If you’re bored this christmas and the packages you get are not up to the standard the shiny toys of yesteryear was, you might want to play around with the unreleased SoundToys Decapitator a bit instead (previous post). The public beta is now available at the SoundToys website. The final release is scheduled for January.
iLok only for the public beta
Just spent 45 minutes or so with it – it’s got some nice sounds, especially in the “less” side of the gain knob, first couple clicks. *Seems* to really add some phat, but there’s no makeup gain knob (remember the first version of TwinTube??) so it’s hard to tell precisely what it’s up to. The Mix knob really ups the useability ante, and when used with the tone knob I found I was using it more as an EQ on a problem acoustic guitar that’s in a driving, heavy mix. Tried it on the mix buss, and again, things got really nicely PHAT, with a warm & wooly low end. Some odd things going on with the bass though, something breathe-ey/compressy – this was on a strange track, I’ll try it on something more mainstream.
I’m not getting the same “pure elation” vibe I got from TwinTube (and my demo for TT has expired so I couldn’t AB it) – though it’s somewhat of a different animal than TT. It becomes more of a special effect with much gain at all dialed in (might be handy on an electric guitar track though) but the low end of the gain knob is, again, pretty useful.
Me, I’m trying different things in this realm, TT seems to be the standard for me so far, I dig the precise control of harmonic generation with the SPL plug, which can really sweeten up a mix track-by-track instead of using EQ – those harmonics do what EQ really can’t. Decapitator’s interesting though, and the different models definitely bring the sparkle – if it’s under $150 US or so, it could be a good deal – I’ll see how it does on a wider range of mixes, and I’m interested in its mix bus possibilities – something kinda cool going on in the lows & low mids.
I like it too. But, I don’t think it’s going to be low priced(under $150). And that’s where it will lose me…
mc,
Thanks for the review. I haven’t tried it yet myself and won’t for at least a couple of days because I’m away for christmas. If I give it a go later I’ll be sure to put it up against TwinTube which I think is a rather outstanding saturator.
One thing, it does ‘lo-fi/vintage’ well. I threw it on some tracks of bowed instruments with some of the real ‘heavy’ bass presets and lost about 50 years off my tracks! I have TT but seems to me a very different application of ‘analog simming’, at least how I would use it (going ‘darker than original’ would not have TT as my first choice). I think the’ obvious distortion’ settings will be the real stand out and area of interest for me. Though I can only run the free Massey Tape AU here, that seems to be the closest for immediate comparison in it’s also darker, distorted applications.
Liking it so far but have not put it up directly against my others URS ‘Saturator’, Virsyn ‘Tape’, DUY ‘DAD’ Tape’ and other miscellaneous I use for those purposes (like Airwindows).
I agree, it will be more than $150 (i.e. FilterFreak is $249 retail so that would be the minimum at least?)
While I am here, Happy Holidays and New Year stiff, see you in 2010! Not quite the world Arthur C. Clark envisioned but at least we made it!
Yeah Stiff, we need a “thanks for PT Blog” thread so we can all shoot you some holiday hallelujahs. Your site’s a daily stop for me, always tons of useful info, deals, and entertainment around here. Best wishes for 2010 man!
Thanks Loopy C for your opinions.
And thanks all for the holiday hallelujahs, and of course for reading the blog!
TDM $349/ Native $179 (via their Facebook updates)
I am not going to NAMM this year but have a good time