For those of you that do not know about Output, they’ve been working on some game-changing plug-ins. Whether you’re a composer, musician or producer; this company will have plug-ins made to elevate your creativity. They’ve made software such as Movement (an FX rhythm engine), our star of the show Arcade and many more amazing tools.
New in ARCADE: Hip-Hop and Dream-Pop. ARCADE by Output is a loop synthesizer with new additions added every day. Check out Drip, ARCADE’s Hip-Hop Line, available now. Output Arcade is a paid software made and published by the Company Output. Output Arcade is a sample playground that allows the user to use and loop music samples without any issues. Output Arcade allows the user the manipulate loops in real-time, and it supports a wide variety of live instruments. Arcade Audio Sounds Distorted. Arcade Version 1.3 (Legacy Versions) Crashes In Arcade. I've Reached The Max Number Of Activations. ARCADE Is Not Recording What I'm Playing In My DAW. ARCADE Says I'm Offline When I'm Online. How To Completely Uninstall Arcade. Arcade: Windows is Missing a Web Component (Pro Tools Users) Arcade is not loading.
About
Arcade Output Tutorial
I’ll let this video do the explaining so that I don’t give a wrong first impression of the plug-in.
There are sounds and packs that you can load. Your own samples can work there too. For a rent-to-own for $10 a month, you can never go wrong with Arcade.
You’re able to manipulate sounds according to your taste and there are packs for whatever you’re looking for. For their own packs, they have 30+ lines that you can choose from. There are new lines updated monthly so you’re always going to have something fresh.
The kits themselves are loaded into presets of 15 loops which are going to be the white keys on your keyboard. The black keys manipulate them through different effects (repeat, reverse, etc). There are eleven different effect modulations you can choose from and parameters you can edit. If you’re loading in your own samples, editing them is super easy too. Popping them in is just easy drag and drop and you’re game.
Review
Now it’s time for me to share how I feel about this plug-in and how I’ve utilized it in my own productions. I’ve used Arcade for some elements for my album; mainly pads and single hits from the packs and loading my own samples/loops. I got to amend these sounds to get them to where I wanted. The main thing that I’m looking for is the answer to “will this take my creativity to the next level?”. Does Arcade successfully do that for me? The answer to that is a big YES!
If there was any real con for me to throw out there, it’s mainly that it relies on the internet and the plug-in itself can be very CPU heavy. There was a little confusion about the marketing aspect of it as well.
Internet
I’m the type of guy that HATES internet in my studio but it’s a stubbornness that I’m trying to get over (Taurus trait) because that’s what the future is.
CPU
The CPU part was bugging me a bit. There were times where my sessions would take upwards of 5-10 minutes to load because of the plug-ins. I got in touch with Output and (amazing customer service) got an email from a nice fellow named Andrew. He explained that they are aware of the CPU usage and are working on how to improve that. Though there is a degree to how much they can improve it, they are working on it nonetheless. He gave me a few solutions but they wouldn’t be a complete fix. Keep in mind that I have a computer that has 32 GBS of RAM and I run into these issues which means that if you’re producing off of a laptop, a family computer or anything that is not substantial enough for music production, this may slow down your workflow significantly.
In defense of Output, I will say though, it’s totally fair. When you have a company/plug-in that can guarantee quality and have that quality translate to your desired BPM and key, you’re going to have to make some compromises because it takes a significant amount of power to make that happen.
Arcade Output Cost
Marketing
This is seriously (only opinion here and not to slander Output in any way) not that big of a deal but I think it matters when musicians are scoping for plug-ins. Arcade has been marketed as a synthesizer which I don’t really believe to be the case. From a technical standpoint, yes, it generates sounds but not signals. You’re not starting off with a basic sine wave and designing that sound wave into something that you want. You’re playing/loading samples from either a library or your own. So to me, I classify this a sampler rather than a synthesizer. It’s a great sampler nonetheless. As you explore this plug-in more, you’ll realize that it’s probably one of the best ones out there in terms of what you can do.
All in all, I recommend this plug-in. You can purchase and try here.
If you’re a producer that’s starting out, check out my article on starting your music production setup.