No one’s going after anybody yet but I can say, if you download a plugin, they know about it. From what I hear from other colleagues, they have all the data – they are tracking the piracy. It also highlighted a troubling issue: if someone of West’s financial stature was refusing to pay for plug-ins, how many other, significantly less wealthy people were doing the same thing?ĭateh doesn’t know the numbers, and they’re not readily available online, but he says, “as an industry, we’re all keeping tabs on it. At that time, Serum cost $200 to purchase, an amount that West probably spends on breakfast without blinking an eye. In 2016, none other than Kanye West was outed for pirating a popular plug-in called Serum.
It manufactures software, after all, and software is as vulnerable to illegal downloading as any film, television show, or music file. Just like in other creative fields, the fledgling music plug-in industry is not immune to piracy. It’s all part of what Dateh calls “lifestyle branding, making people feel like they own a part of it, like they have a personal stake.” Nurturing such loyalty doesn’t just drive sales, it helps prevent theft. This networking effect expands awareness of the company and the product at hand, of course, but it also makes the artist’s community feel invested in the product’s success – by way of their association with its primary creative advocate. They also connect Polyverse with each artist’s individual music community. “It’s a very intimate relationship between our development team and Infected Mushroom,” Dateh said, and the duo’s influence on products can be “as detail oriented as, ‘I wish this button were here,’ or, ‘I wish this slider were a different color.’”īut Polyverse’s partnerships with known musical acts have more benefits than simply producing incredibly intuitive plug-ins. Merging Infected Mushroom’s artistic feedback with Polyverse’s technical prowess resulted in a processor whose fascinating vocal transgressions are as fun to tinker with as they are to listen to.
The company’s first, and still most popular plug-in, Manipulator, was created in collaboration with Infected Mushroom, an Israeli electronic duo known for their hypnotic, pulse-pounding dance grooves and beguiling vocal synthetics. Polyverse is committed to helping artists expand their horizons in a similar fashion, and does so by actually partnering with seasoned musicians for each new plug-in that they make – customizing the look and feel of the offering to the specific whims of a representative artist who would actually use it. Perhaps the world’s most famous plug-in is Antares Audio Technologies’ Auto-Tune – the “tool of choice,” reads the company’s website, “for the most iconic vocal effect in popular music.” Auto-Tune has several uses – including tweaking vocals to be more in tune – but its signature feature adds a glitching warble that, when in the right hands, can turn a singer’s voice into an eerily beautiful dispatch from some glimmering robot fantasia.
Music plugins are “little extensions for audio software,” says Paul Dateh, Director of Content and Artist Relations for Polyverse Music, that “enhance the way you make music.” That means if you’ve been dropping some beats in Pro Tools, but finding the program’s available features just aren’t quite nailing the sound you’re looking for, you can slap a third-party plugin on there and take your audio possibilities to a whole new level. Once you do that, and you have mastered the basics of your new hobby, you might be ready to start dabbling in some sweet music plug-ins. The bad news is, you’re still going to have to work at it long and hard before you’re any good at it. So, the good news is, there is no longer any barrier to making music. As ace film composer Jeff Morrow recently told CreativeFuture, “I don’t think it is necessary to be a good instrumentalist, but you still need to put in 10,000 hours on something to master the craft.” Of course, just because it’s easier than ever to start making music doesn’t mean it’s any easier to make good music. Heck, these days you can make music with nothing but your phone. Even these beginner-level DAWs can be used to record high-quality music, providing all the virtual instruments and mixing components a newbie needs to be off and running. Some even come pre-installed – like Apple’s GarageBand.
What’s more, many of these DAWs, such as Pro Tools, are free to download and install. All you need to lay down some sweet melodies anymore is a laptop and a “digital audio workstation” (DAW) – also known as recording software. It’s official – computers have thoroughly democratized the act of making music.