How to resolve AdBlock issue? Low End Candy Slingshot
Hot on the heels of its relatively recently released Preverb (produced as the first plug-in to realise reverse reverb in real time by putting a reverb swell before a sound instead of after), Ableton racks, lessons, plug-ins, and sample packs creator Low End Candy announces the availability of its Slingshot sister - this time enabling echoes to arrive before a sound instead of after as a reverse delay plug-in that effectively generates those echoes live from the user’s own audio inside the host DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) - as of September 29…
The so-called ‘sucked-in’ echo effect has hitherto had to be faked by producers seeking to create the effective sound of a reverse delay. Why? Well, creating the effect in question involved printing a delay tail, reversing the audio, dragging it back in front of the note, and nudging it into place. Production-wise, that convoluted process resulted in one frozen take, therefore had to be repeated each and every time the tempo, note, or arrangement changed - clearly, easier said than done.
No need to go to such lengths anymore, thankfully, for Slingshot solves the problem by building that run-up as an ordinary effect. In its default ALIGNED mode, it reports its lead-in to the DAW as latency, so the echo train lands exactly ahead of the transient and stops wherever the sound starts; LIVE mode, meanwhile, provides zero-latency monitoring while tracking. The resultant reversed echoes stack up and rush into the drop, built live from the user’s own audio. Arm CAPTURE and play the sound once to have Slingshot PRINT the lead-in as a WAV file trimmed to the transient and padded to a whole bar, ready to drag to the grid - somewhat simpler than life before Slingshot, so to speak!
Fanciful features that help make Slingshot what it is include: echoes that build into the sound - FEEDBACK sets how many repeats, time (FREE or tempo-synced from 1/128 to 2 BAR) sets their spacing, while the display reads out the total (such as 6 ECHOES x 140 ms = 840 ms LEAD-IN); an ability to drag the echo train sideways to change its length, up or down to reshape the crescendo, with a SPECTRO view showing the swell forming as a live spectrogram; six (Clean, Tape, Analog, Diffuse, Ping-Pong, and Filtered) delay characters, with each repeat running back through the character so, like a real feedback loop, the far end of the swell is darker and narrower than the near end; three (FWD - clean copies placed ahead of the sound, REV - each tap reversed like the classic backwards-tape swell, and GRAIN - a sprayed granular cloud) tap modes; PITCH and FORMANT shaping independently movable or linked for natural transposition; and SNAP shapes the echoes’ transients on the wet signal only. And as if all that was not enough to be getting on with, DRIVE, STEREO width, and ROOM/HALL/PLATE REVERB effects can also be added alongside a DELAY FILTER. Moreover, MODULATION comprises a single LFO (Low-Frequency Oscillator) with eight (PITCH, FILTER, STEREO, REVERB, FORMANT, MIX, SHAPE, and DRIVE) targets, tempo-synced or free.
33 factory presets are available across various categories to help Slingshot users get started, though those feeling more adventurous can store their own presets, perhaps making use of the ‘dice’ (randomisation) button that leaves their DELAY FILTER and timing settings alone.
Since Slingshot has been conceived as a sister plug-in to its Preverb predecessor, it is worth taking time out here to clarify the differences between the two products: Preverb builds a reverse reverb - one smeared wash that swells in, while Slingshot builds a reverse delay - separate reversed echoes that stack and crescendo, with feedback and six delay characters. Try thinking of it this way: Preverb builds the swell into a drop, Slingshot sends it out.
Opines Low End Candy Founder Beau McLeod (a.k.a. Bohemyth): “Every delay I owned echoed after the sound. I wanted them running the other way, stacking up into the drop so that the track announces what’s coming before it gets there. That’s the whole trick - anticipation you can hear. Nothing I had did that, so I built Slingshot.”
Version 1.9.0 of Slingshot is now available to buy as a 64-bit AU or VST3 plug-in for macOS (10.13 or later, native on Apple Silicon and Intel) and a 64-bit VST3 plug-in for Windows (10 or later), with one license key covering both platforms, for $49.00 USD - one-time purchase, lifetime license, and instant download - directly from Low End Candy. (Slingshot is also available bundled with its sister Preverb plug-in for $70.00 USD, representing a substantial saving over buying each product individually.)