Audiomodern, the company behind Atom, Riffer, Opacity, and other brilliant virtual instruments and effects, has recently unveiled a new, inspiring tool for musicians and audio producers, Freezr.
This innovative sequencing plugin brings a brand new dimension to your audio manipulation toolset, allowing you to ‘freeze’ specific segments of audio in real-time. This functionality introduces an entirely new world of creative possibilities, enabling the creation of tantalizing glitching and stutter effects that can add a unique touch to any piece of music.
Freezr doesn’t simply offer a single function, but rather a versatile suite of tools. It boasts a vast array of pattern presets, each meticulously crafted and ready for immediate use – and obviously fully tweakable. For those who enjoy an element of surprise, Freezr also comes equipped with randomization controls. These controls, paired with a slider for adjusting complexity, allow for a wide range of unpredictable and fascinating audio effects.
Audiomodern has also integrated its much-loved ‘Infinity’ button into Freezr. This feature continually generates new patterns during music playbacks, as long as you allow it to. This means that the sonic landscape of your track can continue to evolve in real time, making each playback a unique experience.
Additionally, Freezr is equipped with a filter module, enhancing the range of sound manipulation options at your disposal. To ensure seamless integration with your existing setup, every feature in Freezr is MIDI controllable, allowing for precise and easy control.
Audiomodern has also provided the video demo below to showcase the capabilities of Freezr. I would recommend you pay attention to the real-time MIDI interaction possibilities offered by the plugin. To me, this is where Freezr can get really creative and helpful (writer’s block, anyone?).
Randomization Heaven
We mentioned the randomization features of Freezr. Let’s see more in detail what you can do with them.
- There are two randomization algorithms – Classic and Remix. Classic generates independent randomization for each step, while Remix locks steps together but changes the amount of randomization.
- The Complexity slider determines how dense/sparse the randomized sequence is. Lower values result in sparser glitches, higher values give a dense complex pattern.
- The Randomization button generates a new randomized sequence when pressed in real-time.
- The Big Random button generates a completely new random sequence with one click.
- The Range sliders, when linked, determine the upper and lower bounds of how far steps can be randomized. With the left/right channels unlinked, each can be set independently.
- All the randomization parameters like Complexity and Range sliders can be modulated over time using the midi learn function for generative effects.
- The presets and magic wand button allow generating multiple randomized sequences to choose from.
Hands-On Impressions
Freezr is a fun plugin. It is user-friendly (also thanks to the tooltips feature) and offers a wealth of presets to kick-start your projects. Its randomization features and Infinity button add a thrilling unpredictability into the creative journey. Furthermore, its affordable pricing ensures it’s within reach for a wide group of users.
Cons? None really, I would have just used a bigger font, but the interface is resizable so readability should not be an issue.
I only have an issue with the standalone version, as I expected to find a more complete audio settings panel with inputs and outputs. Probably, as the app holds no buffer within it, the standalone version is not suitable for what I was trying to achieve, i.e. feeding it with some audio running on the computer to do some live glitching. I’ll update the article as I find out more about this.
Pricing and Availability
The plugin is compatible with both PC and Mac, supporting VST, AU, and AAX formats.
Currently available at an introductory price of €19 (with the regular price being €29), Freezr offers immense value. As a bonus, it is also available for free with the purchase of any other Audiomodern plugin. For those who want to give Freezr a spin, a demo version is available.
For mobile producers, an iPad version of Freezr is available, priced at $/€9.99.
If you are into this kind of audio mangling plugins, check out the recently released Effectrix 2 by Sugar Bytes and the Arturia eFx MOTIONS (wider in scope, but still worth a look also as a complementary tool to Freezr).
For more information about Freezr, visit the Audiomodern website.
