See the end of this thread for more information on updates.

'Space Boy' can be downloaded via the Elevayta web site or the following link:

Download 'Space Boy' from Share-it!

The download is fully working for 35 days. Full instructions are included.



What do you need to do when you have two audio sources, with similar spectral content, and you would like to mix them in a balanced way so that each of the individual parts can be heard?

Normally you may spend hours fiddling with the EQ of each source to find the dominant spectral components. Having done this you then need to tweak each EQ until a suitable balance is reached. All the time being sure that a constant volume is achieved.

Using the similar, innovative, communicating plug-in technology used in ‘Clone Boy’, ‘Space Boy’ makes it possible to perform this, normally complex, EQ process in a matter of minutes using just a few sliders.

‘Space Boy’, as the name suggests, provides the means to analyse, in real-time, the spectrum of one audio source and make a ‘space’ in the spectrum of another (target) audio source. Not only this, but the ever changing relationship between the different EQs of each source is automatically accommodated in real-time. This means that EQ adjustments are made only when needed. The target EQ (Rx) is constantly adjusted to accomodate the source EQ (Tx).

- me wanna have it...

wannabe wrote:

TTOZ wrote:

wannabe wrote:

So..lemme ask a question..does this serve as a potential alternative to like side chain 'ducking'?

Looks pretty intresting, I may have to break my bias..

gad I like that name

looking forward to this one as well

jens wrote:

TTOZ wrote: wannabe wrote:

Pleasebecheap pleasebecheap pleasebecheap

Waitasec.. just looked at the ridiculous (I mean that in a good way) price of Clone Boy. I have a suspicion it will be affordable.

Greg

I'm looking forward to demo-ing this one!!

Does this mean no more battles between the kick and the bass?

Igor 4000 wrote:

Does this mean no more battles between the kick and the bass?

Maybe. I just made it available so you can give it a try.

Cheers

For 2 rhythim guitars, I've spent hours fiddling with EQ (both separate and from within the plugin) and distortion levels in order to get fewer conflicting frequencies and more rawk! The whole time, I was thinking, "Hope that Space Boy plug comes out soon" and BAM, there it was.

Reports:

It works, and it works very transparently. I was expecting the receiver to have too many frequencies attenuated by the source, but I was pleased to discover that both tracks retained punch while finding their own 'space'.

I haven't played with any extreme settings yet, so I can't give a full report, but it's working well so far. I still need to keep the two parts panned apart from one another for full distinction between the parts, but that's something I'd be doing anyhow to set the sound stage.

Greg

Lunch Money wrote:

For 2 rhythim guitars, I've spent hours fiddling with EQ (both separate and from within the plugin) and distortion levels in order to get fewer conflicting frequencies and more rawk! The whole time, I was thinking, "Hope that Space Boy plug comes out soon" and BAM, there it was. Reports: It works, and it works very transparently. I was expecting the receiver to have too many frequencies attenuated by the source, but I was pleased to discover that both tracks retained punch while finding their own 'space'. I haven't played with any extreme settings yet, so I can't give a full report, but it's working well so far. I still need to keep the two parts panned apart from one another for full distinction between the parts, but that's something I'd be doing anyhow to set the sound stage. Greg

Hey Greg, many thanks for the feedback.

You might like to try playing with (reducing) the 'Space Window' in combination with the 'Space Depth' settings to get a bit more independence for the two parts.

The 'Mask' feature may also come in handy.

It can be a subtle effect - but then that's what its really all about.

Cheers

P.S. I tested 'Space Boy' by trying to mix an Orchestral track with a Rock track. Without 'Space Boy' the sound was just noise. With 'Space Boy' the Orchestra and the Rock track sounded amazingly compatible. All the details of both could be heard. So - it is interesting to try it also on very different material.

Is this something similar to Steinbergs Freefilter (and its equivalents) or maybe even more advanced than that?

Some more thoughts:

1. I can automate this if need be, but a good feature might be that when there is NO tracking signal, there is NO Space Boy effect on the receiver. With my current settings, the track with the receiver creates a phased out sound for a bit when there's no tracker signal.

2. If you decide to beef it up, there should be a way that the user can run multiple pairs. Ie. I have my 2 rhythm guitars paired up, but I also want a separate pairing for my bass guitar and kick drum. Selectable channels would do the trick, but I can see how the only way to do this might spike the CPU and memory usage up too much.

3. Instead of one part keeping all its frequencies intact while the other is shunted to accomodate, perhaps they could share the burden. In other words, neither is the full-time Tracker. Perhaps in the bass frequencies, one is the tracker, in the mids the other is the tracker, and in the high frequencies they average against each other. (with these parameters being user-definable)

I'm liking it immensely, though. At your usual price point, even without any further refinements it'll be worth the cost of admission.

Greg

Roman Empire wrote:

Is this something similar to Steinbergs Freefilter (and its equivalents) or maybe even more advanced than that?

It's not like 'FreeFilter'. The closest plug-in I have to 'FreeFilter' is 'FreEq Boy'.

I don't know an equivalent to 'Space Boy' yet.

Lunch Money wrote:

Some more thoughts: 1. I can automate this if need be, but a good feature might be that when there is NO tracking signal, there is NO Space Boy effect on the receiver. With my current settings, the track with the receiver creates a phased out sound for a bit when there's no tracker signal. 2. If you decide to beef it up, there should be a way that the user can run multiple pairs. Ie. I have my 2 rhythm guitars paired up, but I also want a separate pairing for my bass guitar and kick drum. Selectable channels would do the trick, but I can see how the only way to do this might spike the CPU and memory usage up too much. 3. Instead of one part keeping all its frequencies intact while the other is shunted to accomodate, perhaps they could share the burden. In other words, neither is the full-time Tracker. Perhaps in the bass frequencies, one is the tracker, in the mids the other is the tracker, and in the high frequencies they average against each other. (with these parameters being user-definable) I'm liking it immensely, though. At your usual price point, even without any further refinements it'll be worth the cost of admission. Greg

Good suggestions - thanks. I'll work on points 1 and 2 for a future upgrade - maybe even point 3 (although it will up the CPU usage somewhat). Let's see how it goes.

Thanks again,

Cheers

Wide Boy wrote:

Roman Empire wrote: Is this something similar to Steinbergs Freefilter (and its equivalents) or maybe even more advanced than that? It's not like 'FreeFilter'. The closest plug-in I have to 'FreeFilter' is 'FreEq Boy'. I don't know an equivalent to 'Space Boy' yet.

Ok, I think it´s time for me to download the demo of your new plug then and see what it´s actually about

is anyone else having trouble with the link?

I'm having problems with share-it downloading any of the demos right now..

wannabe wrote:

jens wrote: TTOZ wrote: wannabe wrote:

opiadream wrote:

is anyone else having trouble with the link?

Looks like Share-it! are down for maintenance. The site has been sluggish for the last few days and I was warned that a major upgrade would be happening around 19th July. Looks like they picked now.

I can't access the site myself for the last 30 minutes.

I suggest to try again later.

Download link is now working again.

an other great plug

Two new updates of ‘Space Boy’ are available!

• V1.08b for those that downloaded the demo.
  
• V1.09 for those that purchased a license.
  

If you already downloaded a demo of ‘Space Boy’, the same link can be used to download the new demo (no need to re-register). Otherwise, you can Download 'Space Boy' from Share-it!



Both versions include the following improvements:

• A complete re-write of the latency compensation code means that ‘Space Boy’ is fully compensated for latency in both Tx and Rx modes. In hosts that support latency compensation, all instances are now fully ‘sample’ synchronized to each other and surrounding tracks. This provides an improvement in the quality of the effect across all parameter settings.
  
• Increased resolution of the ‘Space Walk’ provides faster response to transients (particularly useful for balancing kick drums and bass lines).
  
• Improved stability.
  

For license owners, V1.09 provides additional functionality (as per the suggestions from 'Lunch Money'):

• Multi-channel capability (as shown above) has been added. 'Space Boy' can be used in 4 instances (2 Tx and 2 Rx) to independently process two pairs of tracks within the same project.
  
• 'Auto-Blank' feature detects low signal level on Tx and gates the 'Space Boy' effect accordingly.
  

Note: Version 1.09 is supplied as an update only to licensed ‘Space Boy’ users.

If you didn’t yet try 'Space Boy' then a demo can be downloaded via the Elevayta web site or the following link:

Download 'Space Boy' from Share-it!

The download is fully working for 35 days. Full instructions are included.

I've really meant to buy this, but I have been so busy, when the share-it server was fixed, I had to work for 12 shifts for the last 4 days. I will try to get it tommorrow.

Thanks man!

Amazing! I'm in TO for a day, but I'll check into it when I get back. For people who haven't tried it yet, it's ridiculously good in ANY case, and for that price it's a steal.

Greg

This look great for mixing two synths together

Downloading now.

Anyone been using this lately? Seems like a pretty good idea. If your tracks are slobbering all over each other in the lower registers.
How does the eq sound?

I'm actually about... hrmm... 5 seconds away from ordering my copy. I won't claim to have 'golden ears', but it seems remarkably transparent. Ie. it does what it says on the box.

Greg

so what's the best way if one wants to apply this to a whole mix to get everything in it's own space? and what's the tx rx stuff about?

tx and rx just refer to the transmitter and the receiver signals. The transmitter retains most of its frequencies (you can control to what degree) while the receiver has its frequencies adjusted to "make room".

There are many ways to approach using Space Boy, but they all revolve around deciding which part(s) of your track you want to cut through, and which part(s) you want to have frequencies shunted/attenuated on.

1 - you have a featured instrument that you want to stand out more than the others, or at least not have its own frequencies attenuated--

Render the remaining tracks down to ONE track/file. Then put an instance of Space Boy on this rendered track and also on your "featured instrument" track. Set the featured instrument to transmit and the rendered track to receive, and presto-- instant space for your featured instrument.

2 - your 2 rhythm guitars are competing for frequencies, both being mid-range instruments. Rather than fart around and possibly mutate your tones so that they're not really what you wanted, unleash Space Boy on each of them, and choose one as the transmitter and the other as the receiver.

3 - ditto for above 2 points, but using groups or sub-mixes. Set your backing vocals sub-mix to transmit to your synth pad sub-mix or whatever.

4 - on whole songs. Haven't tried this one, but it's one that Paul mentioned to me if I remember correctly-- you have a "rock band" arrangment, but it plays over an entire orchestral part. Since the rock band is the heart of it, set it to transmit. Set the entire orchestra to receive. You should notice the rock band never loses focus on its own frequencies (well, depending on settings) and yet the orchestra still sounds complete.


It's really quite a brilliant plug-in for very little money. I DID end up ordering it, along with Clone Boy and FreEQ Boy. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the copy protection style (I just re-installed my computer and I haven't written Elevayta to get new keys yet, since I'm not entirely sure I'm done dicking around) but in the grand scheme of things it's only a very minor inconvenience for this set of tools.

Greg

I just realized I didn't completely answer your question--

In order to use it across a whole mix, you'll have to be creative with sub-mixes, groups, etc., as it's not really meant as a 'one-button EQ master' tool.

You can have 2 independent Space Boy transmitters, and a set of corresponding Space Boy receivers (usually just a matched pair, but I believe you can have as many receivers as you want, if it's still the same as the pre-release Beta). For simplicity's sake, you COULD so something like:

- Lead vocal tx, backing vocal rx on one channel
- Bass guitar tx, kick drum rx on the second channel

Unless you use sub-mixes, you won't be able to do a "whole mix" in which each instrument "automatically" finds its own place. You have to plot it out a bit. Keep in mind that some instruments WON'T naturally be competing for space anyhow, so you can use traditional tools (hi- and lo- pass filters, for example).

Greg

hey thank you very much I appreciate it, you gave me enough money for dinner and lunch tomorrow too.
I'm ordering this one today.

Yo, any mp3 example of this thing ?
I messed with its demo this morning and didn't get much of results for the 2 wavs I was using.

Hrm.

It's a pretty transparent effect, I would say... dunno if an mp3 demo would help anyone make any decisions. If you TRULY want one of the wav files to be 'obscured' compared to the main one, you'll have to use a different EQ tool to butcher it; Space Boy in most cases will not be that obvious.

Greg

Scr1pt3r wrote:

Yo, any mp3 example of this thing ? I messed with its demo this morning and didn't get much of results for the 2 wavs I was using.

I've found that Space Boy doesn't seem to do anything if the 2 wavs are not in the same frequencies....they are not conflicting and therefore don't really need the Space Boy applied to it.

Try using 2 sounds that you know for sure are in the same feq range, like synth, strings, piano, etc.

esl wrote:

Scr1pt3r wrote: Yo, any mp3 example of this thing ? I messed with its demo this morning and didn't get much of results for the 2 wavs I was using. I've found that Space Boy doesn't seem to do anything if the 2 wavs are not in the same frequencies....they are not conflicting and therefore don't really need the Space Boy applied to it. Try using 2 sounds that you know for sure are in the same feq range, like synth, strings, piano, etc.

Correct! Space Boy doesn't make space in the spectrum where there is no spectral overlap between the competing parts. That is how it is designed - only to make space where there is a conflict in frequency components. It should be as transparent as possible otherwise.

Wide Boy wrote:

esl wrote: Scr1pt3r wrote: Yo, any mp3 example of this thing ? I messed with its demo this morning and didn't get much of results for the 2 wavs I was using. I've found that Space Boy doesn't seem to do anything if the 2 wavs are not in the same frequencies....they are not conflicting and therefore don't really need the Space Boy applied to it. Try using 2 sounds that you know for sure are in the same feq range, like synth, strings, piano, etc. Correct! Space Boy doesn't make space in the spectrum where there is no spectral overlap between the competing parts. That is how it is designed - only to make space where there is a conflict in frequency components. It should be as transparent as possible otherwise.

I'll ask ( again ) can you put mp3 examples ?
Audio 1 solo
Audio 2 solo
Audio 3 combines Audio 1 and Audio 2 with space boy

I'd like to hear what it is capable of.
Thanks

‘Space Boy’ demo mp3s

An extreme example (5 minutes effort). We try and fit an orchestral piece into a rock piece. Our aim is to hear the orchestral piano chords and solo guitar at all times.

The audio on the Tx instance
The audio on the Rx instance
Both together – No Space Boy

Both together – Space Boy – Window 12
Both together – Space Boy – Window 10
Both together – Space Boy – Window 8
Both together – Space Boy – Window 5

Just changed one parameter (‘Space Window’) for each Space Boy example. ‘Space Depth’ and ‘Space Walk’ can also be used to tune the mix.

Wide Boy wrote:

‘Space Boy’ demo mp3s An extreme example (5 minutes effort). We try and fit an orchestral piece into a rock piece. Our aim is to hear the orchestral piano chords and solo guitar at all times. The audio on the Tx instance The audio on the Rx instance Both together – No Space Boy Both together – Space Boy – Window 12 Both together – Space Boy – Window 10 Both together – Space Boy – Window 8 Both together – Space Boy – Window 5 Just changed one parameter (‘Space Window’) for each Space Boy example. ‘Space Depth’ and ‘Space Walk’ can also be used to tune the mix.

Thanks , gonna have a listen right now