Create Digital Music » Free Crunching Plug-in: CamelCrusher Compresses, Filters, Distorts (Hear It)

Jul 24 2006

Free Crunching Plug-in: CamelCrusher Compresses, Filters, Distorts (Hear It)

Play this track:

If you’re looking for a little color or maximum crunch on guitar, drums, and whatnot, check out Camel Audio’s just-released free Mac/Windows plug-in:

CamelCrusher for Mac (AU/VST) and Windows (VST)

Even though it’s free, CamelCrusher has some pretty fantastic features:

Distortion: Tube and “mech” for analog- and digital-style crunch

Filter: Analog-modeled for a warm sound

Compressor: The compressor actually sounds quite nice; there’s just one knob (”amount”) but it’s likely to be extremely versatile … see also the “phat” mode

Performance and exploration features: A set of presets (including some more subtle sounds like “British Clean”), a randomize feature, plus MIDI Learn.

The inclusion of MIDI Learn and the simplicity of the design could make this especially useful for live performance / DJing in tools like Ableton Live. I threw it on some drums in a Live project so you can hear how it sounds with a few of the presets:

Camel Drums

Yes, you can crunch the soul out of your drums, but there are some subtler effects in there for when you calm down and decide to behave yourself. Camel is hoping you’ll upgrade to their excellent, musical CamelPhat effect or one of their other nice products.

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7 Comments

Sasa

Isn’t this the same Camel Fuzz included in the cover dvd of Computer Music magazine?

July 24, 2006 @ 12:36 pm

Peter Kirn

I don’t think so; I think this is an updated plug-in. (Camel also had some other free plug-in at one point, but I can’t recall what it was.)

If you’re talking this month’s CM, though, I haven’t checked that yet, so it’s possible they just rebranded the public release.

July 24, 2006 @ 12:38 pm

Sasa

I’m talking about CM Fuzz, included in Computer Music since issue #90.

It seems that someone asked the same question at KVR

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1995525

and the answer form Ben of Camel Audio was

“Its pretty similar but with a few changes, including:
- different interface
- different presets
- available as Universal Binary
- optimized graphics
- other minor bug fixes and optimizations”

July 24, 2006 @ 12:57 pm

ted

hi, when you post info about new software, can you mention if it’s a universal binary?

that would be great.

July 24, 2006 @ 1:04 pm

sprouts

i received this plugin with my firebox, its enjoyable to use but im somewhat dissapointed on the lack of controls it has.

July 25, 2006 @ 3:49 am

Ben [Camel Audio]

Ted – this plugin is available as a universal binary.

Sprouts – it does have a limited number of controls, but in some ways this can be an advantage. If you want more controls you could take a look at our CamelPhat plugin :)

Peter – thanks very much for posting information about it.

Ben