Soundtoys founders Ken Bogdanovich and Bob Belcher were hardware designers for the industry standard Eventide H3000 pitch processor. From there they formed a plugin software company Wave Mechanics, which later became Soundtoys. Their premier offering, Soundtoys 5 Ultimate, is a collection of 23 audio effects plugins designed for music production, mixing, and sound design. A favorite among audio engineers, the bundle includes popular plug-ins EchoBoy, Decapitator, Little AlterBoy, FilterFreak, Crystallizer, PhaseMistress, Tremolator, Radiator, PrimalTap, MicroShift, and Devil-Loc, and more. Each plug-in focuses on a specific category of audio processing.
Echo and Delay processing is handled by EchoBoy and PrimalTap. EchoBoy offers multiple delay styles modeled after hardware units and tape delays, along with filtering and saturation stages. The interface provides timing controls that sync to session tempo or run freely, along with rhythmic presets for complex patterned echoes. PrimalTap focuses on lo-fi textures, pitch shifting, and modulation that can reshape rhythmic material.
Saturation and coloration have several options. Decapitator emulates different analog circuits and offers a drive control to add harmonic distortion. Radiator features tone shaping inspired by vintage recording equipment, combining gain with EQ adjustments. Devil-Loc compresses and distorts signals simultaneously.
Modulation plugins are PhaseMistress, Tremolator, and FilterFreak. These tools apply movement through phasing, amplitude modulation, or dynamic filtering. PhaseMistress includes multiple vintage phaser styles. Tremolator provides their version of the classic Fender amp tremolo. FilterFreak combines resonant filters with envelope followers and LFOs, allowing sounds to move through evolving tonal shifts.
MicroShift and Little AlterBoy provide stereo processing and pitch manipulation. MicroShift creates doubling and width using micro-pitch shifts and delay offsets. Little AlterBoy modifies pitch and formant independently, making it suitable for vocal processing as well as synthetic textures.
New to the bundle is the Spaceblender (subtitled “Imaginary Space Machine”) Reverb. Billed as “an experimental reverb that lets you create unreal and imaginary spaces. SpaceBlender merges experimental sound design, deep algorithmic craft, and certain characteristics of classic digital reverbs.” It goes on to say that SpaceBlender is “inspired by the grainy, retro-futuristic vibe of the Ursa Major Space Station, the dark richness of the classic Lexicon 224, (both reverbs from the early ’80s), and the dense choral swarms of the obscure and rare Swarmatron synthesizer.”
Soundtoys 5 Ultimate also includes the Effect Rack, which allows multiple Soundtoys plug-ins to run within a single wrapper. Users can chain effects, reorder them, and apply macro controls across several parameters. Effects Rack may be best suited for live performance use, as most engineers prefer their effects run separately in a mix.
The bundle supports VST, AU, and AAX, and is compatible with major digital audio workstations on macOS and Windows. $599
