Fugue State Audio has released MDLX, a freeware modulation delay effect in VST plugin format for 32-bit hosts on Windows (made with FlowStone).
MDLX is a versatile modular delay plugin which can be used to achieve a variety of different modulation effects. It can work well as a standard delay, a subtle chorus, a phaser effect, a feedback machine and a crazy audio destruction unit. Due to its simple and well designed user interface, MDLX is easy to use and a lot of fun to experiment with.
The plugin features two feedback controls (one for direct feedback and one for feeding the signal on the output back into the delay line), modulation depth and rate controls (the rate knob controls the modulation of both feedback paths at the same time, with a slight offset) and a random modulation control which directly modulates the delay. A preset manager is built in and it comes with a small but useful selection of factory patches to get you started.
I’m a big fan of delay effects and they are, along with filters and distortion, my favorite sound design tools. MDLX is the sort of tool that I like keeping in my plugin arsenal as it can do a lot of different tasks in just a few clicks. The CPU hit is fairly low and the only real drawback is the fact that the plugin will only work in 32-bit host applications on Windows. If you’re using a 64-bit DAW, you’ll need a 3rd party tool like 32 Lives or jBridge in order to load MDLX in your projects.
The same developer has also released Divisor, a freeware synthesizer that is best described as a digital noise machine. It can generate some completely crazy sounds and it’s fun to use, but I’ll need to test it a bit more before making the final verdict because I’m running into some weird bugs with the ADSR envelope. At certain ADSR values, the plugin stops responding to incoming MIDI notes and plays a loop until it’s turned off manually.
By the way, Fugue State Audio is the new project by synthgeek, who previously owned the popular “synthgeek pages” website. Keep an eye on it, as it will feature more freeware VST plugins in the future, along with FlowStone modules and other useful stuff.
MDLX is available for free download via Fugue State Audio (1.92 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit VST plugin format for Windows, made with FlowStone).
Last Updated on July 12, 2016 by Tomislav Zlatic.
