XY Series
Four plug-ins. Two decisions each.
- Formats
- VST3 · AU · LV2
- Platforms
- Windows · macOS · Linux
- Requirements
- 64-bit host, stereo in and out · 44.1 to 192 kHz · macOS 11 or newer, Windows 10 or newer, Linux x64 · XY Bass reports 459 samples of latency at 48 kHz and XY Transient 599; XY Space and XY Reverse Slicer have none
Four plug-ins, built the same way. Each one takes a job that normally comes with six or ten controls, works out what those controls should be from the material, and asks you two questions instead.
What is in it
- XY Bass — depth you feel across to harmonics that carry on a phone, clean up to dirty. A pitch tracker reinforces the fundamental where it is there and rebuilds it where it is not. Sharpest on one low source; on a mix bus Club Sub still adds about 15 dB in the 40 to 60 Hz band.
- XY Space — how far away the sound is, and how big the place is, over a 32-line feedback delay network with its own early reflection field.
- XY Reverse Slicer — how long a slice is, and how hard the cut between one and the next. 20 ms stutters through two-second swells, locked to the song timeline.
- XY Transient — how the hit lands and how long it stays, over a five-band linear-phase split that tightens a kick without ducking the cymbals.
Each has a sound demo of its own, four bars dry then eight bars wet with the interface as it plays: XY Bass, XY Space, XY Reverse Slicer and XY Transient.
Why a pad
A pad is only worth having if the two axes mean something. The axes here are named after outcomes — SUB to TRANSLATE, CLOSE to FAR, TIGHT to BIG — and what moves underneath them is a whole chain: crossovers, detectors, generators, decay times, drive. The plug-in reads what you gave it and sets those from where you put the dot.
That is the trade. You give up individual control of twelve parameters and you get a decision you can make by ear in two seconds.
What they have in common
- Mix at 0 % hands back the input. In XY Bass, XY Reverse Slicer and XY Transient it is bit for bit. XY Space’s dry path runs through a mid/side matrix, so there it is a rounding residual at −144 dBFS, under the noise floor of a 24-bit file. A blend is a blend, and bypass is bypass.
- Signed and notarised on macOS, universal, with an installer that opens without a trip through System Settings.
- VST3 and AU on macOS; VST3 on Windows and Linux, with LV2 alongside it for XY Reverse Slicer and XY Transient on both, and for XY Space on Linux.
pluginvalat strictness 10 on Windows, macOS and Linux, andauvalfor the Audio Unit, on every build.
Buying them together
The four are €10 each. The series is €23, and the download holds all four — Windows, macOS and Linux builds of every one of them, with the checksums. Buy one now and the rest later and you pay the single prices.
Screenshots
XY Bass — depth you feel on one side, harmonics that carry on a phone on the other. XY Space — how far away the sound is, and how big the place is. XY Reverse Slicer — how long a slice is, and how hard the cut between one and the next. XY Transient — how it hits, and how long it stays.
Hear it
- XY Bass — on a bass lineDry is the untouched source and every other file is the plug-in brought to the same loudness. Everything here comes from a 100 BPM Future Pop Music construction kit, in at −10 dBFS, with no limiter anywhere.0:00–:––Level100%
- XY Space — on keysThree places on the pad, from a booth to the back wall of a cathedral.0:00–:––Level100%
- XY Reverse Slicer — on an arpThe same bars at 60 ms and at 1.6 s. Reversing a slice keeps its samples, so what you hear is rearrangement rather than level.0:00–:––Level100%
- XY Transient — on a kickMatched in loudness, so what changes is the shape of the hit.0:00–:––Level100%
Release notes
1.0.0
- The four XY plug-ins released together: XY Bass, XY Space, XY Reverse Slicer and XY Transient, each at 1.0.0.
- All four are signed and notarised on macOS with a Developer ID installer, and all four pass pluginval at strictness 10 on Windows, macOS and Linux and auval on macOS.
- Every one of them keeps the same rule under the pad: Mix at 0 % hands back the input. In XY Bass, XY Reverse Slicer and XY Transient it is bit for bit; in XY Space, whose dry path runs through a mid/side matrix, it is a rounding residual at −144 dBFS. A blend is a blend and bypass is bypass.
From the journal
How to Use XY Bass: Depth, Translation, and the Line Between ThemWhat the two axes of XY Bass actually move, how the pitch tracker decides between reinforcing a fundamental and rebuilding it, and which of the 13 presets to start from on a bass, a kick or a mix bus.How to Use XY Reverse Slicer: Slice Length, Texture and the GridHow the two axes of XY Reverse Slicer work, why the slices land on the song timeline instead of on the moment you pressed play, and the settings that turn a vocal into a stutter or a chord into a swell.How to Use XY Space: Distance Is Not a Wet/Dry KnobWhat CLOSE to FAR and SMALL to HUGE actually move in XY Space, why distance is not a wet/dry knob, and how to use it as a send, as an insert and on a drum bus.How to Use XY Transient: Size, Impact and the Cymbals That Usually DuckWhat TIGHT to BIG and SOFT to PUNCHY move in XY Transient, why a five-band linear-phase split stops a tightened kick from pulling the hats down, and which presets to start from on a kick, a bus or a bass.The XY Series: Four Plug-ins, Two Decisions EachXY Bass, XY Space, XY Reverse Slicer and XY Transient are out at 1.0.0. Four plug-ins that put a whole processing chain behind two named axes on a pad. €10 each, €23 together.
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XY Series is sold through Gumroad, which handles checkout, licences, downloads and updates.
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