Introduction
Lines is an effect plugin that crosses borders: it can be used as a creative mangler of all kinds of signals, ranging from lo-fi telephone sounds, lush phasing, warm distortions, crushing feedback, ring modulation and unique frequency shifting. But even without any input, it can be an experimental synthesizer based on feedback, allowing for a wide range of inspiring rhythms, pulses, and organic soundscapes.
If you combine input and internal engines an unheard spectrum of sounds appears.
Lines is the sixth plugin made with Hainbach, composer and YouTuber known for his test equipment explorations. Lines is available for MAC, PC, and LINUX (VST, VST3, AU, AAX, CLAP, 64-bit only) from Audiothing’s website typically priced at 69 Euros. Activation can be done online or offline, note that Audiothing do not use iLok. It is also available as an AUv3 and standalone for iPhone / iPad on the app store
Background
Lines has a rare real-life inspiration, the Axel Line Simulator, made in the 1970s in Jamaica, New York by long gone Axel Electronics. Despite its golden disco look, the Axel was never intended as a piece of music equipment. It was used to simulate signal loss over telephone and data lines. It mimics the “worst case“ for message transmission, using a plethora of unique analog effects: jitter, noise, intermittent pulses, frequency shift, distortion, bandpass filters for various bandwidths, and even playable buttons for phase, amplitude and dropouts. This combination made Hainbach’s spider sense tingle, as he came upon it on an auction site. Assuming it would be a great lo-fi tool, he had it restored. And yes, it makes a fantastic telephone voice, but the true surprise lies elsewhere.
Overview
Audiothing took great care to simulate the feedback and signal path down to the component level. Everything is engineered to be as close to the original as possible. Once they got the sound right, they extended the ranges and possibilities: more range on the frequency shift, fine-tunable filters, an additional filter in the feedback path, a flexible pulse sequencer, as well as all the sync and modulation possibilities you are used to from their plugins. Let the presets show you the possibilities, but the real joy of Lines lies in exploration.
For example, by routing the unit’s output back into itself a world of liquid rhythms, throbbing basses, and tropical birds appears. It becomes a playable instrument without any input, inviting playful exploration. If you add a piano, drums or a voice to your acid parrot sub bass they fold together in unpredictable and beautiful ways. Thanks to the built in limiter, it never sounds harsh or unpleasant, which is a constant risk with feedback patching.
GUI
Lines looks like a hybrid between test equipment and an instrument with a very clean interface.
At the top you have the preset bar where you can load, save and delete presets. There’s also a really handy randomise option. You also have a parameter lock, effect on/off and access to more options including import/export presets, graphics controls and oversampling settings.
The top left of the display has the pulse sequencer with controls to enable/disable each of the 8 steps, length of sequence, volume of steps, trigger mode (free or sync) and rate.
Next to this is a VU meter and feedback controls which has a LP filter in the feedback loop.
To the right of this are the input, mix and output controls with the limiter on/off switch.
In the bottom left is the noise level control and envelope switch which allows you to activate noise only when a signal is passing through. Next to this are jitter settings with an on/off switch and controls for phase jitter (degrees) and frequency.
Then there’s the frequency shift settings with controls for polarity (frequency up or down), frequency shift (Hz) and leakage which is the amount of original signal bleeding through.
Next are the non-linear distortion controls with on/off switches and amount of distortion for 2nd and 3rd harmonics and phase of the third saturated (inverted / non-inverted).
Then there’s the line selector with 4 different filter configurations, width and Q setting for low and high pass filters.
At the bottom are trip settings which are the modulation settings. There are controls for modulation waveform, modulation frequency, jitter frequency, freq shifter, 2nd distortion, 3rd distortion, feedback and noise.
There are also momentary buttons to temporarily invert signal phase, increase or decrease volume.
In-Use
A great way to get an idea of the sort of sounds it can produce is to listen to the presets. These are arranged in 3 banks: Basic – this has overdrive, phone, lo-fi types sounds; Rhythms and Scapes.
I’ve created the video below using a string sound and distorted guitar sound to give you an idea of the sort of sounds that it can produce. It can do quite subtle phasing type sounds, lo-fi telephone to all out glitchy distortion.
The presets sound great but you can also see that adjusting the input level and mix gives a huge amount of scope to shape and fine tune your sound.
Sound demo
I recorded a demo live in AUM which is embedded at the top of this post.
The following video shows my song set up using Lines with other plugins. It shows some of the individual tracks and how I’ve used Lines with other effects to break down the individual sounds used in the song. There’s a live jam at the end putting it all together which is an alternate version to the Bandcamp version embedded above.
I’ve used all Audiothing apps apart from funcBud to generate the bassline / synth sound, Koala to launch samples and Grand Finale 2 to finalise levels. Apps used – SR-88, Valves, Gong Amp, Frostbite 2, Minibit, Bindfold EQ, Mantis, Reels, Things Texture.
