Poltergeist!

My inaugural plugin and how releasing it went

Get 40% off Poltergeist Ad-free with code EFXLAB40! - (it helps me test the new checkout system)

In early 2024, I got this text from my wife:

Sorry Frida, I got a little carried away! The best feeling in the world is hearing an idea come together for the first time, and this one - which only now had a name - was so unexpected, and fittingly, quite haunting.

About Poltergeist

To be honest, I’ve never been sure exactly how Poltergeist works. Something about manipulating the phase-time continuum and casually messing with feedback is the core of this unworldly modulation effect. There are many processing stages, stitched together in not-so-intuitive ways, that drives what I call “fractal phasing” - if I can brag a bit, a friend who tried several early versions compared it to umami - a completely distinct flavor of sound.

At some point during the feverish experiments that eventually formed it, Poltergeist slipped into an unknown ocean of possibilities. Underneath a surface of distorting, alien interference effects there are vast, strange depths to reverb/delay-like settings, and totally unexpected WEIRD patches that defy expectations of what an audio plugin can (or should) do. But more pragmatically, like a good spice, it can add a rich new dimension to anything, without destroying the original flavor - particularly useful in creating doubling effects that go beyond simple copies.

Tragically, I thought I could embody it all, and spent about a week making a whopping 104 presets! But it seems like every person who’s used Poltergeist and shared the results invents an entirely new way to do so. It’s probably the most expressive modulation effect in my VST3 folder, save for maybe Valhalla DSP’s UberMod.

Releasing Poltergeist

On Halloween 2024, Poltergeist was released to the world for free. Despite the reassurance of many great friends in Baltimore, who helped me test and refine the project, it felt pretty spooky sharing something so personal - the culmination of 5ish years of work, the product of my obsession with audio effects, which I sacrificed so much to create - with perfect strangers on the internet.

So… it was overwhelming when there was genuine interest! People reached out to thank me for adding something new and different to their creative palette, some contributing generously to the tip jar, even beyond the $5 minimum - but the best part by far was hearing the music people were making with it! If nothing else, after a couple thousand downloads, it’s made its mark on at least a few really cool albums, and has become a regularly-used tool for a few hundred people.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it was perfect. Poltergeist can be hard to use - conceptually complicated, it’s not always intuitive what the controls actually do and how it all connects. Even for me! And while it wasn’t important for the interface to be pretty, the small size and overly compact tabbed controls didn’t do any favors. But I learned a lot through the thoughtful, constructive feedback. That’ll help me quite a bit when I release Superimposer on 06/27!

By the way, Poltergeist will always be free - an open, sonic wilderness for those brave enough to explore it. It’s the inaugural plugin of EffectiveFX and my gift to you! Happy ‘Geisting.

Still Haunted by the banner ad in Poltergeist?

Use code EFXLAB40 to get Poltergeist ad-free for 40% off - that’s just $3 total!

This will help me test my new checkout system, ahead of the planned release of Superimposer on 06/27.