|
 | | | | Nov30Written by:Rip Rowan
Tuesday, November 30, 1999 6:00 PM  This is hands-down my favorite plug-in of the bunch. I've just used this effect to death. I love it. MondoMod is a perfect example of elegance and simplicity, and it just sounds great.
MondoMod is just three basic effects in one simple package: an amplitude modulator (tremelo), a frequency modulator (vibrato), and a pan modulator (autopanner). Don't let the simplicity bore you: MondoMod is capable of bizarre and lovely effects and is totally unique and cool.
 MondoMod
At the left of the MondoMod interface is the modulator control. This controls the speed and type of modulation. Modulation speed can be entered in either Hz or BPM, and a convenient multiplier control lets you quickly cycle through modulation speeds to find one that works best. The type of modulation is quite flexible and includes sine, triangle, saw up, saw down, and square waves.
Amplitude and frequency modulation work the same way. The user simply controls the depth of each effect with a slider knob. What's cool is that each has a "phase" switch that can be set to 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees. The phase control doesn't control the phase of the audio, it controls the phase of the modulator. For example let's say the phase of the amplitude modulator is set to 0 and the phase of the frequency modulator is set to 180. Now as the amplitude reaches its peak level, the frequency modulator is at its lowest level. This may seem trivial as you read about it, but I can assure you it's very important. Without the phase controls, the modulators would all work together and the effect would be very obvious. The phase controls keep the modulators from working synchronously and make the overall sound much more organic.
Finally we have the panner and its cool "radar scope" monitor meter. The panner has a range control that controls the range of panning in degrees. Added to the panner is also a "center" control that adjusts the "center" pan position. This allows you to pan from anywhere, to anywhere. The scope displays the current position with a sweep hand, and displays the range as a greenish area. Guaranteed to make the client say, "Cool, what's that?"
The pan control is more than a just pan control - it is a wide-stereo positionalizer. As the pan indicator moves past the 45-degree mark, MondoMod uses out-of-phase information to push the sound out past the speakers. All of the panning controls in the Pro-FX suite use Waves' "Rotation" technology (as found in the S1 Stereoimager) which ensures that when stereo signals are panned, all of the stereo information remains intact (for more information about Waves' rotation technology, please read "Spatial Processing Tools").
You can use MondoMod to create nice swirly chorus effects, and cool tremelo and vibrato effects. But that's just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. What's really cool are the beautiful, subtle effects that MondoMod can produce.
Say you have a vocal or acoustic guitar track. You want it to sound dry and clear, but it needs to be "bigger" and "fill up the speakers" more. You could use a chorus, but it would sound too "chorusy". You could add reverb, but you want it to be dry. You could double the track, but then it wouldn't be clear and focused.
Enter MondoMod. By using MondoMod sparingly you can do subtle modulations of the volume, frequency and pan. This creates a subtle, gentle movement in the track. The effect doesn't sound "chorusy" or "panny" - it is very hard to "pin down" - the track just occupies more space. I just love using MondoMod like this. I even know of mastering engineers who are using MondoMod in this manner on flat, 2-D mixes to add depth and space to the mix.
MondoMod includes a bunch of useful presets, including "WhereIsIt". This preset is a great example of how you can use MondoMod's stereoizing capability to create dramatic stereo effects. WhereIsIt uses a high-speed pan modulator to scramble the position of the instrument. Thanks to Waves' rotation technology, the sound really appears to come from all sides simultaneously. This is just an incredible effect for techno drum loops and just anything that needs to be really cool - and really stereo.
Tags: | | | | | | | |
|
|