August 2001: WaveWarp 2.0 reviewed in Recording Magazine

Check out the August 2001 edition of Recording Magazine for an in-depth review of WaveWarp 2.0. Here's what they say:

SoundsLogical WaveWarp
Create your own plug-in out of processing blocks

Review by Bill Stunt (click here for PDF version of published article)

Instead of being a virtual recreation of a hardware device, SoundsLogical's WaveWarp gives you the basic building blocks to construct the audio processing/analysis tool you desire. Somewhat like Cycling '74's MSP, this program does for audio processing what Symbolic Sound's Kyma and the recently released Tassman from Applied Acoustics Systems do for synthesis; it's the ultimate type of program for the do-it-yourselfers of the DAW world.

WaveWarp can be used as a plug-in, and there are detailed instructions on how to do that in most of the popular DirectX-compatible software packages. But WaveWarp is quite happy-and indeed easier to make sense of and use-as a stand-alone program. You can construct the effects and processors you want in stand-alone mode, save them, and then access them as DirectX plug-in presets.

This is not a simple program to master, but it's certainly rewarding to use, both as an education tool and from a practical standpoint-meaning that it sounds great and offers a palette that is unparalleled. Play with WaveWarp for even a short period of time and you'll have a far deeper understanding of how effects are created and how properly designed
algorithmic components sound.

How it works

WaveWarp uses a drawing board metaphor to construct effects from object-based software bits. There are hundred of objects to choose from, including signal generators, panners, digital filters, pitch shifters, distortion algorithms, delays, reverbs, and on and on.

The range is complete, in fact there are parameters here that you've never encountered in an effects plug-in. When was the last time you saw an ASCII text file as a possible component for processing? That very esoteric feature is actually rather cool, as we'll see.

Once you've assembled the components necessary to construct what you desire on the drawing board, you simply connect them with virtual patch chords. Your audio (or ASCII?) file goes at the head of the chain, and you and create an output to your sound card or to a destination WAV file. In the middle go the various effect and control components.

After you've placed a component on the drawing board, double clicking it opens an editing dialog similar to what you'd expect from a typical plug-in. The program has enough sense to restrict you from doing things like dragging the stereo output from one component to the mono input of another.

To help you keep things organized on the drawing board, audio effects are blue, inputs are green, and the various types of signal generators are orange. Control components are red. Red-blue objects are control-to-audio or audio-to-control converters.

The desktop can get busy with open windows very quickly, so you get in the habit of closing a box as soon as you're satisfied with the results.

Choices

That's the easy part. The hard part, of course, is knowing which components to pick for that ultimate flanger. (As it turns out, the flanger's not too hard.) But to make it easier, a large library of presets makes some of the choices fairly straightforward.

The choices become more interesting for a reverb, as you are presented with a list of components that include choices like a "Moorer Comb Bank with 6 parallel comb filters with built in low cut filter" or a "reverb built from comb and allpass filters with FIR early reflections."

Now, I've been working in the audio business for over 20 years and am actually familiar with those terms. I couldn't begin to predict what a reverb built from those components would sound like!

That's part of the joy (and maybe the frustration) of a program like this. My curiosity piqued, I dove right in and compared those two and the rest of the basic blocks, emerging with a much clearer idea of how a reverb preset is constructed.

The concepts behind effect construction become clearer as you start to delve into the dozens and dozens of sample drawing boards that come with the program. You start to understand and hear what it takes to make a great sounding reverb algorithm. Most of the best examples have multiple building blocks.

It's a good idea to start by mastering some of the basic effects-typical time- and dynamics-based processors for instance. Then you move on to some of the truly bizarre and wonderful sounds WaveWarp will help you create. Just going through the sample drawing boards can be an enchanting experience; the sheer complexity and weirdness of what comes from your speakers is mind-blowing.

Each sample drawing board includes a pop-up explanation of how the effect was created-a terrific addition to the well written and organized HTML manual. Time spent reading all the material will be well spent; more than likely you'll feel prepared to create effects can lift your audio projects to a new place.

Text

As for the ASCII file? Here's an example of the pop-up dialog that accompanies a drawing board example:

"Dancing Money Vocoder illustrates the technique of spectral cross-synthesis based on convolution of two signals. The signals can be of any origin. In this case a sequence of financial data is convolved with a dance track. The financial data (stored in the ASCII wave table file finance txt.) corresponds to the percentage daily price variation of oats(on the US commodities market) from March 1979 to November 1995. The financial data is convolved with a dance track thus imposing the underlying spectral characteristics of the dance music on the price fluctuations."

In other words, the ASCII file's data are interwoven with a drum loop! The resulting track has an interesting modulating quality; it sounds like something that would be right at home at your local dance club. Björk could be singing the lead vocal on that track, or maybe even Madonna.

The pop-up goes on a some length about how the various components interact and what each does to achieve this marvelous bit of vocoder fun. This could be a very intriguing way for those who've recently taken a hit in the markets to express themselves musically... or simply some good fun if you're feeling your oats. (Sorry.)

Dehors

The previous example should give you an idea just how outside the box you can get with WaveWarp. But it's perfectly capable of producing mainstream effects as well-and equally capable of showing you how to manipulate them in ways that will improve their quality by several notches. This program could also be a Skil saw in the tool box of a sound designer.

Of course you're not going to start constructing effects in the middle of a hectic session, but this kind of new territory is part of what working with a DAW should be all about: pushing sound in new directions.