Here are this weekend’s deals from 4Pockets, ending October 21st.
Please read Paul’s message (below).
- RingsFX – $14.99 to $8.99
- Chameleon Sampler – $12.99 to $6.98
- Kaleidoscope – $12.99 to $7.99
RingsFX
RingsFX is an AUv3 plugin based on the famous Mutable Instruments Rings, one of the most dedicated and fully-featured Physical Modelling Eurorack modules ever created. At its core is a resonator that needs to be ‘excited’ or ‘strummed’ by MIDI input, noise, or external audio excitation.
RingsFX emulates vibrations of structures simulated by 3 different synthesis techniques that can be plucked or process external signals: Modal Synthesis, Sympathetic Strings, and Inharmonic Strings. Traditionally, Rings was only monophonic but used a unique approach to polyphony that allowed the previous note to ‘ring’ out and decay while a new note was played. Rings FX provides these same modes (Mono, Duo, and Quad), but expands it with a true Polyphonic mode. RingsFX also expands the capabilities of the original engine by adding support for velocity sensitivity and MIDI MPE mode.
The new polyphonic mode allows RingsFX to play up to 12 notes of true polyphony, depending on the settings. Doing so requires RingsFX to use multiple Rings resonators, but the more polyphony you use, the more processing power it requires.
RingsFX has 7 modes in total, by combining the 3 basic modes with additional properties such as western chords and specially tuned reverbs. The original hardware also featured a secret ‘Easter Egg’ mode, which in RingsFX is simply calling ‘Synthesizer’ mode, rumoured to be based on one of the early Korg synthesis methods. This mode supported several mutable effects which now work on in all resonator modes.
RingsFX also has a Mod-Matrix which allows you to combine the built-in LFOs and FEGs to great effect by manipulating parameters and mutable effects in real-time. Star of the show is a unique pulse sequencer which can be used to generate dramatic rhythms and modulation of controls.
Finally, RingsFX can be loaded as an AUv3 effect plugin. Set the Exciter Source to ‘INPUT’, and you can pass any audio through RingsFX and use this audio as an external exciter. For example, it can be used to great affect on a drum beat to create some crazy rhythms. Use the Output Mix to combine the original audio with the synthesised resonator output to create some stunning effects.
Chameleon Sampler
Chameleon is an AUv3 compatible sampler instrument plugin for your favourite DAW.
The program can run as a standalone app in order to record audio samples from the internal microphone or professional audio interface. It also supports incoming Inter-App Audio connections for sampling directly from other iOS applications, however it is primarily intended to be used as an AUv3 Instrument plugin for applications such as Cubasis, AUM, Auria, Meteor, Gargeband etc. The plugin can additionally be loaded as an AUv3 effect in order to record audio passing through it from other AUv3 Instrument sources, which makes it a very versatile and useful tool.
So what is a sampler? A sampler is a device that allows you to imitate other instruments with just a few short audio snippits. Although it comes with a library of presets it also allows you to create your own. You do this by recording multiple audio clips and mapping them to the notes on a MIDI keyboard and Chameleon does the rest using a sophisticated pitch shifting algorithm to fill in the blanks. Recorded samples can either be layered or mapped freely over a 7 octave range and saved as individual presets. Presets are then organised into custom categorised banks which can be exported and shared with others.
Just think, you can sample all your favourite synth sounds and carry them around on your iPhone/iPad without the inconvenience of lugging heavy gear around with you. Sample anything from musical instruments to vocal snippits, drum machines or ambient noises. The possibilities are endless.
Recording is incredible easy. Just create a New Patch and press record. Chameleon will wait for you to play a note before recording begins. Once recorded press the LEARN button and tap the note range on the virtual or MIDI keyboard to map the sample. Repeat this as many times as required, tweak the settings and save your patch. Additionally you can setup loop points with the ability to apply crossfade. If all that sounds too complicated, just press auto sample and let Chameleon do all the sampling for you.
Chameleon also has a quite sophisticated arpeggiator which allows you to create complex mixtures of notes and chords with glide, hold and re-triggering options.
On board reverb, digital delay and chorus effects are available to give your samples a more polished touch. We also include 4 touch pads for quickly dialing in on a sound or for easy effect automation. Configurable touch ADSR and modulation options are available too.
Chameleon can also import audio samples using iOS Files integration or you can make use of Copy / Paste to quickly drop one of more samples into a patch. You can also freely edit samples using the built in tools such as normalise, fade in, fade out, crop, clear options etc.
You can run Cameleon as a standalone app and map external MIDI keyboards (Bluetooth MIDI support also included) and perform audio sampling outside of your DAW. This is provided for convenience since you can’t record input when hosted as an AUv3 Instrument plugin.
Yes some DAW’s have built in samplers which only have the ability to playback libraries provided with the software. Chameleon allows you to built your own libraries of sounds and share them with others. There’s a budding rapper in you dying to get out and we have just the tool!
Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope is a MIDI processor designed specifically to simulate audio delay lines, but instead of processing audio data, it generates a series of delayed MIDI messages to achieve the same thing sonically, but with some added advantages.
You can have Kaleidoscope emulate multi-tap delays and gating effects, as well as being able to manipulate the pitch and velocity of each repeat, something that is not normally done using a typical audio echo or delay effect. By default, all repeated notes are processed using the chromatic scale mode, but you are free to impose any key and scale to ensure any pitched notes are incremented or decremented in accordance with the chosen scale.
Any MIDI notes that are presented to the Input MIDI port are processed by Kaleidoscope, and the modified output is then passed on to other instrument plugins. You can chain multiple instances of Kaleidoscope to create even more complex harmonies. For example, the first instance could turn one note into a simple 3-note chord, and the second instance could add octave offsets to create a lush, multi-octave outputs – all from a single note!
It is also possible to perform simple, real-time harmonies using Kaleidoscope by setting the number of repeats to zero. In this mode, you can customize the pitch and velocity settings and add up to 17 additional harmonies.
You can also switch to user definable mode to specify per step velocity and pitch settings to create complex sequences, complete with ties, note skip and loop mode.
A personal message from Paul
“This week has been a difficult one for me as my father was rushed into hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage about a week ago. For those who know me you will know my father’s health has been deteriorating fast these past months, but I really wasn’t ready for something so traumatic. Right now I’m doing a 100 mile round trip to see him daily, and we are hoping to get him moved closer to home next week. Unfortunately, my masterclass tutorials have taken a back seat this past few weeks, but I promise you all I will focus more on these in the near future.
In addition, Doug (The Sound Test Room) had his operation this week so we wish him well for a speedy recovery, and needless to say no YouTube video from him this Friday.
Have a great weekend everybody.”
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