Two of the coolest plug-ins at AES were from SoundToys, whose marketing director Mitch Thomas sported spiky purple hair especially for the event. PanMan, as the name suggests, is an auto-panner that makes your stereo field a creative destination for complex modulation. With PanMan’s user-programmable rhythm editor, MIDI sync and user-definable LFO shapes, you can set up stereo patterns that just weren’t possible until now.

Decapitator, as the name implies, has a potentially radical effect on audio signals. Decapitator is a saturation processor offering settings that range from slightly grungy to flat-out overdrive. It beefs up your sound by modeling five types of analog gear. Once you find a sound you like, clicking on the Punish button pushes it right over a cliff without losing any of its analog-sounding edge. SoundToys says that Panner and Decapitator should be available before the end of the year.

Of all the products vying for the biggest buzz at Javits Center, the most labor-saving was almost certainly Vocal Rider, a new plug-in from Waves. Vocal Rider simplifies the job of mixing by automating the normally hands-on process of adjusting the faders on vocal tracks. Instead of manually riding the levels or painstakingly drawing automation data in your multitrack recording software, all you have to do is set a range of levels and let Vocal Rider do its work. It compensates for any variations from the target range, raising or lowering the volume as needed. That should leave a lot more time to focus on recording or other aspects of perfecting your mix.

It’s the first day of AES, and already I’m seeing products that are bound to please everyone. In the everybody’s-gonna-want-one department, two products really stand out. The first is the the new Korg Wavedrum, a resurrection of a legendary electronic hand drum, brought up to date with new samples and new technology, at a price that can scarcely be believed. The other is the Novation Launchpad, a control surface with an 8×8 matrix of illuminated buttons designed for Ableton Live, but it works with any software, thanks to its built-in Automap support. Best of all, it will street for less than $200! Lots more details later. Back to the show!

Okay, you might already know about the Waldorf Collection, an update of three popular plug-ins once distributed by Steinberg. The latest news is that Waldorf has returned to the hardware arena. In addition to limited-edition models of the MicroQ, Q, and Q+, Waldorf is showing three new hardware instruments: the Blofeld, the Stromberg, and the Zarenbourg.

The Blofeld is probably best described as a MicroQ in a small tabletop device with only eight knobs, five buttons, and a backlit display. It should be available in the springtime with a street price around $500, including a Mac/Win editor/librarian.

The Stromberg is a full-tilt keyboard synth specializing in wavetable and virtual analog synthesis. It is a thing of beauty to behold and probably deserves to win many industrial design awards. It’s said to render Wave, Microwave, and Q sounds, but it was behind glass and I didn’t get to hear it. It’s supposed to be available in autumn for under $4,000.

The Zarenbourg was the only Waldorf instrument available for anyone to play. It’s a physical- modeled electric piano that physically resembles a Wurlitzer (right down to its size and weight, thanks in part to 76 real wood keys). It felt and sounded great, though no ship date or pricing information is available. Long live Waldorf!

BoomChik? A new drum machine from Dave Smith Instruments? Partnering once again with Roger Linn? I like the name, but it isn’t written in stone, and the product might be as much as a year away, according to Dave Smith. Stay tuned!

I just dropped by the FXpansion booth and saw a couple works in progress that grabbed my attention. The first was a suite of three soft synths called the D-CAM Collection (D-CAM stands for Discrete Component Analog Modeling). FXpansion says that they model analog circuits right down to the level of resistors and capacitors, and you can even bend the virtual circuits by changing their component values. What I heard sounded really good and looked like loads of fun for all the synthesists in your familyl

The three synths are Strobe, Amber, and Cycper. Strobe is a single-oscillator lead and bass synth (I’d swear it sounded like more) with an arpeggiator and multi-stage saturation. I saw something in Strobe I’d never seen before: an LFO that gives you the ability to specify a swing value (now, why didn’t I think of that?). Amber also does something I’d never seen: it emulates paraphonic instruments like combo organs of the ’60s or string machines of the ’70s. Cypher offers a very flexible sound engine that employs all kinds of modulation capabilities. The D-CAM Collection is still over the horizon, but FXpansion promises completion well before Summer NAMM rolls around.

The other ultracool software at FXpansion is BFD 2. The programmers have rewritten the virtual drummer BFD 1.5 from the ground up, with a redesigned user interface, new onboard effects and dynamics processing, integrated groove composition, and a new sample library. One thing I heard about (but didn’t actually hear) is that the BFD 2 team has sampled one of Ringo’s old drum sets from the late ’60s. Now you too can get that Beatles sound. Gotta have it, right? I can headly wait for that one.

This morning I attended a press conference that announced the fruits of a collaboration between Roland/Boss and Fender Musical Instruments. Three products stood out as outstanding. Two are Boss pedals that capture the sound and the fury of a couple of Fender’s most enduring amplifiers, the ‘59 Bassman and the ‘65 Deluxe Reverb. They have the typical form factor of other Boss boxes, and the knobs are identical to the controls you’d find on the real Fender amps. From what I could hear in the cacaphonous NAMM environment, both units nailed the sound of the amps they emulate.

But what really got my juices flowing is the Stratocaster VG. The companies involved might not appreciate my making obvious comparisons, but Roland and Fender have taken an American Standard Strat and given it the Line 6 Variax tretment. You can select an assortment of presets that instantly make the Strat sound like a Telecaster, a Strat with dual humbuckers, an acoustic guitar, or whatever, complete with a complement of effects. Best of all, it still looks (and presumably feels) just like a standard Strat. I can sum it up in three words: I want one!