Épica Audio: Chilean Innovation in Audio Software

Although our current age is defined by globalization and production of both physical and digital is spread across multiple countries, it's still rather unusual to see professional audio software coming from parts of the planet other than Europe or the United States. In this article we'll meet Épica Audio, an up and coming plug-in maker from Chile, and check out their latest creation Andes Echo, a delay plug-in with a rather unique character named after their famous mountain range.

From bands to plugins

The idea of developing plug-ins actually first came up in 2016, when Nico Rosenberg and Arturo Zegers were working together on Boraj, a band that combined Chilean folk music with post-rock and electronic elements. Arturo was the group's sound engineer while Nico played multiple electric guitar, saxophone, synthesizers and violin, always running these instruments through the famed Cycling '74 MaxMSP software.

Delay lines with a Latin flavour

Let's start from the present, with what is perhaps their most ambitious project so far: create a unique delay plug-in in 2025. That might sound trivial at first, but it's actually an extremely challenging task given the fact that there are dozens of offerings out there.

Inspired by a mixture of progressive rock and Chilean music, Andes Echo feels like Robert Fripp and Los Jaivas are jamming together: it was envisioned to be a musical delay capable of generating evolving rhythmic phrases. At its core we have the Rhythm sliders for the left and right channels, bringing ten different rhythmic options inspired by Latin music.

An expanding catalog

Besides Andes Echo, Épica Audio has developed six other plug-ins that aimed mostly at mixing but can be also very useful for music production in general. Their catalog includes:

• Drivedown: A powerful waveshaper with three modes: "Warmth", "Raw" and "Insane"
• Epic Notes: A handy utilitarian plug-in for session organization
• Feedback Chorus: Inspired by the legendary Roland JUNO-60 synthesizer
• The Hammer II: A punchy compressor combining FET and VCA characteristics
• Trinity: A three-band parametric equalizer with harmonic distortion
• UFO Filter: A stereo filter with multi-waveform modulation