Studio Weapons Disc 1 offers software instruments that started with stark and exciting drumcomputers til pure analogue groundbreaking sounds. Functional multi output channels, drum loop sample modulation, and synth style filters. All these sounds and features are revealed by somehow freaky though minimalistic Graphical User interfaces. Some of the plugs in this kit offer all Options for Soundcreation. Very gritty and groovin drumloops, high streetcredibility!

-BY Craig Anderton, canderton@musicplayer.com-
Are you a potential Studio Weapons owner? Just take the following simple true/false test:
Ring modulation sounds really wonderful.
Distortion is highly useful for mastering.
Lowpass filters are useless without a resonance control.
It's better to twist knobs and see what happens than read a manual.
Bass should be able to collapse walls.
If you answered "true" to most of these questions, keep reading.



Studio Weapons consists of 11 instruments and five signal processors. Although the instruments are the main attraction (see sidebar), in keeping with this issue's special section, we'll concentrate on the processors.
The UI has a graffiti vibe, with a touch of sci-fi. The controls and switches are sort of blobbed around the interface, and although the look is cool, some of the control legends are tough to figure out. But it's the sound that matters ....

This filter/panner has LFO control for each, a resonant delay effect, and global effect/dry control. The LFOs generate saw, ramp, noise, sine, square, and triangle waveforms, have amount controls, and sync to the host (no free-running). Divisions to the tempo (in beats) are 4, 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4th, 1/8th, 1/12th, and 1/16th. I expected the 12th note option to have some sort of triplet relationship, but I counted 19 periods in a four-measure phrase. Hmmm ....
The filter has five responses (low-pass, bandpass, highpass, band reject, and none), with variable cutoff and resonance (capable of self-oscillation). The stereo image can be weighted toward one channel or the other, even with LFO enabled. There's also a generous supply of presets.
The resonant delay line effect includes feedback, part, and rate controls. Rate and part affect the delay's "tuning" (resonant frequency); feedback works as expected. But there's host sync that produces strange, envelope follower-based level interactions with the audio being processed. Bottom line: I've heard a lot of effects in my life, but not-this one.

This resembles Tostun, but the delay line lives down into the echo range. Rate acts like a tempo division control, while Part provides further subdivision of the Rate. Feedback creates multiple echoes, and a heaping teaspoonful of dirt gets thrown on the overall effect.

This gate is triggered by MIDI note-on messages (you insert the plug into an audio track, then assign a MIDI track to drive it). Adjustable parameters are Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release. It's simple and obvious, but when you want to do manually controlled "stuttering" effects and add some envelope shaping to a track, this is great.

This combines elements of the other effects, specifically a multi-mode filter with cutoff and resonance, multi-waveform LFO with tempo sync, and a MIDl-controlled ADSR envelope, 'á la Keyformer. You can modulate the filter with LFO, envelope, both, or neither; each has an amount control, but there's no wet/dry parameter.

This is a weird-ass ring modulator/delay type of effect, reminiscent of the delay effect in Tostun, with six audio wave-forms and controls for Rate, Delay, Depth, and effect wet/dry. Rate sets the oscillator's audio frequency, while Depth determines the depth of a sort of lurching, tempo synched effect. Delay can give a gorgeous flanging sound as you sweep from center to clockwise, but has no effect when swept counter\-clockwise from center. Depth and rate interact in strange and totally filthy ways. These plug-ins are funky, intense, and as sonically transparent as a piece of plywood; their operation is sufficiently cryptic you're best off just twiddling the controls to see what happens -- but that's their beauty. When processing drum tracks, I couldn't resist tweaking parameters. Response to external MIDI control is a great bonus, although standard VST automation techniques can automate the controls and switches. These plugs would have been wonderful additions when I was working on the Turbulent Filth Monsters drum loop CD.
These plugs are definitely not for everyone, but when you also add the hot 'n nasty instruments, there's real value -- and sounds that can propel a track. This is a package that will really click with those who, well, answered "true" to the questions above.