PhatSpace Bundle. What a fantastic name for a music software package. What a fantastic name for anything. Computer Music magazine has reviewed this latest package from Camel Audio, which contains two plug-ins: the inscrutable CamelSpace, and the disturbingly-named CamelPhat 3. CamelPhat is meant simply to “phatten” your sound: “it gives you four different ways of adding grit, and because you can wind in all of them at once, the range of tones you can create is extensive. Of course, it’s always possible to push things way too far — something we frequently take great joy in doing.” That’s the spirit!

Camel Audio also offer a free version of CamelPhat called CamelPhatFree. It’s vastly simpler than CamelPhat, with just two controls: “Distortion” and “Compression”. Still, if you like what it does then CamelPhat will do it too only much more so. And it’s a bargain at twice the price.

CamelSpace seems difficult to describe: it “can take any sound and turn it into an array of dynamically evolving gated rhythmic textures” and “there are plenty more features to add depth and sparkle.” The main effect is a so-called “trance gate” that is controlled with a sophisticated built-in sequencer; there’s also a filter, panner, flanger, and much more.

“With so many parameters to tweak, it’s almost impossible to sum up how the PhatSpace Bundle ‘sounds’. … A simple drum loop becomes a booming, fat, pumping monster or a gated, dubbed-out, glitch-style chaotic rhythmic event.” Anything that can turn a drum loop into an “event” has got to be worth investigating. “Vocals become nasty, raw and twisted… or light and airy”.

The final verdict is excellent. They give the PhatSpace Bundle special awards for Performance and Value for Money, and an overall rating of 9 out of 10. In a nutshell: “Great sound; easy to use; cheap cheap cheap!”