Eventide’s former DSP Engineer, Dan Gillespie, recently launched his own company, Newfangled Audio. The new company has released two new and exciting mastering plugins — Elevate & EQuivocate (both available through Eventide). I recently enjoyed an opportunity to catch up with Dan to discuss his new venture and his long career designing plug-ins (which include Eventide classics such as the H3000 Factory and H910).
How long have you been working at Eventide, and what products have you worked on?
I started at Eventide when I was right out of college, so everything I learned about this industry came through that lens. If I had to name just one thing: Eventide has always been good at letting new product ideas drive development, rather than trying to chase the market or copy other successful products. This is a strategy I’d like to emulate.
That’s a long time, and it seems like you left quite a legacy. I’m sure it’s lonely there without you – do you ever stop by and help out with upcoming products?
It doesn’t seem too lonely! Eventide’s development team has been growing, and I still consult regularly for Eventide and spend a couple days in the office each week. Eventide is a great group of really talented people, and there are always a lot of fun projects to work on. It’s great to be able to work at a place like that.
When did you split off and create Newfangled Audio, and why did you take the initiative?
Working someplace like Eventide is a lot like playing in a band. Any good band is more than just the sum of its members; the members play off each other and make each other better. Working at Eventide has that same vibe, but you do lose some autonomy. After we released the native version of UltraReverb I started thinking back to the original Eventide Reverb and UltraChannel releases for TDM and missed that feeling of doing the whole thing myself. In that sense, I think of Newfangled Audio as a solo project. I still like playing in the band at Eventide, but it’s nice to have a personal outlet as well. And Eventide’s been really nice to partner with.
You said earlier that you worked on plugins like UltraReverb, which is more utility-oriented than, say, Blackhole. Is Newfangled Audio aiming to do a more creative-oriented approach, a more utility-oriented approach, or a mix of both?
I think both are really fun, but they are different. At their best, creative tools help inspire people to write great songs, and it’s such an honor to be present at that point of creativity. What you’re calling utility-oriented tools exist to help the artist achieve the goal they already had in mind, which is also incredibly important, and these tools can be more broadly useful. Elevate and EQuivocate definitely fall into the latter category, however, that’s just by chance. The plan with Newfangled Audio is to take the technological advances happening in the field of Machine Learning and use them to create tools that artists can use to make new art, or to more easily achieve their goals; rather than to try to replace the artist.
Were there any ideas you had at Eventide that you want to follow moving forward?
We’re working on some really cool stuff at Eventide right now, and I’ve got some interesting ideas for Newfangled Audio as well, but the focus right now is all on Elevate and EQuivocate.
About the Author
Jack Impink, aka. Gestalt7, works with the Eventide Development Lab. When he’s not testing upcoming products, he spends his time messing around with old hardware and plug-ins.
