Multi-effects plugins... when you want to profoundly change the character and disposition of a drum loop, bassline, guitar, vocal or any other musical element, a good multi-effects plugin gives you a wealth of options with which to do it. Integrating an array of processors into a single, often modular interface, complete with audio and modulation signal routing. Here are half a dozen of the best multi-effects plugins…
Boom Library Enrage
New kid on the block Enrage was only released a few weeks ago, but it’s already making a name for itself as a unique and distinctive modular multi-effects processor. 40 devices take in distortion, dynamics, filtering, delays, modulation and imaging effects, multiband and mid-side splitters, and more, and are freely routed in series and/or parallel via an innovative grid-style interface that allows for up to six parallel channels of eight serial modules each, with modules able to ‘stretch’ across multiple channels. An immense modulation setup brings your sound-shaping constructions to life, with up to 12 LFOs, envelope followers, pitch trackers, transient analysers et al, and six Macros assignable to any and all controls.
Insanely deep – indeed, almost intimidatingly so at times – Enrage successfully realises a limitless creative playground for music production and sound design. Incredible stuff.
Unfiltered Audio Byome
Short for ‘Build Your Own Multi-Effect’, Byome is another modular effects rack, enabling a single serial chain of unlimited length to be created from a library of 44 modules. The lack of parallel pathing and multiband splitting is notable, but Byome’s sonic diversity and stellar quality make up for it, with its colourful roster of delays, distortions, filters, granular processors and others deploying the superb algorithms from Unfiltered Audio’s Sandman Pro, Fault and G8 Dynamic Gate, as well as a raft of new ones.
Byome doesn’t skimp on the modulation side of things, either, with a vast array of sources (including LFOs, envelopes, randomisers, XY pad, sequencers, and the awesome Spectral Follower, which tracks ’Brightness’, ’Noisiness’, ‘Darkness’ or ‘Tonalness’) and is assignable to anything you like.
It all comes together as an intuitive and flexible signal processing toolbox that always sounds phenomenal, from subtly animated ambiences to wild glitchscapes and everything in between.
Learn more about Byome in this article - Byome From Unfiltered Audio - At Last A Modular Multi-effects Plug-in Which Is Easy To Program And Sounds Great
Kilohearts Multipass
As well as being individual plugins in their own rights, Kilohearts’ Snapin range of effects (numbering 34 at the time of writing) also powers the Swedish company’s Snap Heap and Multipass host plugins. The first is a freebie, in which up to four parallel channels of Snapins can be laid out and modulated, while the flagship Multipass expands greatly on that by splitting the input signal into up to five frequency bands, each with its own Snapin processing chain, and adding Pre and Post FX chains. Band crossovers are freely adjustable, and modulation of all Snapin and band parameters comes in the form of two LFOs, two envelopes, pitch tracking, eight MIDI controllers and eight Macros. Of course, all of this would be for nothing if the Snapins themselves were no good, but happily, they’re excellent, and with the likes of Faturator, Trance Gate, Formant Filter, Frequency Shifter, Disperser and Phase Distortion sitting alongside the more workaday modules (EQ, Compressor, Phaser, etc), there’s plenty of creative mileage to be had. You can even nest further instances of Snap Heap or Multipass within a patch!
Snapins are bought individually beyond the handful that come with Multipass, but cleverly, all Multipass presets are made available from the word go, with any Snapins that you don’t own simply made inaccessible for editing but still processing the signal.
Learn more about the Snapin range in our article Friday Free Plug-in - Kilohearts Snapheap
Blue Cat Audio Late Replies
Our 2018 Product of the Year, Blue Cat’s amazing plugin appears at first glance to be an elaborate and highly configurable multitap delay – but that’s really only the start of its extraordinary processing proposition.
Each of Late Replies’ eight delay taps, two feedback loops and Pre/Post FX sections feeds into a bank of four effects slots, into which 30 full-spec onboard modules (filters, modulations, reverbs, distortions, etc) and/or any of your external VST/AU plugins can be loaded for the assembly of spectacular timeline-based transfigurations.
Find out more and see it in action in Eli Krantzberg’s review.
Melda Production MXXX
Prolific Prague-based developers, Melda Production are best known for their enormous catalogue of high-end effects, and MXXX rolls all of them – over 70 in total – into a single powerhouse multi-effects plugin. 500+ categorised presets cover the vast majority of use cases right out of the gate, from individual instrument processing and sound design to mixing and mastering, with preassigned (but editable) macros putting the most relevant parameters of the involved modules, front and centre.
When you want to make your own setups from scratch, the Edit view has you ably covered: with a separate 6x16 routing grid for each of up to six frequency bands, and copious modulation options, there’s basically nothing you can’t do with it.
Cheap it certainly isn’t, but MXXX is arguably the most comprehensive multi-effects rack money can buy.
uJam Finisher Neo
The first in uJam’s now-four-strong line-up of macro-driven Finisher multi-effects plugins is aimed at contemporary dance and pop music production, and so focuses on high-impact and hyper-real sonic treatments for use on electronic instruments and vocals. At its heart are 27 effects algorithms, which are combined in various ways across 50 ’modes’, which in turn are configured as 130 presets. Each mode assigns select groups of under-the-hood parameters to five descriptively named contextual macro knobs, the main Finisher macro governing the overall depth and sound of the effect, the other four tweaking subsets of parameters around that with which to refine the sound.
Although simplicity and ease of use are obvious key selling points, Finisher Neo also sounds superb, bringing all manner of imaginative and characterful transformations to your productions. Dialling in pro-quality effects just doesn’t get any quicker than this!
Learn more about Finisher NEO from uJam in our article UJAM Finisher NEO - Walkthrough With Peter Gorges
What About You?
Do you have a favourite multi-effects plugin, or do you prefer to build your own processing chains from the ground up? Let us know in the comments.