AMALGAME: FREE Multi-FX Sequencer Review

Amalgame by Inear Display was recently released for free alongside the rest of Inear Display’s plugin collection. Amalgame is a six part multi effects unit with motion sequencing. The colorful UI is a treat for the eyes, I love the simple rainbow color scheme and intuitive layout. I’m not a huge fan of the effects selection taking up about a third of the UI, but it somehow works here.

Amalgame comes with 23 effects (I’m not counting “through” as a 24th effect) that can be loaded into six effects slots. I’m glad to see that you can load as many instances of each effect as you want, provided there are slots available. Each effect has two settings that are controlled via an XY pad. Each XY pad also comes with a sequencer for the X and Y axis, allowing for up to 16 steps with various tempo synced rates. Each sequencer can play forward, reverse, or random and can have their own lengths and rates allowing for polymetric motion.

The variety of effects, combinations and motion sequencing makes this a rather competent and powerful multi effects sequencer, especially considering it is free. Amalgame comes with all the classic filters and tonal shaping, as well as phasers, delays, distortion and reverb, but there’s also a few specialty effects. For example, the “drilla” beat glitching effect and “spectre” spectral delay really add some unique flavor to this one. 

As with other Inear Display plugins, there’s a nice assortment of randomizers, you can randomize XY positions, FX selections, sequencers, or simply randomize everything. Amalgame has been on my radar for awhile, and I’ve been meaning to cover it, so I’m glad to finally get my hands on this one. This might be one of the coolest freeware multi effects out there, so don’t skip on Amalgame.