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Tue, Feb. 26th, 2013, 07:21 am
Prodyon Calls It Quits, and YOU Get The Savings
Dennis Lenz, the guy behind Prodyon Virtual Gear (purveyor of excellent noise for Windows), is closing his doors. Various reasons: time, health, the usual stuff. So you won't be able to get his exceptional sounds anymore. Which is a really good reason to get them now, as you can own ALL of them for fifteen bucks. That's right, $15. I can personally vouch for the quality of these -- I got into one of his Plugins For Life deals a few years back, and I've never regretted it. EnChoir and PolyPitch are fascinating and useful effects plugins, and LiveMachine, Phenome, and the Ambient Textures are just great. And the newest VST, ShortNoise, has lots of potential. Thing is, it all closes up in just a few days. None of this is going to be available to buy after March 1st. (Downloads will be good through the end of 2013.) If you're interested, click here. Any other gear deals we should know about? This entry was originally posted at http://filkertom.dreamwidth.org/1603204.html. You may comment there or here, although LJ tends to have a livelier conversation at this time.
Tue, Feb. 26th, 2013 12:47 pm (UTC)
 peachtales
I would absolutely buy that if I had any idea what to do with it. Looks like a great deal.
Tue, Feb. 26th, 2013 02:27 pm (UTC)
hms42
While its a great deal, the web page does not have a 100% friendly interface (unless you figure out to click on each screen) telling you what it actually does.
Could you please give a little blurb about each program so we know what makes this a great deal? I am just trying to figure out if its something I want to get to add to my toolkit as an audio engineer or not.
Tue, Feb. 26th, 2013 04:16 pm (UTC)
filkertom
Actually, it is pretty easy -- just click on each plugin picture, and scroll down a bit; you'll have a description of each item and audio and/or video samples. Basically, most of them are instruments -- synths, samplers, soundfont players. Votox is a package of about 300 Kontakt instruments. PolyPitch is a pitch shifter you can program to a keyboard -- press a key, it shifts what you want. EnChoir is a six-part harmonizer. Pneumo4 takes incoming sound and splits it into four bands, which you can then pound/slash/mutate to your heart's content. And, besides allowing remixing-on-the-fly, LiveMachine comes with a whole bunch of excellent ambient sounds. Edited at 2013-02-26 04:22 pm (UTC)
Wed, Feb. 27th, 2013 03:56 am (UTC)
hms42
Thank you. Its not a program I would use. This is more helpful to understand. Its more designed for music creation vs editing.
Tue, Feb. 26th, 2013 03:02 pm (UTC)
barondave
I'd be tempted if it worked on my Mac.
Tue, Feb. 26th, 2013 04:51 pm (UTC)
shockwave77598
It's a shame, really. I get having to shut down a business when it's not performing. But his reasons confound me -- thinking that nobody buys anything made with $tool. How would anyone know unless he had it in bright flaming letters on his website? Just a shame.
Tue, Feb. 26th, 2013 05:17 pm (UTC)
ebenbrooks
Alas, I make music on my Mac. :(
Wed, Feb. 27th, 2013 01:22 am (UTC)
alverant
If I ever get back on track to doing a filk podcast, would this be a worthwhile investment?
Wed, Feb. 27th, 2013 05:13 pm (UTC)
shockwave77598
The Polypitch VST will allow you to create chords with your voice (instant large backing vocals) and setup right, allow you to make your voice anything from chipmunk to Darth Vader in the bottom of a well.
Wed, Feb. 27th, 2013 07:34 pm (UTC)
alverant
I'm not sure exactly what this software suite does though. Is it a sound mixer? Does it make MP3s? Could I use it to create music just by mouse clicking? The batch looks intresting but I want to know more about what it does before I pay $15 for it.
Wed, Feb. 27th, 2013 07:59 pm (UTC)
shockwave77598
A VST is a software instrument or a software filter. They are code you add to other programs to manipulate sound or create sounds. It runs inside Multitrack programs like Reaper, Sonar, and also as a filter in Audacity. The VST can be anything from an echo, to EQ, to compressor, to anything a audio software geek can imagine doing to sound. Remember the 19" racks of gear we used to haul around? It's all in software now and is far more reliable, and certainly cheaper. I do not run any podcast software so I cannot say what programs can or can't use VSTs to stream live podcasts. But nonlive, you can create stings, intros, leadins and background loops with Audacity (free), any of the thousands of VSTs out there (many free; great ones cost a little money), and record the stuff to disk for use later in your show. I have seen some people who had no music gear whatsoever record an intro using a kazoo and an echo (some sci fi podcast that is long gone). But I would say if you have no Midi keyboard, then you probably won't get any use out of anything Prodcyon has to offer. All his stuff is geared toward home studios with keyboards, though there are certainly podcast tricks that can be done with it. If you like though, I can guide you later on into using Audacity and some other VSTs to create sound gimmicks you can use during your podcasts. Cost of that is zero.
Thu, Feb. 28th, 2013 02:41 am (UTC)
alverant
Thanks. I'll think about it. Most of stuff I saw looked waaaay to complex for me. I'm not an audiophile, all those little little tweaks would be lost on me. But I do have Audacity. I use it to transfer cassettes to mp3. If I did my podcast, I'd use that program. I do have a midi keyboard but haven't touched it in ages. I don't have a way to connect it to my computer though (not like I have room for it near the computer either).
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