First job of fun today was designing another plug-in, Monotone Derez. This simply destroys the resolution of a sample at a fixed intensity (fixed, meaning irrespective of the pitch of the note, hence 'Monotone'). An ancient (over 10 years old) version of this effect simply used an integer amount to duplicate a sample, so if the number was '4' it would repeat the same sample 4 times in a row, then grab the next. Simple, crude, and harsh sounding. The new version adds optional noise, a smoothing parameter, and works on fractional basis (in millisecs) so is better in every way, yet can emulate the old one exactly for any old songs that used it. This effect is useful for grunging down sounds that are too clean. I haven't used it that much; I recall I did apply it to a voice sample to give it the effect of being spoken over a distorted military radio.
Then some work on the album art. At 4pm, some focused listening to the entire album, in the dark with headphones, to work on the final tweaks which can take a lot of time. In this case I only had a few changes. Lost Friends needed some very subtle changes to tempo to enhance the sad parts. One environment sample needed some tiny changes to the looping.
The biggest changes were to the first track, The Knight, the most complex and most epic track. I've doubled up the woodwind sounds which helps a lot. One other change is a slight tempo change. It's a 5/4 tune but sounded a little flat. It needed some 'punch' so I shorted the last beat, just a fraction, so the first beat comes in a little early each time. This gives the tune more drive. Timing like this is very subtle yet really affects the mood a lot. You only need to listen to a song by Free to feel the importance of these slight timing changes.
