Airwindows

RawGlitters Redux

TL;DW: Just the quantization from StudioTan, specifically the BitGlitters brightener.

This came out more interesting than I expected! Mostly it’s a maintenance release: adding the 16/24 switch and DeRez to RawGlitters.

RawGlitters is the early non-dither I made that does the opposite of Dither Me Timbers: rather than do a precursor of Dark and find the mellowest, smoothest truncation option, RawGlitters (StudioTan) always tries to find the direction to truncate that is going to accentuate the highs the most. It still only truncates, and works like a dither would. You can leave DeRez off, and at either 24 or 16 bit you’ll find it gives a distinct tone to your 24 or 16 bit output. It really lights up the detail of the track, always in a subtle way right down at the noise floor.

But when you start using it as a bit-crusher? Yowsa. You might not like it, but boy is it ever a distinct flavor out of bitcrushing. It’s sort of like regular aggressive bitcrushing, except that it zeroes in on the super-highs and just BLASTS them. It can gate to silence, but I found that it’ll blast noise and sonic artifacts just as easily, so using it in a track might involve automating the track a bit if you don’t want it getting very industrial at you.

If grating and industrial sounds like your cup of tea, then you’re welcome: because this surprised me with how unexpectedly great it was at that task. There are some folks who will run screaming from this plugin. I’m delighted to know there are some folks for whom, I have just made their day :) you’ll know pretty quickly which camp you’re in!

All this is supported by my Patreon and the better that does, the more freedom I have to do more interesting things and expand my horizons. I’m looking forward to a really interesting Fall and Winter, as I’m getting some new streaming concepts together. We’re gonna build some DIY synths, on a massive scale. Can’t wait :)

Date September 13, 2020
Author Chris
Comments No Comments

Channel8

TL;DW: Channel8 is Channel7 with updates from Capacitor2 and Slew3. More and better of what Channel is.

Channel8.zip(356k)

Channel8 is a subtle ‘analogifier’ that applies saturation boosts, subtle highpass filtering, and slew clipping. What that means is, there’s a ‘drive’ knob you can turn up to boost things, and you can pick three ‘flavors’ you might recognize. They’re not really the consoles associated with those things, but they are calibrated to take effect about the same way, and when you use Channel8 (on tracks, on the mix buss, wherever) you add a little ‘analog flavor’ by restricting what the audio can do, in ways that are characteristic of real analog gear’s limitations. This restricting can help make things sound bigger and more solid.

This is basically the newest evolution of Channel, which has always been one of my most popular plugins. It uses the improvements in Capacitor2 and Slew3, so basically it’s still relatively subtle, still very much Channel, but it’s taken on a new level in quality and natural tone. I’m real happy with it, and I’ll be returning to trying to fix up my video setup etc (and finishing up the dither re-releases, etc etc) knowing that I’ve dropped a nice audio bomb on the world. If you ever liked Channel, this should make you real happy.

In fact, it went so well that I’ve added it to the Airwindows Starter Kit. It’s every bit as good tone-wise as the no-controls Interstage, and much more fun :D

My work’s supported by Patreon, because Patreon is way steadier and less ‘transient’ than selling stuff retail. I’m going to underscore that only if you can afford it, should you be on the Patreon: I’ll keep working for you regardless. These are times where there is real value in us working together and taking care of each other, and I mean to do my part. :)

Date September 6, 2020
Author Chris
Comments 6 Comments

Slew3

TL;DW: Slew3 is a new approach to slew clipping meant for a more analog-like darkening effect.

Slew3.zip(344k)

A Chris’s work is never done! Or at least it’s not, when it comes to refining basic tonal building blocks that apply to many plugins. It’s just recently that I updated Capacitor with an analog behavior found (quite strikingly) in certain real-world capacitors. I’m at it again.

This makes a third Slew plugin, and every one is strikingly different. Slew (original) darkens radically and makes a grungy, clipped tone (it’s in Channel, too, very subtly). Slew2, though there are some similarities in code, acts wildly different: it produces an intense rolloff that is only right up at the Nyquist frequency, and is an elegant anti-glare solution, but barely has a tone at all.

Slew3 uses ideas from Acceleration and DeBess to produce a slew clipping that’s actually reading information beyond what the samples provide: it’s like it reconstructs the wave a bit and is most effective where you’d get intersample peaks. It’s NOT an EQ: it has very striking dynamic qualities. It’s not a pure ‘glare cutter’ like Slew2, either: there’s a limit to how much it will darken. But what it’s all about is producing an analog top-end on your digital content.

This is an experimental plugin. In development, some of my audio caused it to freak out, and it took extra time to get it to behave (I suppose I could also put out the freak-out version but for now let’s stay safe, OK?). It’s not quite linear or predictable (neither is real analog) and though I feel like it might have some very serious mojo to bring, I’m also interested in whether it dies given certain kinds of audio. I’m pretty sure I have it tamed to where it won’t do anything crazy, but is it really the silver bullet? I guess we’ll find out together.

This, like my work on Capacitor2, will be very useful going forward and there’s more work to be done. My work’s supported by Patreon, which means the more work IS likely to be done, the best I can, because Patreon is way steadier and less ‘transient’ than selling stuff retail. I’m going to underscore that only if you can afford it, should you be on the Patreon: I’ll keep working for you regardless. These are times where there is real value in us working together and taking care of each other, and I mean to do my part. :)

Date August 30, 2020
Author Chris
Comments 3 Comments

PaulDither Redux

TL;DW: Single pole highpassed TPDF dither.

PaulDither.zip(340k)

As long as we’re making Redux dithers, here’s something worth noticing, and a shout-out to a great person.

In a public Facebook discussion on dither, Paul Frindle (Sony Oxford, and the DSM 2 ‘prismatic compressor’) suggested his own preferred solution, in general terms: “The one we use most is triangular single pole high pass dither. It not freq bent enough sound odd, but is slightly less audible that flat dither. It can also be easily made by taking one sample of dither away from the previous one – this gives you the triangular PDF and the filtering in one go :-) “

The great thing about this is, we don’t have to get his code to be able to do that. In fact, I’m not: I’m using a sample of dither, storing it to be the previous one, then taking it away from the next sample of dither (which is backwards from what he suggests). However, the effect is the same: TPDF single pole high pass dither.

The coolest thing about this is, it’s actually twice as CPU efficient as normal TPDF! You store a dither sample (random generation is a pretty CPU-hungry process when done properly, and it sounds better when you don’t half-ass it) and then you use it again for the highpass! So not only is it just as good as regular TPDF, it’s cheaper to use.

Thank Paul for that, not me. (though I do have some ideas about ways to tweak it: I’ve put in a switch between 24 bit and 16 bit, and added the DeRez control)

So what do you get? Well, this is still a TPDF dither, so you get mathematically correct dither that doesn’t fluctuate in volume. The tone is brighter because it’s highpassed. That makes it a quieter bed of noise, and there’s a sort of silky, not-harsh quality to it that’s nice. I think it does affect perceptions of brightness and the tonal quality of the mix, so it’s a choice, not ‘the automatic correct option’. It’ll give a ‘sound’, and focus your attention differently, towards detail and a subtle revoicing of the track. If you mix through it, your choices will be conditioned by this way of hearing.

The original plugin is available at PaulDitherOriginal.zip: don’t try to have them both installed at the same time. Even if you renamed one of the plugins, they still have the same internal plugin ID. I think the newer one is better because you can pick 16 bit and play with the DeRez: the original has no controls and is always 24 bit.

If I was going to use just a TPDF dither, it would be this one every time, because it’s not just a TPDF dither, it’s silky and sweet and a bit quieter than the usual kind. And just as Paul told us freely what the basic concept was, so Airwindows PaulDither is free. Thanks, Paul :)

Date August 23, 2020
Author Chris
Comments 2 Comments

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RawGlitters Redux

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