Ohmforce Ohmicide

Ohmicide is the latest offering from my favourite Vst/Vsti manufacturer.

You may be wondering why I say ‘my favourite?’ Well, it’s really simple. This company, with the Crazy Crew, likes to stretch the boundaries and always strives to come up with something fresh and innovative, and in that department they have succeeded yet again.

Now, let’s get the usual spiel out of the way and then get dirty with the features etc.  

This plug-in is available in the following standards and with both the Classic and Funky skins:  

AudioUnits Mac OS X (UB)
RTAS Mac OS X (UB)
VST Mac OS X (UB)
VST Windows  

Single License Price: 79 EUR
Pack License Price (which includes all formats): 99 EUR  
         

Phase corrected multi-band stereo effect.      



Band distortion: a heap of modern sounding stereo distortions that can feedback.       



Band dynamic: alien compressor or expander, synchronized noise gate.       



Band stereo: optionally process in mid/side mode for more stereo field tweak-ability.      



First Melohman effect: midi controlled preset morphing or randomization.      



Optional High Quality rendering (internal oversampling).     



Useful presets instant variable transitions where all the parameters switch from the old value to the new one in a ballet you won't forget!  

MIDI automation: It allows control of all parameters from *any* MIDI source and records its movements. With the MIDI feature, it's also possible to adjust the LFO phase to get accurate tempo synchronization and to obtain totally musical and rhythmic effects.   

All RPN and NRPN data sent or recorded are 14-bit accurate. This feature is not available on demo versions but is featured on the Frohmage free version, instruments demos or every standalone versions for you to try. 



Easy MIDI configuration with Auto-Bind feature. Select a knob on the screen, activate the Auto-Bind and move a controller knob on your MIDI device: the parameter will be automatically bound to the chosen knob.    



Fast configuration: Save MIDI configurations into files and reload them to avoid repeating the same operations each time you load the plug-in. Advanced MIDI support with autobind feature and fast configuration    



Tempo synchronization: Instantly matches the exact beat of your track High quality DSP algorithm: The greatest sound quality. See for yourself with any demo version or check out the samples.

Sampling rate up to 384 kHz.     



Revolutionary graphic user interface! Big handy buttons which are more precise and smoother than you could imagine... With our SubPixel technology there is more definition. Move several buttons at once, with group selection and side-click.
Advanced GUI full of live-performance features, such as flying knobs, preset morphing, and grouped parameters...    

Now a little history on this product provided by Jerome Noel, from the Ohmforce Ohmicide Design Team (one of the Crazy Crew), just for you lucky people:  

‘The idea behind the Ohmicide was to modernize the Predatohm. Even though it is an excellent plug-in, the Predatohm is getting old and suffers from its age: it only processes a mono input and its frequency bands are not very steep. So we first created a prototype, codename 'Postdatohm', which was very similar to the Predatohm, but with a stereo processing, and better band filters (phase compensation, steeper cutoff). We added to this various stereo tricks, new more modern distortions, the Melohman capabilities, and, through the use of a trim, a better reproducibility of the presets and a more contained sound (the Predatohm tends to become very loud when tweaking the parameters, forcing the user to always play with the gain).  

And tell your readers that no animals were harmed during the process!’  

Ok, now let’s get our teeth into this beast.         




As you can see from the image above the audio signal is split into 4 distinct frequency bands in parallel with each band offering dynamic and distortion processing. You also have the following: Mid/Side, Gate (with threshold, attack, release and amount), Dynamics, Distortion, Gain and Stereo Field and Feedback.  

The image above also shows a post path filter which is fixed as a Low Pass filter. This is important as extreme processing of signals can create high frequency gain issues and the LP filter (PF Shape which controls the slope and ‘colour’ and PF Freq which controls the frequency cut-off) will tame these nuisance frequencies.  

I am only going to concentrate on a few of the features of Ohmicide as the feature list is both extensive and detailed. I am going to concentrate on features that I find to be the most innovative and useful.
For those who are familiar with Ohmforce products will understand their concept of Metapatches, preset triggering, sync and Morphing. So, I will keep away from these wonderful features.  

On top of all these manic features you are afforded the usual Ohmforce Midi implementation and execution features. Do not ignore this section as customizing this beast for live use can be a real bonus. Rarely do vsti manufacturers delve into such detail.

Dynamics has a Shape function which controls the overall dynamic structure of the band: Phat: dynamics are reduced, but the overall sound is perceived to be louder and sustaining longer.
Sharp: dynamics are increased and attacks emphasized, producing percussive and generally faster decaying sounds.
Body controls amount of shape applied. However, even when Shape is set to neutral Body will still provide some form of limiting to the signal.  

Distortion is where the meat of Ohmicide resides.
As if the countless other tools were not enough to mangle your sounds, Distortion has some detailed editing tools (Type, Gain, Bias and Alt) and tons of preset templates to choose from drop down menu options. It would take me forever to go through each and every preset and how they are configured. Suffice to say madness resides here.
The Gain knob here controls the amount of distortion. Bias adds a DC offset and Alt provides additional distortion algorithms dependent on the type of distortion selected.

Oversampling is selected from the setup menu (High Quality) and is useful when using extreme distortion as it can help in reducing unwanted aliasing artifacts.  

The other functions are self explanatory and need a cursory look in the manual to get to grips with the routing and control.  

You are also afforded a graphical screen which shows the waveform behavior.    

Conclusion:  

Ultimately it comes down to how well this baby works, how intuitive it is and how it sounds.  

The GUI is the usual Ohmforce incarnation, offering a Classic skin for those that are easily scared, and the Funky skin for those who like a GUI that not only functions but affords an interesting aesthetic approach to sound editing. 
 
But the real core of this review is how the vsti sounds.  

I must say Ohmforce have outdone themselves here.  

To be able to process subtle changes to absolute mayhem has always been Ohmforce’s directive and Ohmicide is the best advert for this thinking.  

What many people do not realize is that a tool like this can not only be creative but also extremely useful. To be able to isolate certain bands and have only those bands treated is a huge plus. Ohmforce’s example of being able to isolate the kick drum from a drum beat and treat the whole drum beat yet leaving the kick drum dry is an excellent example of what this baby can really do.  

However, if you want extreme and the tools to reshape an existing sound into a multitude of different sonic scapes then this tool is it.  

I used a dry Wurly sound and created 5 pad sounds, from rich and textured to evolving and crazy, all in about 5 minutes.  

Add to that a highly intuitive and detailed menu structure, gazillion usable presets, and extensive Midi control and…….why am I still talking?  

Buy it!  

Eddie Bazil (Zukan)
www.samplecraze.com