There’s no shortage of analogue-inspired saturation plug-ins these days, but the latest addition to JMG Sound’s line-up aims to do things a little differently. Available through United Plugins, DarkFire offers a more flexible approach than most, providing users with some tone-shaping controls that affect only the generated harmonics.
Once a signal arrives at DarkFire’s input, it passed through a section equipped with variable high- and low-pass filters, before arriving at an Input Drive control that determines the amount of saturation that will be applied. The central section then houses a three-band EQ along with compression, stereo width and chorus-style modulation controls, all of which are applied exclusively to the generated harmonics before they are mixed back with the input signal. A Harmonics Level control follows, offer precise control over the balance between processed and unprocessed sounds. Finally, an Output Filter section places another pair of filters (high- and low-pass) at the end of the signal chain for some final tonal shaping of the mixed signal.
A collection of toggle switches make it possible to change the behaviour of the plug-in’s processors, as well as defining the centre frequencies of the three EQ bands and the slope of the filters (6 or 12 dB/octave). The EQ section offers a choice of Tape or Tube modes, while a Press option engages a compander that allows more saturation to be applied to quieter elements of the input signal. VCA and FET modes provide two distinct compression styles, and a Full/High switch allows users to choose whether widening is applied to the full frequency range or just the high end. Lastly, Tight/Deep and Slow/Fast options provide some control over the built-in modulation effect.
Compatibility
DarkFire is supported on PCs running Windows 8 and above, and Macs running macOS 10.10 and higher. VST, VST3, AU and AAX plug-in versions are available.
Pricing & Availability
DarkFire is available now, and is currently (10 December 2024) being offered at an introductory price of $16£12, reduced from its full cost of $73£57. Prices include VAT.
