Digieffects has added some new features to their venerable Damage plug-in. New to the sped up 64 bit version is OverExpose and Destablize (For a description of the previous other four components of Damage, please see this review.
In totality, Damage2 does an exceedingly good job of providing exacting controls over analog and digital distortion, including very organic variations. However, with this release, I was disappointed to find that some of the workflow perks that have made Damage so welcome in the studio have been removed in the name of streamlining — namely, the ability to save presets from an in-plugin button and the randomizer that jump starts some creative workflow.
The control list for Destabilize is long - providing precision and adjustment in places you didn't even know was possible.
Ease of Use
Let me continue that thought. In the original Damage, one of the significant advantages was the ability to save presets as XML files and share them between PC/Mac, FCP/AE. This made for tremendous workflow consistency across multiple editors or platforms. No more. The tuning controls are significant enough in depth that hand writing notes of preferred settings is a bit arduous now.
Destabilize combines the best of all that's bad. Snap zooms, chroma/channel aberrations and more in addition to the expected Horizontal and Vertical moves. Frequency, Amplitude, Phase and Chaos can be set for all.
Also removed are initial presets that were originally included with Damage v1. While I've never been one to use presets "as-is", having the multitude of controls realigned into new starting points has been a real time saver. You can still create the same effects, but at the expense of time in dialing a starting point to begin exploring variations from. I think the word I'm looking for is , "grrrrrrr." In Digieffects defense, the presets are available as downloads along with sample files from the Digieffects site. On the one hand, it's great to have the example files along with presets. On the other, why rip them out so users can separately install presets that used to ship with the plug-in and then compromise the convenience of the load preset from within the plug-in? I know, I know - I'm a whiner.
