I want to express my appreciation for “Chris from Airwindows”, and wanted to know if others on here are also feeling me?
This guy has been a DSP guerrilla for over a decade, making excellent free plugins for everyone to use. His plugin portfolio has grown massive over the years, with no sign of stopping. Most things he does, he gives out for free, and even gives you the code for the stuff he makes.
None of his plugins have GUIs, they’re just sliders with number boxes. The guy goes above and beyond to support even old computer systems with the stuff he does. Sure, some of his stuff is unconventional to say the least… but no-one else does the type of stuff he does!
He always accompanies new plugins with a Youtube video where he demonstrates the plugins, and outlines some of his reasoning why he made it to begin with, how to use it etc. Any long time watchers are familiar with his track “Atomic Kittens” he uses on almost every video.
I just love the guy, long may his work continue!
In case you dont know Chris or his plugins, and use a computer & plugins for musicing, you need to check out his catalogue! You will surely find something of value, even if your plugin collection is a plump one
I just got on the consolidated plugin fairly recently, super impressive stuff. Haven’t really had time to deep dive, but stuff like Mackity get used all the time. Kudos to Chris.
I think the “GUI” is just the default view for a plugin which has parameters but no specific UI (just a bunch of sliders, like many of the Apple AU* ones), so it’s as close as a plugin can get to a CLI haha
A few months and many browser history wipes ago, I was perusing the archives of an audio engineering forum circa 2004, chuckling at the flame wars, thinking how little changes, and alongside familiar names like Steve Albini (RIP, but my god what a man for causing and perpetuating arguments), who else but ‘chrisj’ pops up talking about his plugin experiments. The guy is nothing if not consistent.
I’m a fan. His Lo-res sampler emulations sound great to me. The way his compressors and EQs work is a bit beyond me - I think mastering them requires committing to the whole Chris from Airwindows extended cinematic universe - but I really appreciate the way he operates.
When I was windows I always thought they looked really cool and had heard good things, then they got ported over and he started the patreon, I think what he does is great.
I ended up deleting the ones I’d cherry picked in the end to simplify my plugin folder, there are no doubt some great ones in there.
I used to use a lot of Airwindows stuff but hadn’t checked out what he’d been up to in a while.
Quite a lot of old favourites have been updated many times!
I’m looking forward to dropping back in.
My only problem is that I don’t have a detailed enough understanding of DSP, coding or the mathematics of sound to really understand any of the descriptions of what the plugins do, and the choice is kind of bewildering!
Check his youtube videos. Easy to test these out with the consolidated plugin too. The names don’t often tell much, which is pretty annoying with the amount of plugins available.
I like Air, Totape, Mackity, Focus, Weight at least personally.
The descriptions are a bit on the technical side, but they tell you what the parameters do or how to use them and the plugins are grouped (reverbs, filters, saturation etc.) in the consolidated plugin, so just choose a category that fits your material and give it a go.
There is a thread on GS for almost every plugin he has released, which contain Chris’s commentary on what it does and what his reasoning for making it was. Or you can also watch the videos, although they can be longwinded at times to be fair
