Slingshot from Low End Candy is a full-featured plugin that allows users to quickly create pre-echo effects where the echo precedes the original sound. The effect is widely attributed to Jimmy Page and engineer Eddie Kramer, and it appeared on the song Whole Lotta Love (check it out at about 4:00) from the iconic Led Zeppelin II album.
The story goes that Kramer noticed a faint, premature copy of Robert Plant’s vocals bleeding through onto another track (from an earlier vocal take leaking onto the master or another track on the tape). Since digital noise reduction tools like iZotope’s RX did not exist at the time, the “mistake” was instead used creatively, as artists tend to do, and it became one of the most recognized sonic gestures of all time.
“This technique also ties into Page’s intentional use of backward/reverse echo elsewhere in his career—a trick he famously pioneered earlier while working with The Yardbirds on tracks like “Ten Little Indians,” where he would flip the tape over, record an echo on a spare track, and flip it back so the echo preceded the actual sound.” (source)
Pre-Echo is not the same as a reversed reverb tail (for that you might check out Low End Candy’s other plugin, Preverb) “Slingshot runs the tape backwards. It builds a stack of reversed echoes that crescendo into the hit instead of fading after it, so the repeats arrive before the sound, not behind it.”
While pre-echo effects can be created through digital or analog editing, the setup can be cumbersome and a bit time-consuming. The new plugin from Low End Candy changes all that, simplifying the process and opening the way for even more creative and inspiring production possibilities.
THE SLINGSHOT METHOD
This is the process for implementing Slingshot as described in the manual:
- Insert Slingshot on a track.
- Loop the moment. Play the bars leading into your transient.
- Pick a CHARACTER (Diffuse, Clean, Tape and Analog, Ping-Pong, Filtered)
- Shape the swell use the Time and Shape controls
- Try FWD / REV / GRAIN (optional granular FX)
- Hit CAPTURE – With LEAD-IN ONLY on (the default), Slingshot prints the finished swell as a whole-bar riser that ends exactly on the hit.
- Drag it onto the grid, just before your sound. Done.
THE SLINGSHOT GUI
The one-screen approach to interface design makes everything immediately accessible. Main sections include:
Preset Browser – includes 73 factory presets and the ability to save your own
Swell Curve – with three selectable views: Shape, Spectro, and Target
Character Settings – choose between six types of echo effects with reverse and granular settings
Twelve Control Knobs – easy access to 12 relevant parameters include pitch, formant, reverb, drive and more.
Capture – for printing the finished effect
Modulation – free or sync’d modulation control to alter parameters
Filter – to apply a filter to the echoes
VIDEO EXAMPLES
Trailer
Video Walk-Thru
CONCLUSIONS
Slingshot goes well beyond what you might expect from a simple pre-echo idea. The ability to shape the echoes in a multitude of ways is a phenomenal sound design tool that will open up all sorts of new creative paths you would not have otherwise considered. It has some excellent presets to get started with and randomizing features to generate serendipitous results. The three methods of visualizing the echoes (shape, spectral, target) make the process more intuitive by providing feedback that can be heard and seen. This modestly priced plugin is a great tool for sound designers and producers looking for new ways to explore time-based effects.
EXTRAS
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