Focusrite, best known for their professional and user-friendly audio hardware, has just released three innovative AI plugins: FAST.
Focusrite has teamed up with Austrian DSP Company Sonible launching a new online music resource called ‘The Collective’ — part of the launch includes three brand new AI plug-ins called ‘FAST’. The range includes an Equaliser, Compressor and Reveal, a spectral ducker or advanced side chain compressor.
If you have been in and around audio you have surely heard of Neve. However, you may not know that in 1985 Rupert Neve founded Focusrite. High-end and entry-level consumer interfaces have been the company’s biggest claim to fame. With FAST, Focusrite dives deeper into the plugin world.
FAST plug-ins work by ‘learning’ (listening to) a few seconds of your source material. Once learnt you can then choose from a range of instrument profiles with subcategories and switch into a detailed mode to explore further.
For example: With the FAST Equaliser the Electric Guitar profile then has a subcategory of Warm, Neutral, and Bright. From here the GUI shows equaliser bands relevant to a guitar from low to high; Cut, Body, Boost, Picking, and Air. Features include adjusting the intensity and gain, listening using the headphone icon to each band in solo mode, and working in detailed mode which allows a deeper control of parameters.
The FAST compressor has some great features in detailed mode with a continuous real-time metering display and a Dry/Wet Mix fader, as well as the aforementioned instrument profiles and their subcategories.
For those learning compression, Soft, Neutral, Hard are great starting points before using the FAST compressor’s Ratio, Threshold, Attack, Release and Knee. There is also a useful auto output selection.
FAST Reveal is perhaps the most advanced audio post-production plug-in of the three releases, being that it is essentially a side chain plug-in with some intuitive parameters. You must first insert the plug-in on the source you wish to be ‘ducked’ and then select the source which will trigger the ‘ducking’.
Reveal also has instrument profiles, a continuous real-time metering display and different listening options of the Side Chain, Duck and Input sources. If you are a fan of side-chaining then you will love the flexibility of this plug-in with it’s 0-100% Precision, Speed, and Ducking faders and the option to adjust the lower and upper bound parts of what will be side-chained.
Check out the short demonstration videos and details here: collective.focusrite.com
