Toolroom Academy has released their first audio plugin for producers today – a single-knob utility designed by Mark Knight and producer James F. Reynolds named INFINITE. The plugin, priced at 39.99 Euros with a currently-offered free trial for users, aims to offer a smooth process in which artists can utilize its 40 presets as a part of their production workflow.
The simple design came as a result of Knight’s efforts to make his own studio time more efficient both in the time spent re-creating a preset for various projects. INFINITE’s small design packs a punch, though – and it’s nice to see this approach of offering simplicity that simultaneously includes an entire library of capabilities. When it comes to the world of production – no matter which DAW is your tool of choice – there’s no way around the fact that the process can be quite time-consuming when working with numerous plug-ins and features you may want to utilize in your current track.
Along with features like the 40 presets, 14 assignable parameters and 9 bespoke modulation and production effects included in the plugin, INFINITE includes a more intricate offering for advanced producers to do more within their DAW – a smart move for a company interested in hitting the potential of more long-term users since it broadens its reach to hit skill levels of all ranges, as well as creates more functional opportunity to utilize the app on more complex levels as your studio skills increase over time. This feature, ‘Complex Mode’, is a macro functionality that allows you to assign different effect parameters to a single macro, customize and control its interworkings as individual pieces, and tweak their relationships as you go. You can individually automate each parameter as well.
We chatted with the co-creators to hear more about why they chose to run with this idea, how they use it in their own day-to-day processes, and more. Read on to learn from Knight and Reynolds.
What sparked the inspiration to design and create INFINITE?
Knight: The idea of Infinite specifically came from a desire to speed up my workflow. As producers, we go through the same processes in making records over and over again. Coming up with interesting delay shots, and making really creative transitions is a daily challenge that requires having multiple plugins working simultaneously, with lots of automation and lots of balancing. The idea was to create a plugin that housed all of these effects in one, that simplified and sped up the process.
Reynolds: I have always been massively into music plugins and how they can move my job as a mixer forward and up to new levels. This plugin was an idea that we had been thinking about for a long time in order to help speed up the time-consuming process of making really good builds and fx in the songs we work on.
How do you use the plugin as a part of your own daily studio workflow?
Knight: What we’re aiming for is to be the industry go-to plugin for transitions and delays – our objective is for producers to set Infinite up as part of their template arrangement on their buses. And that’s how I’ve been using Infinite in my current arrangements; one across my music group, one across my percussion group, one across my vocal group.
Reynolds: Mark and I designed this so we could integrate the plugin into our own workflow and that was our litmus test. It had to be good enough for us to use it every day before we took it to the next stage and brought it to market. The plugin is designed to combine a number of effects seamlessly together to make great sounding builds and fx shots. It has two interfaces to the plugin and can be used in the one knob side which is very quick and easy and has loads of great presets that will instantly transform your music. The magic for me is being able to use the more complex side to create your own unique fx that once you have programmed, you can then save and then be used very quickly on the one knob side in the future.
Can you share examples of how you’ve utilized the programmable macro section of the plugin?
Knight: In my latest record ‘You Are a God’, all the drama in the build-up of the main breakdown uses Infinite. In fact, we cloned what it did, and created a preset based on the build.
Reynolds: The macro section is where the magic happens. It allows you to program in all the automation for all the different fx in the plugin, so that they all work in tandem with each other. It also means that you don’t clutter up your DAW with complex automation everywhere.
With the 40 presets included on Infinite, which ones are you most excited about and why?
Knight: ‘Buenos Aires’ or ‘New York’ are my personal favourites. They are really complex, and a combination of the track breaking down and building up in one preset. They have been modelled from some of my more dramatic and anthemic releases.
But one thing I really wanted to stress, is that each and every preset is usable. They have been hand-crafted by myself and James, based on some of the most successful breakdowns and build-ups within Toolroom’s back catalogue. It’s important to me that as well as allowing producers the chance to get under the hood of this plugin, via the complex mode, that they could simply pick a present, turn the dial, and hear the instant dramatic affect. Infinite’s presets will help you create ‘moments’ in your music.
Reynolds: I personally love the complex presets. They can do some crazy things with your breakdowns and not only create amazing builds, but also in the same preset create downward filters so you have winding down and building up effects happening over the duration of the one knob side going from 0-100.
INFINITE is available in VST, VST3, Audio Units, AAX Native and AudioSuite formats (all both 64-bit and 32-bit), and is on the market as of today.
Infinite is purchasable on the Toolroom Academy website for 39.99 euros. A trial version is available if you’re interested in testing it out first.
