DDMF MetaPlugin

DDMF
MetaPlugin
£34
This one’s a classic for pushing
plugins to their limits, creating
‘pedalboard’ formulations of
your installed VSTs and AUs,
and testing them out too. Drag
plugins from a (suitably
text-based) browser onto the
main surface, and connect
them together with virtual
audio and MIDI virtual cables.
There’s an effects-only version,
and the instrument,
MetaPlugin Synth, loads both
instruments and effects.
There’s also oversampling
and single-parameter
automation so that MetaPlugin
(and therefore your DAW) can
control specific functions on
the loaded plugins. DDMF
include a few extra tools also
useable separately as plugins
in their own right, such as a
mid/side splitter and a gadget
to send and receive signals to
or from anywhere in your
project. Very clever, very cool.
The interface could be
friendlier, with lots of items on
the control surface needing
right-clicks, and seemingly no
way to select multiple items for
moving, bypass, deletion, etc.
Gain controls appear while
hovering over any parameter,
which is nice but makes
crowded setups fiddlier. It’d be
useful if MetaPlugin’s default
was to connect the input/
output stages, so no audio got
lost upon calling it up. One
final grievance: the absence of
Undo/Redo functions.
ddmf.eu
VERDICT 6.1
Plugin-Hosting
Plugins
Combine your synths together and create complex
effects racks with the Russian doll-like plugins that
prove that meta is better
New Sonic Arts Freestyle €129
Freestyle lays out all your plugins in a browser, ready to drag onto a surface
where you can combine and tweak them. Immediately, it’s better than any
DAW for selecting, placing and controlling your software. With two views – one
for routing signals between plugins, the other for controlling them in a
friendlier way – you can treat your computer like a pedalboard or performance
device. You also get eight macros for control over chosen parameters directly
in the Freestyle container. There’s onboard sequencing, Snapshots that save
and recall setups, cloud patch-saving, and great integration with New Sonic
Arts’ other commercial plugins (available separately) even allowing you to
automatically sample the output of a plugin synth. While the interface looks
great, it still needs work – while bigger can be better, Freestyle’s size won’t fit
comfortably on every laptop music setup.
With this recent platform still under development (v1.5 will add containers
to group elements together), it’s a good time to buy into Freestyle.
newsonicarts.com
VERDICT 8.5
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