Ohmforce Ohmicide S review - Return of a serial killer (a what?)

France’s Ohmforce, inventors of the first real-time collaborative sequencer, have a number of plug-ins to their credit that have left their mark on both their time and on music, with famous users such as Trent Reznor, Skrillex and Rick Wakeman. While taking their good ideas to the world of modular, they are revisiting some of their older plug-ins to offer enhanced versions. Following the Ohmboyz Infinity Delay, here comes Ohmicide S, a reworking of the original Ohmicide multiband distortion, first released fifteen years ago. What is its relevance today in a market that is inevitably more competitive than it was back then? That’s what we’re here to evaluate.

An air of déjà vu

Visually, the Ohmicide S carries over the look and colors of the old Ohmicide while applying them to the interface developed for the Omhboyz Infinity delay.

Thus, the window has three parts: on the left, the preset browser flanked by four macro controls and global commands (input/output level, dry/wet, etc.). In the center, the effect itself and all its parameters. On the right, the modulations panel.

This is all logical, but the controls are numerous and may intimidate beginners at first glance (folding the modulation panel would alleviate this). At the same time, this well-stocked control set reassures us of the plug-in’s richness.

More annoyingly, some of the GUI’s color juxtapositions don’t provide sufficient contrast (very light gray on a cream background, or brown on a black background are far from meeting accessibility criteria in terms of legibility). We would have appreciated a higher-contrast mode and a darker mode that’s less tiring on the eyes in low light. However, let’s move on from these details to get to the point: distortion.

The central panel itself is divided into six parts, each comprising controls (mainly rotary knobs): Noise Gate, which speaks for itself, Filter (a resonant multi-mode filter), Feedback, which lets you re-inject the signal infinitely, Output for metering the effect and adjusting the panning, and finally a global screen occupying the entire top section as well as a panel on a black background in its center.

On the latter, you set the main distortion parameters (Shape, Body, Gain, Mod, and Bias), but you can also select an algorithm from among 37 displayed in the upper screen (which has a look reminiscent of the periodic table), and choose what the manual refers to as the “Distortion Family Selector.” Choices for the latter include Standard (the basic algorithm), XXX (a more “analogized” version at the cost of greater CPU consumption) or Odd (where Bias will be used to tune the harmonics produced by the distortion). And as this mode drastically changes the way each algorithm behaves, you end up with 111 types of distortion: there’s plenty to do.

There’s so much to choose from that it’s a bit of a haphazard selection: the table-of-elements design is fun in terms of interface design, but it doesn’t organize algorithms by major types.

The same criticism can be levelled at the preset browser, which categorizes presets according to their use (Drums, Guitar, FX, etc.), provides a description for each one and a search engine. It would probably benefit from a tag system to help you navigate all the choices. These could include fuzz, overdrive, distortion, light, medium, extreme, tube, tape, waveshaper, bitcrusher, etc. But back to the central panel.

At the top of the window awaits the general view screen, where, in addition to selecting the algorithm, you can define the splitting of the signal into four bands. It also lets you activate/deactivate or dose the distortion for each band and the pre- and post-stages.

This is also where you activate or deactivate oversampling and switch between two types of routing. Either the signal is split by band and each frequency zone is processed in series before summation, or the signal is processed in its entirety in parallel by each of the four distortion processors before being mixed.

In either case, you have a Pre and Post stage, each with its own distortion. At the same time, the bottom end of the signal (below 150 Hz, maximum) is processed separately, without passing through the Pre and Post stages, which is highly relevant as saturation often has the drawback of being “bassivorous."

Thanks to this splitting of the signal, we end up with an octuple distortion, with the frequencies delimiting the bands as well as their levels. For each band, it’s possible to bypass it, mute it, or solo it, by selecting the letters B, M or S, respectively. Here again, we regret the choice of colors (brown on a black background), which makes it difficult to read the letters in question and therefore interact with them.

We’ll conclude this tour on the right-hand side of the window, where eight standard modulators and four modulation slices, intended for programming macros on the left panel, await us. A total of thirteen modulations are available, ranging from simple sine wave LFOs to noise generators, step sequencers, ADSR envelopes and envelope followers. It’s worth noting that most modulators feature a Chaos parameter to introduce randomness into the modulation behavior. The modulation result is displayed as a curve at the top of the panel. Suffice it to say, the modulators can animate any pot on the center panel, and this is undoubtedly part of the reason why the Ohmicie S sounds the way it does. What does it sound like?

“Like a hurricane, ” Stephanie of Monaco would have said. “Like an earthquake, ” Dorothée would have said. “As they say, " Charles Aznavour would have said. “As usual (with Ohmforce), " Claude François would have said. And all this would be way off the mark, because this plug-in sounds like no other.

Murder on the dancefloor

Thanks to all the controls and parameters, Ohmforce’s little monster indeed enjoys an organic, lively sound, filled with a thousand subtleties, even in the most extreme distortions. Movement is everywhere, crackling, shaking, rubbing and roaring, so that you feel a distinct analog vibe when you use it, as well as a genuine personality that almost makes the distortion an instrument in its own right. It’s responsive and animated, and brings extra soul to whatever you apply it to. This is rare enough to warrant highlighting, and is perfectly illustrated by the high-quality presets that come with the plug-in.

Hear what it sounds like on this drum loop passed through various presets:

DrumsDry

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Link

Code

• DrumsDry00:10
• DrumsCircuitBreak00:10
• DrumsFreeze00:10
• DrumsShatterbox00:10
• DrumsTotalChaos00:10
• DrumsTightSpandex00:10

Then on to this bass synth:

BassDry

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Link

Code

• BassDry00:10
• BassBityBass00:10
• BassChainsaw00:10
• BassCrossFold00:10
• BassDepthGrid00:10
• BassTheGrowler00:10

And finally, on this arpeggiated motif:

ARPdry

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Link

Code

• ARPdry00:10
• ARPCryductor00:10
• ARPRhodeMovie00:10
• ARPSherryIScream00:10
• ARPTimeCop00:10
• ARPTotalChaos00:10

Are these enough to make it your “go-to” distortion? Certainly, although you need to be aware of the plug-in’s strong character, which guides its use. In other words, while its 111 algorithms and numerous parameters enable it to do everything brilliantly when it comes to saturating the signal, it’s nowhere near as “straight to the point” as a Decapitator or Spicerack for mixing tasks, for example. But when it comes to creative distortion and sound design, it’s sure to be a famous champion, especially as the macros make it highly relevant to live performance.

It’s easy to see why this plug-in was able to seduce Skrillex, and it’s easy to see why, at under $100, it offers tremendous value.