TACTIC Review
When Glitch Machines released Tactic I was instantly intrigued, a minimal sample sequencer with some nice tools for glitch creation. I’d almost always prefer synthesis over samples, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything fun to explore here. Tactic holds 8 samples, each with pitch, start and end controls, which you can trigger via the sequencer. the sequencer is comprised of 4 lanes. The top lane allows you to select a sample per step, or “?” which randomly chooses a sample, and the probability that sample triggers. The next two lanes are for effects, per step you can select wether the sample loops, plays revers, loop size, pitch, and envelope/volume settings. The last lane has all the same effects, but takes away control and simply randomly picks a value per effect.
Whats neat here is that you can pick different effects per step, on top of this you can choose different playback divisions, pattern lengths and playback styles per sequence, which makes for some interesting generative creation. On most sequencers, any effects or per step adjustments are locked with the main sequencer length, what’s nice here is that you can produce polymetric patterns, but instead of the offset timing being another sound or pattern, it is effects being applied to the current pattern. Patterns can ofcourse playback forward, but you can also set them backwards, pingpong, or to randomly choose steps.
Glitch machines plugins always provide a some level of randomization tools, Tactic allows for randomizing specific sections, just the samples, just the settings, or even more narrow fields within each section. At this point I don’t use too many randomizer tools unless we’re talking about modulation. Sound wise, we are of course dealing with samples, so what you put in is what you get out. But the sequencing seems tight and precise and the looping gets well into the audible frequencies for glitchy goodness. My biggest complaint is the sample loading, by default, the init pattern has no samples loaded, in Glitch Machines plugins of the past, you could simply click the “next” arrow and it would pick the first sample in the default collection. For whatever reason, Tactic is completely empty upon loading, so you have to open up and load samples into each slot manually, which becomes tedious 8 times in a row. I suggest create a default patch for your daw to get up and running faster.
All in all, Tactic is a fairly simple and straight forward plugin, it does a thing, and lets you play with that thing fast. I like the idea, but I can’t help but wish it had sequencing for dep effects like filters, short delays, bit reducers, and maybe ring mod. I mainly use it as a source for glitchy effects plugins, it’s nice for getting high frequency digital tech sounds, with enough variation to keep things interesting. Luckily if you’re patient you can find almost any Glitch Machines plugin for 5-10 bucks, at that price if it supplies inspiration for a beat or just an evening of fun playing with it, I’d say it’s worth it. Though I usually don’t like talking about price unless it feels relevant to enough of a degree.
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TACTIC: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/24-Sequencer/7309-Tactic?a_aid=61c378ab215d5