After using the plugin for a bit now, I feel there are a few additional features which could really help set this thing apart and improve the workflow massively with it.
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Really simple one - Enable users to be able to use mousewheel (scroll) through the different distortion options (and sub-set menus). Personally I’m much more likely to try something new if I can just flick my mouse wheel on a drop-down list than actually click on them. Really small thing but really nice to have
could also be nice for any other drop-down lists in the plugin (i.e. the filter “modes”). -
Input gain per module (so 2 separate additional input gains). its nice that the unit has input gain globally but I find myself wanting to adjust it pre the distortion in each module. keep the global input gain still
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The filters:
-duplicate the post so you can easily pre and post filter in the same way.
-allow the user to choose if the more complex and interesting filters to be either pre or post
-let is modulate the pre/post filter cutoffs! currently the post filters cannot be modulated.
I’d recommend the changes because distortion is incredibly headroom dependent and due to lows typically taking more it’s something people commonly want to either filter out or reinforce.
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I think more visual feedback for filters, spectrogram and what is happening to the signal (especially when things are clipping or hitting thresholds) would go a very long way. I normally disable the animated movement of the middle visualizer because it doesn’t really tell me anything and it’s really distracting (sad because it’s huge and is in the very center of the whole plugin)
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let me do simple drag+drop modulation. this one’s pretty simple but currently the modulation system requires you click once and then locate the thing people want to modulate and select it , etc it’s just slow and feels like it could make it more intuitive
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option to link the filters when in parallel, allowing the unit to more easily be used as a multiband unit
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add a 3rd distortion module and incorporate better workflow for multiband nature (settings linking, copy/paste, solo bypass or mute etc)
Conclusion
Honestly, if Arturia were to add most of these features and released it as COLDFIRE 2 I’d be willing to pay for an upgrade. the hardest part of this stuff is the distortion algo’s and I feel like the team has nailed it with the variety available and this could be an awesome platform to grow from
thanks for listening!