United Plugins offer the Autoformer ($99 value) plugin by Soundevice Digital as a FREE download for a limited time. Autoformer is available for FREE download until May 1st, 2022. We previously covered Autoformer as one of the four available options in a Plugin Boutique “free with any purchase” deal. I’m glad to see it pop up again for anyone who missed it that time, including myself!
Autoformer is a few things in a single plugin. It has three stages, the Preamp, the Balancer, and the Compressor. There are a few ways to look at plugins that do multiple things. Some people prefer a plugin to focus on a single task, and I’ve sometimes shared that opinion. But, when I have that opinion, I’m looking at a plugin that cuts corners or has a confusingly unintuitive GUI. When a developer gets it right, I’ll drop my opinion and say it’s awesome. The priority is to get great results, and if I can get great results faster, that’s even better. The Preamp stage has two knobs, Gain and Mojo (saturation), and offers three types of analog-inspired character via the BR, US, and GE buttons. Those buttons represent classic British, Punchy American, and vintage German tube consoles. The concept comes from the Front DAW plugin, offering vintage console flavors from your bedroom. Beyond the Preamp stage, the rest of Autoformer is designed to be much more transparent. The Balancer stage (leveler) is a clever but straightforward volume rider. It has a main knob for adjustments and a Seer knob to set the desired lookahead. It’s an easy way to smooth out any volume inconsistencies and allow the track dynamics to shine properly. The Compressor focuses on fixing or enhancing dynamics with fast, modern compression, with little to no color. Again, the controls are nice and simple; it features Gain, Squash, Time, Ratio, and Mix knobs. Finally, an Output knob lets you control the signal leaving the plugin. Five LED meters are in the middle of the GUI, allowing you to monitor each plugin stage rather than just input and output. In any plugin, it’s often the tiny details that make it or break it. One small thing that I’m glad to see is that you can bypass each stage, which is sometimes overlooked when dealing with multi-stage plugins. I could imagine Autoformer being a good starting point for various uses and simplifying the plugin chain in other cases. The most important thing is that I will not miss this one twice, it’s mine!!! United Plugins provided additional clarification for BPB readers: “For the readers – to get their license during the FREE period, they have to “buy” the license for $0 in our shop – which means they have to check out, as usual, to get the license to their account (but they are not paying).” Autoformer is available in VST2, VST3, AU, and AAX formats for macOS (10.10 and later) and Windows (8 – 10). M1 Silicon Mac supported. https://www.unitedplugins.com/Autoformer/ |
