Though we’ve seen granular synthesis plugins that provide similar complex grid positioning (Glitchmachines’ Palindrome for example) Dust emboldens users to set sounds in motion and explore just where our starting points can end up. It’s useful to know how to fix these settings should you stumble upon something out of this world, and saving your own presets is a fairly smooth process. This area also grants you tweaks to speed, age (the fraction of the age of the particle) and to provide a random element to be assigned to a particle at birth, furnishing us with unforeseen results. The Sequencer options provide control of the sequence length direction and rate as well as whether it’s tempo-synced or not.įinally, the Particle Property allows for more precise control over the particles, though many of their positional values can be fine-tuned by simple mouse dragging within the central UI. The LFO options encompass the LFO shape, type, tempo, rate of oscillation, phase, pulse width, oscillation scale and offset, while MIDI allows you to map the parameter to the incoming MIDI note, and by its velocity if required. There are four main modulation options within Dust, and simply right-clicking on the specific parameter’s dial control opens a modulation panel where you can alter the parameter’s LFO, MIDI, Sequencer and Particle Property. Regardless of the fact that all of Dust’s parameters can be set manually, modulation invariably produces a much more dynamic sound. The UI is reminiscent of an old-school arcade game. The drag-and-drop simplicity of this setup is fun to play with, and affecting the flow speed has an irresistibly satisfying quality about it. The various Particle Emitters and small Effectors – which can magnetise particles towards them, or repel them at great speed – can be dragged around at will, with a huge range of parameters available for each, including the speed and direction of the sound particles from an emitter. Visually, everything orbits a crash test dummy head at the centre of the virtual environment, which also highlights Dust’s 3D audio chops (though output is frustratingly still simply 2 channel). If that all sounds head-scratchingly complex, you’ll be relieved to know that the logic of Dust becomes clear after just a few minutes – though it takes a bit longer to figure out exactly how to achieve certain things. The possible sonic scope here is fairly vast, with sound being spawned by the plugin’s own library of samples, triggered by MIDI or Sequencer, or – if used as an insert effect – via your track’s audio.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |