MELDA MSOUNDFACTORY
The new kid on the DIY plugin block
MSoundFactory is the new kid on the plugin creation block, although it’s been around for a couple of years now. The easiest way to describe it is with the cover-all title of ‘modular instrument’ which features everything from sampling to synthesis, and that offers everything from individual building blocks right up to complete plugins. The thinking behind MSF, Melda say, is that this will be the company’s last plugin because literally everything they develop now, will come from it. You will, they say, need just one plugin to rule them all, and this is it. “A single instrument that does it all,” they say, in a slightly Tolkien-esque way.
Melda are also hoping more third-party companies will join the MSoundFactory party, and the plugin currently comes in three flavours: MSoundFactoryLE (£84) provides all the MSoundFactory sounds, but it doesn’t let you access the edit screen; MSoundFactory (full, £265, although £170 as we write this) gives you all the edit facilities you need to make your own sounds and plugins; and finally M Sound Factory Player, which is free( and which MSoundFactory defaults to after the 15-day trial period), which offers limited instruments (including MonasteryGrand) and sounds from third-party plugins. We’re focussing on the full version here which you can download and use by following the mini tutorial below.
Instrument or creator?
MSF has two modes when it opens: Instrument (Device) mode which is initially empty but contains any device, either complete or under construction, and also contains a main browser for selecting instruments by tag or organising your own. In this mode you are essentially using the plugin to play existing sounds and instruments. Edit Mode is the second main area, and where our plugin creation tutorial is focussed. It is accessed with the Edit tab next to the Random option.
Within this area you get three main tabs: Globals, Generator and FX. Globals has, as you might expect it to, several main parameters for overall envelope, volume, pan, polyphony and so on. The latter two Generator and FX tabs are for how the actual sound is made up and contain grids of cells within which are Module options. There are many different Generator Module options to be had including Synthesis (from components like Filter and Oscillator to types like Additive, Wavetable and FM), MDrummer instruments, Building Blocks (Envelope, Mixer, LFO and loads more) and Per-voice FX (Delay, Reverb, Chorus etc).
You can start by loading different basic instruments in the Generator tab like a String sound and then add your own effects from the FX tab. Or go in at a component level and load in an oscillator in the Generator area. Play a note and you will hear a single oscillator play; play five and five will automatically load and play.
You get six Generator outputs and these then go into the FX section. In this way, instruments can be created in a component way with effects, or with bigger pre-made modules, all of which ship with MSoundFactory. You can see, then, that this is the real heart and power of MSoundFactory, where instruments can start to come together or be quickly added to and made your own.
In our main tutorial we show you how plugin creation works on a deeper level in MSoundFactory, but do remember that you can use this plugin on any level: player to sound design tool. For more information on MSF there are many more in-depth tutorials on the Melda Production website.
To find out how to install and use the DIY plugin see p84.