If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember holding a tape recorder in front of a radio speaker in an attempt to record your favourite song, cursing the DJ for talking over the beginning and end of it as you did so. Now Plugin Boutique is bringing the idea into the 21st century as it releases the Radio plugin for your DAW.
This enables you to stream from a diverse range of internet radio stations that cover the likes of comedy, sci-fi, police scanners, ambient, spoken word, paranormal and more. The plugin automatically records the last 30 seconds of any streamed material; once you hear something that you like you can select it and drag it into your DAW.
The idea is that you’ll get some unique and inspiring samples, and the onboard FX section enables you to make the output sound like it’s coming through a tube radio speaker, car stereo, phone or other device.
Obviously, there are copyright implications to doing this; Plugin Boutique points out that you should ensure that you comply with any legal restrictions for recording streamed audio that may exist in your country, and that if you want to use any material that you record, you’ll need permission from the rights holder.
Radio is available now from the Plugin Boutique website. It runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU formats, and also as a standalone application. The regular price is £24.95, but you can currently purchase it for £9.95, and there’s a trial version, too.
