[QuickTidal]

Fuck me, this is good!

I didn't know I needed Marcus Mumford and Hozier singing together till now.

[Alrin]

So Spotify just Wrapped for the year and mine had some surprises. My top two tracks for the year were both by the Postal Service, which I did not expect. Not mad about it, but was definitely not on my bingo card.

Conversely, in the most predictable fashion ever, Mineral landed my #1 album wirth Power of Failing. This is a record I listen to in-full at least once a week, often more, so no surprise there at all.



And finally, my top artist was the almighty We Set Sail (R.I.P). Best dudes ever. Best band ever. I miss them every day (in fact, I missed them so much in the wake of their calling it a day that I hired their lead singer to be my wedding celebrant! If you're ever planning to get hitched in Brisbane, hit him up).



[EDIT: fixing broken links. Thanks for the catch, AV.]

This post has been edited by Alrin: 05 December 2025 - 11:53 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Alrin, on 05 December 2025 - 02:02 AM, said:

So Spotify just Wrapped for the year and mine had some surprises. My top two tracks for the year were both by the Postal Service, which I did not expect. Not mad about it, but was definitely not on my bingo card.

Conversely, in the most predictable fashion ever, Mineral landed my #1 album wirth Power of Failing. This is a record I listen to in-full at least once a week, often more, so no surprise there at all.



And finally, my top artist was the almighty We Set Sail (R.I.P). Best dudes ever. Best band ever. I miss them every day (in fact, I missed them so much in the wake of their calling it a day that I hired their lead singer to be my wedding celebrant! If you're ever planning to get hitched in Brisbane, hit him up).

The videos weren't playing (error message: "An error occurred. Please try again later. (Playback ID: oUSysADh_kOOiLH2)") because the url included the "&list=" (and following text) section at the end---but the videos in the quotation above should play.

[Alrin]

Good catch. Totally missed it when posting. Have edited to reflect.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

New free experimental reverb by one of my favorite innovative developers (in collaboration with producer and Youtuber S1gns Of L1fe):

Quote

Illuminate the Void. Texture the Unknown.
SOL is a stellar textural effects engine created in collaboration with Chris Bryant (S1gns Of L1fe). It fuses a powerful Granular Engine with an expansive CLOUDS reverb to create movement, depth, and spacious tonal color.

Shape shimmering atmospheres with radiant detail, or dissolve them into wide cosmic shadows. SOL does not emulate rooms. It transforms space itself.

Youtuber guy:




[Edit: when you install it, it gives you the following message: “May it be a light for you in dark places when all other lights go out.” – Galadriel, The Fellowship of the Ring
I love their synth Myth. The user guide for that has one of my favorite Nietzsche quotes right at the beginning of it iirc: "One must still have chaos in oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star."]

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 09 December 2025 - 08:25 PM

[Tsundoku]

@AVD

Here's a history lesson you might enjoy.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Free for about another day and a half: the lite version of one of the most acclaimed and widely used delay plugins, Echoboy:





Trent Reznor has said he's a big fan of the distortion modules, most of which are included in Echoboy Jr.

Other artists on Equipboard who use it:


https://equipboard.c...boy#artistUsage

To get it for free:

12 Days of Soundtoys - Soundtoys

They're giving out one free plugin every two days; I expect the next one will probably be Devil-Loc, which is widely used on drums and vocals, particularly using small amounts on a parallel track. For vocals it was notably used on the choruses in Charlie XCX's Apple last year.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 10 December 2025 - 09:42 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Synthmaster One free until January 4th:





SynthMaster One Mac/Windows/iOS

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 14 December 2025 - 12:55 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Free for a limited time (usually $49)---drum midi selection by metal drummer Bastian Emig. They also have a virtual version of his drum kit to play it on, though it works with other virtual drums as well.



https://ugritone.com...-free-selection

(Emig and Ugritone are not American so that's not an American eagle.)

Plus the same site has a $25 off voucher that can be used to get one of their $15 or $20 midi packs for free. I already have their Death Metal Essentials, Black Metal Essentials, Industrial Metal Essentials, and Folk Metal Essentials (did I leave out Metal Metal Essentials?), where were we oh right Post Metal Essentials, Doom Metal Essentials, Essential Metal Essentials, Emocore Essentials, Corecore Essentials, and Progressive Death Metal Essentials (for what is more progressive than Death?... only the Metal after death!).

https://ugritone.com...tions/midipacks

I'm leaning towards one of the two latest Ugritone midi packs: Thrash Metal Anthology (I like example one and three)

https://ugritone.com...ology-midi-pack

or Death Metal Anthology (I'm liking example two).

https://ugritone.com...ology-midi-pack

(If you're not familiar with drum midi, they record the exact timing and intensity of each hit for each part of the kit, and you can edit them, add hits, change which kit part they correspond to, etc.)

You can convert drum midi mappings from one virtual instrument format (which kit pieces correspond to which midi notes) to another using the free open-source drum midi toolbox Drum Groove Pro:

https://github.com/I...n/DrumGroovePro

If you don't already have one, here's a good free drum virtual instrument for the free Kontakt Player (which can be run in a free DAW like Waveform Free, which is also pretty easy to use):

https://bogrendigita...rimh-drums-free

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 16 December 2025 - 02:31 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Free until December 31st:

Quote

Temperance Lite represents the next step for reverb technology, offering a new approach to shape ambiance. It responds to the language of music, encouraging you to explore reverb in a new way. Unlike a traditional algorithmic or convolution reverb, Temperance Lite lets you control reverb resonances using the familiar 12-note chromatic scale. This allows you to choose which notes bloom or wither within your chosen space, creating musical ambiances that were previously unattainable.

https://www.eventide...temperance-lite

And Devil-Loc is free until sometime tomorrow (the key to using this is to mix in just a little, either with a mix knob or as a parallel send):



12 Days of Soundtoys - Soundtoys

It's great on drums (as the video demonstrates) but it can also be great on other sources---it was used on Charlie XCX's vocals for the choruses of Von Dutch last year.