pushing you toward knobs that do things, making modulating a breeze. First hour. Securing the low frequencies in the X band. Modulating modulation. First month.
It’s a bit weird to think that I’ve spent more than one thousand hours using Ohmicide alone – most of which were actually using it as opposed to just testing it. And it’s already clear I am in for that and more with ohmicide[S]… but hey, that’s me. This has always been my dream plugin. The real story is what you guys will make of it.
The Grand Library of Distortions:
- Classics: emulate all sorts of analog amplification, from guitar amp to consoles and turntables.
- Edgy: make your synth leads scream with razor-sharp cubic or v-shaped distortions.
- Wacky: time freeze, chastity belts and a jellyfish = endless possibilities.
- Switch at will between Standard, XXX (even more analog-like behavior) or ODD (deliciously broken).
- 111 algorithms (37 types x 3 modes) self-documented within the UI.
Shape. Texturize:
- Unique two-knob upward compressor/expander to control dynamics…
- … and expose all the hidden textures of your sound once fed through distortion
- Type-specific mod controls per distortion
- Bias with 3 distinct behaviors per family, including our signature ODD mode and its gritty sweeps
Be reasonable. Be unreasonable.
- Gate the noise… or gate the signal.
- Filter out frequencies. Or make them scream.
- Cut the feedback. Or let it roam free.
- Stick to mono. Or to stereo.
Sound surgery:
- Split the signal in bands by frequency – or make them parallel.
- Conveniently always keep a low end X band available to be treated separately.
- Pre and post bands to allow for serial distortions shenanigans.
The best preset browser in the biz:
- Easy on your memory thanks to highly visual banks.
- Easy on your time thanks to in-UI documentation of banks and presets.
- 108 presets including 30 by the team of Ohmicide experts audio engineers Keep Forest.
Easy live with Macros²:
- 4 controllers per preset that can do everything you can think of and then some
- Unlimited mapping, control ranges on both ends as well as response curve…
- …sounds esoteric until you realise you can set them to skim off a bit the high when the gain knob is close to the max. Then you’re using them everywhere.
Modulation? Yes.
- Modulate every audio parameter.
- With every conceivable modulation.
- Modulate the modulations.
- Did you know? Envelope follower and ADSR completely change the distortion game
Watch Venus Theory’s walkthrough video HERE.
Ohmicide[S] is available to PC and Mac users (VST2, VST3, AU and AAX).
For more information Ohmicide[S], click here:
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