MAS Plug-In Bundle from AudioEase

Roger (Click for a larger image)

Follo (Click for a larger image)

Orbit (Click for a larger image)

Macintosh audio software makers AudioEase, winners of Key Buy, Top Tool, 4.5 mice, and other awards, have released the Rocket Science Bundle: three real time audio plug-ins, exclusively for MOTU's Performer product line.

These plug-ins have a unique sound, they can be MIDI controlled, and the Rocket Science Bundle is sold on-line, at US$199, at AudioEase's revamped website www.audioease.com. Working demos can be found there as well.

Roger

Multiple Gender Vowel Bank

You can apply human vowel filters to your audio with Roger. Use the vowel bar at the bottom to click through the vowels and click the portrait to select one of the Roger family members.

Portamento controls the transition speed between vowels, and the 'sharpness' of the vowel is controlled by the bandwidth parameter. Make the Roger family talk rhythmic random nonsense using Auto and Tempo. Roger is MIDI controllable from your MIDI keyboard or from recorded MIDI data on the sequencers tracks.

Follo

Energy Driven Band Booster

Follo dynamically adjusts the peak of a resonating bandpass filter according to the level of the incoming audio. The blue slider is the target for high amplitude audio. The yellow slider is the target for low amplitude audio. The moving ball indicates where the resonators peak is, the bandwidth determines how wide and resonating the band is, and the release determines the rate at which the peak falls back to the yellow slider. The analysis knob offers control over the sensitivity of the ball. Applications of Follo include an autowah on a guitar, and a thumping resonating bass generator when the ball clips at the blue slider.

Besides a Mono to Mono Follo there is a Stereo to Stereo Follo that uses identical settings to treat both channels of stereo input. But you should really try the Mono to Stereo Follo, especially on sounds like (synth) basses . It can do some pretty weird things to your stereo image. Roger is MIDI controllable from your MIDI keyboard or from recorded MIDI data on the sequencers tracks.

Orbit

Psycho Acoustic Flight Path Simulator

Orbit lets you control the virtual position of your sound source. It accurately calculates the sound source's reflections of the walls of a virtual 'outer room', using the exact amount of delay and attenuation for the direct sound and all reflections alike. It is a plug-in of the Mono To Stereo kind.

You can use Orbit merely as a physically correct panning device, or you can use it as a flight path simulator that offers control over your position, the speed and location of the source, the size of the virtual space and the absorption of high frequencies by the walls. For direct sound and all reflections, Orbit will precisely emulate the Doppler effect so that pitch will shift up when a sound (or a reflection) comes at you, and will shift down when it moves away.

The light blue small room is the room you are in. You can drag it up and down in the outer room, its size is determined by the speaker span parameter. The tiled surface is the outer room, that is adjusted with the room size parameter. The red ball is the sound source.

The motion selector lets you choose between a static source or one that follows a path set by clicks in the outer room. The source can also follow an adjustable oval, or it can just fly about like Buck Rogers on LSD.