The bundle was even spotted at under $270 at one of the independent retailers, or a hard-to-resist fifteen bucks per plug-in (even if some of those plug-ins are the lite versions that you would not really need if you are buying the bundle in the first place). In the Black Friday sale period just ended as I’m writing this, individual plug-ins were discounted about 65% and the bundle was $299 USD, which started to make acquiring one or more of the plug-ins or the whole bundle a much more attractive proposition. However, Soundtoys has the occasional sale with notable discounts. The bundle for the whole collection of all eighteen components is $499 USD.
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#SOUNDTOYS 5 REVIEW SOFTWARE#
This is not cheap software at list price, with many of the individual units priced in the $149 to $199 USD range. I must say that Soundtoys and I did not get off to a very good start since the installer rudely installed the AAX versions unbidden – don’t need ‘em, don’t want ’em on my DAW, thank you very much. First, this software is available as 32-bit and 64-bit AAX, VST 2 and AU formats. Let’s start with a few general observations. Readers interested in the rack are invited to it check out at the Soundtoys web site:īefore getting down to business, it merits mention that SoundToys is to be resoundingly commended for a pre-Christmas initiative in which they offered the lite versions of their plug-ins as pay-what-you-will, with all the proceeds being donated to an organization dedicated to refugee safety. While it might be useful to some, one can only include Soundtoys modules in a rack configuration, and the inability to include straight-up EQ and/or compression makes it of marginal value to my way of thinking. Finally, the rack container (pictured at the top of this article) won’t be covered. We will just look at one version of the filter module.
#SOUNDTOYS 5 REVIEW FULL#
We’re just going to look at the full versions. Specifically, the three lite versions will be ignored. We are not going to cover every single plug-in. The remaining units will be covered in the next issue of SoundBytes. In this issue we will look at six units that are probably the most complex with respect to modulation capabilities and the like. We will examine all the major plug-ins in two parts. The functions of the modules comprise several distortion effects (amp simulation counting as distortion), a couple of delay-type FX units, a granulation effect, a phaser, the filter modules, a pan module, a tremolo module, a stereo widener and a pitch/formant-shifter. That number includes the Soundtoys rack (more in a moment about that), three “junior” versions of full modules, and two versions of the filter module (one-filter and two-filter incarnations). The Soundtoys effect suite consists of eighteen modules. So, while I had had little interest prior to version 5 due to the iLok requirement, the new dongle-less capability was motivation to check out Soundtoys to see what all the enthusiasm was about. With version 5, iLok authorization was still in the picture, but like a lot of other software vendors recently, Soundtoys has made the need for a physical dongle optional.
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Prior to that, using Soundtoys software required an iLok dongle. Version 5 of the Soundtoys collection of FX plug-ins appeared the first part of 2015. We take a look here to see what all the excitement is about. Soundtoys has some extremely loyal and enthusiastic fans in the computer music production community.