Santa Sinevibes has rolled into town this week, unexpectedly. Skew, a unique “non-linear” reverse delay effect from Sinevibes, is now available for free with v2, bringing the effect’s wide world of warping and multiple curves to everyone — Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Skew may have flown under the radar when first released in 2022, despite that characteristic curved waveform visualization making it clear what it does. But imagine you have a buffer that’s always recording audio, and you get reversed chunks of it played back. This isn’t like other reverse effects, because those chunks can be precisely tuned to your host tempo for rhythmic results. And you can repitch the effects, too (dialed in via Intensity), with a set of various curves, including bends up and down and wavy lines for different shapes.
It’s all very immediate — the kind of thing that would require lots of elaborate setup in other delay effects. But Skew v2, apart from being free, opens up the whole concept with a third playback head and feedback.
New in v2 (Artemiy just sent me over his notes):
- Added non-destructive Feedback parameter that operates via a third playhead (thus preventing the optional speed/pitch bend effects from accumulating over time)
- Revised/tweaked selection of curves with new “Warp” curve type
- Re-calibrated reverser fade in/fade out envelopes
- New input/output mixdown controls with separate Send, Return, and Mix parameters
- Updated collection of factory presets (all the v1 stuff, new v2 stuff — though not Skewed Perspective; that’s my dumb name)
The fade in/out envelopes remove clicks, and the curves have been tuned. The whole think is just silky-smooth, a new delay classic. I almost wish I had it in a pedal. (But it runs on Linux, so you could build that, in fact!)
All of this would be a reasonable paid update, but instead we get the reverse (pun unintentional) — the improved release is free. Merry Skewmas, everybody.
https://www.sinevibes.com/skew
There’s also a point update to v1 for existing owners, so what you’ll want to do — as I did on my system — is have both versions.
Anyway, enough of that. You know I do this to make music, really. Here’s a first-night jam with it, along with a patch I put together in Madrona Labs’ Aalto. And yeah, it also illustrates that you can use this for really subtle results. I’m hooked.