Softube new plugins, Clipper and Widener

[bmanic]

Couldn't find any discussions on these new plugins from Softube so I thought it's a good idea to discuss them some because they are rather interesting, in not the way you may think.

Clipper

It's really weird. None of the input gains actually tell the truth in terms of how much the signal is amplified. Even in hard clipping mode with RMS section turned off, the input gain slider doesn't correspond to actual real world values. It's very weirdly scaled. As for the clipping "sound" itself, I guess it's rather strange sounding.. not in an unpleasant way but definitely not just a simple clipper it seems. There seems to be some strangeness going on with this one. Like most Softube plugins, it's quirky and definitely has "a sound" of it's own.

It produces high levels of 3rd harmonic distortion even when your input signal is rather low, so this is definitely more of a "mojo" plugin than a simple mathematical clipper. If you need just pure clipping, this is not it!

Their oversampling solution uses minimum phase filtering so again, if you need to clip things on a parallel bus, this is not it!

The RMS section is really interesting and very useful. It seems to have a very wide knee and thus seems to affect the signal even if the "headroom" slider is set all the way up to +18dBFS. It is superb at shaping the the sound before it hits the clipper. I found it especially useful when combined with the High Pass Filter. You can force the RMS section to gently massage the bass and low-mid frequency ranges so that they don't interfere with the clipping, while leaving the highs alone. This section alone is what makes the plugin unique and thus possibly worth the current asking price (at full price, no way!).

Also worth noting that the RMS section can be used on it's own and it's gloriously effective in taming things! Very useful.

It is thus very unfortunate that this plugin does not expose all of the juicy parameters when used in Console 1 !!. A big warning here for users of Console 1. The Clipper plugin is only available in the input section (where you find the Tape plugins) and in the 'Drive' section of Console 1 where it exposes the Input drive amount and Knee parameters but none of the important and useful ones like the filters nor the RMS controls. This was a huge letdown and probably the main reason I will not purchase this plugin.

It should have been enabled for the 'Shape' section of Console 1 and allowed full access to all the controls, just like the Widener plugin does.


Widener

This one is the more interesting of the two. It combines many of the known classic ways of widening things. Most notably the 'classic' mode that seems to be Softube's implementation of the infamous Bob Katz K-Stereo process. I guess they felt safe enough bypassing the patent (because it's a ridiculously stupid patent to begin with and should never have gone through in the first place!). It basically converts the mono sum into 180 degrees out of phase information (aka the "side") then delays it by the amount the user sets and can be further filtered by a LPF and HPF. Simple but effective.

Then there is a phase rotation options and frequency skewing option. These are similar to what you can do with pretty much any EQ plugin that includes all-pass filters and separate left/right or mid/side processing.

Finally there's also two "reverb" options. One is more of a tight ambience/room and the other a pure early-reflections kind of thing with just a few strategically placed delay taps around the stereo field. Quite effective and pleasant sounding both of them.

For Console 1 users this plugin is available in the 'Shaper' section, exposing most of the controls in a rather smart way making it easy to A/B compare the different algorithms with their own parameters set. A pretty decent implementation of the plugin within the system, unlike the abysmal Clipper implementation.


You can currently get both plugins together in a "buy one, get the other free!" kind of deal for around 65€. Are these worth it? Maybe, but perhaps not. You can do all of the Widener things with free plugins or the built in plugins within your DAW. The K-Stereo effect can be easily created as a send effect in your DAW with free plugins like Voxengo Sound Delay + MSED + EQ/filter and you can further refine the effect if the delay you use has modulation capabilities. All the other widening effects can be easily done with other tools, except perhaps Softubes reverb/early reflections thing. That could be tricky to match, so if you really like what they've done with these then it may be worth it. The clipper is a bit more unique and probably impossible to match it's color and interaction. The RMS section alone is possibly worth the current asking price and then you get Widener for free (at least for a couple of weeks).

For Console 1 users this is maybe worth it just to get these tools within the ecosystem, to further avoid having to go out of the Console 1 universe, but due to the silly Clipper implementation it's just barely a recommend from me but definitely only at this current reduced price. At full price both plugins are ridiculously over priced.

[Erik_Lucas]

Thanks for your analysis, as always.

[ToMegaTherion]

I really like the clipper except for the phase shift. The phase shift is why I only use Weiss plugins and fx from Softube, who make very cool plugins.

[trmupstage]

Thanks for that bmanic. I was thinking about picking those up, but I already have so many clippers and end up using Standard Clip 90% of the time. I do own most everything Softube makes but maybe this will be a pass. The widener does look interesting though.

[djrustycans]

Couldn't find any discussions on these new plugins from Softube so I thought it's a good idea to discuss them some because they are rather interesting, in not the way you may think.

Clipper

It's really weird. None of the input gains actually tell the truth in terms of how much the signal is amplified. Even in hard clipping mode with RMS section turned off, the input gain slider doesn't correspond to actual real world values. It's very weirdly scaled. As for the clipping "sound" itself, I guess it's rather strange sounding.. not in an unpleasant way but definitely not just a simple clipper it seems. There seems to be some strangeness going on with this one. Like most Softube plugins, it's quirky and definitely has "a sound" of it's own.

It produces high levels of 3rd harmonic distortion even when your input signal is rather low, so this is definitely more of a "mojo" plugin than a simple mathematical clipper. If you need just pure clipping, this is not it!

Their oversampling solution uses minimum phase filtering so again, if you need to clip things on a parallel bus, this is not it!

The RMS section is really interesting and very useful. It seems to have a very wide knee and thus seems to affect the signal even if the "headroom" slider is set all the way up to +18dBFS. It is superb at shaping the the sound before it hits the clipper. I found it especially useful when combined with the High Pass Filter. You can force the RMS section to gently massage the bass and low-mid frequency ranges so that they don't interfere with the clipping, while leaving the highs alone. This section alone is what makes the plugin unique and thus possibly worth the current asking price (at full price, no way!).

Also worth noting that the RMS section can be used on it's own and it's gloriously effective in taming things! Very useful.

It is thus very unfortunate that this plugin does not expose all of the juicy parameters when used in Console 1 !!. A big warning here for users of Console 1. The Clipper plugin is only available in the input section (where you find the Tape plugins) and in the 'Drive' section of Console 1 where it exposes the Input drive amount and Knee parameters but none of the important and useful ones like the filters nor the RMS controls. This was a huge letdown and probably the main reason I will not purchase this plugin.

It should have been enabled for the 'Shape' section of Console 1 and allowed full access to all the controls, just like the Widener plugin does.


Widener

This one is the more interesting of the two. It combines many of the known classic ways of widening things. Most notably the 'classic' mode that seems to be Softube's implementation of the infamous Bob Katz K-Stereo process. I guess they felt safe enough bypassing the patent (because it's a ridiculously stupid patent to begin with and should never have gone through in the first place!). It basically converts the mono sum into 180 degrees out of phase information (aka the "side") then delays it by the amount the user sets and can be further filtered by a LPF and HPF. Simple but effective.

Then there is a phase rotation options and frequency skewing option. These are similar to what you can do with pretty much any EQ plugin that includes all-pass filters and separate left/right or mid/side processing.

Finally there's also two "reverb" options. One is more of a tight ambience/room and the other a pure early-reflections kind of thing with just a few strategically placed delay taps around the stereo field. Quite effective and pleasant sounding both of them.

For Console 1 users this plugin is available in the 'Shaper' section, exposing most of the controls in a rather smart way making it easy to A/B compare the different algorithms with their own parameters set. A pretty decent implementation of the plugin within the system, unlike the abysmal Clipper implementation.


You can currently get both plugins together in a "buy one, get the other free!" kind of deal for around 65€. Are these worth it? Maybe, but perhaps not. You can do all of the Widener things with free plugins or the built in plugins within your DAW. The K-Stereo effect can be easily created as a send effect in your DAW with free plugins like Voxengo Sound Delay + MSED + EQ/filter and you can further refine the effect if the delay you use has modulation capabilities. All the other widening effects can be easily done with other tools, except perhaps Softubes reverb/early reflections thing. That could be tricky to match, so if you really like what they've done with these then it may be worth it. The clipper is a bit more unique and probably impossible to match it's color and interaction. The RMS section alone is possibly worth the current asking price and then you get Widener for free (at least for a couple of weeks).

For Console 1 users this is maybe worth it just to get these tools within the ecosystem, to further avoid having to go out of the Console 1 universe, but due to the silly Clipper implementation it's just barely a recommend from me but definitely only at this current reduced price. At full price both plugins are ridiculously over priced.

Great technical review! I’ve been demoing the clipper this week and find I prefer the sound of it to many others. The RMS section is the part I find most interesting too. I’ve found it really good for taming bottom end or top end on a drum bus for example.
It’s also possible to

[djrustycans]

^^^^
sorry - hit submit and don’t know how to edit my post!

It’s also possible to maintain more openness on the clipping due to the filters.
The Analog Color slider is interesting and affects the transfer curve and also seems to make things sound wider when pushed higher.

I certainly don’t have your technical insight but I find it pleases my ears more than competing products…

[djrustycans]

I really like the clipper except for the phase shift. The phase shift is why I only use Weiss plugins and fx from Softube, who make very cool plugins.

How are you analysing the phase shift or is it your ears telling you?

[bmanic]

You very quickly realize Softube is using minimum phase filters for oversampling (which causes a phase shift) simply by running any of their plugins in parallel or using the wet/dry function of a DAW like Reaper. The filter seems rather steep though so the phase shift is only happening past 10kHz and doesn't extend too much lower from there.. so it's not really an issue on most instruments parallel busses but you can get some weird phasey sound on parallel drum crush busses if you use any of the Softube plugins for that.

You'll also hear it sort of "smearing" of high frequency transient content when inserting many instances in series, for instance on a ride cymbal or hihat. Though to be fair, you need to insert a lot of them.

But it is indeed unfortunate that Softube, while being such a prestigeful company, can't seem to create a high-end oversampling solution.

[djrustycans]

Interesting, thanks for that. I don’t currently use many Softube plugins and certainly not in parallel unless it’s wet/dry within the plugin.

How do you find the Console 1 channel strips in general regarding compression and saturation? Is it purely a workflow choice or do you enjoy the sonics of the Softube processors? I sold my mk1 hardware a few years back because it was never well integrated back then with my choice of DAW but I am a little tempted

[bmanic]

How do you find the Console 1 channel strips in general regarding compression and saturation? Is it purely a workflow choice or do you enjoy the sonics of the Softube processors? I sold my mk1 hardware a few years back because it was never well integrated back then with my choice of DAW but I am a little tempted

I mainly bought it for workflow. I wanted to try a "totally integrated system" and see if I would be able to force myself to not be so nit-picky and just get mixes into a good rough shape in a few hours instead of obsessing over details too much. So far it's worked really well! My average time getting mixes into basic shape is between 90 to 180 minutes, depending on project size (average projects so far have been around 40 to 60 tracks.. but I did mix a 120+ track session too with it!).

Slate VSX + Console 1 MK3, just forcing myself to listen and twist knobs until it sounds good seems to work really well. I've been doing this hectic "go go go!" mixing style for the past few years in the live music environment (mainly jazz clubs and etno music festivals as I don't do rock or any kind of loud music genres any more!) and I wanted to translate that work experience into the studio.

However, once I've done the "rough mix" I render all tracks to audio, including all the console 1 plugin instances and all the levels I set. I then start the actual "real" mixing process where I automate things, add the final touches of effects and carefully curated bus processing. I haven't been able to integrate that part into the complete workflow yet and I still feel like 60% of the final sound coherence and polish is done at this stage.

I do like the Softube plugins quite a lot but they have some drawbacks. For instance the new clipper discussed in this very thread, has almost none of it's controls exposed within Console 1!! Which is absolutely bizarre. There are other plugins too like the Germanium Compressor which is missing half of it's more unique features within Console 1, so I end up just loading the plugin itself instead. Softube is a bit of a weird company. They don't put all that much effort nor thought into what actually makes some of their plugins unique and good sounding and seem to not realize how they could easily implement it all within Console 1.

I also dislike their oversampling that they use in everything.. but at least within Console 1 it seems like they are only upsampling and downsampling once per console 1 plugin instance, so that way you can freely combine a bunch of softube plugins within one "wrapper".

Due to the good deal I made on the controller I feel like I've already got my money's worth from it and I've only had it for about 3 months now. It's been rock solid and very stable, not crashing ever. I have found a few bugs but the ones I reported got fixed in updates and none of them were that serious.


EDIT: I'm in my "practice mixing" stage again so if anybody wants cheap mixes while I am at this stage (haven't done any commercial mixes for over a decade! Hence the "intro price") let me know. I don't work for free out of principle but I ain't expensive at all until I get my bearings.. then it's standard rates again (probably end of this year).

[djrustycans]

Thanks for elaborating. Only just saw your reply . I'm guilty of going down way too many rabbit holes so I completely concur re limiting your tools in order to stay productive and in the flow!

The only thing holding me back is that I produce most of what I mix and I rarely do a 'start from scratch' faders at zero process. Sometimes I felt the Console 1 got in the way during the writing and production phase.. I am extremely prone to trying to mix before the bloody tracks are finished - AARRRGGHH!!

[bmanic]

I am extremely prone to trying to mix before the bloody tracks are finished - AARRRGGHH!!

This used to be the case with me as well. But I've learned to commit and just render tracks as they are to audio within the production and then have a separate "real" mixing stage to the process that starts with faders at unity and no plugins inserted.

If I find myself needing to add more instruments at a later stage, then I render the mix as it is to a new stereo audio master and use that as my template for adding more stuff.

This workflow was partially forced upon me due to adding a lot of hardware synths and audio processors. I have now again scaled back to being mostly in the box so that issue isn't as prevalent any more but I do think it's easier to manage projects when they are all audio tracks and in one place.

[Synthman2000]

Clippers and wideners that are the least needed by anyone making music.

Newb be like : "Wow now my track is as wide as big twaddle and as loud as chick wobble."

And also as non mono compatible and distorted. Make it stop, please.

[nonstatic]

It is thus very unfortunate that this plugin does not expose all of the juicy parameters when used in Console 1 !!. A big warning here for users of Console 1. The Clipper plugin is only available in the input section (where you find the Tape plugins) and in the 'Drive' section of Console 1 where it exposes the Input drive amount and Knee parameters but none of the important and useful ones like the filters nor the RMS controls. This was a huge letdown and probably the main reason I will not purchase this plugin.

It should have been enabled for the 'Shape' section of Console 1 and allowed full access to all the controls, just like the Widener plugin does.

You're in luck, it's now in the 'Shape' section as of today's update.

[realisation]

I bought them both in a bundle, for me using both of them gives you that analog saturation and 3d-ness everyone is talking about with vintage modelled compressor plugins. I'm currently trying them out on my master bus and like what i hear so far.