Can turn your source material into something altogether unrecognisable

Released right around the same time as the TRK-01 kick and bass plugin – reviewed last issue – is this new series of effects that Native Instruments have fittingly named “Crush Pack”. The pack is made up of Dirt, a distortion effect; Bite, a sample rate and bit reducer; and Freak, a frequency shifting and ring modulation plugin that may have the most tricks hidden up its sleeve. Each effect comes with a bright, eye-catching GUI and an immediately gratifying interface with which to start tweaking. While it’s very possible to jump right in and start tweaking settings, there is also a nice smattering of preset starting points for each, sorted by instrument source. And unlike some of the bespoke effects that the Berlin team have produced in the past, each of the Crush Pack plugs are standalone – no Reaktor required!

Taking a listen to an acoustic drum loop through Dirt immediately shows an incredible level of detail in the DSP. While Dirt is marketed as a distortion plugin, it really is capable of many flavors of overdriven tones and browsing through the presets makes this abundantly clear. Each instance of Dirt has two distortion pathways, which can be sent in either direction (A into B or B into A), or mixed with the blend control at the bottom. The middle panel holds a small trim control, but unlike some distortion plugins, Dirt managed to keep signal levels in control, even with high gain settings. Bias and Tilt controls on each channel allow even more tonal shaping, and there’s an additional level of gain that can be activated for each channel, a similar feature to the one found in Soundtoys’ Decapitator. While there’s no shortage of distortion plugins today, Dirt impressed us with how 3D and wooly its tone was, even on the mix buss handling complex material.

Bite is a bit-crusher and sample rate reducer with a few hidden features. Users choose a bit-rate from 2 to 16 bits, plus a sample rate that goes down to 100Hz for moments when you need all the sandpaper crunch you can get. The distortion can be enhanced or dialed back by a saturation knob, as well as a crunch knob that instantly hearkens back to that era of samplers that added instant character. Bite also includes an auto input/output gain compensation, which greatly increases its expediency when applying it to a track. Bite’s tonal capabilities are enhanced further when used in combination with Dirt; the two together can reproduce any distortion effect imaginable.

Finally, we arrive at Freak, which combines three different effects, making it a bit of an outlier in this package. Frequency shifting, ring modulation, and a unique AM radio modulation mode are all available, making it possible to turn your source material into something altogether unrecognisable. A harmonics control, as well as a mix dial, means that these timbres can easily be blended in, turning Freak into a versatile tool for ringing metallic sounds or any sort of instance where you’re looking for inharmonic content to add to the atmosphere of your music.