Awesome environment simulations with Audio Ease Speakerphone

I'm continuing to build my flock of excellent audio tools I know intimately, and Audio Ease Speakerphone is my latest PRICE and JOY. Typically priced at US$450 (I got a better deal via eBay, remember what I said about making offers?), Speakerphone does multiple effects within one cohesive package — not just thrown in without care, but because such an elaborate sequence is necessary to achieve the vast variety of ambient spaces and both analogue and digital flavors of grit which it offers. The official blurb goes:

A bad GSM connection on a busy sidewalk, a bullhorn with feedback and a helicopter overhead, or a 1952 rockabilly guitar amp in a recording studio live room: The Speakerphone audio plug-in gives you authentic speakers of any size together with their natural environments.

Yeh, pretty versatile. That's somewhat justification for the "pro price", but I did think carefully before plunking my bucks down, and strove to understand all I could! Now, here's my "out-of-the-virtual-box" firsthand impressions as spread across 6 videos; YES, this thang does a super-warm "Giallo" sound too! And check out my heavy piano distorto amping. Schweet.

(Click and drag the position circle to track ahead after it's buffered, I wish it worked with a single click like YouTube's native control.)

In my mind, I voyage to places, travel to both realistic and unrealistic worlds (and many in-between). Since actual human teleportation hasn't happened yet and it's costly to add rooms with various acoustic characteristics to my hizzouse, here's the proverbial "next best thing": just pump the sounds through a Speakerphone preset, tweak-as-needed, and close your eyes. Feels like you're there!

Clearly, Speakerphone has many timesaving uses to place noises within contexts.

And even tho CPU usage ramps up noticeably as you stack on the effects, it still appears reasonable. It's really convenient to have all these effects in a single, well-designed plug — I was using the free iZotope Vinyl for ol' turntable simulation, but Speakerphone goes beyond having a "Gramophone" module and it allows you to sound like a gearluster's list of turntables throughout the ages:

Plus, its pitch-detuned wow sounds more characteristic. Which means one of my lateral goals is to come up with a nostalgic VHS preset.

But I've naive on Day One and need to gain experience. I can already say Speakerphone's usability makes it very rewarding to use. I first heard about it from Ugress, who's a fantastic purveyor of tracks which possess character from ages begone. And ProToolerBlog has a more blow-by-blow review. Apparently, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails uses Speakerphone too, which is why creator Arjen included Trent's voice on the site tour. Arjen has some pretty nifty video tutorials showing his face on webcam too, so check them out if you want to learn more.

Imagine the possibilities!

And then do them. There are plenty of opportunities here for spicing up stock ambiences and foleys — while I haven't heard of Speakerphone being used a lot in machinima, that looks like a likely consequence for those who can afford it with their dedication to the craft. If you've got multitracks of sounds that need cohesive gelling to sound like they all happened in close proximity, this is a much more convincing approach than a generic reverb wash.

As a tool, Speakerphone flows with creativity: you don't have to think "band-pass EQ" to get a phone-like sound, as a cabinet full of models are already labeled for consumption. Those who know better can buck the names and explore stranger domains, but the point is: plenty of solid starting points have already made me happy in targeting the kinds of sounds I'm going for.

What could be awesomer?

I'm having occasional crash problems using Speakerphone with Ableton Live 8 and there appear to be preset saving issues too — I've sent bug reports to Arjen, and he was already quick today to help me get the app authorized.

The sonic adventures continue… !