Tape Notes search Topics Brands

Soundtoys

Download CSV

66 mentions in 30 episodes.

100 gecs

17:49 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“some things are just like, we're gonna throw a little little Decapitator on something just to try to get it a little bit thicker”
Decapitator is their go-to saturation for thickening individual elements during endless iteration.

A. G. Cook

1:43:25 · FilterFreak · named · high confidence
“I've also got this FilterFreak on it, Soundtoys. I actually don't use this plugin very often, but the ethos was embracing the chaos.”
FilterFreak softens the bit-crushed drums in Lucifer's outro, turning an aggressive layer into something weirdly smooth.

Arlo Parks

12:28 · MicroShift · named · high confidence
“it's a guitar DI, so it's mono, but then we use the little Soundtoys MicroShift to widen it as the drums come in”
Soundtoys MicroShift is used as an arrangement trick to spread the mono guitar DI wide the moment the drums enter.

Bleachers

10:51 · Tremolator · named · high confidence
“That's me just playing the Moog... but you put a tremolator on it, it starts to get really tense.”
Soundtoys Tremolator is used on the Moog chorus part to create rhythmic tension in Jesus Is Dead.
19:47 · FilterFreak · named · high confidence
“I have them kind of slightly underwater... There's a filter freak, which I like. It makes it feel like someone's inner dialogue.”
FilterFreak on the lead vocal makes the whispered Jesus Is Dead vocal feel like an inner dialogue.
20:52 · FilterFreak · named · high confidence
“If I'm going to take off high end on my vocal, I like a Soundtoys Filter Freak. I know how to play with it in a very specific way.”
Antonoff explains his vocal chain: a little EQ boosting highs, light compression, then Soundtoys FilterFreak rolling the top off.
54:26 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“Sometimes I'll just fuck with the formant in the vocal... I like Little AlterBoy. This is always nice under a vocal.”
Little AlterBoy is used to shift formant and timing under the lead vocal to create new vocal characters instead of adding another singer.
58:07 · EchoBoy · named · high confidence
“If I had like, uh, my favorite slap, like an Echo Boy, right? If I had that on, very cool tone. Extremely not personal”
Called his favourite slap delay, but demonstrated as too impersonal for this dry vocal aesthetic.

Bob Vylan

55:13 · Radiator · named · high confidence
“Shout out to Soundtoys every time because it's so good. The Radiator is wicked as well for just warming up those sounds and giving it some grit”
Johnny praised Soundtoys generally and used Radiator to warm and dirty the drum sounds on 'Rain'.

Bonobo

44:18 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“The first thing it's going through is Decapitator, so we get a bit of distortion.”
Decapitator is the first stage of his custom pitched-reverb return rack, distorting the signal before pitch shifting.
44:28 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“Then it's going to Alter Boy and it's pitching it. This one's pitched to fifths.”
Little AlterBoy pitches his reverb send up in fifths (or a ninth) and its formant control is mapped to a macro for musical sweeps.

Bring Me The Horizon

38:34 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“It's got Alter Boy like sweeping it up and down, making it sound weird.”
Little AlterBoy was used to pitch-sweep the improvised outro vocal at the end of Kool-Aid.
1:37:33 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“AlterBoy. Alter Boy is— I mean, I must say that for every song we write. Can you put Alter Boy on it?”
Asked for the album's essential piece of kit, Oli names Little AlterBoy, which he requests on virtually every song to make vocals and hums sound interesting.

Charli XCX

32:31 · MicroShift · named · medium confidence
“but then there's this, the phaser MicroShift as well. These kind of details”
MicroShift is cited among the pitch/phase textures layered into the outro jam sounds.
50:53 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“we did use specifically the robot mode in AlterBoy to do these kind of harmonies, static one-note things”
Little AlterBoy's robot mode creates the static one-note vocal 'harmonies' on Card Declined.
1:29:25 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“again, AlterBoy, isn't it? Just AlterBoy and having those really hard pans... leaning into all that extra dirt”
AlterBoy distorts and pitches the hard-panned backing vocals that become the lead at the end of 'rock music', with artifacts left uncleaned.

Declan Mckenna

33:56 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“it's just our voices but pitched in different ways using AlterBoy, just like a Soundtoys pitching plugin, quite a popular one for that.”
The core groove vocal of Breath of Light is Declan and Jake Passmore's voices pitched down with Soundtoys Little AlterBoy, kept from the original demo.
40:11 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“on Alter Boy, which features fairly heavily on this album, you can change the pitch, you can also change formant.”
Declan automates AlterBoy's formant while keeping pitch constant so his vocal melts from a high to a low voice.
1:22:53 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“we've got more of these Alter Boy vocals I was talking about earlier... doing these little fake laughs.”
Pitched-up AlterBoy vocals and fake laughs decorate Mezzanine's bridge.

Djo

29:43 · EchoBoy · named · high confidence
“Little Echo Boy. Little brigade chorus. I love how chewy that sounds.”
The DI'd guitars on 'Delete Ya' were tightened with EQ, compression, chorus and a touch of Soundtoys EchoBoy.
1:02:22 · Devil-Loc · named · high confidence
“This is an old trick I like on percussion, some Soundtoys Devil-Loc. I use this a lot, all the time.”
Soundtoys Devil-Loc is Adam's go-to crush on percussion, here on the tambourine.
1:02:31 · MicroShift · named · high confidence
“And some Micro Shift on there gets used a ton.”
MicroShift widens the tambourine track and is described as a constantly used plugin.
1:03:52 · EchoBoy · named · high confidence
“Yeah, more EchoBoy. A little bit of EQ. Not doing too much.”
EchoBoy delay on the amp-sim guitar line used as a scene-change lift in 'Charlie's Garden'.
1:12:01 · MicroShift · named · high confidence
“A little bit of MicroShift for the width. Soundtoys.”
MicroShift again used for stereo width in the outro section.
1:20:35 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“I think it's Little AlterBoy… we use a lot of Little AlterBoy.”
Little AlterBoy pitch shifting adds depth and unease under a delayed vocal ad-lib in 'Egg'.

Four Tet

54:51 · MicroShift · named · high confidence
“I've used this plugin called MicroShift on it, which makes things sound more sort of 3-dimensional... MicroShift, Soundtoys”
Soundtoys MicroShift was used on the phone recording of his daughter ice skating in Skater to widen the mono field and make it sound more three-dimensional.

Fred

1:35:29 · FilterFreak · named · high confidence
“I put it into this thing that moves the filter, Filter Freak. Though to be honest, I'm not sure that's doing much”
FilterFreak adds subtle movement to the Serum bass in 'Hardstyle 2', though Fred admits its effect is slight.

Hayley Williams

1:37:29 · PhaseMistress · named · high confidence
“We threw a phaser on it just to put it in a weird space — I use this Phase Mistress, the Deep Phase preset.”
Soundtoys PhaseMistress (Deep Phase preset) warped the hardcore riff in the Parachute bridge.
1:55:07 · MicroShift · named · high confidence
“A lot of my vocal chain will have some Soundtoys stuff — I like having MicroShift especially for chorus vocal buses.”
Soundtoys MicroShift is a standard go-to on chorus vocal buses in his vocal chain.

Holly Humberstone

47:10 · PanMan · named · high confidence
“And then I love this plugin, Soundtoys PanMan. That's just going around the ears, a bit of tape on it.”
PanMan is used to auto-pan the Organelle arpeggio in 'Cruel World', praised as a favourite plugin.
1:35:06 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“I think plugin-wise, Soundtoys Decapitator has always been my sort of go-to.”
Asked for essential kit on the album, Rob names Decapitator as his go-to saturation plugin.

IDLES

24:00 · Soundtoys · named · high confidence
“I didn't have a bass in my home studio, so it's just a guitar that I've detuned with like Soundtoys or something like that”
Bowen used a Soundtoys pitch/detune plugin to turn a guitar into the gothic bass line that was kept on the final Roy recording.

Jacob Collier

28:02 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“there's a plugin called Little AlterBoy that's on there that's slightly differently pitched, hard panned left to hard panned right”
Two instances of Little AlterBoy at slightly different pitches, hard-panned left and right, create the mangled vocal-synth lead of the Over You drop.

Jamie xx

14:51 · Crystallizer · named · high confidence
“it's just this Crystallizer thing, which a lot of people are using these days, a delay that also pitches the delay down and has this widening effect”
Crystallizer was used to pitch and widen the sampled yoga-teacher vocal in 'Breather', turning it into an alien voice.
1:38:52 · Soundtoys plugins · named · high confidence
“I love to experiment with new plugins. I've been trying to dig into Soundtoys ones at the moment. Any tips or favourites?”
A listener question prompts Jamie to discuss which Soundtoys plugins he reaches for.
1:39:19 · Crystallizer · named · high confidence
“I use the Crystallizer without the pitching quite a lot now because it has a very widening delay”
He now uses Crystallizer purely as a widening delay, avoiding the pitched-delay sound he feels has become generic in tech house.

Joy Anon

23:01 · MicroShift · named · high confidence
“a combination of like Safari pedals and some Soundtoys stuff. We have Micro Shift, which I love. It's amazing kind of spreader”
MicroShift is a key part of the 'Henthesizer' chain, spreading pitched vocal layers into a horn-like section sound.
41:45 · Crystallizer · named · high confidence
“just a bit of Decapitator, Crystallizer on there. Nothing crazy”
Crystallizer is used sparingly alongside Decapitator on the lead vocal to keep the take sounding raw.
41:45 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“just a bit of Decapitator, Crystallizer on there. Nothing crazy. Really wanted to let their voice sit on top”
Kyle Kidd's vocal on Like You Used To is left nearly raw with only light Decapitator and Crystallizer.

Kae Tempest

23:04 · PhaseMistress · named · high confidence
“There's some MIDI going on at the top with these racks... low-cut lo-fi keys racks with this Phase Mistress Soundtoys plugin I love.”
Soundtoys PhaseMistress is part of Fraser's custom lo-fi keys rack used on the layered piano parts.
42:51 · FilterFreak · named · high confidence
“There's this Soundtoys Filter Freak on the drum bus, which I don't usually use, but it sounds pretty cool. Just take some of the high end off.”
Soundtoys FilterFreak sits on the drum bus rolling off top end to keep the beat old-school sounding.
1:16:03 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“There's like a ton of plugins on here, compressors and Decapitator, which I use a lot.”
Decapitator is a go-to saturation plugin on the Mustang bass part.

Kasabian

33:51 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“There's a Decapitator and then Valhalla. That pretty much is the chain for a lot of things for the last few albums.”
Decapitator is half of Serge's go-to processing chain on drums and much else across the last few Kasabian albums, chosen for speed and crunch.
54:18 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“Just a bit of Decapitator and a bit of Valhalla. That seems to get that sound instantly.”
The 'ready or not' gang-vocal effect was achieved instantly with Decapitator plus Valhalla reverb.
58:00 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“You add a bit of Little AlterBoy and a bit of Valhalla and you get a really nice— and then you go to Mark's.”
Serge treats his rough handheld-mic vocal riff idea with Little AlterBoy and Valhalla to make it usable before re-recording at Mark Ralph's.
1:31:17 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“So Decapitator is pretty good. It's not as good as the VST distortion. That's the true one.”
Serge rates Decapitator as his current go-to bass distortion, second only to the vintage Cubase VST distortion.

Lorde

21:55 · Devil-Loc · named · high confidence
“Devil-Loc is just something I kind of put on everything. That kind of cranks it up, pulls it all together a bit more”
Jimmy Stack uses Devil-Loc as a go-to crusher on the drum bus and across many elements.
36:45 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“just some Decapitator, giving it some more juice and cut. I kind of always use this E setting”
Decapitator on the E setting adds cut to the Polysix arpeggio bus.
37:20 · FilterFreak · named · high confidence
“And then some Filter Freak, I think, because we do some automation eventually here”
FilterFreak is used for filter automation on the arpeggio in the verse.
1:07:08 · Devil-Loc · named · high confidence
“Devil-Loc again, we put on a lot of stuff just for a good kind of crunch and squeezing into your face”
Devil-Loc is used on Grown Woman vocals for aggressive crunch and forwardness.
1:20:45 · Radiator · named · high confidence
“a good example of what I often do on drums, which is just like little Radiator. It's pretty basic”
Radiator is part of Jimmy's standard drum-bus chain on Shapeshifter.

Myles Smith

17:37 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“A little bit of Decapitator on the piano. A favourite plugin.”
Decapitator adds warmth/saturation to the live pianos in the Stargazing intro and is named as a favourite plugin.
37:38 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“It's called the Myles sauce background vocals, and it's honestly just Decapitator, 1176 and Valhalla”
Decapitator drive is the core of the saved 'Myles sauce' shouted-vocal chain, thickening and distorting the layers.

Pomplamoose

28:46 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“There's some Decapitator on that to give it some crunch”
Decapitator used to add crunch and grit to the live drum kit recording.

Porter Robinson

1:59:25 · EchoBoy · named · high confidence
“I love EchoBoy... its default preset has a little bit of pitch modulation, so the delay taps won't be redundant with the sound itself.”
Porter praises Soundtoys EchoBoy as his instant go-to delay because its modulation stops delay taps doubling up with static digital sounds.

RDS

55:18 · EchoBoy · named · high confidence
“using an EchoBoy on this kind of like impulse with a few little rim samples”
Soundtoys EchoBoy was run on an impulse-and-rim percussion source, then warped and swung, as the earliest building block of Fire Desire's beat.

Rex

25:17 · Crystallizer · named · high confidence
“We put some effects on it, some Crystallizer, just to give it this little thing”
Soundtoys Crystallizer was used to treat the formant-shifted backing vocal stack.
1:15:33 · Little AlterBoy · named · high confidence
“Your vocal had to be Alter Boy... there are a lot of weird artifacts that came from Little Alter Boy taking the formant down”
Little AlterBoy formant shifting was used to reconcile the sped-up key of Much Too Much with Alex's vocal range, and its artifacts became part of the sound.
1:18:03 · Effect Rack · named · high confidence
“On this OG one I had this effect rack... a setting called EchoBoy's Galaxy on Effect Rack by Soundtoys”
The Much Too Much demo vocal chain was built in Soundtoys Effect Rack.
1:18:15 · EchoBoy · named · high confidence
“A setting that I tweaked a little bit that I really love called EchoBoy's Galaxy”
A tweaked EchoBoy Galaxy preset created the big echo on the Much Too Much vocal, later translated into the Pro Tools mix.

Royal Blood

9:33 · Devil-Loc · named · high confidence
“It's a clav, like a clavinet sound that I think I'm putting through a Devil-Loc and a chorus, basically destroying the integrity of the clav sound.”
Mike Kerr used Soundtoys Devil-Loc (plus chorus) to wreck a clavinet sound into the huge guitar-like lead heard in the chorus of 'Triggers' — kept straight from the demo.

Rudimental

1:14:17 · EchoBoy · named · high confidence
“if you go to Echo Boy, reverb spaces... Echo Boy Galaxy. It just has an amazing long tail”
Demonstrates the EchoBoy 'Galaxy' reverb-space preset with saturation as his key atmosphere trick, then bounces and reverses it into drops.
1:17:49 · EchoBoy · named · high confidence
“I've got to say that Soundtoys EchoBoy. And the Galaxy preset, I literally put that on everything”
Named as his desert-island plugin, used on almost every element, often just the default setting with the dry turned up.

Sam Gellaitry

31:03 · EchoBoy · named · high confidence
“Then I have EchoBoy with the classic tape slap... it really made me feel more confident, it gives this '80s sound”
Soundtoys EchoBoy's tape slapback preset is central to Sam's '80s vocal sound and is monitored while he sings.

The Favours

53:12 · Decapitator · named · high confidence
“Decapitator... it's definitely not distorting it, just kind of heating it up, the way I'd put it.”
Decapitator is on both vocal chains for subtle worn-in warmth, with a slightly higher mix on Ash's vocal.
57:17 · EchoBoy · named · high confidence
“There's also an Echo Boy... yeah, so here's just Echo Boy.”
EchoBoy is used on the vocal sends for an old-school slap/echo character.