ReFX - What happened

I noticed a lot of ReFX plugins are just straight up not available anymore. I use PlasticZ still and it’s literally the ultimate synth bass plugin, I couldn’t imagine my Renoise life without it. I liked a lot of their plugins actually but I’m backing up my copies of PlasticZ for sure!

Yeah, I was very sad about this, until 10 years ago or so :stuck_out_tongue: No, seriously, soon I won’t be able to use Vanguard at all anymore (mac user here), and since I have foreseen this for years now, I don’t use it anymore for years now. Such a pity.

2 Likes

Sucks eh? If anything they should public domain them, it’s rough trying to open an old song that’s missing VST’s and you can even get 'em anymore. There was one I used to use that I can’t find anywhere anymore, Audio Damage Liquid Flanger or something like that

Yeah, I actually think that it is not that hard to update the VST/VSTGUI SDK and recompile the source for 64bit either :smile: But I think there are company related reasons behind this. refx team dissolved and turned into a preset supermarket or something, I do not know the actual details. There were lot of requests the last ten years at the kvr forum, and AFAIK none of it ever was answered.

As for Audio Damage, did you ask that company? Since it still exists…

1 Like

Nah, like you I’ve mostly moved on. But it’d be nice to be able to still get plugins that are defunct.

This is why since finding out Steinberg just deprecated VST2 and it looks like Propellerheads might deprecate Rewire I think an open DSP standard like Csound with native interfacing would be a better future cuz then the community can simply open code their own patches like they do with tools.

Csound has backwards compatibility with computer music coded in it from the freaking 1980s lol.

1 Like

Ahh, but that cuts into the money flow :S Never gonna happen!

PLaticz was coded by the guy that now runs tone 2

1 Like

Thanks for the info!

He( markus Krause ) has changed his name ( now his last name is the name of his spouse )

quote

: I programmed the audio engines for reFX JunoX, Vanguard, PlastiCZ and Slayer. I had some new ideas like the HCM synthesis which is now used in Tone2 FireBird and Gladiator. But Mike (reFX) refused the development of new products. That’s why I was forced to restart another company from scratch.

end quote

1 Like

Awesome!

I messaged Markus via kvr, and he answered that they recently thought about doing a 64 bit version, but the efforts simply are too high / do not pay. He highly recommends to buy Tone2 Icarus instead, “which can do everything what Vanguard did, but in much better quality”.: https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=530373

1 Like

Looks like a lot of fun to me, in Refx quality:

1 Like

Yeah, I plan on grabbing it when I can afford too :slight_smile:

I also miss Vanguard, I liked it’s one Page Layout, you could quickly Modulate Pitch and Volume by just turning a dial instead of having to deal with a modulation matrix.

1 Like

I remember they had a nice c64 plugin as well, QuadraSid, that also appear vanished from the internets… I think it’s because Nexus is such a huge win for ReFX that they don’t care about the small/niche products anymore.

1 Like

Markus / Tone2 (ex refx lead programmer) stated that they will not update all the refx plugins. A real pity, yes! They could update it, maybe at retina support and sell it as V2.0, why not? Those are really good, unique plugins. Wouldn’t be so much work either. And then sell it for a little reduced price. It may alias a bit, but under audible level, who cares.

But it seems you cannot convince Markus, he has other plans, obviously. Yes, Quadrasid, tested it a bunch of times, really neat for nostalgia.

1 Like

Got Tone2 Icarus 2 now. It is a lot of fun, all those sounds in the demo video actually are presets. I can highly recommend it, since it sounds very versatile and also is pretty low on CPU (compared to the today’s usual suspects).

Check out the demo of Icarus 2, available now:
https://www.tone2.com/download.html

1 Like