Slapper
Expect significant delays
Slapper is a multi-tap surround delay with a stunningly intuitive interface, fantastic console integration and some freakish sound design potential.
You can make anything from an attic to a canyon… from a simple vocal slap to insanely complex syncopated grooves – and you’ll do this quickly, and precisely, and with a big smile on your face.
Slapper’s interface is so intuitive, so ergonomically tuned, that it really is a joy to use. Whatever you do with it, it’s always going to look exactly like it sounds.
Grab the full-featured 30 day trial and hear for yourself.
“Slapper is immensely deep, exquisitely beautiful and sounds like it could go on forever. I find it to be the most musical echo I own and it’s just as useful in stereo as in Atmos.”
Simon Franglen, Composer/Producer: Avatar, Magnificent Seven, Celine Dion
“Slapper really is like magic for un-wrapping stereo mixes into Dolby ATMOS. I don’t start a mix without it. “
Jan “Stan” Kybert – Atmos Music Mixer: Lorde, The Rolling Stones, Glass Animals
“I just wanted to say how ridiculously good Spanner is. I’m doing a lot of Atmos Music these days and there’s so much stuff that you can’t do any other way!”
Andrew Scheps, Grammy winning Producer/Engineer//Mixer – RHCP, Lana Del Rey, Johnny Cash, etc etc etc
Evocative spaces
We really don’t give a shit about accurate geometry or modelled acoustic environments. We designed Slapper to be ‘effective’ – not ‘real’.
We want your audience to really feel like they’re in that courtyard, attic, or valley, and we don’t mind lying and cheating to make that happen. We want to sell the idea of a space to your audience – not your physics teacher.
Instant immersion
It’s almost cheating. Even the smallest, lamest, mono sound can be instantly unwrapped into a breathtaking, immersive event.
With 8 separate delays you can park each one at a speaker position and really clearly define the geometry of the space, without drowning the audience in reverb.
Warps your mind - permanently
Once you’ve tried Slapper your brain will be changed forever. You will have a new understanding of the relationship between space and time.
Then, just as soon as you’ve come to grips with it, you will discover Tape-Mode, a completely psychedelic renting of the fabric of the universe. Just stay calm and ride it out.
Key features
Build echo patterns by ear with Tap-Tap
Ever had a client holler a delay pattern across the console? “Just make it go: Hey.. Hey… hey ..ey..ey. … ey”. Tap-Tap lets you click the pattern in your head and Slapper will faithfully set the delay times to match. Work with mouse or with a console button on supported surfaces.
8 fully independent, surround-pannable delay taps
You should think of it more like 8 delays in one box. Each tap has completely separate delay time, level, feedback, reverb, damping and pan position. And everything is fully automatable. So you can have very short bright delays up front with long dark echoes feeding back in the surrounds. Or a simple mono slap which slowly expands to stereo as the chorus kicks in. You can even use tape-mode to pitch warp a couple of taps while leaving the rest static.
Fruity Sound Design with Tape-Mode varispeeding
Like grabbing the flange of an old tape machine while feeding back into it, Slapper can varispeed a signal in realtime, as you change the delay length. The result is an incredible mind-warping speed ramp which you can directly perform using your mouse, mix surface or automation. You can even pitch dive all 8 taps at once while spinning them around the room. Just keep a bucket handy.
Multiple filtering options
Each tap offers it’s own independent damping control, under which lies a pair of filters. The HF cut is steeper while the LF cut is a little mellower. The end result is a carefully sculpted bandpass effect which gradually pushes the signal further and further into the distance as it feeds back. Then there are the main output filters, which present as LPF and HPF controls. These are classic 12dB IIR filters which affect the overall output of the plugin, after the taps have done their work and been panned to the output channels. By messing around with the balance between these two filtering approaches, you can achieve an incredible variety of spaces in a very short amount of time.
Massive variety and an expanding preset library
We’ve spent a lot of time playing around with Slapper and making presets and we know you’re going to burn many hours doing the same. It’s just so addictive that we ended up with a stack of great factory settings covering everything from tiny attics to massive exteriors and endless timed grooves. You’ll find stuff from other users, stuff that sounds incredibly real, and stuff that sounds completely out of this world. And we’re going to keep growing the library with each release and as more and more people share their favourite settings. So send them in and we’ll immortalise your custom environments in the next release of Slapper.
Wide range of input/output formats
Slapper has a ton of different input and output combinations available, from mono thru to 9.1.6, so you should never be hobbled by an awkward track format. You can set up a stereo aux as a delay return with a 7.1.4 Slapper inserted – or Audiosuite an interior room setting onto a mono FX clip. Slapper also takes care of automatic downmixing when your presets are larger than your chosen output format, so those lush surround presets are still available when you’re working in stereo.
Build impossible patterns with Crosstalk and Feedback
Lay out 8 separate echos, or just 1 slap with a lot of repeating feedback, or with Slapper3 you can set Taps to feed into each other using Crosstalk. But use it wisely. With great power comes great responsibility.
Dedicated reverb on every delay tap
With Slapper 2.x every tap now has it’s own dedicated mono reverb which pans around the space along with the delay signal. The aim was simply to soften the slaps, but what we ended up with is a whole new class of effect. You can build realistic small rooms, city streets, or freaky, psychological flashbacks, all within the one plugin.
Stunning object-oriented interface
At The Cargo Cult we don’t abide mimicry of ancient workflows or medieval design practices. We have carefully designed Slapper’s interface to give the most immediate feedback, in the most intuitive way, and to give the user the most direct access possible to the objects they are hearing. Slapper looks exactly like it sounds… and not at all like a dusty, rack mounted collection of rotary knobs and switches from 1968.
Crazy rhythmic possibilities
In combination with Sync-Mode, Slapper’s tempo grid system opens up all kinds of wacky possibilities for timed delays. You can show and hide different grids based on tempo or prime numbers, and either snap to them or simply use them as a general guide. The result can be super precise rhythmic delays or messed up syncopated grooves that you’ve never heard before. Sync-Mode is also automatable so you can jump in and out of rhythmic delay mode throughout the length of your project.
Fantastic console integration
We’ve put a lot of thought into the console layouts for Slapper, and we reckon you can get great results really quickly by setting up spaces on a hardware controller. The layouts for the bigger consoles are incredibly intuitive, with a single channel strip representing a single tap, and the 8 taps spread across an 8-fader bucket. Even the little Artist Mix presents Slapper in a very ergonomic way, with each page covering a single tap plus the main output filters and 8 enable buttons on every page.
System requirements
- Mac OS10.9 or Win10
- Pro Tools v12.4 or greater
- DAW capable of hosting AAX, AU or VST3 plugins (64bit)
- Authorisation requires an iLok.com account
Resources
Legacy versions
Slapper 2.1.9 Mac OS
Also runs under Slapper 3 iLok license
Slapper 2.1.9 Windows
Also runs under Slapper 3 iLok license
Take a look at some of our other tantalising offerings
