Plugin Boutique Sale – Jooyoung's Music Blog

Hello! I’m Jooyoung Kim, a mixing engineer and music producer.

Today, I’d like to introduce the Soundtoys plugins, which are currently on sale during the end-of-year discounts following Black Friday.

This post isn’t sponsored; I purchased these plugins on my own in the past. However, I’ve received considerable support from Plugin Boutique, so all the links in this post direct to their website. Your understanding is appreciated!

Also, if you make a purchase through these links, I’ll receive a small commission, which greatly helps me keep doing what I love.

Let’s get started!

Purchase Soundtoys 5 Bundle At Plugin Boutique

Soundtoys specializes in plugins that excel in coloration, delay, and modulation.

The Soundtoys 5 Bundle includes a total of 21 plugins. Since there’s a lot to cover, I’ll summarize the list in a table:

Plugin Name	Role	Description
SuperPlate	Reverb	Recreates tones of 5 classic plate reverbs, delivering rich and expansive reverb effects.
Decapitator	Distortion/Saturation	Hardware-modeled saturation and distortion effects that add bold character to your mix.
EchoBoy	Echo/Delay	Emulates a variety of vintage echo units, providing warm and rich delay effects for vocals and instruments.
Little AlterBoy	Pitch/Formant Modulation	Offers vocal pitch shifting, hard-tune effects, and robotic voice modulation.
Crystallizer	Pitch/Granular Delay	Enables creative sound design with pitch-shifted and reversed granular delay.
PrimalTap	Retro Delay	Retro-style dual delay with lo-fi looping and warp effects.
Devil-Loc Deluxe	Compressor/Distortion	Delivers aggressive drum compression and distortion effects.
Radiator	Tube Saturation/EQ	Vintage tube preamp style for warm tones and rich harmonics.
MicroShift	Vocal Widening	Provides classic pitch-shifting and chorusing for vocals and instruments.
Little Plate	Plate Reverb	A modern take on the classic EMT 140 plate reverb.
PanMan	Auto-Panning	Creates spatial movement with rhythmic auto-panning effects.
Tremolator	Tremolo/Rhythmic Modulation	Offers vintage guitar tremolo and rhythm-based effects.
FilterFreak	Filter/Modulation	Delivers analog filter sweeps and rhythmic filtering effects.
PhaseMistress	Phaser	Produces rich phase sweeps with deep analog vibes.
Sie-Q	EQ	Emulates the W295b EQ, providing smooth highs and warm lows.
Little Radiator	Tube Saturation	Simple tube saturation inspired by the vintage Altec 1566a preamp.
Little PrimalTap	Simple Delay	A straightforward retro delay with looping, warping, and distortion effects.
Little MicroShift	Simple Widening	Adds focus and depth with a simplified vocal widening effect.
Devil-Loc	Audio Level Destroyer	Simple yet powerful drum compression and distortion.
EchoBoy Jr.	Simple Echo	Combines 7 analog echo styles for quick and easy delay effects on vocals and instruments.
Effect Rack	Multi-Effect	Combines all plugins for custom chains and overall mixing control.

For this post, I’ll focus on three standout plugins: Decapitator, Little AlterBoy, and the renowned EchoBoy.

Decapitator

The Decapitator plugin emulates the coloration of five iconic pieces of analog hardware. Its name might sound intimidating (it literally means an executioner who beheads), but it’s perfect for adding aggressive saturation to your tracks.

1) A Mode is modeled after the Ampex 350.

2) E Mode (EMI) is based on the Chandler/EMI TG Channel.

3) N Mode emulates the Neve 1057 Channel.

4) T Mode recreates the Triode (3-tube) saturation of Thermionic Culture’s The Culture Vulture.

5) P Mode replicates the Pentode (5-tube) saturation from the same hardware.

Personally, I often use N or T modes, as their harmonics feel more pronounced to me.

Other key controls:

Push: Boosts the input signal.
Thump: Slightly boosts the low-end around the high-pass filter.
Steep: Sharply cuts the high frequencies.
Tone: Acts as a Tilt EQ.

If you want a bold, saturated sound, this is the plugin for you!

Little AlterBoy

Little AlterBoy is a simple yet powerful pitch modulation plugin.

Adjust pitch by semitones from -12 to +12.
Modify formant to make the pitch changes sound more natural.

This plugin works best with monophonic instruments like vocals (it doesn’t handle polyphonic material well).

Modes:

Transpose: Standard pitch shifting.
Quantize: Snaps the pitch to the nearest chromatic note.
Robot: Fixes the pitch to a single note (e.g., C at +0, C# at +1, etc.).

I often use this plugin to add an octave effect to lead melodies by sending the signal through Little AlterBoy.

For higher pitches: Set Pitch to +12 and Formant between 2 and 3.5.
For lower pitches: Set Pitch to -12 and Formant between -2 and -3.5.

Adjust the Formant settings by ear for the best results!

EchoBoy

EchoBoy is an all-in-one delay plugin loaded with options.

It offers:

Simple single delays
Dual delays
Ping Pong delays
Rhythm Echo and more

The Style menu provides a variety of delay textures, and the Tweak section allows further parameter adjustments.

Finally, the Style Edit menu lets you fine-tune the output characteristics of the selected delay style.

It’s no wonder EchoBoy is often called the ultimate delay plugin!

Conclusion

This was a quick overview of the Soundtoys bundle.

If you’re considering just a few plugins, I highly recommend Decapitator and Little AlterBoy. Try the demos first and grab them during the sale if they suit your needs!

Purchase Soundtoys 5 Bundle At Plugin Boutique

See you in the next post! 😊

Hello! I’m Jooyoung Kim, a mixing engineer and music producer.

Today, I wanted to share an exciting deal from one of my favorite companies, Cableguys, who are currently offering a discount on their FilterShaper XL plugin.

As with my recent plugin reviews, I received an NFR (Not for Resale) code from Plugin Boutique for this product.

Purchase FilterShaper XL at Plugin Boutique

(If you purchase through the above link, I’ll earn a small commission, which greatly supports the blog!)

Let’s dive in!

Cableguys is known for their best-selling product, ShaperBox.

ShaperBox can inject an artificial groove into your instruments, and I found it so compelling that I purchased it myself before I even partnered with Plugin Boutique.

Within ShaperBox, there’s a tool called FilterShaper Core. FilterShaper XL is essentially an enhanced version of FilterShaper Core, with additional parameters and features.

Looking at the UI, you’ll notice it’s split into left and right sections. Both sides represent filters, and the central Routing button allows you to choose between serial or parallel connections.

Pan, Mix, and Volume controls are likely familiar to most of you, so I’ll skip explaining those..:)

Now, let’s explore the filters!

If you’ve used filters before, this should feel intuitive. Even if you’re less experienced, you’ll probably grasp the basics of Cutoff (which determines the frequency at which the sound is attenuated), Pan, and Volume.

The Drive control allows you to choose between Pre and Post settings. Adding Drive enhances harmonics and can act somewhat like a compressor as the sound level increases and then decreases at a certain point.

Resonance, as shown in the image above, determines the amount of emphasis around the cutoff frequency.

Filter 2 off, Filter 1 with Drive 0, Resonance 0, Res. Drive 0, Volume 0, Cutoff Frequency at maximum (21.1kHz)

HARD button enabled with Res. Drive at 0

The Res. Drive below Resonance applies Drive specifically to the resonance band, creating harmonics and adding compression. The HARD button intensifies these effects.

Also, by clicking the text right below the Filter Power button, you can select the type of filter you want to use. That’s pretty much everything about the filter window!

Now, let’s move on to the lower section.

In the bottom section, you can draw automations for each filter’s parameters, allowing them to repeat automatically. You can create points by double-clicking with the mouse and drag them to shape the automation. Various cursor tools on the left can make this easier, and you can also start with presets available at the top.

Using both LFO 1 and LFO 2 (located at the top left), you can modulate LFO values like this. The thin blue line in the background represents the LFO that will modulate the parameter.

The Pan and Volume controls in the center manage the panning and volume of the master output. You can also adjust the amount of LFO modulation by clicking the settings button on the Amount knob in the bottom left corner.

Lastly, the Envelope Follower in the bottom right lets you change the intensity of the LFO based on the input signal. You can also set the LFO’s LFO in the same section, giving you more control.

It may seem complex at first, but it’s very intuitive once you start using it.

If you’d like to hear how it works, check out the demo video by Cableguys.

This sale is valid until the end of the month.

This plugin is versatile and can be creatively used in any genre, whether you’re into acoustic music, rock, dubstep, D&B, K-Pop, or anything in between. I highly recommend it to all music producers.

Purchase FilterShaper XL at Plugin Boutique

(If you purchase through the above link, I’ll earn a small commission, which greatly supports the blog!)

I primarily use acoustic instruments, and with a bit of tweaking—using a minimal Mix value—you can add a tight groove to your instruments that would be impossible to achieve with just human performance.

Having at least one or two plugins like this is essential, in my opinion. If I had to recommend just two, I’d go with this one and Volume Shaper. If your budget allows, picking up ShaperBox 3 during a sale would also be a satisfying purchase.

Also, if you buy any plugins from Plugin Boutique this month, you’ll receive either Softube’s VCA Comp or Imagine Audio’s K7D delay for free.

If you don’t have a dbx160-style compressor, I’d recommend the VCA Comp. If you need a versatile delay for guitars, electric pianos, or analog delay, go for the K7D.

See you in the next post!

Tag: Plugin Boutique Sale