Izotope Vinyl is a staple in my plugin arsenal. There's a lot of cool features I'll cover in this review but what you should know first is that ITS FREE! YES. FREE.
The interface is very straight forward and has a certain nostalgia to it. There are a lot of features on the plugin but the ones that I find most useful for my purposes are WEAR, WARP DEPTH, YEAR, and SPIN DOWN.
Mechanical noise, Electrical noise, Dust, and Scratch will help mangle your sound a little more, but I find them a bit overbearing for my uses.
Warp Depth
Warping your sound with this plugin will give it that warbly effect that we associate with a bent record. The speed of the warp is determined by the RPM dial on the bottom right, the WARP MODEL selector on the bottom left will determine which pitch envelope it will follow, and the higher you push the WARP DEPTH slider the deeper the pitch will be effected.
I find in most cases the default sine wave warp model works fine for me. I don’t mess with the RPM dial much, it would be nice to have a sync and beat divider option for the RPM, but hey, it is FREE .99! The amount of warp depth I apply varies depending on what sound I’m affecting, but for the most part I find that Melodic stuff does fine with a small amount of warp depth, while percussive sounds *i.e. High Hats can take a bit more warp and not distort the key of the song.
wear and year
These controls are similar in that they both act as filters. Below are 3 graphic and audio examples of a drum loop; 1 with no effects, 1 with the WEAR setting all the way up, and 1 with the oldest YEAR setting.
Unaltered drum loop
WEAR setting all the way up
Oldest YEAR setting
WEAR: this setting simulates the effect of a record thats been played too many times. As you push up the WEAR setting it hollows out the low end, rolls off some high frequencies, and adds a tasteful amount of distortion. Turned all the way up it will cut the high’s above about 6k and significantly detent the LOWS below 60hz.
YEAR: this setting has a similar effect by using filter responses to emulate early record players, it also introduces a light amount of dust, scratches and distortion. At it’s most drastic setting (1930) it will cut highs above about 10k, and lows below around 100hz.
*It is important to note that the 2 earliest YEAR settings combine the signal into a mono output*
Use these settings in conjunction with the input gain slider achieve your desired amount of distortion. I find the WEAR setting particularly useful for softening really aggressive high-hat sounds.
spin down
The spin down button does exactly what you’re thinking it does, it creates a ‘spin down’ effect as if you just turned off the record player and the vinyl slowly comes to a slop. This is very similar to the ‘VARI-FI’ effect in Pro Tools, except you cannot designate a timeframe in which this will happen. The RPM selector will change the spin down speed slightly but its not quite as precise as the Vari-fi effect.
I find this useful in Ableton Live since Vari-fi is exclusive to Pro Tools. I use this effect to create awesome builds to transition between sections in my songs. I will typically REVERSE whatever element I am trying to build into, run the spin down at the end of the clip and reverse the audio again to make it spin UP into the next section. After that you can Warp the audio to the desired length, add some reverb, pitch shift it, go crazy.
a final word
I would pay money for this plugin. (don’t tell Izotope that) 🤫
I am really happy with what they’ve put out here, I use this plugin on everything from pianos to drums to vocals and even entire master channels. It goes a long way to help create a dreamy vintage sound in your songs.
my personal top uses for this plugin:
Hi-Hats: use the wear slider to help soften piercing hi hat tracks
Bridges: throw this puppy on the master bus during a bridge and slide up the Warp Depth for some drunken warbly goodness
Pianos/Strings/Synths: use the wear/year settings and a small amount of warp depth to help give your melodic tracks a more vintage sound
Transitions: reverse a track, automate spin down at the very end, resample the track and reverse it again to speed it up into the phrase, helps with transitions into hooks!
I used this plugin in conjunction with a filter on the intro/outtro to my most recent single with Noora called “Dreams”, it really fit the vibe of the song. Here’s a clip of the outtro to give you an idea…
Stream the single here >>> Noora - “Dreams”
big thanks to izotope for offering this plugin for free!
🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌
download Izotope vinyl HERE!!!