The Crow Hill Company’s latest plug-in is an all-in-one solution that combines three distinct processing stages. As its name suggests, PianoRack has been designed primarily with pianos in mind, but is also said to work well on a range of other sounds including guitars, harps and tuned percussion instruments.
The plug-in’s GUI is divided into three sections, each one equipped with a set of tools that aim to help deliver a polished, professional sound. First up are a set of tape emulation modules that offer a selection of pitch and degradation effects, as well as a choice of 15 or 30 IPS tape speeds, clipping options and a collection of speaker models that capture a range of vintage radio equipment. The following section houses a granular effects module along with a delay and reverb, with a routing section that allows users to configure the order of the modules.
Lastly, there’s a master section designed for adding some finishing touches. An EQ module pairs high- and low-pass filters with a low- and high-frequency shelf bands, and is followed by a saturation effect with its own tone control and a simple one-knob compressor. There are some flexible routing options here too, with both the saturation and compression capable of being inserted either before or after the previous effects section, and another routing interface that users to reorder the section’s four modules.
Compatibility
PianoRack is supported on PCs running Windows 10 or higher, and Macs running macOS 11 and above. VST, VST3, AU and AAX plug-in versions are available.
Pricing & Availability
PianoRack is available now, priced at £49 including VAT.
