Subloom's chain of processors starts with the Kick section. There are both high and low-pass filters with a graphical representation of their created curves presented in a spectrum analyzer screen in the center of the GUI. There is also a Reso control for applying a super high-Q boost at a tunable frequency of the high-pass filter. With big boosts, I liked that you could tune this peak to the song's musical key although this pitched effect comes on all of a sudden like feedback near the knob's full CW position. The plugin's Mix control will dial this in.

Next in this section is a three-band equalizer with up to 12dB of boost/cut available at three different frequency choices for each of the three bands. These frequencies are perfect for equalizing kick drums--changes in EQ are graphically depicted in the GUI but without actual numerical values.

Just below the equalizer is the Transient/Saturation/Wrap section. Transients will boost or reduce the attack (beater) part of the sound although not like a transient designer plug-in; it sounds more like a compressor--you'll hear more of the linkage from the rest of the drum kit (if processing a real drum kit). You have the choice of applying the Transient process before or after the final section called Saturation.

I had very good results using the Saturation section on sustaining bass guitars as well as kick drums. There are three different Saturation types: 2nd harmonic like a tube amp or the more extreme 3rd harmonic edgy distortion. This section has something called Wrap that produces a wacky interaction between Saturation and EQ and I'm still experimenting with it on all sorts of individual vocal and instrument tracks.

The Sub section is the other half of Subloom. It is an sinewave generator that dynamically "tracks" the Kick section of the plug-in. Like an old dance remixer trick, Sub will add a tunable tone to your kick drum sound. You can adjust its pitch exactly, set the attack and decay/release time or how long the sinewave continues after it hits.

Along with the Trigger threshold fader in the middle of the GUI, Attack and Decay timings are super important especially for busy, up tempo kick drum playing.

The same set of controls on the Kick section are duplicated here including: Saturation in/out, Phase/Polarity flip, Mute and Solo. Finally, there are two white mix faders to combine the Kick channel and the Sub channel for just the right blend. Like all the controls on Subloom, there are popup windows to indicate the dialed parameter values such as the Amount from 1 to 10, Frequency for EQs, and Time in MS for Delays.

I'm having a lot fun and still learning all the uses of Subloom and I just love that all these sound design processors are all running at the same time and within one plug-in!

Subloom from MixLand sells for $49 runs AAX, VST and AU Mac (M1 or M2) or PC 64-bit hosts only.

Mixland.io