There are effects that provide subtle coloring, minor tweaks. And then there are those that paint a whole new picture. Hologram is in that latter category, producing wild, synthetic effects that totally transform an input.
Hologram by Sinevibes from Sinevibes on Vimeo.
Sinevibes has been releasing a steady stream of pretty, creative Mac Audio Unit plug-ins. But this one deserves some special mention, as it’s been a while since we’ve seen a plug-in successfully take on the idea. (Nice to see it in Logic; it’s a bit surprising with tools like the Spectral Gate that nothing picked up on the concept.)
It works like this: you start with an input. That is fed into a spectrum analyzer with up to 64 frequency bands – change the number of bands for richer or more synthetic effects.
Then, re-synthesize the sound, with an array of sine oscillators. Essentially, it’s a synth that uses audio as its input.
As per usual for Sinevibes, there’s loads of graphical feedback, a simplified (Retina-quality) UI, and tons of modulation. To animate the resulting sound, assign two separate modulators, each with 8 waveforms, adjustable chaos, lag and curve. And you can sync to transport, with tempo and time signature automation, for some complex rhythms.
You’ll find more audio examples on the Website; some go a different direction than those in the video at top:
http://www.sinevib.es/hologram/
US$29, demo available.
Let us know if you use this one, or what other plug-ins tickle your fancy these days.
Hands-on: let’s see how quickly we can make an ordinary loop more interesting.