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One thing every professional producer out there does is apply color to their sound. But, what does this even mean?
It’s actually pretty simple: adding color to a sound, in a barebones definition, means altering the sound’s frequency response. In simpler terms, it means adjusting the sound’s strength. And whenever you think of boosting a sound’s strength, you may instantly think of one classic production technique: distortion.
Or saturation. Or bit crushing. All three are excellent ways to color your sound.
So, what’s the difference between all three?
Distortion pushes the sound beyond the capacity of the equipment playing it, which can create anything from a harsh clipping effect to a warm fuzz. Saturation does most of the same things as distortion, but is far more subtle. And, bitcrushing affects the bit depth and/or sample rate of a sound, creating a type of distortion only possible through digital audio processing.
All three of these tools are absolutely necessary in any aspiring producer’s arsenal. And, plug-in company MAGIX realizes that: their colorFX suite consists of three separate plugins: a tube distortion, a tape saturator, and a bitcrusher. Both the distortion and saturation plugins take influences from analog synthesis, while the bitcrusher is purely digital.
Being able to grab all these three tools in one bundle is a great idea; different sounds will call for different types of color. Plus, the interface on all three plugins is near-identical; if you know how to use one, you know how to use all of them.
However, none of that matters if the plugins don’t work as advertised, and there’s only one way to do that. Let’s dive into the colorFX suite.
Layout
As all three plugins look very similar, I’m only going to go into the layout once. After I discuss the base layout, I’ll discuss any major changes in the following sections about each plugin.
When you open any of these three plugins, you’ll be greeted with an interface looking similar to this one:
There will be a large mix knob near the center, some larger knobs that’ll be doing most of the work, and a bunch of other effect knobs and sliders throughout the rest of the interface. Hover over the names of one of these knobs and you’ll see what it does. I love it when plugins have little helper popups, as it takes all of the guesswork out of what I’m doing.
Each knob changes plugin-by-plugin – you won’t be bit crushing in the saturator plugin – but the helpers remain to re-familiarize yourself with the knobs. All three of the plugins look mostly like this, with some changes here and there in the lower half of each plugin. For example, the saturator only has one large knob and a bunch of little knobs on the bottom half.
The top half of all three plugins are the same, with a mix knob, a makeup knob, and two visualizers; one for the input signal, one for the output signal. It’s not just a spectrum analyzer, though; click around the tabs and you’ll find a waveform analyzer, a meter, and a loudness analyzer. This will help you make sure your sounds are as loud and colorful as you want them. It’s also cool to see just how your processing will affect your sound on a visual level.
Lastly, each of the plugins has several presets to get you started; they can be found in a dropdown menu on the colored bar.
That’s just about it when it comes to layout. It’s simple, familiar across all three plugins, and helps you every step along the way. But, how effective is each plugin?
colorFX Bitcrusher
We’ll start with the bitcrusher. This is about as high-quality of one that I’ve ever used.
While the point of a bitcrusher is to degrade a sound’s quality, this plugin is able to make it sound crystal clear, no matter how much of the effect you choose to add on to it. The knobs make changes to your sound in real time with absolutely no latency, and the presets all serve as excellent starting (and finishing) points. You can add a gentle crunch to a piano or turn a bass growl into something that sounds like a dying video game villain in a matter of seconds. There’s even an option to add an LFO to your sound so the effect has a little bit of movement – this is something I only discovered after I started playing around with it, and it has to be my favorite part of the entire plugin.
Overall, it allows for more creativity within bitcrushing than I’ve ever seen in a plugin before. That’s a pretty monumental feat.
colorFX Tape Machine
You don’t want a saturator to try to do too much. You want a little bit of warmth and a little bit of body. So, I was glad to see that this saturator definitely doesn’t try to be anything else: it’s, plain and simple, a good saturator.
I did note that, while using this plugin, I heard a soft white noise in the background the entire time, so that’s something you might want to keep an eye on. But, then again, it adds to the whole magnetic-tape aesthetic that tape saturation tries to replicate and makes it seem like you’re recording in an actual studio with light background noise, even though you’re within a DAW. I can see it bothering some people, but it definitely doesn’t bother me. It makes everything feel a little more real here.
You don’t need to do much here; just adjust the drive as much as you’d like and play with the settings until your sound is as warm as you’d like. I enjoy a plugin that does what it’s supposed to without making you jump through any extra hoops. This one does.
colorFX Tube Distortion
And here’s the fun one: you can absolutely destroy sounds with this thing.
Now, it’s a good thing that the limiter is already turned on when you use this plugin, because things can get very loud very quickly. However, tame it just right, and you can easily add the perfect amount of grit to any of your sounds.
I will say that, out of all of the plugins, this is the one I see myself using the least, as my style of melodic house music doesn’t often call for heavy, gritty bass. But, in the case that I do need to use one for any reason, I could see myself reaching to this one almost instantly. Just like with the other two plugins, the easy workflow leads to instant creativity. It’s just turning knobs, sure, but when the output sounds this good, regardless of what knobs you turn, it’s hard to not have fun with this plugin.
To give a bit of a demonstration, I placed each plugin on the same piano chord with a sample at the beginning. The plugins are playing in order in which I’ve covered them; bitcrusher, saturator, distortion. The presets I’ve used can also be found in the screenshots I’ve provided above.
For what it’s worth, I absolutely LOVE what the saturator did on this piano, and could see myself using it a ton for some subtle warmth on my instruments.
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
It’s easy and quick to learn, and fun to use.
It’s always great when effect plugins don’t try to recreate the wheel or make you jump through hoops to get somewhere. The learning curve for all three of these plugins is slight, and you can be using it like a pro with just a little bit of practice. Plus, it’s always fun to use these kind of plugins when the results sound so good; hearing changes in real time helps with the fun factor, too. Who knows what you’ll discover?
It’s a good deal for 3 separate effect plugins.
$100 USD is a steep price, yes, but not when you consider that it’s three separate plugins, each of which do something wildly different. The bundle itself has everything you need for any possible color application for any song, and for that reason, I think the price is fair. They also offer a free trial if you want to give it a go before you buy.
Cons:
Could this have been one plugin?
I may be complaining about nothing here, but realistically, I could see this plugin’s workflow being even better if it were just one plugin, with three separate modes to choose from. That way, if I want to change things up, I don’t have to go searching through my library for the bitcrusher or something. It’s the smallest complaint I think I’ve ever had, though, which shows you just how impressed I am with these three plugins.
Conclusion: Should you get this bundle?
Whether you’re a newcomer or a veteran, an ambient producer or a bass music maestro, you will definitely find some great ways to use the colorFX Suite. If you’ve got the cash and are in the market for a new distortion, saturator, or bitcrusher, I’d recommend this bundle to you.
Buy the colorFX Suite here.
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