Juice Up Your Sounds with Multi-Effects Processing

In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of many different effects that were shown to be quite potent for some complex sound mangling. Containing multiple effects in one plugin unit quickly became a standard. One of those effects that caught my attention is Wormhole by Zynaptiq. This plugin can be described as a sound-altering monster that can be used both for music and post-production. It is pretty likely that with Wormhole, you can get the sound that is impossible to get with any other plugin. You can create various alien-robot voices, sci-fi ambiances, and soundscapes. In the following tutorial, I will explain some of its functions and give you a few sound examples of what this awesome plugin is capable of. So, let's start!  

Let's Start!

Within Soundbridge, I made a new audio channel where I placed the short acoustic guitar riff. Furthermore, I will put the Wormhole plugin on the channel rack. Lets first hear how a guitar riff sounds without any processing.  

~Guitar Riff - Unprocessed

Let's open the Wormhole and look at its interface and functions.

Wormhole contains three main sections, each with its own dry/wet Mix control for - Warp, Shift, and Reverb units. Also, it has a final FX Blend stage (as opposed to merely mixing, although that's available, too) the dry and wet outputs. The positioning of the Warp and Shift sections in the chain is swappable. You can activate the reverb pre or post-FX Blend.

The Warp Section - alters the signal's frequency content to produce ring modulation, pitch/frequency shifter- and resonator-style effects.

The Shift section contains pitch and frequency shifters, the first with four octaves of range up and down, the second traveling up to 4 kHz, and each applied independently. 

The Reverb section contains a top-notch reverb algorithm found in Zynaptiq's older release, Adaptiverb, with which some of you are familiar. Its three parameters - Size, Damp, and Mix - control pre- and post-instances. However, the random tail modulation is generated separately for each. So, when running in 'Both' mode (using the pre-reverb in conjunction with the FX Blend Morph modes for sound design, followed by the post-reverb for spatial ambiance), you're not just running through the same reverb twice.  

Wormhole in Action

After checking the Wormhole's main features, let's see it in action. Listen to how the guitar's sound changes in a lush soundscape by automating the FX blend Dry/Wet Mix.

~Guitar Riff - Processed with Wormhole  

2nd example

For the 2nd example, let's take a short bass guitar sequence and apply Wormhole to it again. Additionally, I'll automate the FX Blend parameter. First, let's hear it unprocessed and then processed with this awesome plugin.

~Bass Guitar Riff - Unprocessed

~Bass Guitar Riff - Processed with Wormhole