Ewan Bristow has blessed us with yet another weird and wonderful release: EB-CatNip, a frequency-shifting delay plugin powered by Plugdata.
If you’ve used Ewan Bristow’s plugins before, you can no doubt guess that EB-CatNip runs in the free Plugdata programming environment.
Plugdata runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, and more as a plugin (VST3, LV2, AU, CLAP) or a standalone app.
Bristow describes EB-CatNip as his cutest plugin yet and features Fred the kitty on the display, but its sounds are anything but cutesy.
Rather, as we’ve come to expect from Bristow, the plugin can produce some wild and experimental sounds.
Bristow states that EB-CatNip is heavily inspired by the cow effect on Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 Field synth.
He describes the release as a delay plugin with an SSB-based frequency shifter in between every pass and adds that it’s a sound design funhouse.
Bristow created an introductory YouTube video running over the features and showing off some of the bizarre sounds that the plugin is capable of creating.
In the video, he runs an electronic drum beat and edits the Frequency, Delay, Feedback and SDBand parameters
The Frequency parameter adjusts the amount of frequency shifting applied between each delay rotation, while SBBand “blends upwards and downwards shifting.”
Delay adjusts the delay time, while Feedback adjusts the amount of the original signal fed back into the delay loop.
When I listened to the plugin in action, it was clear that even with these four main panel parameters, EB-CatNip can produce a wide range of sounds, from subtle modulation to sound effects reminiscent of a sci-fi movie.
But wait, there’s more! The developer included a modulation page with an LFO section that controls the envelope type, amount, speed, and destination of the modulation.
There’s also a three-band EQ to shape the sound, a wet-dry mix control, Input, Output, and a Spectral Gate that’s applied before the delay chain.
I have to say that Bristow just keeps doing himself with each release, and it’s hella impressive how much creativity and features he puts into these freebies.
We also recently covered the release of his EB-Dione creative sampler.
EB-CatNip can be downloaded and used without any cost, but Bristow also lists a £5 purchase suggestion price if you wish to support his work.
To get a copy of EB-CatNip, complete the checkout Bristow’s Gumroad page, provide an email address and then you’ll be immediately forwarded to the download page, which also features instructions on how to install the plugin with Plugdata.
Download: EB-CatNip (FREE/ $5 – requires Plugdata)
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