Klevgrand Ting is a brand new plugin that was just released, and we’ve decided to give it a good look at to see if it’s worth the time and the dime in this Klevgrand Ting review.
Now and then you’ll come across a plugin with an intriguing concept. However, what makes or breaks the plugin is how this concept is executed. When properly delivered, it can be a game-changer. Ting by Klevgrand is one such plugin.Klevgrand’s Ting is a percussion instrument that lets producers use percussion sounds made using everyday objects.
Made by Stockholm-based creative studio and software company Klevgrand, Ting boasts a unique ensemble of beautifully-sampled sounds that can give your production some charm.
Specs and Features
Down to the meat and potatoes. Ting has 12 sounds: Silverware, Car Keys, Floor Stomp, Pot, Toy Drum, Sofa Slap, Stick on Edge, Big Box, Paper Scratch, Snusdosa, Hand Clap, and Finger Snap. Each has been processed to be “musically playable,” according to Klevgrand.
Each sound has its specific percussive uses. The floor stomp and the sofa slap, for example, can be used as kicks. The paper scratch and the car keys can be used as hi-hats while the finger snap and hand clap can be used for snares. Thus, users can use Ting as a complete percussion ensemble.
Each of the sounds has been multi-sampled to get the cleanest and sharpest possible quality. Altogether, Klevgrand claims to have used about 500 individual samples in the plugin.
Each of the sounds can be shaped with their respective parameter controls. Pan, dynamics, and gain level can be adjusted per sound. Users can adjust EQ each sound for some quick mixing. We can imagine automating some of these parameters to get a more natural-sounding performance.
Each sound can also be sent to five different rooms (Home Office, Living Room, Kitchen, Closet, and Hallway), each lending a different flavor to the sound. These room simulators use convolution ambiance algorithms. Six reverbs are also available and each sound can have their own reverb settings. At the end of the chain is a single-control master compressor to tighten things up.
All these mean that everything you need for your percussions, from performance to processing, can be found right within the plugin. This will save you a lot of time and effort compared to trying to achieve the same setup with a sampler or an MPC.
Our impressions
The first thing that struck us about Ting is the quality of the samples. Aside from the clarity of the sounds, we were surprised by how realistic the velocity response of each sound is. The plugin is fun to play with on its own because it feels and sounds like the actual objects they simulate.
The room simulators are also a nice touch, as it gives another dimension to the ‘everyday objects’ theme of the plugin. Sofa slaps, after all, sound different depending on the room. We are particularly fascinated by the ‘Kitchen’ room and its high-frequencies rings which we imagine coming from resonating plates and pan. That is some fine spatial modelling.
Try mixing in a bunch of different rooms and flavors and you’ll come up with a mind-boggling groove that will not sound like anything you’ve heard before.
User impressions
It’s a brand new plugin, literally days old as of this review, so there aren’t that many user impressions as yet. The word on the street however is that the parallel effects processing available for each sound is pretty impressive. In our experience, given all the processing happening under the hood, the plugin does an impressive job keeping the CPU consumption at a manageable level.
Keep in mind that you might find the lack of MIDI note assignment capability to be a weakness. The sounds can actually be tuned by a couple of octaves, though. This capability, however, is not exposed in the external UI but can nonetheless be accessed when the sounds are clicked.
Bottom Line
Our take, the Klevgrand’s Ting is a great plugin that can help make your percussion more interesting from the get-go. No need to set-up individual samples and chains in an MPC- everything has been tightly pre-packaged and thought out. Every sound in its collection also offers a high level of control. On top of that, each can be spiced with a fine selection of room simulations and reverbs. Ting is a complete percussion suite that can give your projects a one-of-kind quotidian charm.
Where to get it
Klevgrand Ting is available at the Klevgrand website for macOS/Windows as AAX, AU, and VST and for the iPad as AUv3. The AAX, AU, and VST versions are available at an intro price of $14.99 after which it will become $19.90. The iPad version is available at $4.99 and will be sold regularly at $7.99 after. The 40% intro discount is until April 30, 2020.
