Review: Stillwell & Schwa
Any plug-in with Russian-English translation has got to be good for something, right?
1 September 2008
Review: Calum Orr
I really like developers who consider the end-user’s actual requirements as well as understanding the realities of their financial situation. Let’s face it, most musicians don’t have a piles of money sitting in the corner to fund the regular purchase of new plug-in software. I also like plug-in developers who think outside the square when it comes to their GUIs. I must confess I like a graphic display that’s kooky and individual, while still remaining informative and visually clear. Stillwell and Schwa are two such developers. Their plug-ins sound fantastic, look great and are easy to operate.
Although the two companies develop their plug-ins separately, Stillwell and Schwa (who each exist on opposite coasts of the USA) have banded together as one to employ the services of a singular marketing person named ‘White Tie’, who operates out of London. This trans-continental partnership regularly argues that plug-in manufacturers charge too much for their software. Consequently, the Stillwell and Schwa ranges of plug-ins are offered at extremely affordable prices.
Apart from sounding good and looking interesting, the plug-ins, which are downloadable from the website [www.stillwellaudio.com] work without audio dropouts or audible registration nags to register. There are visual software nags on initial session startup however, and the occasional hyperlink to their site when using the controls.
There are several plug-ins available from each of the developers, but this review will only touch on two from each developer. However, before we check them out in more depth, here’s a list of what’s on offer at Stillwell and Schwa, and their pricing:
STILLWELL PLUG-INS
1973 EQ: an EQ tribute to the Neve 1073. This plug-in offers the same frequency selection as the Neve hardware, and is just as simple to use. Price: $46 VST/AU.
BadbussMojo: a sound mangler for injecting a little (or a lot of) non-linearity and flavoursome distortion. Price: $46 VST/AU.
Event Horizon: a super transparent peak limiter that enables high levels of limiting without artifacts. Price: $46 VST/AU.
Major Tom: a compressor that’s loosely modeled on the dbx160. Has clean to crunch versatility. Price: $57 VST/AU.
Transient Monster: a simple plug-in for changing the attack and sustain of instruments or voices. Price: $57 VST/AU.
Verbiage: a digital reverb with all the usual controls, but the unusual ability to create cool sounding spaces. Price: $81 VST/AU.
Vibe EQ: different to the 1973 in that it provides less pristine, more aggressive results. Price: $46 VST/AU.
SCHWA PLUG-INS
Dyno: a threshold-driven dynamic envelope editor. In some respects it’s a totally new way to gain control over dynamics. Price: $59 VST
MicroSchope: waveform analysis tools. Price: $12 VST
Olga: a virtual analogue synthesizer that is wayward and inspiring, and offers funny graphic options. A total classic! Price: $95 VST/AU
Oligarc: a drive, phaser, chorus and filter all rolled into one. Drive, Phaser and Chorus are also offered as separate plug-ins. Price: $71 VST/AU
Psycho Dither: a dithering tool for reducing those nice 24-bit files down to horrible ol’ 16-bit ones…in a good way. Price: $59 VST
SchOPE: a signal and channel phase analyser that lets you view multiple audio signals overlaid on one another. Price: $30 VST
Sculpto: use this to change transients, clean errors and draw curves on your audio waveforms. Price: $59 VST
Spectro: a real-time spectral editor with a surgical ability to change specific frequencies. Price: $59 VST/AU
Oligarc Filter: this is the filter section from the Oligarc now available as a separate plug-in. All proceeds from the sales of this plug-in go to the Alliance for Climate Protection – gotta love that! Price: $24 VST/AU
Bitter: a 64-bit bitscope and intersample clip indicator. Price: Free VST/AU
Total for all plug-ins: approx. $850.
BAD BUSS MOJO
The Bad Buss Mojo plug-in looks conspicuously like a Playstation controller but don’t be fooled, this plug can really sort out the signals in your chain that lack grunt or desperately need a dose of non-linearity. It does subtle tube emulation and shmashing equally well, along with other treatments in between. It’s everything I like about iZotope’s Trash without the complication or the tweakability. For old schoolers, this thing is like a Sansamp without being as hazardous to your speakers. Whenever I use the BBM at extreme settings, it always manages to stay within a reasonable volume range. The main controls are Gain, Knee and Dry/Wet. While these will get you 70 percent of the way there, using the Mod A, Mod B and Non Linearity controls enables more accurate sculpting of the signal. As a drum bus compressor, the Bad Buss Mojo is exceptional, but dare yourself to put it over the whole mix and you won’t be disappointed. Basically, a little imperfection goes a long way.
EVENT HORIZON
Limiters are dime a dozen in the digital domain, but not all are created equal. Like everyone, I have some particular faves: the UAD Precision Limiter and Logic’s Adaptive Limiter. However, since downloading the Stillwell plug-ins a couple of months ago, I’ve kept coming back to Event Horizon. Slamming your audio against a wall never sounded so good. Quite literally, you can push oodles of signal into Event Horizon and only get bad results when you’re being totally outrageous with it.
The whole thing is simplicity itself. It’s great on your kick drum or final master – anything really. Speaking of your final master, if you’re using Event Horizon, don’t forget to set the output to zero. For $46 I can categorically state that this thing whoops many other pricey software limiters. If you’re ‘home-mastering’ your tracks for release, or for upload to MySpace, etc, this plug-in is ideal.
NEED TO KNOW
OLGA
I’m not going to cover the Schwa virtual synth in much depth but in a word, it’s ‘funky’. The graphics emulate the look of an old legend from the former Soviet Republic. In fact, all the dials are in Russian unless you click the small ‘white Tie’ emblem on the left of the synth that reveals virtual pieces of sticky tape with English translations. The general vibe is one of experimentation here, and endless noodling often finds you scrambling for the ‘Save Preset’ function. Browsing the presets is a great place to start with many highly useable patches on offer. To add to the quirkiness, Schwa has incorporated some extra graphics that are changeable depending on the vibe of your (or their) patch. You can choose from Acid Lollipop, Fag & Ashtray, Rubber Ducky, Algebraic Equation, Earplugs, Schwa Beer Bottle or Plectrums.
Returning to the sound, the Olga is destined to be (dare I say it) a modern day soft-synth classic. It can grind, sweep, blip and scream tremendously well. Schwa claims that its new BADASS technology – Bezier Antialiased Dynamic Analog Synthesis System – provides “a constant state of structured variability, a deeply musical instability, free of aliasing artefacts and light on your CPU,” and to my ears it does seem to have a certain X-factor, which could be labeled ‘inaccurate’ by some!
The Olga is definitely my new favourite softsynth in equal standing to the Gforce Minimonsta Moog emulation.
OLIGARC
On a recent mix session I turned to the Oligarc suite of effects regularly. The suite is available as an all-in-one plug-in with phaser, filter, chorus and drive, but I predominantly used them in their individual plug-in forms.
The Drive unit in particular is good for all manner of things. Snare sounds great through it and like the rest of the Stillwell and Schwa stable, it never sounds harsh. Drive really does sound like an analogue box, providing warmth and body, or harder tones at the twist of a single dial. Some folk would consider Drive to be subtle, but for me, that’s its great strength. It’s not like most other drives that break up early and have too much ‘grit’, which makes them far less versatile.
The Phaser worked well on guitar passages and even on the whole mix during the sessions, while the Chorus got used on bass and vocals. The interfaces are like Russian versions of Moogerfooger pedals and are really simple to operate.
I’m pleased the folks at Schwa have also made the Oligarc filter into an individual plug-in, and kudos to them for donating all revenue from the sale to the Alliance for Climate Protection. Really progressive stuff.
If it’s not already obvious, let me simply state that I really admire Stillwell and Schwa for not only their plug-ins, but also their business model. The fact that the evaluation copies are fully useable in a project is really great. It means that, should you be fiscally challenged you can still use the plug-ins in your projects until such time as you can afford them. You could also just buy the ones you use most and continue using the evaluation versions of the ones you use occasionally for the odd thing here and there, if you can tolerate the ‘nags’. But at the price, you’d be better off buying them.
If you consider them as a suite, at $850 for the lot, it’s a bargain. With some other developers, you’ll only get one or two plug-ins for that, not 20!
RESPONSES