October 2011 | AudioNewsRoom

Audio Damage have just released the Filterstation plugin; a stereo filter and envelope follower combined. Modeled somewhat after hardware filters such as the Sherman Filterbank, the Filterstation contains several different filter emulations, routing and modulation options, for creative filtering of your audio

The filterstation follows neatly with the Audiodamage design style - the GUI is dark with bright and inoffensive orange highlights, a very simple layout, and extremely clear numerical readouts of all the parameters.

An XY window contains a graphic of the 2 filters - the axes representing the resonance and frequency of each filter. It's possible to click and drag each filter separately in the window, or click the link between them and drag them in unison.

The 2 filters are available in several tasty flavours - lowpass, highpass and bandpass, with emulations resembling the Moog filter to the MS-20, straight 2, 3 and 4 pole filters and several different versions in between, all selectable from a drop down menu. They sound great and there are a few differences in the tone and vibe of the filter algorithms. There's also an analog saturation slider to increase grit.

The 2 filters can be routed 3 different ways - serial, parallel, and stereo. Serial routing means filter one's output goes into filter 2's input, then out. In Parallel, the same signal goes through filter 1 and filter 2, then the outputs are combined to one signal. Stereo is one channel per filter. It's good to flick between these options as the routing options can create very different sonic results.

For modulation, there is an LFO, that is assigned to the frequency of one or both of the filters. There are different waveshapes, from the usual sine, triangle, square, to slightly more unusual spike and 4 fixed pattern shapes. Enough variety to keep you playing. As well as the LFO, there is a simple envelope follower, with attack and decay controls.

Each filter has envelope and LFO amounts that can go negatively or positively, so that the LFO and envelope can affect each filter differently, and even have the opposite effect, if one is positive, the other negative.

There are a couple of interesting additions to filterstation:

One that you don't see very often, is a sidechain input. The sidechain runs into the envelope, and uses the incoming audio to affect the filter envelope. So drum hits could trigger the filtering of a big bass sound, for example - an interesting alternative to sidechain compression.

The other interesting addition is the Midi control. Not only is filterstation fully automatable within DAWS, but it responds to midi note input too. The filter frequency will set to the pitch of the midi note you play. If you set the resonance fairly high, you can get some interesting results!

There are some useful presets to get you started, and it's easy to save your own presets, and transfer them across different platforms without any problems. Here's a video of me messing around with Filterstation on a simple synth pad.

Here's a track I made whilst messing around with Filterstation. There's an instance of Filterstation on every track, and one on the master buss.

Conclusion
I think Audio Damage have created a great little plugin here. It doesn't have many bells and whistles, and while I would have liked some different modulation routing options, I think that it would have taken away from the brilliant simplicity of the plugin. It has fewer options than some other soft filters out there, but it does a few things very very well, sounds excellent, is super intuitive, and doesn't break the bank. Great job Audio Damage!

Price
$49

... it does a few things very very well, sounds excellent, is super intuitive, and doesn't break the bank. Great job Audiodamage!...

Product page

PROS

Great sound
fully automatable
low cpu

LOVE IT OR HATE IT

If you're looking for a fairly simple automatable filter, with a great sound, this is the one for you. If you're looking for more complicated plugins with loads of bells and whistles, loads of Mod and LFO options, there are many other plugin options out there.

CONS

limited modulation options and pathways

by Andy Dollerson

Reverb – an indispensable tool for sound engineers, one that has been through countless mutations over the course of recording history. While any and all recordings benefit from the subtle embellishment of a little reverb “space,” the effect is sometimes applied in dramatic doses. Be it from a room, a plate unit (like the venerable EMT 140), a digital rack unit (like ones made legendary by Lexicon), or a state-of-the-art plug-in, reverb is squarely cemented as the quintessential sound processing tool of pros and joes alike. It seems that software reverbs have been through just as much permeation as their hardware counterparts. While much fanfare has, in recent years, touted the value of the impulse response, many artists and producers have been leaning toward the more obvious, algorithmic reverbs lately. A rising star in the field, Valhalla DSP serves their latest update to their lauded Room plug-in, version 1.0.7. The update adds new “Dark” chamber and space modes, bringing a new dimension of grit, warmth, and girth to the already popular reverb plug.
While plentiful in both the hardware and software worlds, it seems that truly great, certifiably useful reverbs are few and far between. Thankfully, Valhalla has done so well with their reverb plug-in, that it is quickly gaining ground as the foremost in the field of algorithmic reverberation units. Room is a cross-platform (Win/OSX 32/64- bit) plug-in available in both VST and AU formats, respectively.

The plug-in's interface is decidedly simple, concealing a strikingly robust feature set. With a typeface that is loud and proud, the intuitive controls also benefit from mouse-over tooltips for each parameter. These controls are smart and include the expected sliders for Mix, Pre-delay, Decay, High Cut, and Depth. These basic controls work in conjunction with the intriguing and powerful 'Early” and “Late” dialogs which are switchable, allowing both views to occupy the same screen real estate. It is in these reflection - algorithm controls that Valhalla Room really steps out from the rest of the pack. The knobs let the user adjust various settings related to the respective elements that make a reverb (quite literally) what it is. The “Early” view allows the user to adjust the relative “size” of the space and control the amount of modulation ,among other useful features. The “Late” view offers the user all that, plus adds filtering and crossover options for increased realism.

Sonically, there is something beautiful, musical, and precise (yet not surgical) about the sound. The new “Dark” modes are aptly fitted to their moniker, offering a warm wash of ambiance to treated tracks in a truly ear-pleasing manner. The original room and chamber modes from the plug are just as useful, too, from subtle room-sized emulations to massive chamber and hall emulations. Whereas in the past, most reverb units were hit-and-miss in terms of consistent quality between their included room types, Valhalla demonstrates incredible consistency between room modes. The large, small, bright, and dark types are all distinct from one another, and distinctly useful. This consistency makes the $50 USD price-tag of the Room plug all the more irresistible.
Like many sound fanatics, I have been using impulses for some time now, and had come to feel that those technological wonders might well be the pinnacle of reverb on a budget. Valhalla Room has cast doubt in that direction. Not only does the plug-in sound great, it is also light on its feet. In my Intel I3-equipped laptop, the plug-in performed on under 2% or CPU in each instance, allowing me to treat tracks and buses in a variety of working scenarios. That kind of performance negates most of the impulses out there. From the resource efficiency, to the clean interface, great sound, and tool-tip implementation, everything about Valhalla Room simply screams “tightly coded excellence.”

Conclusion
As in life, variety is the spice of reverb, and while it may not truly replace every other unit out there (notably absent are any “plate” reverb-like sounds), Valhalla is a worthy addition to any plug-in collection, and can quickly and easily become the “go to” reverb for practically any sound engineer.

Price
$50 USD