Output libraries are some of our favourite sample libraries at the moment; they are contemporary without being too ‘here today gone tomorrow’ sounding, but most importantly, both inspiring and very flexible (see our reviews of REV, Signal and Exhale).
Movement is Output’s first foray away from sample libraries, and into the world of effects plugins.
Alright, what’s this Movement about?
Movement is a simple plugin, in contrast to Output’s feature-rich sample libraries. But it is very flexible, and can have a subtle or very dramatic effect on the sound source. Here’s a very useful video released by Output that walks you through all the basics of Movement.
Movement is essentially a rhythmic modulation plugin, containing two pairs of rhythmic sources that control six parameters of the sound; delay, filter, eq, distortion, reverb and comp. Each parameter has it’s own set of standard controls, where you can choose the filter type, or how much feedback to put on the delay, for example. There are 76 parameters you can choose from in total, which for a small plugin, is a lot of choice!
The four engines each have different methods of modulating the sound – you can choose from LFO’s, step sequencers and sidechain, where the incoming audio affects the signal of whatever parameter you choose.
The Flux mode is a cool little ‘meta’ modulation, where you can modulate the rate of modulation by sending one rhythm engine to the rate of another engine! – It’s another level, but works nicely, especially in more sound design situations.
There’s an XY pad that you can assign almost anything to – it’s as simple as right clicking on the source, and selecting ‘assign to XY’. Simples!
There’s a lot to get stuck into with Movement. If you’re not sure where to start, there are over 300 presets to get your creative juices flowing, with a helpful library tag filter adapted from the sample libraries, that narrows the choice down to specific descriptors, such as side-chain, plucks, or wavey.
Conclusion
Movement is excellent at adding, uh, movement to sound. It moves any stationary tones into new territory, and can be used on pretty much any sound you want. The effect can be subtle phase-like sounds, really slowly evolving movement, all the way to aggressive choppy motion ideal for breaks or fills in EDM style music.
I really like how you can use the side chain to affect elements of the sound you wouldn’t normally associate with sidechain, like EQ. To be able to boost or duck several frequency bands, or hit the delay wet only when a large hit comes is quite fresh sounding, and there’s a lot of scope for experimentation there.
The only downside to the plugin I could find, really, was that it seems to be synced to host tempo, and I don’t think you can get round that. So truly random movement isn’t possible, although you can make it sound that way pretty easily with the flux, and the step sequencer. Excellent first plugin from Output!
Pricing and compatibility
Movement costs $149, more info here.
Comes as VST, AU, AAX. 32 and 64 bit compatible. OSX 10.7+ Windows 7+. 4GB RAM required
If you enjoy ANR and would like to support our efforts, please consider buying Movement using the button below. We owe you a beer if you do!
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