HalfTime

Audio effects are always a great way to improve your music production. In fact, you can’t even make a track sound “right” without some basic effects such as EQing, compression, or reverb. These are essential tools for any producer, and if you’re new to the business, you learn about them from the get-go. Others, well, are pretty much optional, but you may start using them later on when you feel that your songs need a bit more fireworks.

One example is to slow down some tracks during the breakdown of your song, or even during a buildup. While doing this with your DAW tools may take a bit of trial and error, you can also do it the easy way with a plugin called HalfTime.

Created by Cableguys, HalfTime is a lightweight tool that may come in handy to many music producers or sound designers. Just add it over a track and it can instantly slow down its playback speed. Even though the interface is compact and pretty straightforward, the features it offers make this a very versatile plugin.

The loop section allows you to select the length of the effect, depending on your needs. Shorter loops will make the HalfTime work as a pitch shifter, allowing you to preserve the tempo of the track, while longer loops can change your groove and rhythm entirely. You can also easily add fade-ins and fade-outs to create a smoother transition for the effect.

By changing the mode of the plugin you alter the actual speed of the slowdown effect. 2x creates the standard half-time effect, while 1.5x can work better for triplet grooves. 4x will play the audio at quarter-speed, transforming it entirely.

You can further alter the sound through the smoothness knob and the frequency band; the latter lets you determine which part of the frequency range you want to slow down. I can only conclude that HalfTime is a very well-designed and reasonably priced audio tool that can become an essential element of your VST arsenal.