Another nifty plugin from ZAK Sound, the indie VST maker who also made the Skyridge plugin I reviewed in 2024. ZAK plugins are high concept: they are easy to explain because they are focused on doing one thing very well.
Orange Dreams is also easy to explain: it makes chill hip-hop or lofi beats on the fly, or better said it makes making them easier.
This is the second version (a free upgrade for existing users of Orange Dreams 1 will keep people happy). Orange Dreams 2 features dual samplers with 93 instruments included, most of which you can easily place in the “chill beats” genre. The glowing orange at the opening screen conceals a mixer, with a preset selector and randomizer lurking in the corners.
It’s not just a button-pushing AI web portal, though. There is something pretty sophisticated lurking here if you choose to use it. A waveform synthesizer features 9 classic waveforms, there’s a noise generator, effects rack, arpeggiator and a really keen multipoint graphic EQ, where you can visually look at the shape and manipulate it with a mouse, clicking to add points, remove them, shove them around or change their type.
Orange Dreams is free for a lite version for trying out or $39 for the full suite which adds more presets, insturments, noises, the arpeggiator and a bonus “lofi stack” of drum loops.
⚪️ more music making apps and plugins /
⚙ Adding space, texture and ambiance to your music with Airspace
⚙ Funding Yourself To Death: The Strange Story of Aodyo
⚙ Waldorf compacts the classic Blofeld synth into a plugin
⚙ Introducing Flite, a powerful and (mostly) free new creation tool from Wavea
⚙ Waldorf takes the Microwave into the DAW
⚙ Generating dreamy delta waves with ZAK Sound’s Skyridge plugin
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[…] Screen Grab: Orange Crush. Lo-Fi and downtempo by design, adventures with ZAK Sound’s Orange […]