6/12/2023 0 Comments Spectral motion fxThe depth and shape of the envelope are controllable, as are the attack, release and hold times, and it can be triggered either automatically or using MIDI. In essence, it’s a sort of automated, tempo-sync’ed envelope control that you could use either on a submix or across the entire mix bus. AIR Pumper provides a neat way of achieving the same end without incriminating the kick drum. It’s not intended as a full-on distortion effect, and the range of the controls is nicely judged to run from barely audible to the edge of break-up.Īnyone who’s heard an EDM track made in the last decade will be familiar with the effect of side-chain compression triggered from the kick drum to generate pumping on the mix bus. The AIR TubeDrive plug-in provides another effective way of warming up sterile-sounding sources. ![]() The last is arguably a bit weedy - I couldn’t get it to approach self-oscillation in any combination of settings - but as a handy quick tone-shaper for instant lo-fi-ifying, it has its uses. In essence, you get a choice of 23 different filter responses and six different ‘flavours’ of distortion, with adjustable cutoff, drive and resonance. AIR SaturationFilter is not a million miles removed from the ealier AIR VintageFilter and numerous other plug-ins, but provides a well-judged combination of features in a package that’s simplicity itself to use. Happily, the rest of the collection is more worthwhile. And since, once again, most DAWs come with serviceable limiters built-in, it shouldn’t be too badly missed. Here, significant amounts of gain are applied even with settings that should do nothing at all, making it impossible to perform meaningful comparisons between processed and unprocessed sounds - and whose idea was it to employ a tiny gain-reduction meter with a range that spans 60dB?! Over the course of my reviewing career I’ve encountered a few underwhelming plug-ins, but this is the first one I feel should actively be avoided. Call me old-fashioned, but if I set the Threshold and Ceiling controls on a limiter to 0dB, and the input signal doesn’t approach 0dB, I expect nothing to happen. The same cannot be said for the AIR Maximizer mastering limiter. While the compressor and EQ may be pointless, though, they are at least harmless. Given that every DAW program on the planet comes with more powerful equivalents for free, I can only assume that they were included to bulk out the collection, rather than because anyone actually needs them. They work fine, but their only distinguishing feature is that they are wrongly categorised as Modulation effects in Pro Tools. In no particular order, AIR Compressor and AIR Parametric EQ are exactly what their names suggest: a simple, no-frills compressor and four-band parametric equaliser. ![]() The highlights of the original Creative FX Collection are summarised in the box for the purposes of this review, I’ll focus on the new plug-ins, of which there are eight. The original 20 plug-ins are now being bundled with various hardware products rather than with Pro Tools, but a new and expanded version is also available for sale under the name Creative FX Collection Plus. As a result, AIR products are no longer tied to Pro Tools, and the current versions of Strike, Structure, Velvet and so on are all available in Audio Units and VST formats as well as in AAX Native format. However, further upheaval was to follow, and the AIR team left Avid for a new home under the wing of InMusic, the group that also includes the likes of Akai, Alesis and M-Audio. Also bundled free with Pro Tools was the AIR Creative FX Collection, a set of simple-to-use effects and processors that eventually ran to 20 different plug-ins. These included the free Xpand! workstation synth module that was bundled free with Pro Tools and closely based on Hypersonic, along with the Structure sampler, Strike drum instrument and more. The following year, Wizoo were acquired by Digidesign, and under the AIR name, began producing a series of virtual instruments specifically for the Pro Tools platform. ![]() Wizoo then moved into sound design, initially with the curious VST Drum Sessions and then, in 2004, with the excellent Hypersonic virtual instrument. Founded by Peter Gorges under the name Wizoo, the company started life as publishers, writing third-party manuals for instruments like the Kawai K5000. The software development team now known as AIR Music Technology have had an eventful career. Once available only to Pro Tools users, AIR’s comprehensive plug-in bundle is now open to all - and has been augmented by some intriguing additions.
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