Antares's new Filter plug-in gives you everything you need to shape your tracks with surgical precision or animate them with an almost limitless variety of tempo-synced rhythmic effects.
Sonic Surgery
At the core of Filter are four true stereo multimode filters that provide all the warmth and smoothness you'd expect from classic analog filters. With low-pass, highpass, bandpass and notch modes, variable cutoff slope, four independent delay sections, and a variety of filter routing options, you'll have the power to create dynamic filter effects that range from extremely subtle to just plain extreme.
Control Freq
Since filters sound the coolest when they're whizzing around, we've given Filter a modulation section that would make many a full-blown synthesizer jealous. Pretty much everything that matters can be modulated. Control sources include four multi-shape LFOs, four Envelope Generators with delay and hold times, two Rhythm Generators, an Envelope Follower and a slew of MIDI controllers. All routed through a Mod Matrix with more than enough patches to get yourself into serious trouble.
Feets Git Movin
To really get you dancing, Filter includes two drum-machine style Rhythm Generators for loop-based grooves or complex polyrhythms. And to make sure everybody stays in step, every time-based parameter — from tempos, to delay times to envelope rates — can be locked to Filter's internal master tempo or your host's MIDI clock.
Here's What You Get
- Four warm, analog-sounding stereo multimode filters
- Lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch modes
- Variable slope: 12dB/oct – 48dB/oct
- Four independent delay sections
- Multiple filter routing options
- Four Envelope Generators
- Four multi-shape LFOs
- Envelope Follower
- Two Rhythm Generators
- Powerful Modulation Matrix
- Extensive MIDI control
- Every time-based parameter syncable to internal master tempo or MIDI Clock
- A clean, easy (and fun) to use interface
- Tracks (or entire mixes) that pulse with life and character
User Interface
Here is a basic introduction to the individual modules that make up Filter.
Input
Filter can be instantiated in mono->mono, mono->stereo and stereo->stereo versions. The Input Meters change to reflect your choice. In the stereo->stereo version, the filters are true stereo filters. The input channels are NOT summed prior to being processed.
Master
Here's where you make settings that affect the overall plug-in. Filter Display Style let's you select whether your want the filters' frequencies displayed in Hz or MIDI note name. The various Tempo controls let you select between an internal master clock or your host's MIDI clock, as well as set the internal clock in BPM or by Tap Tempo.
The MIDI Setup opens a dialog box for selecting which MIDI channels will supply the control signals for use in the Modulation Matrix and to let you assign MIDI channels for triggering the Envelope Generators.
Filter Routing
Selects the routing configuration of the four filters. Use Filter as four independent parallel filters, one four-section series filter or in a variety of parallel/series combinations.
Filters
Filter includes four identical stereo filters that can be set in lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch modes with variable resonance to create all the classic synth filter effects, plus a huge variety of new effects only possible by combining multiple filters. Each filter consists of three subsections:
Filter Settings
Here's where you set each filter's frequency and resonance (Q) as well as choose between lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch modes. To allow filtering from gentle to radical, each filter can be set for 2 pole (12 dB/oct), 4 pole (24 dB/oct), 6 pole (36 dB/oct), or 8 pole (48 dB/oct) response characteristics. Additionally, you can turn each filter on or off, solo it within a patch, or link its frequency to one of the other three filters.
Delay
Each filter has its own independent delay section with feedback and mix for stunning rhythmic delay effects. Each filter's Delay section can be patched pre- or post-filter and can be used alone with no filtering if desired. And like all of Filter's time-based parameters, the delay time can be set in milliseconds (up to 2 seconds) or in beats or fractional beats synced to the master tempo.
Output
Here's where you can set each filter's level relative to the other filters in a patch, invert the phase of the filter's output and pan the filter's output in the stereo field.
Filter Display
To help you construct complex multi-filter effects, this display graphically represents the response curves of the currently active filters and allows direct graphic manipulation of each filter's frequency and resonance.
Function Generators
Each of the four Function Generators provide both an Envelope Generator and an LFO (although you can only see one at a time), giving a total of 4 Envelope Generators and 4 LFOs simultaneously.
LFOs
Each Low Frequency Oscillator offer a choice of 10 different waveforms, including three different types of random waves. Each LFO rate can be set in Hertz or BPM and, like all of the time-based parameters in Filter, can be synced to the master tempo.
Envelope Generators
As a modulation source, each Envelope Generator offers Delay, Attack, Decay, Sustain Level, Hold Time, and Release parameters and can be triggered by one of the Rhythm Generators or by MIDI. All of an Envelope's time and rate-based parameters can be set in absolute time or synced to the song's master tempo.
Envelope Follower
For effects like classic auto-wah (and a lot more), the Envelope Follower lets you control filter parameters with the dynamic characteristics of your input audio by providing a control signal that is proportional to the input audio's amplitude. The Attack and Decay controls allow you to add a selectable amount of lag to the respective portions of the signal.
Rhythm Generators
Two clocked drum machine style rhythm generators designed to trigger the envelope generators and/or be used as a Mod Matrix source let you easily program loop-based grooves or complex polyrhythms. And of course, their tempo can be set in BPM or synced to the master tempo.
Modulation Matrix
Filter's powerful Modulation Matrix lets you bring your patches to life by routing the various internal control sources (as well as external MIDI controllers) to virtually all of Filter's key parameters. Any source can control multiple destinations and any destination can be controlled by multiple sources. You can even use one Mod Matrix patch to control the amount of modulation of another Mod Matrix patch. The mind boggles
Specifications
Macintosh RTAS, MAS and VST
- A Macintosh with a PowerPC processor running OS 9.x or OS 10.2 or later
- A host program that supports the appropriate plug-in architecture.
PC RTAS, VST and DirectX
- A PC running Win 98, ME, NT, 2000, or XP (as required by your host program)
- A host program that supports the appropriate plug-in architecture.
