Christian of ddmf Plug-insBackground.
It started probably about 28 years ago when learning how to play the wooden flute :-) then came the clarinet, both taught by "real" teachers with emphasis on classical music. At about 13 I started to learn guitar, which soon became my "main" instrument. I played in various enthusiastic but unsuccessful bands (haven't we all...), the last one being a rock'n roll cover band named "Rex Dildo and the Ladyshavers". Go figure... the 10th anniversary of the last concert of this wonderful formation has just passed. I've only picked up doing music electronically about 4 years ago, and since then I'm trying to combine the electric guitar with electronic sounds. And, probably the reason why I write here, I've started to develop my own audio effect plugins. It's a one man show going under the name of ddmf.
His SoftwareIt all started with the LP10. I have a background (see PhD) in theoretical physics, so as a musician the question of signal processing naturally sparked my interest. I had used Fourier analysis quite extensively in the description of physical processes, and I wanted to see whether I could achieve something that would be of similar quality as existing EQs. I was quite pleased with the result and decided to try and sell the plugin. During the process of designing the LP10, I also got interested in Infinite Impulse techniques and consequently developed the IIEQ short afterwards. Now obviously I can't tell what other developers are doing different since I haven't seen their code, but I guess my experience in programming scientific applications has really helped to produce highly optimized plugins with a very clean signal treatment. And from the feedback of the users, this is also what the EQs are usually recognized for...
Apart from my own stuff... uhe's Zebra is quite amazing, at least I use it a lot. It sounds very good, still it doesn't take away all the sound space so you still can group other instruments around it without things getting too muddy.
Workspace and Environment
It's simply a room in my apartment and this appartment has very thin walls. So I'm somewhat constrained concerning the loudness levels. It also has a resonance at G... but apart from that, I feel really comfortable with it. I think that's the main thing: I can sit there for hours without getting tired, having back pain etc... the light is good, and the chair as well :-) Small but important things!
Free
I started selling the LP10 and the IIEQPro (an improved version of the IIEQ) for 40, later 50 Euros. Already from the very beginning I thought that such a static pricing scheme for a product that you sell worldwide over the internet is maybe not the best solution; after all, prices for cars etc. vary a lot between different countries. Also I had to deal with piracy problems like everybody else, but didn't want to waste half of my time just to win another day or so before the EQs appear on emule anyway. So when Radiohead published their CD for "any price you like", I thought, alright, in principle this is exactly what I want. It doesn't make sense to pirate my products, and if somebody is really broke/from a really poor country he can still give me a dollar or so, which is still better than nothing. On the other hand, I counted on the fairness of more senior people who, as I expected, would acknowledge the quality of my plugs and therefore give a little more. And so far, I haven't been disappointed...
Favorite Hardware
Since I'm still mainly a guitar player, my favourite piece of hardware is the Line6 PodXT. It's still not the real thing, but it's damn close...
Extra CurricularI've started to collaborate with GLGP (http://www.glgp.org), which is a small company currently very active in the Amsterdam sound/vision scene. I've produced a few small things for them and there's definitely more on the agenda for 2008!
Find the plug-ins here: http://www.ddmf.eu/
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