Power Technology originally released the DSP-FX as a stand alone processor on a card. Basically the card and the accompanying software turned your computer into a giant out board processor. The combination of off loaded DSP (the card had dedicated DSP chips on board), and well written software was audio dynamite. For a lot of users, however, the option of tying up the computer just for effect DSP wasn't practical. Wisely, Power Technology ported the software to the Direct X platform making the processors available via a standard soundcard and host DAW application. (It also operates as a stand alone program to process single .wav files or to process line signals in input mode). The product is now distributed by Event Electronics. Event also handles the technical support making troubleshooting and upgrading a lot easier. (Note: DSP-FX is now distributed by Power Technology) The latest version has moved this solid bundle up a notch with the inclusion of new a brand new reverb and the addition of Aural Activator and Optimizer processors. These are significant additions.

DSP-FX is a very complete package bundling together auto pan, chorus, delay, flange, pitch shift, tremolo, parametric eq, aural activator, and an end of chain level optimizer plug ins. The latest version also includes the brand new reverb plug in called the Studio Verb. The range of processors, coupled with the low CPU toll they take to work and the quality of the results makes for a very attractive package.

I tend to gravitate towards the reverbs first when evaluating a program. If the reverb is pretty good, I feel pretty confident that the rest of the processors will be as well. That certainly is the case with this bundle. The reverb is superb. I should say reverbs as the latest release includes both the original verb (now dubbed Acoustic Verb) and the brand new Studio Verb. The Acoustic Verb algorithms closely mimic natural acoustic spaces offering extremely authentic representations of rooms and halls. Terrific for voices and acoustic instrument processing when a high degree of realism in the sense of space is called for.

The Studio Verb is similarly effective yet quite different. The sound of this reverb is much more dense and, for lack of a better descriptor, Lexicon like. Considering that the Lexicon reverb sound is the definitive reverb of the digital era that's a good thing. This sound is characterized by lush ambiences that surround the sound being processed without overwhelming them. Sounds can be heavily processed without losing their focus or position in the stereo perspective. There are tons of great presets for both reverbs offering good starting settings for drums, guitars, voices etc.

Both reverbs use significantly less CPU power than any other plug in reverb I tested. That includes ones that offer a lot less attractive processing. Typically I got readings of 14 or 15% CPU usage while running the Acoustic Verb on a Pentium 233 with 64 megs of ram. The Studio Verb uses slightly more. Compare this with the Sonic Foundry reverb which gobbles up 25% and produced a lot less sonic bang for the buck. Waves TrueVerb clocked in at withering 44% on the same computer. (To be fair the TrueVerb is a more complicated tool). The combination of good processing and gentle on the CPU power consumption is very noteworthy.

Parameter dialogs (this goes for all of the DSP FX processors) are very graphic letting you use your eyes as well as your ears when tweaking. The ambience being created is represented by a rectangular box. As you tweak the virtual level controls the box changes shape and color representing the various parameter changes. Tweak-able parameters include room size, high frequency absorption, room decay, stereo spread, (this one will narrow the stereo spread all the way into negative values, effectively reversing the stereo image in reverb), density and both early and late reflection intensity. Mix and output levels can be adjusted as well. With a parameter set like this, its easy to make great sounding ambiences. If you buy this one for the reverbs alone, you wont be disappointed.

The auto pan works great as well. This is not an effect that I use much but I spent some time getting to know and like the DSP FX auto panner. Again the depth of control available for this simple effect is astounding. 33 presets will give you idea of what effecting the coarse and fine frequencies, frequency factor etc. does to the sound you're processing. The elements that are moving around (like the left and right image) are represented by a pair of animated circles that float in box representing the stereo sound field. Fascinating to watch at the very least and some of the effects you can create are really wonderful and unique. I have to say this one opened my eyes to an effect that I had previously dismissed.

The parametric eq offers eight bands of high quality tone adjustment along with high and low pass shelving filters. Again clicking on a fader associated with a particular band changes the virtual pots to the left of the display from global to individual band controls. Like the Waves Q-10, each band can have a separate curve and Q. With the DSP FX eq each band has both coarse and fine controls to set the center frequency and the bandwidth or Q. Whew! That's complete. Again generous presets are included. I found myself coming back to this eq when I wanted to add a little something to a sound file. A tight bottom end, even when extended in frequency and amplitude, and highs that are airy not edgy are two of the notable characteristics of this processor.

The DSP-FX delay offers eight taps. Each tap has separate slider. When engaged the taps are infinitely editable. The parameter knobs switch from global to individual mode allowing you to set separate delay, feedback levels, pan etc for each one. This is multi tap heaven and very quickly unique and arresting delays can be set up. If you get stuck there is a great supply of well thought out and useful presets.

There are a host of other time domain processors. The pitch shift is worth special mention here as it produces the least number of artifacts with the greatest amount of pitch change of all the pitch shifters I tested. That is true even when preserving time and tempo. You can use this one as a vocal harmonizer or a pitch correction processor. A tool and an effect in one package. That's value.

Other stands outs in this pack include the Aural Activator. This is a harmonics generating type sonic enhancer to add punch and sheen. This processor generates less annoying artifacts than others of its type. This one is significantly quieter than hardware versions and stacks up quite nicely against the best software enhancers in the sonics department.

The Optimizer is an end of chain limiter and dithering processor that allows you to coax a few extra db of apparent volume from your sound files while processing to the final bit rate. This works and sounds much like the Waves L1. You dial in the amount of boost you want and set the maximum output you wish to achieve; presumably 0db. There are controls for setting the final bit rate and the dither shape. The limiter works great and sounds transparent when set within reasonable limits. The three dither algorithms all sound different and experimentation found useful applications for each.

Its tough to find things to quibble about with this bundle. The setup dialogs are a little different than with other programs. In some DAW applications an extra mouse click is necessary to get the page that you want displayed. Sometimes the dialog gets minimized and you have to restore it from the task bar. That's my entire list of grumps!

DSP-FX Virtual Pack really stands out on three accounts. The high quality of the effects and the 32 floating bit rate processing, low CPU power consumption and the quality and number of presets in each dialog. On top of that, if you own one of the new generation of SAW software packages you will get a bonus. The DSP-FX CD ROM contains a SAW version of this powerful bundle. An added bonus for everyone is the fact that the bundle will also run as a stand alone program. It can import .wav files and process them without the aid of a host program. The bundle is now marketed by Event Electronics. (Note: Now marketed by Power Technology) Since that change the DSP-FX bundle no longer requires the dongle copy protection! Double bonus.