Review: Fission Multi-Effect Plugin by Eventide

Eventide released another powerful effect called Fission, working as a Tonal and Transient multi-effect plugin. There are good features to discover, and amazing processing on audio tracks.

I tested Fission on Windows 7 and Windows 10 (both 64 bits VST) without any problem. This amazing plugin is working as an effect in two areas: Transient Effects and Tonal Effects.

Both parts are controlled by the Structural Split which is centered on the interface (GUI). Simple but very efficient!

The audio routing is seen in the PDF manual:

The different effects are chosen from two lists. If you need to apply several effects chained, you have to use several Fission plugins chained. One of the effects will be on the Transient FX Block, and another effect will be on the Tonal FX Block.

For getting the first results, it’s simple: Only one instance of Fission can process the sound and you will say: incredible! Tonal and transient processing can go even further in full effect mode with 2 or more chained Fission plugins!

The list of presets and the quality inside are impressive. There is a special Artists subfolder adding a lot of presets:

Now we will look at the audio processing, first starting with Structural Split Processing. This part is important, determining the following effect processing parts.

Structural Split Processing

Source Type: several algorithms for the type of audio! Focus, Smoothing, Trans Decay, Structural Split On/Off, Waveform Viewer.

Then we have the 2 processing parts where we can choose one effect from the top right lists on the GUI: each effect has several parameters and all are automatable.

Transient Processing Effects

Here we’ll find: Transient Delay, Transient Tap Delay, Transient Dynamics, Transient Phaser, Transient Reverb, Transient Gate+EQ

Tonal Processing Effects

You can choose from Tonal Delay, Tonal Compressor, Tonal Pitch, Tonal Chorus, Tonal Reverb, Tonal Tremolo, Tonal EQ.

We can’t add several effects in a chain, taking into consideration the way how the plugin splits parts and calculate effects: for this, you need to launch several Fission (ie Delay + Phaser on both Transient parts).

It’s, of course, better for your computer if you use small CPU power plugins on simple chained effects, because here in Fission we have a complex split and then effects taking a big (but reasonable) amount of CPU.

All parameters for each effect and sections are automatable: this is a road for new unlimited effects.

Here is an example of a track in FL Studio where 2 Fission plugins are chained and output to Maximus.

Many Fission slots will take down an old PC quickly, but if you have a fast computer you can put several plugins on the tracks.

It will be then recommended to freeze/render the audio tracks to gain CPU power back.

Conclusion

Fission is great audio software, giving amazing control on the tonal and transient parts. It is not sounding like classic multi-fx plugins, but sounding like real new effects on tonal and transient parts, as if these effects were extended from classic effects (flange, chorus, delay …).

Audio tracks can be processed in infinite ways with new features for sound designers (transient/tonal), this is another high-quality Eventide plugin and I highly recommend Fission!
This mega effect works on desktops DAWs with an ilok serial.

Download: Fission (at PluginBoutique)