Sinevibes’ Malfunction II plugin is so wrong that it’s right

Sinevibes has upgraded Malfunction, its circuit-bent filter plugin, to version 2; in fact, the company says that it’s effectively a completely new product that’s been redesigned inside and out.

Malfunction is a filter that’s intentionally broken - the connections aren’t right and the maths is skewed - so that it can produce hissy and screaming distortion. There’s a low-pass pre-filter with a booster that is designed to tame the effect slightly, as well as an output gate and a multimode filter.

The new built-in gate is designed to prevent endless self-oscillation, while two freshly-developed modulation generators offer new ‘broken triangle’ and ‘broken saw’ waveforms. Malfunction II is also said to be much more efficient than its predecessor, with processor load reduced by two and a half times.

Malfunction II costs $29 and is available now as a Mac AU plugin from the Sinevibes website. There’s also a fully-functional demo version.