The Future of Audio Plugins | BEAM

[@SynthfulDuck]

Plugins are starting to make me feel like I'm loading Unity projects inside my DAW.

[@HazyJ28]

XMAL be crazy lol

[@graublau733]

Yes, very gimmicky and all for marketing.

[@YoungambitionCeo-we2sk]

As a blender/unity user I completely feel the same🤣🤣🤣

[@ErickMcNerney]

14:11 - it sounds really cool and seems pretty unique. But I'm not sure I agree that visuals are that important. If anything I think it can trick us into thinking a plugin is more special than it is. I'd rather just base something on its sound and functionality, taking out the visuals. I think we'd be better off training our ears, and trying to discern things just based on the sound, and nothing else. If it happens to have good visuals, that's a plus. And the other thing I was thinking, with such busy visuals, is it going to be adding some unnecessary load to our systems? Having said all of that, I may pick this up at a future date.

[@Simeon_Harris]

i agree. some plugins with fancy UI's allow the user to turn off the animations and whatnot and i always do that. anything that distracts the user from listening and also uses cpu cycles needlessly, is a bad a idea in my book. having said that, this plugin does sound great. series parallel routing isn't new, but super useful. i might give it a try and see just how bonkers i can get with it.

[@lunacyaudio]

Hey there! We very much appreciate the feedback and totally understand your point of view. A few things to address: For one, the graphics are running on your GPU and they're extremely optimized so they won't affect your computer much. You can always turn the graphics to "Low Quality" in the settings if there's any concern. Two, our philosophy on interface design is that most plugins actually kill your creativity (and ear training) with knobs and sliders. You'll find with BEAM you can actually work faster and train your ears better because you're not constantly looking at parameter values. Many producers tend to correlate knob values directly with sound, or mix just by looking at meters. When you abstract the controls to something more visually informative, you spend less time obsessing over the difference between something like -2db and -2.5db, and more time focused on the sonic aesthetic. We hope that makes sense! :)

[@ErickMcNerney]

@@lunacyaudio Thanks for the clarification.That makes a lot of sense.

[@Bronwyn031]

Havent checked on the price yet, but minus the granular effects; what makes this any better or even on par with ShaperBox? SB is a LFO driven effects BEAST.

[@Pabloesc571]

This is reverb plugin shaperbox is different

[@silspok]

Am I missing something? I use Bitwig and Studio One. Bitwig has FX Layer/Multiband devices with which I can create as many weird parallel effect branches as I want, Studio One has Splitter(Normal, channel or frequency split) with similar functionality and I can use any combinations of my favorite effect plugins(Soundtoys, Output, Melda, Valhalla, Arturia Efx, Neural DSP,...) without being stuck to built-in effects and later be "forced" to buy add-ons...

[@12Jerbs]

Novice Ableton user here. I believe beams would be similar to return tracks and racks. x% of a channel is sent to a return track, which contains a rack of the effects you want to apply. BEAM has the convince of presets (racks) already being setup, but you're initially limited to only 3 base effects and I assume you will have to pay for more additional effects. With racks, I can use any effect that I have. I believe the visuals of the beams will make it easier for setup and understanding what is happening, but this is based on my novice opinion and users who have used return tracks/racks for years may not really see too much of a benefit.

[@breitbanddesign]

Exactly. And on top that interface that looks like a mini game from a console game.

[@leftovercode]

Exactly!

[@SongOfItself]

Thank goddess for Bitwig! Plus, I wonder how much CPU these nifty graphics take (or if, hopefully, they're GPU-bound).

[@silspok]

Studio One has even graphic tree representation of fx chain. Otherwise, it is running on GPU, however, I can't imagine having this moving and glowing thing opened while I'm working on some soundtrack. I definitely prefer sterile guis and if there is something moving, than waveform, spectrum, arp, sequence,...I'm making music and not playing video game.

[@ma3boch]

There is no trial version available ?

[@GameArtsCafe]

Would like to see this as a Surround Plugin with Binaural- each node could be floating and positioned in 3D Space, controlled with a 3DConnexion mouse in real-time and refined later.

[@constair]

Really cool effects.

[@PluginBoutiqueOfficial]

agreed. it sounds amazing on everything - JC

[@luklagrande]

Hi, I downloaded the installer from PB (1.04) and I experienced issues with it (crash every time I change any parameter while playing the song). So I installed the 1.03 version which is the only one available on the developer website and that is fine. I'm on Win11 with Reaper... I hope this is useful.. Amazing plugin brw! 😊

[@gregoryivesdolbyatmosmusic]

This has become a very useful tool for me here. Also do some Immersive support for these, which I could use here.

[@Zsklar]

Bought it and it's crashing my DAW (Ableton 12) every time I try to open it. Ughh.

[@brettchassen2888]

Definitely looks hella cool 😅

[@mdk1983]

Joshua just stepped into a parallel universe, from where he is pushing plugins through a portal to our world ❤🔥

[@Nichtzzzz]

Oh, you make music in the normal world, good morning 😂

[@mrstumpyninja]

CPU load? Cube was heavy on CPU.

[@mrstumpyninja]

Never mind, already answered below.

[@Soldat-d3r]

This on a send bus with RC 20 would be a good combo

[@AirArtStudiosOfficial]

Looks mental!

[@cesmcmyth]

pretty amazing indeed. it kept throwing unexpected more and more. Awesome job

[@PluginBoutiqueOfficial]

agreed. it's super creative and inspirational... real talk - JC

[@fischergreen4134]

The GUI is different Ill give it that and seems user friendly but sonically it offers me nothing new and that is the only reason that I consider VST these days.

[@Dispoboy1]

To be honest, the parallel Processing Feature might be cool, but the visuals Look like they are a massive CPU eater.

[@lunacyaudio]

The graphics run on your GPU and highly performant! They will hardly affect your CPU :)

[@Dispoboy1]

What a Kind way to Tell me im a DAU/BDU 😁 thanks anyway.

[@cesmcmyth]

@@Dispoboy1 DAU? dum3, 4ssh01e, Udiot? LOL! what are those?

[@graublau733]

Nice visuals but definitely lacking sound quality

[@YoungambitionCeo-we2sk]

I purchased it..not going to lie...you'll like it

[@graublau733]

@@YoungambitionCeo-we2sk I did actually purchase it (no demo version), and that was what I based my comment on. Other plugins I own have far better granular engines and sound quality, and hence my disappointment. Sure, it's not awful, but the graphics are selling this, not the sound.

[@YoungambitionCeo-we2sk]

I understand,I am actually looking into having multiple granular effects plugins.this is a cool one for the arsenal.ive already did some great things to my beat with it

[@graublau733]

@@YoungambitionCeo-we2sk It's fun, don't get me wrong. But the quality of the engine is not as good as other options on the market. Let's just say if this had a 'standard' looking interface like Fabfilter or Waves for example, nobody would care for it. But clever visual marketing certainly tricks a lot of people 😀

[@Sundownerrr]

@@graublau733 which ones

[@SongOfItself]

Way too much form over function. Especially if your DAW makes routing easy, like Bitwig..

[@Henrychamber-r8w]

no demo no go

[@JoshuaCasper]

❤

[@louiscourts1801]

I don't understand why you would show the granular reverb and just talk about how it looks visually whilst describing the sound, without playing how it actually affects the vocal? IMO the granular reverb is best part of this plugin so to not show an example of how it sounds on vocals is criminal 😬

[@phil_helix1191]

The problem with these kind of plugins will be that Ai will just automatically replace most producers, seriously.

[@YuzimaPhilip]

Ai can not replace creativity.

[@shinymew2887]

@@YuzimaPhilipwe as a society have been creatively bankrupt for years so you’re not really saying much.

[@issiewizzie]

why does it look like the multiverse ..lol

[@HazyJ28]

Reminds me of Patcher, but much less useful lol.

[@Pabloesc571]

Its really not that crazy