Deadmau5 has teamed with programmer Steve Duda and XFerRecords to produce the Cthulhu production plug-in, made famous by tracks like “Cthulhu Dreams” and “Cthulhu Sleeps”. They’ve reportedly kept the plug-in internal over the past year or so, but they have finally released it to the public.
As explained by Xfer Records’ site, the abilities of the plug-in are as follows:
Cthulhu is firstly a chord memorizer and player, allowing you to experiment with creating and reworking chord progressions with single-note presses. Included are over 150 factory chord presets allowing for a near-unlimited amount of possible musical-sounding chord progressions. Import MIDI or ‘record’ chords straight in, Cthulhu is able to analyze the chords you play and allow for various sorting options (Circle of 5ths, Chromatic, low note, etc) allowing for easy access over your chords!
The other half of Cthulhu is a unique pattern-based arpeggiator, allowing incoming notes or chords to be manipulated in various rhythmic ways. The 8 tabs of the stepsequencer allow you to completely reshape the incoming MIDI notes, even a single note fed into the arp can become a unique and rhythmic riff! Even if you have other arpeggio software plug-ins, Cthulhu’s arp is unique and powerful with advanced features such as chord-arpeggio mode, ties, duration / velocity sequencing, intelligent transpose, harmony, and more! Every tab of the sequencer can operate on its own length, allowing for evolving polymetric arpeggios. From simple to complex, from chaotic to creating precise arpeggio you imagine in your head!
Check out the demonstration video below: