Ohm Force Ohmicide: Melohman - Distortion and multiband dynamics effects plugin
Is Ohm Force's speaker-shredder still the ultimate distortion tool, or is it just a load of old noise?
Can it really be nearly 8 years since those crazy Parisians in the Ohm Force office decided to give the fast food a rest and set Predatohm loose on the world? Along with Ohmboyz, Hematohm and that cheesy one, the Ohm family delivered the sort of snappy coding skills and distinctive skinning styles more commonly at home in the Amiga demo scene. It was a boot up the backside for the increasingly dull world of VST development, which proved not only that plugins could look good, but they were also capable of delivering the same sort of grit and feedback chaos previously only found in ageing analog kit.
Ohmicide:Melohman was unleashed in 2007 back before we'd even had the idea for this site, but it's still one of the most popular distortion plugins on the market, so we thought it high time we took a look at it.
Superficially Ohmicide could be seen as the more mature, well-rounded big brother of Predatohm - the snarling, speaker-shredding distortion plugin that first put Ohm Force on the map. And certainly, Ohmicide is just as capable in the extreme noise terror department, but take a look under the slickly-rendered hood and things couldn't be more different.
The plugin lets users manipulate up to four frequency bands, each fully loaded with their own distortion, noise gate, feedback generator, the usual wet/dry mix and pre/post-process filtering. The DSP driving things seems to be well up to the task, coping with the compressor/expander alongside the noise gate and copious new distortions without breaking a sweat.
And it's distortion we're here for right? Which is something Ohmicide has in spades. The "Fractal" distortion is an aggressive, digital meltdown, while "Porridge" is nice and warm, like a sort of oaty analog bowlful of fun. "Accumulator" meanwhile adds low-end harmonics for dense, droning noise. These can each be further tweaked with "normal", "ampsim" and "odd" variations, the latter giving you a free hand to bully the harmonics, leading to some detuned variations that sound.. well.. odd really.
The last addition to the distortion list may sound like a misnomer, but the "No distortion" setting is actually rather useful, leaving you to shape and sculpt using the multiband dynamics alone. There's also a cracking feedback generator for each band, with a stereo spread.
Right, so thats the mechanics, what about the performance when you actually set it loose on a track? Well, "performance" is the right word to use, as the eagle-eyed will have spotted Ohmicide's full name includes the tell-tale "Melohman". For those unfamiliar with Ohm Force's naming conventions, the Melohman concept is intended to facilitate a more performance-led approach to their effects plugins. In practice this means the user isn't given a list of presets to choose from, instead loading a "meta-patch", which in turn contains 12 variations therein. These are accessed either through the mini-keyboard layout in the top right of the interface, or mapped to an octave of your favourite MIDI controller. The patches then morph smoothly from one preset to the next, allowing for some really creative implementation of the effects.
Of course, not everyone will be intending to use the plugin in this way, and this does add an extra layer of complication for some users. Auditioning presets is slightly more fiddly than it really needs to be, relying as it does on a knowledge of the contents of each meta-patch. An "old-school" option where you could simply zip through a bank of named presets, instantly hearing the effect of each would be a welcome addition.
But once you start hearing some of the sonic destruction available, this minor issue soon fades. Besides, Ohmicide:Melohman is most gratifying when manually tweaking things yourself anyway, especially when faced with the typically slick, responsive interface.
Summary
There's no denying that Ohmicide:Melohman is a bit of class, and Ohm Force should be justifiably proud of this one. Firstly, it looks fantastic. Sure, plugin appearances are sometimes seen by audio purists as superficial, but the boys from France understand the psychology behind interface design. You want to interact with it; to bully it into new and unexpected audio directions. If it looks like a well-used bit of hardware, you'll treat it as such.
Of course the above would only count for so much if it sounded rubbish. Thankfully Ohmicide sounds the business, and is clearly expertly coded. Some of the more extreme audio plugins out there are frankly terrifying. How many times have you found yourself reaching for the headphone jack as the sequencer goes into a meltdown leaving you with a shrill four note loop of digital garbage? No such trauma with Ohmicide. For something that plays so roughly with sound, there is an overriding feeling of control. The compressor does a masterful job, and even the most extreme parameters still seem crafted rather than chaotic. System performance is as reliable as the sound, with multiple instances running concurrently without hitch.
The range of sound available is vast, catering as much for the industrial noise crowd as those looking to invest their drums with a bit of Ed Banger crunch. It's no surprise that the likes of Adam Freeland and the Chemical Brothers are fans, and its safe to say Ohmicide:Melohman remains the best-sounding, most creative distortion plugin on the market.
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