Sometimes, all you need is one really good reverb with editable parameters. TC Electronic has done some really lovely reverb work, and they’re currently giving away one of their plug-ins, for three days only. Registration is required, if you’re opposed to such things, but beyond that, there are no strings attached. (Yes, there’s a mailing list, too, so you have to unsubscribe if you don’t want it. Why not put an opt-out on the registration page, TC?)

The plug-in is free through Wednesday, and then costs US$79 after that.

What you get from the M30:

• VST, AU compatibility on Windows and Mac
• Hall algorithm (no Room or Plate, though – for that, you need the M40 which ships with TC’s audio interfaces)
• Editable parameters for pre-delay, decay, “hi color,” and the requisite wet/dry mix

It’s nothing revolutionary, but I’m always game for a nice Hall algorithm. Interestingly, TC has worked out a way to port their native DSP code from hardware to computer-native code using something they call AlgoFlex. (Out of context, that sounds like some modern-looking lamp at Design Within Reach, or maybe that’s just me.)

M30 Studio Reverb

Free Reverb Deal

The Music Bore – Video 2 from Nicholas Humfrey on Vimeo.

“I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t allow you to listen to Coldplay.”

What would radio be like if playlists were not only robotic, but had robot DJs pulling information from the Interwebs dynamically? That’s the question asked by the winning team at London’s Music Hackday last weekend, which created an epic mashup of data sources to produce a voice-synthesized IRC chatbot that researches and plays music for you.

Music Bore

Music Bore was just one of a number of projects developed in the weekend of musical hacking, some for listening, and at least one (a fantastic and free synth plug-in) for what we really like – production. With some of the world’s top musical coders in attendance, the results were amazing, even if not all projects were entirely finished. (Hey, that’s why they call it hacking.)

You can check out the full list on the wiki, but here are some favorites — and if you were there, do shout out to us as you put more documentation up of the event and projects.

The mda-vst collection of effects has been a long-time favorite for me. It’s a set of no-nonsense, unique, simple effects, just useful stuff that doesn’t have any unnecessary bells and whistles. Oh, yeah – and it’s free, making an easy way to fill out your effect arsenal. But until recently, the collection was proprietary freeware. Now, it’s GPL-licensed open source for Mac and Windows.

Included: multi-band distortion, drum replacement, amp and speaker simulators, de-essing, degrading, delay, detune, dither, dub delay, compressor/limiter/gate, envelope following stereo imaging and simulation, a Leslie simulator, multi-band compression, an overdrive, a really insane pitch changer, a 3D panner, a sub-bass synth, a couple of vocoders with different numbers of bands, test tone creator, flanger, pitch tracker, and more.

I imagine the access to code for these things could help people launch their own effects projects. And as Windows VSTs, it can run easily in Linux hosts that support that format, too.

http://mda.smartelectronix.com/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mda-vst/

Thanks to Marc Resibois for the tip. And you budding C coders out there, if you dig into the code, let us know.

David Zicarelli has announced that Cycling ‘74 is discontinuing Max/MSP Pluggo-based products, meaning the company will no longer develop Pluggo, Mode, Hipno, or UpMix. More significantly, this means an end to the use of Max/MSP as a way of developing plug-ins; David writes that there will be “no further development on … their supporting technology.” It’s the supporting technology that Max patchers have relied upon to make their own instruments and effects for VST/AU/RTAS Mac and Windows hosts, and its demise to me is the real news here for the Max community.

The article touts the upcoming availability of Max for Live as an alternative. Now, I think Max for Live is a very exciting technology – I’m finally editing some videos and discussion with Jeremy Bernstein, so we’ll have a preview next week. The flipside is:

Happy Halloween, everybody. It’s the one day out of the year when the rest of the planet enjoys spooky sounds as much as we do, well, all year long.

Solid State Logic (SSL) is celebrating with a free plug-in for Mac and Windows (VST / AU). Registration is required, but otherwise, no strings attached. They write:

In response to ghost stories of economic doom and gloom we invite you to celebrate the festival of witches and ghouls with a bit of fun. SSL is proud to offer you ‘X-Orcism’, our free Halloween VST/AU format plug-in. Feed in your voice and you will be transformed into the voice of Halloween itself… be afraid, be very afraid.

Should be fun if you’re hosting a Halloween party, and you can try it on a drum loop.

X-Orcism Download Page

I like the Jack-o-Lanterns, though severed head of the Headless Horseman would have been even better.

Other Halloween-themed goodness? Do drop us a line. Please, no Theremins: we consider them beautiful, Classical instruments and there’s nothing scary about them at all. CDM readers with kids most likely play elegant lullabies for their offspring on the Theremin each night when they’re not lulling them to sleep with a sequenced ARP melody.