United Plugins Retronaut is a new multi-voice vibrato and chorus plugin (macOS/Windows) with a LoFI nostalgia infusion.
Dirty is the new clean. Whether hardware or software releases in 2022, developers have created effects that can give sound a dirty, shaky sound character. Whether vintage knobs in the latest synthesizers or entire effect plugins with deep degrading engines. Making sounds more characterful and “vintage” is a big topic in
Whether vintage knobs in the synthesizer or entire effect plugins are equipped with deep degrading engines. Making sounds more characterful and vintage was a hot topic in 2022 and is still in 2023. United Plugins has now released a new plugin that follows this trend.
United Plugins Retronaut
Retronaut is a new multi-voice vibrato and chorus effect plugin supercharged with LoFi nostalgia effects. According to United Plugins, it is inspired by old analog gear such as bucket brigade chips, tape cassettes, vinyl records, and voltage-controlled filters.
The core uses a versatile multi-voice modulation engine that ranges from a single vibrato voice up to a rich 4-voice chorus. A nice addition is that the mix is continuously variable. So you can explore sweet spots between the voices but also drive automations that are fluid. You can control via two sections, mod, and mix.
The LoFi ceremony takes place in the dedicated degrade section. Here you can add that nostalgic magic of the past with various ways to age and degrade your signals. This section includes ingredients like warm dirt & grit, wow & flutter, dusty crinkles & crackles, and more.
On the other side of the GUI, i.e., on the right, you have the “diverge” part allowing you to offset the voices in various ways. Mainly to achieve a more organic and evolving character. Spread the voices over the stereo field, progressively delay them, warp their phase, and even offset the LFO rate for each independently, says United Plugins.
Flexible Engine
The developers didn’t leave it as a simple modulation plugin. We have already seen this in the two previous sections. But they go one step further. United Plugins made Retronaut’s engine so flexible that you can dial back the “vibe” and use it with the other effects. Thus, it unlocks a characterful, warm tape saturator that can be shaped further.
Retronaut also loves feedback. You can crossfeed each voice back into each other to create complex feedback networks. Thanks to its lag (delay) function and filters, you can create lush modulated reverbs. Further, you have analog-style high-pass and lowpass resonant filters (2/4-poles) for further effect shaping. Filter modulation is also available via an LFO.
United Plugins promises that the plugin provides the maximum audio quality you can get. It uses internal 64-bit audio processing and can handle any sampling rate. 192 kHz or even higher. Nice, the plugin interface is resizable and very hands-on.
First Impression
At first, one thinks that it is another classic chorus, but step by step one notices how ingeniously and beautifully the developers have expanded the plugin with functions. That makes it shine in the dress of a very own multi-effect. An interesting release, I have to take a closer look.
United Plugins Retronaut is available now for an introductory price of 24€ instead of 89€. It runs as a VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon) and Windows. A free, 15-day demo without noise is ready on the website.
If you buy Retronaut on Plugin Boutique, you not only support my work (thanks a lot), but also get a free plugin on top. Throughout the month of February, you can choose between the NI Guitar Rig 6 LE or Cableguys TimeShaper 3.
More information here: United Plugins
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