The Interesting Software Thread

Sometimes I come across stuff that actually does amaze me. That's the point, pure luck really so I thought I'd start a thread for the unusual one-off effects.

I recently bought a thing called shaperbox. It's 10 x 3 band effects in one VST, usually the kind of thing I run a mile from, but the makers managed to cross Dan Worralls palm with enough silver to make a YouTube video about it.


So, why is it good.

It uses virtually no resources, no noticeable lag so you can track with it.
You can draw volume envelopes set off by the audio so for example you can use these like a compressor for say a kick drum, and draw 3 envelopes for different frequency bands. This is great because you can let the deep frequencies bloom a bit while hacking into the higher frequencies more quickly to cut out stray cymbals. That's just one of hundreds of uses. It works so very well for that example. Better than a compressor ever could, it never seems to make clicks.

That's just one simple use of one simple part of it. It's very intuitive and has many presets to demonstrate it's capabilities. It seems to do everything very well.


Here's a link to the shaperbox site.
https://www.cableguys.com/shaperbox.html

I have no connection with them though they now have nearly £100 of mine! The most I ever spend on software.

Dan Worralls video
[youtube]FNdsl4q17Sk[/youtube]

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I've barely scratched the surface of its capabilities so far but I like it.

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I think I may have stumbled on the handiest Wikiloops plug in ever. Im still experimenting with it but like it as an emergency repair tool.

Pan EQ by Brainworx.

You can EQ a specific area of an already mixed track by identifying where an instrument sits in the stereo mix.
It divides the track into three bands then you can pinpoint using pan.
It can also sync with something thats already auto panned and moving in the mix.

So any premixed wikiloops track, if the cymbals sound to harsh, you can go in and soften just the cymbals by visualizing where it sits in the mix. Or focus only on a vocal at center of mix...etc.. without disturbing anything else.

There is an equivalant called "DDMF Directional EQ". Basically multiband EQ with auto pan and M/S capability. Izoptope also used to have something called "Spectron".

Both are $30 if you catch on sale.

[youtube]_0-9aaxI_vo[/youtube]

Right now PA has a Buy 2 $30 VSTs Get Two $30 VSTs for free.

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products.html

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i would all day look at that bubbling Lava Lamp shown in LittleWing's screenshot/video!

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The most important accessory to any home studio is mood lighting! Gotta have plasma balls , galaxy projectors and lava lamps.

Would like a fog machine and maybe a laser light in the future.



[img]https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BarrenSecondEidolonhelvum-size_restricted.gif[/img]

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NOT just another compressor...

How about a LUFS based compressor/expander?
Strange interface at first and a different way to set up compression/ expansion but quite intuitive.
The graphics allow you to home in on where you want the action to be in the "source" window in real time, so you can adjust lower limit to avoid bringing up eg breathing, or mike spill and/or adjust upper limit to allow transients through or many other things.
Then the "target window again has upper and lower limits to compress/expand the source into.
It works great as a leveller on vocals and bass, no artifacts (yep- none) no aliasing, you can make it pump the mix bus, smash drums...
It's really cheap, it must be worth many times the $19 price because with just the limit faders described above you can make it do anything and it respects the source. It has a full 30 day demo you can try.
I have no connection just demoing it and got a nice surprise, this is really different AND easy to use.
https://apu.software/compressor/

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