Music Sumo

While recently setting up the new studio in my place I started reading articles about current music production and what people are using these days as far as Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), plug-ins, mics, etc.; and one company kept coming up – Soundtoys. I had heard several people talk about Soundtoys plug-ins like the Decapitator and the Little AlterBoy including Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Finneas, Zedd, and more. So, I really wanted to check out their full line of products and give them a try. After hearing what a few of them could do I wanted to purchase the whole bundle and really play around. However, I knew I wanted to get a bunch of Universal Audio plug-ins too so I didn’t have a lot of money to play around with.

Then, while getting ready for online classes at Berklee College of Music, I noticed that Soundtoys has a deal with Berklee to provide students with their whole line of plug-ins for only $249! Berklee Production students – if you haven’t done so already – take advantage of this deal!! If you were to purchase all of the plug-ins individually it would cost you $2,630 so this is a steal. Here is all that you get with the Soundtoys 5 Academic Bundle:

• Decapitator – Analog Saturation Modeler
Subtle to extreme hardware-modeled saturation. The secret weapon of top mix engineers.
This thing is great. I use it like a channel preamp to boost my signal and get some warm but crunchy analog saturation. A must use when I’m doing something a little more industrial or heavy and my Neve 1073, UA 610-B, and Radiator plug-ins just won’t cut it. Use the “Punish” button to get crazy and push it over the top!

• Little AlterBoy – Monophonic Voice Manipulator
Vocal formant and pitch shifting. Hard Tune FX. Robot/Vocoder Mode. Tube Drive.
Little AlterBoy is Soundtoys’ exciting new tool for dramatic voice alteration. Get a huge range of vocal transformations from one simple plug-in. Change the pitch of a voice, or change the singer’s gender with formant shifting. Lock onto a single pitch for robotic sounds. You can even control the vocal’s melody using MIDI for creative vocoder-like effects. You may have heard Little Alterboy on Fenneas‘s work with Bille Eilish:

• EchoBoy – The Ultimate Echo Plug-In
Decades of echo devices in a single plug-in.
Get instant access to a whole range of classic echo box tones, including EchoPlex, Space Echo, Memory Man, DM-2, and the TelRay oil can delay. EchoBoy’s chorus even emulates the CE-1 chorus, considered a holy-grail of guitar chorus pedals. If you want warm, smooth saturation, try the “Studio Tape” style, inspired by the Ampex ATR-102 half-inch two-track machine. It wraps decades of echo device history and new forward-thinking features into one versatile effect that will find its way into every corner of your mixes.
“Calling EchoBoy a delay plug-in is doing it a disservice.  It has become the first thing I turn to for treating a wide variety of sources.  An EXCELLENT sound / space shaping tool and the most flexible and musical delay out there.” –Trent Reznor

• PanMan – Rhythmic Auto Panner
Rhythmic auto-panning with cool classic features, new tricks, and analog color.
Panning. You wouldn’t be alone if you thought of it as nothing more than the simple act of moving sounds from left to right and back again. But it can be so much more. PanMan opens up a Pandora’s Box of panoramic possibilities. Recreate the sounds of classic hardware panning boxes. Trigger panning with the dynamics of a track. Create complex rhythmic patterns and dizzying sweeps. With the full range of Soundtoys modulation tricks at your disposal, PanMan turns the simple act of panning into something incredibly creative and powerful.
This thing came along at just the right time to do just the right job for me. I started putting together a track to play around with and there was one instrument that I thought would sound cool ping ponging around the listener. After playing with the pan control on the mixing board for a while I decided that it was not going to do what I really wanted to do. I even got desperate and tried that with a combo of a Leslie speaker to try and accomplish the sound I was searching for. Once I used this plug-in though I had the sound I wanted in about two minutes. So easy to use as it syncs right up with the rhythm of your track. Love it.

• PhaseMistress – Analog Phase Shifter
Rich phase sweeps, deep analog vibe, and tempo-locked modulation.
From funk-laced guitars, to swooshing disco drums, to jazz-fusion keys and bombastic rock vocals, phase shifting is a wildly diverse effect that’s at the heart of countless records from the 60s to today. PhaseMistress captures the sounds of legendary phasers like the Bi-Phase, Boss Super Phaser, Phase 90, Moogerfooger 12 stage, Small Stone, Trine and many more and packs them into one plug-in that takes this creative effect to the next level.

• Little Plate – Electromechanical Reverb
The lush sound of plate reverb – with a modern twist.
Inspired by the original EMT 140 plate reverb, this modern version can do things that the original can only dream of, like infinite decay time.
Take a listen, here (This sample was manually faded out because the preset goes on forever).

• Crystallizer – Granular Echo Synthesizer
Pitch shifting granular reverse echo. A mind-warping sound design trip.
Crystallizer is an otherworldly creative effect that transforms instruments using a combination of pitch shifting and reversed echo. Based on the Eventide H3000’s innovative “Reverse Shift” algorithm, Crystallizer brings granular echo slicing, old-school pitch shifting and powerful new features together into one inspiring tool. If you listened to the radio in the late 80s, you’ve heard the Crystal Echoes effect from the Eventide H3000 effects processor. The sound is absolutely unmistakable, and has been used on countless records to transform simple chords into epic soundscapes. Once musicians and engineers got their hands on this unique technique, and realized how it instantly turned minimal guitar lines into shimmering symphonic textures, there was no going back. You can hear it on hundreds of records—from 80s anthems, to ambient compositions, to modern indie rock and chillwave. And now you can have it, too.

• FilterFreak – Resonant Analog Filter
Fat analog sweeps, pounding filter rhythms, big hardware sound – with a dual version for double the analog attitude.
Are you searching for smooth, silky, analog filter sweeps? Or are grimy, resonant squelches more your style? Nothing adds character to a track faster than a great filter, and FilterFreak can do it all. From funky envelope follower sounds reminiscent of the classic Mutron, to wide resonant LFO sweeps like the Sherman Filterbank. From timeless wah-wah tones to campy sci-fi sample-and-hold effects.

• Radiator – Tube Warmth For Your Mix
A dual drive tube input channel and EQ, based on the classic Altec 1567A tube mixer from the 1960s. Vintage vibe, drive, and the magic tone of the 1567A. A beast on bass and drums.

• MicroShift – Make It Wide
The classic studio trick for super wide vocals – with a powerful new twist.
Need some width for your background vocals? Want to make a lead guitar or synth sound larger than life? MicroShift gives you three different flavors of a classic stereo widening trick at the push of a button. It uses a special recipe of pitch shifting, and delay that varies over time, to create rich stereo width. It’s incredibly simple to use and perfect for spicing up important instruments, or for blending background vocals subtly into a mix.

• Devil-Loc Deluxe – Audio Level Destroyer
A crushing, pounding, aggressive compressor for massive drums. A spin on an old classic.
Based on the original Shure Level-Loc from the 1960s, which was a brick wall limiter designed to be used in public address systems. Its extreme compression and gritty sound eventually became a secret weapon of some well-known and very creative engineers and producers. It’s an extreme effect, and can create huge sounds with drums and room mics, and in small amounts can add sizzle to things like vocals or acoustic guitar.

• PrimalTap – Retro Delay With Freeze
Modeled retro dual delay with “freeze” for lo-fi pitch warped loops and delays.
PrimalTap is an emulation and re-imagining of the unique sound and features of the Prime Time delay, a classic digital delay with some powerful performance and sound design capabilities. Like the original hardware, PrimalTap is a hybrid of digital and analog sound—it packs a surprising amount of grit, vibe, and character for a digital delay. In true Soundtoys fashion, they’ve also evolved and enhanced some of the unique features of the original hardware to give you even more control and creative possibilities.

• Tremolator – Tremelo & Auto-Gate
Analog guitar tremolo effects and beyond with beat-synced rhythmic chopping.
Tremolator emulates the tremolo effect of classic hardware like the old Fender Vibrolux guitar amp, and even the great tremolo sound of the Wurlitzer electric piano.

• Sie-Q – A Very Boutique EQ
Achieve spacious highs, smooth lows, and great tones fast. This model of German engineering brings a whole new color to your EQ palette.
The Sie-Q faithfully captures the Siemens W295b smooth curves, airy highs and ease of use, allowing you to get the tone you want fast, without a lot of hassle.

• EchoBoy Jr. – Analog Echo Modelor
Seven iconic analog echo emulations in one easy-to-use plug-in:
Studio Tape – Modeled after the Ampex ATR-102.
Plex – Modeled after the classic EP-3 tape echo.
Space – Based on the RE-201 tape echo.
Cheap Tape – The sound of worn out tape.
Memory – Modeled after the classic bucket brigade echo pedal.
Ambient – Warm, diffuse, chorused echoes.
Transmitter – Resonant CB radio style.
It’s what people love about EchoBoy – but junior. 

• Devil-Loc – Audio Level Destroyer
Two knobs, one big drum sound. Audio level destroyer with vintage vibe.
Simple, devious and often unpredictable, Devil-Loc is a little plug-in that makes drums sound big. Drop it on a drum kit or loop and listen to Devil-Loc inflate the room ambience, pumping excitement into an otherwise drab rhythm track. Push it to its limits to create extreme gating effects where loud hits crush the signal to silence and the output blooms into a fuzzy mess. Now back off the controls. You’ll find some amazing sweet spots where Devil-Loc shows its angelic side, adding a vintage halo to loops and drums. You can even try it on your mix bus—if you dare!

• Little PrimalTap – Twisted Little Delay
Unique retro delay lets you echo, loop, warp, distort and mangle.
Inspired by the classic Prime Time from 1978, Little PrimalTap captures the highly distinctive sonic imprint of this quirky, and well-loved (by those in the know) vintage digital delay. Don’t be fooled by its simple interface, Little PrimalTap lets you unleash your creative urges to echo, loop, warp, distort, mangle, or create cacophonous cascades of otherworldly sounds.

• Little Radiator – Modeled Classic Tube Mic Pre-Amp
A little tube heat for your tracks.
If you want a touch of 60s warmth on your tracks, reach for Little Radiator. It’s great for fattening up bass, guitar, drums, or vocals. And it’s fantastic on electric piano. This modeled tube pre-amp from Soundtoys is based on the Altec 1566A, a simple little preamp straight out of the Motown Era.  Little Radiator drives and breaks up in very interesting ways, creating rich harmonic distortion, exactly like the 1566A.
Looking for something a little dirtier? Flip the Bias switch and dial in a slightly choppy, misaligned sound that’s perfect for lo-fi drums or adding grit to vocals. You can even choose to recreate the noise of the original preamp. Little Radiator has boatloads of color and character. It’s just what you need to shake the “clean” off of your computer recordings.

• Little MicroShift – Big Wide Vocals
Massive Vocal Stereo Width. Classic studio trick with classic studio sound.
Soundtoys designed Little MicroShift to nail the vibe of sought-after hardware pitch shifters like the Eventide H3000 (which featured algorithms originally designed by Soundtoys’ founders) and the AMS DMX 15-80s. MicroShift captures the quirks of the originals including saturation and even the different de-glitching algorithms used by these units. So now you can have the big, wide sound of the original hardware with a simple and refined interface that makes getting those tried-and-true sounds faster and easier than ever.

• Effect Rack – Creative Multi-Effects System
Rack up 14 essential Soundtoys effects in one powerful plug-in.
The Soundtoys Effect Rack turns our tried-and-true collection of powerful effects into a creative multi-effects system. It’s a single, self-contained plug-in that comes preloaded with 14 Soundtoys effects including Crystallizer, Decapitator, Devil-Loc Deluxe, EchoBoy, EchoBoy Jr., FilterFreak, FilterFreak 2, MicroShift, PanMan, PhaseMistress, PrimalTap, Radiator, Sie-Q, and Tremolator.
Get inspired with hundreds of carefully-crafted presets that let you quickly try out new ideas. Dive into Effect Rack’s conveniently categorized presets to find the perfect combination of Soundtoys effects for your track. Choose from effect chains tailored to instruments like guitar, vocals and drums. Or explore the Sound Design, Spaces, and Modulation categories to try out some left-field sonic ideas that will take you in a completely new direction.
Outer Limits is also a FREE collection of 67 presets designed to turn any audio into strange and frightening sounds, spacey sci-fi soundscapes, and mutated audio oddities.

Global controls let you treat your custom rack as a single powerful effect. Lock rhythmic effects to a single tempo, or let them run free. Fine tune the input and output levels, and use the global mix control to blend your effect with the dry signal. Then experiment with the powerful global Recycle control. By mixing the output of the rack back into the input, you can build your own modulated reverbs, over-the-top delays and other unique ambience effects.

As you can see, you get A LOT for only $249 if you are currently a student. So, head on over to Soundtoys and take advantage of their Academic Bundle today! You will not be disappointed. This bundle is amazing. A+!