The story

The NJD siren

The NJD is a dub siren: a small box with a few knobs and buttons that sound systems use to spice up the dance and the transitions between two dubplates. The plugin is modelled on one real unit, the one in the photo, running off its 12 V adapter.

Why model it

A sampled siren sounds sampled, and a siren synth always sounds the same: it lacks the authentic behaviour that the electronic parts of a real siren bring out when you play it. The real one drifts, wobbles and reacts to how you push its buttons. Since we had a real siren at hand, I took it apart, measured it, modelled it, broke it, fixed it, then turned it into a plugin. As far as I know, it’s the first plugin to do this for a genuine dub siren.

Who’s behind it

I’m Léo. I write software for a living, and I’ve always hung around the scene: DJing first, then sound systems.

With some friends I built Mooncrown Sound System. Running it takes up most of my time, along with the projects that grow out of it. The Siren-1 is one of them.

I always have too many ideas, and the ones I like best are where code and music meet. Dubplex Audio is where they land. More are on the way.