Antoka
Robotic Annihilator
Part of Studies
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Or own the plugin
The original plugin with its own interface, as a one-time purchase.
Description
Antoka is a bit crusher, foldover resampler and AM/FM ring modulator that completely annihilates anything you throw at it.
It puts ring modulation, envelope following and crushing in one device. Dial up extreme crushing for complete destruction, or trim in some subtle AM overtones.
Antoka listens to your input and reacts to each new hit. Every time one comes in, the crushing starts clean and sweeps back in over the DOWNLINK time. Put an LFO on top of that, add a crossfader between AM and ring modulation, and you have a big toolbox for sound design.
A transient detector watches your input. Each sudden jump in level restarts the DOWNLINK envelope, which sweeps the foldover from clean to the RESOLUTION setting while the CIPHER LFO wobbles it. The crushed sound goes through the AM/FM ring modulator, and BLEND mixes it with your dry input.
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Cipher LFO
- CIPHER
- Sets the speed of an LFO that pushes the crushing up to twice as far as RESOLUTION sets it, from a very slow drift up to a fast flutter. Its depth is fixed, so it's always working, even with RESOLUTION fully right.
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Pitch tracker
- TRACK
- Turns pitch tracking on in the upper half of its travel. With it on, the ring modulator's oscillator plays an octave above the pitch of your input instead of following PROCESS. The AM side still follows PROCESS.
-
Downlink envelope
- DOWNLINK
- Sets the envelope time, from 0 to 1 second. Each new transient resets the crushing to clean and sweeps it back in over this time. At zero the crushing stays fully on.
-
Foldover
- RESOLUTION
- Sets how far the sample rate is crushed, down to a thirtieth of your host's rate. Fully left is the most extreme. Fully right is clean apart from what CIPHER adds.
-
AM/FM ring mod
- PROCESS
- Sets the modulation rate. On the AM side an LFO runs from 0.01 to 50 Hz, from a slow pulse up to a fast, buzzing tremolo. On the ring side a triangle oscillator runs from 0.001 to 1,000 Hz.
- AM/FM
- Fades from amplitude modulation on the left, where the LFO pulses the level, to ring modulation by the triangle oscillator on the right. The ring-modulated side comes out quieter.
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Master
- BLEND
- Sets the mix between your dry input and the processed sound. Fully right is all Antoka.
- GAIN
- Sets the output level, from silent up to double. Noon is unity.
Try thisSet DOWNLINK to about the length of a drum hit and turn RESOLUTION most of the way left. Every hit starts clean and decays into crushed grit.
In Studies
Antoka is in Studies Effects, under Glitch and Modifier.
Playing it
Only clear, sudden jumps in level count as new hits, so DOWNLINK works best on drums, plucks and other sharp attacks. On a smooth pad the crushing simply stays at the RESOLUTION setting.
Standalone
The standalone plugin, shown further down the page, is fully wet, turns TRACK on with a button and calls GAIN LEVEL. In Studies TRACK is a knob that switches on past halfway, and we added BLEND.
Bundle
The standalone plugin is also part of the Decimation Tools Vol. 1 bundle.
- Formats
- Studies: Audio Units, VST2 and VST3 on Mac, VST3 on Windows · Apple silicon native
- Systems
- Current macOS and Windows 10/11 x64
Standalone version
The original plugin with its own interface, as a one-time purchase.
AU · VST2 · VST3 · macOS · Windows