Rob Papen LowSane

Virtual instrument and effect plug-in developer Rob Papen Inspiration Soundware presents its LowSane ‘lo-fi’ sound sculpting-specialising effect plug-in - promoted as being an effective way of breaking down the digital world with additional creative options for crushing down digital bits beyond that now-sought-after early-Eighties-vintage 8-bit sound to literally play directly into the hands of what has contemporarily become something of an art form in itself - as of September 13…

An ability to readily make hi-res recordings at 24-bit/192kHz means music producers can provide pristine audio for music lovers worldwide without needing, necessarily, to consider this technological blessing as being the big deal it was once considered to be. But time and tide waits for no man - or woman, however, and many of today’s more open-minded creatives have fallen in love with crushing down digital bits as well, which means that lo-fi audio quality need no longer be frowned upon as a side effect of cheap children’s toys but rather an authentic music production and post-production tool to be creatively worked with. Who would have thought it! After all, everyone was screaming for 16-bit back in the ‘8-bit Eighties’. But by their very nature humans are creative animals who make music and art, and ‘lo-fi’ sound sculpting has contemporarily become something of an art form in itself.

As a virtual instrument and effect plug-in developer par excellence, Rob Papen is perfectly positioned to adapt to this contemporary creative process with LowSane launching as a ‘lo-fi’ sound sculpting-specialising effect plug-in. Put it this way: it even adds additional creative options for crushing down digital bits beyond that now-sought-after early-Eighties-vintage 8- bit sound to literally play directly into the hands of what has contemporarily become something of an art form in itself, including its GUI-dominating DISRUPT sphere. Says Managing Director Rob Papen: “This allows you to alter up to eight parameters at once, and it has some brilliant features like the tempo-based spring-back [SPRING BACK TIME] or the tempo- based LAZY MODE!” More meaningfully, the DISRUPT sphere slider can spring back to its centre position in a tempo-based fashion - the self-explanatory SPRING BACK QUANTIZE option operates in a similar way, while LAZY MODE makes it possible to automate the movement of DISRUPT sphere slider in different directions to allow for creative creation of new sounds, in other words.

“But by also having additional sound-shaping tools like distortion [DISTORT]; BAND PASS / NOTCH, HIGH PASS, and LOW PASS filters; a NOISE GATE; and an AUDIO FOLLOWER, LowSane offers far more than only basic lo-fi effects,” expounds Rob Papen. LowSane’s LO-FI section is a well-specified affair, nonetheless, offering SAMPLE RATE, BIT RATE, SEPARATE - stereo feature that alters the left and right sample rate, MIX (dry/wet), and BOOST controls. Continues Rob Papen: “Even without adding LowSane’s LO-FI section, distortion and filtering effects are perfectly possible, and you can even create wah-wah effects by using the AUDIO FOLLOWER, for instance.” It is worth noting here that all of those parameters can be controlled by the DISRUPT sphere, while the AUDIO FOLLOWER can control the DISRUPT sphere or any of the other parameters.

Lastly, LowSane’s two-slot - MIDI & MOD 1 and MIDI & MOD 2 - modulation matrix make it possible to connect parameters further still or use MIDI to control both parameters and the DISRUPT sphere itself. As an effective way of breaking down the digital world with additional creative options for crushing down digital bits beyond that now-sought- after early-Eighties-vintage 8-bit sound, users can clearly get both their bits and pieces going lo-fi together when working with LowSane!

LowSane is available as a 64-bit AAX-, AU-, VST- and VST3-compatible virtual effect plug-in for Mac (OS X 10.13 or higher, M1/M2 ARM processor compatible) and as a 32- and 64-bit VST- and VST3-compatible virtual effect plug-in for PC (Windows 7 or higher) - with 64-bit AAX compatibility available for PT 12 or higher (PC) - priced at only €25.00 EUR/$25.00 USD from authorised Rob Papen resellers worldwide or as a download directly from Rob Papen itself for the same pricing. LowSane is included in the latest version of Rob Papen’s all-encompassing eXplorer-8 bundle at no additional cost, so existing owners only have to download the latest installer and run it to add LowSane to their Rob Papen virtual instrument and effect plug-in collection.

www.robpapen.com