Released a few years back, Codec is a free plugin from developer Lese that uses internet compression algorithms to give sounds a distinctive lo-fi character.
Lese has just updated Codec to version 2.0, bringing a handful of new features that give you more control over the way the plugin manipulates audio.
Codec repurposes a real-time audio coding standard designed for internet voice communications as an audio effect, producing a crunchy, digitally degraded sound that simulates a poor internet connection.
Codec divides audio into individual packets, some of which can be randomly dropped out using its Loss control. This prompts the plugin's internal decoder to try to conceal the packet loss, and there's a choice of three modes that determine how this is handled by the plugin, each giving you a different sonic flavour.
The Disorder control (new in Codec 2.0) adjusts the ordering of packets being fed into the internal decoder to create a chaotic, glitchy effect, while a new Noise mode adds noise to the signal before it's fed into the encoder, creating a "messier" sound.
Additional crunch can be applied via Codec's Crunch controls, which crank up the gain on a selected frequency range prior to the encoding stage and dial it down it once the audio is compressed, creating more distortion artifacts with no added volume.
Codec is available now for PC and Mac in VST/AU formats. You can download it for free from the Lese website.
