OHMICIDE [S] Review
Ohmforce has updated Ohmicide, their classic over the top multi-band distortion plugin, to Ohmicide[S]. I reached out to Ohmforce when I learned of this update and they hooked me up with a copy for review. The legacy version of Ohmicide is actually currently available for free, but you may run into compatibility issues. Ohmicide [S] adds macros, modulation, more distortions, and a few other small additions. The updated UI is a fair bit cleaner, less menacing, but still fun and playful as a distortion should be.
Periodic Table of Distortion:
Ohmicide [S] comes loaded with 37 different distortion flavors arranged into a fun periodic table style layout. Clicking each cell not only selects the distortion type, but also provides a bit of information on the distortion and what each “mod” control does. The distortions range from subtle saturation, to extreme shaping, a variety of decimation, noisy modulation and even a glitchy buffer effect. Each come with three different “isotopes”, as I’ll call them, with their respective STD, XXX, and ODD modes. I found XXX mode to have the most variety between different distortion types, so be sure to try the different modes when testing various distortions as STD mode has a bit more overlap. ODD mode is also very interesting because the bias control applies frequency shifting to the distortion rather than DC offset. In older plugins I’d call this a neat easter egg, but I think with nowadays this should just be reflected in the UI by changing the label to “Freq” when in ODD mode.
I won’t describe every distortion included, but here are a few of my favorites:
At Attractor: a “multiple state distortion” that really seems to sharpen edges and almost serrate the audio
SE SmartE: a waveshaper that just sounds nice
Si Sastrugi: I’m not sure what a “non-bijective” wave shaper is, but this one really adds a lot of body
J Jellyfish: no description included, a mystery distortion, sounds like a bit crusher but with a twist
Fr Fractal: “fractal based distortion” as the name suggests, incredibly unique sounding distortion to the point where I’m not yet sure where I’d use it
Vi Vinyl: this one emulated distortion that would be caused from a record needle being over worked (if I’m understanding the description correctly). It has an almost fiery quality like the sound is burning
B Bounce: what an incredible idea for a distortion, it somehow emulates a bouncing ball? The sound trails off in these little zippery ripples
Zi Zippy: based on Lorenz attractors, this one feels the most chaotic of the collection, with a very electric and wild texture
Each band also gets its own dedicated noise gate as well as a simple compressor, a nice touch that can really help isolate distortion on drum tracks. Feedback plays a huge roll in Ohmicide’s appeal. While this has been included in other distortions such as Thermal and Saturn, it just has so much character and chaos in Ohmicide. Ohmicide S adds a filter to the equation with a nice bell peak as the default and other standard filter shapes to control your tone. However, I would have liked to see a notch and maybe an allpass for a few more options.
MODULATION
The new modulation section and macros seems to be included in Ohmforce’s [S] line of product updates. Eight modulation sources can be used to add motion to any control on Ohmicide [S]. I’ve been finding myself avoiding modulation on distortions lately, while it is nice, I prefer it more often in multi effects and I like to keep my distortions a bit more static. Though I will say the included envelope follower is nice to have for making distortion presets. The LFOs come with a variety of shapes including randomization and have a few controls to reshape and warp the LFO. No MSEG is included, but there is a step sequencer. The macro assignment is nice allowing for a bit of simple curve adjustment per destination so you can create more dynamic macros. I also took a look through the presets which all utilize all four macros.
I’m enjoying this new Ohmicide update and am glad to utilize it alongside my other multi-distortion plugins. These are my favorite tools to make banks of presets for and just throw on top of drums/basses/leads just to see what happens. The variety of different textures lends more flavor to any palette no matter how many of these plugins I pick up. I’m sure there’s a lot of people who are happy with just one of this type of plugin, but personally I apreciate the variety. As for criticisms, I find the UI a bit wide, I think I’d like to be able to hide the modulation and macros, for a narrower view. Maybe have them as swappable tabs in a “minimized” view.
If you plan on purchasing OHMICIDE [S] you can help support me by using this link https://ohmforce.com?ta_aff=FCSBCGIOGB