New ZERO9 plugins have a gloriously simple UI: “We’ve removed anything that doesn’t need to be there”

Keen to add character to your production without all the fuss? ZERO9 is a new collection of intuitive, character-driven tools to help you out. Designed by electronic music producer James Harcourt, ZERO9 serves up nine tools built around his own genuine creative process – and it’s designed with an intentionally simple and minimalistic UI.

ZERO9 boasts eight effects, as well as a utility tool, Signal Switch, to tweak your gain/mono/phase. As Harcourt explains, the collection is thoroughly tried-and-true – every plugin was created to fill a gap, aid his workflow or provide a solution in his production process. “A lot of the ZERO9 range started with something I genuinely wanted in my own sessions and then grew from there,” he says.

Plenty of creative and rhythmic tools are included in the ZERO9 arsenal. First up, there’s Fusion Filter, which puts five different filter characters into one workflow and allows you to filter between engines while using the same amount, resonance and mix controls. There’s also Cosmic Chorus, with its two fixed chorus voicings, free vibrato and extra LFO controls to add movement and tempo-synchronised undulation.

Rhythmic plugins include Eccentric Echo, which utilises a pair of delay engines – one continuous and one granular – which are pair capable of feeding into one another. The engines also have serial/parallel routing, echo, splice, pitch settings, as well as the ability to tweak reverb, analogue, saturation and more.

There’s also Super Stutter, which allows users to draw patterns and transform loops into something fresh, as well as Severed Space, a gated reverb with onset-triggered closure, spectral declashing and final analogue movement.

Fractured Frequency also provides a four-stage, tempo-locked glitch chain to allow users to develop an evolving rhythmic system. Reactive Reverb is another plugin that can evolve in its own right, with an input-reactive algorithm that reshapes source material.

Finally, Crushing Compressor allows for four frequency bands of upward and downward parallel compression to experiment with the density and dynamics of your track. And there’s of course Signal Switch, your gain/mono/phase utility tool (which is the only plugin you can download for free, outside of the collection).

The minimal UI also comes as Harcourt’s way of allowing his plugins to be an “immediate” aid to your creative process. “I wanted the plugins to feel immediate – something you can open in the middle of making a record, understand almost instantly and start manipulating without breaking the creative flow,” he notes. “ZERO9 plugins find new sounds quickly, has some character of its own, and doesn’t give twenty pages of options before you can make a musical decision.”

“We’ve removed anything that doesn’t really need to be there,” he adds. “It’s less about making the plugins technically simple and more about hiding the complexity that doesn’t need to be in the user’s way.”

In terms of the future, ZERO9 could potentially expand its selection of tools – depending on what Harcourt feels he’s missing during his next studio session. “If something develops out of our own production work that we find genuinely useful or interesting, that’s a good reason to turn it into a ZERO9 plugin,” he explains. “I’d rather the range stayed relatively focused and every new plugin had a reason to exist.”

To find out more, head to ZERO9.