Pine DSP launches Blox Rack, a 500-series-style effects rack plug-in

Pine DSP has announced Blox Rack, a modular effects rack plug-in built in the mould of the 500-series format. Its twist is a horizontal panel at the top that pops out for EQ, modulation and other fine details.

The rack has nine slots and six effects: EQ, compressor, chorus, reverb, delay and exciter. Any effect can be loaded more than once, which allows serial compression or emphasis EQ. Modules are dragged to move them and duplicated with an Option or Alt drag. The six effects are also sold as separate plug-ins that license holders of Blox Rack can run in a DAW on their own.

The company says the vertical format of a rack cannot give a quick way to edit EQ bands precisely or show the spectrum passing through. The top panel acts as a context-sensitive view for EQ, modulation and precision ducking.

Modulation and presets

Four LFOs, an envelope follower and an XY pad can be routed to practically any control in the plug-in. There are six Macros, and all presets come pre-mapped to a few of them. Blox Rack ships with 500 presets, from creative ideas to mixing-engineer staples.

The six effects

• Exciter: three distortion modes called Reel, Glass and Ember, an Air control for high-frequency emphasis, and Hysteresis and Bias controls in Reel mode for tape character.
• EQ: High Pass, Low Pass, Shelving, Notch, Band Pass and Bell filters, with each band switchable to Mid or Side. The modifier keys handle Q settings and band solo.
• Reverb: Size, Decay, Damp, Tone, Pre-Delay and Modulation, plus a Freeze function and a Duck setting that dips the wet signal when new dry signal plays. A spectrogram sits in the advanced window.
• Delay: Normal, Ping Pong and Diffuse modes, a Wash mode that animates diffuse repeats, tempo sync and its own ducking controls.
• Chorus: a three-stage design with Spread, Tone, Character, Rate and Depth, with presets from flange to wobble.
• Compressor: Smooth, Punch and Clamp modes, a sidechain input with a high-pass filter and a Knee control.

Blox Rack runs on Windows and macOS as VST3, AU and AAX. It is on sale at a launch price of $49 for a limited time, against a regular $79. Owners of other Blox plug-ins get a further discount.

Source: Pine DSP