Inspector

Another invaluable studio tool

As mentioned - try out the Equium/Firium demos... you'll most likely want them after hearing them.

One complaint - I would really like the ability to enlarge the screen and zoom in on parts of the frequency spectrum. I use highish screen resolution, which can make Inspector difficult to see detail - it's very good for seeing the overall picture of your spectrum but if you really want the fine detail then there are a couple of other analysers that enable you to get in much closer (and full screen too) so check them out (also free).

Having said that, the GUI on Inspector is one of the best around - it's pretty obvious what and where everything is. The real icing on the cake is the gubbins at the bottom that tells you how much headroom you've got, the peaks (with a choice of modes!), and even more importantly - how long your clips are and for how many samples. It is incredibly easy to get completely unnoticed clips in your songs which you don't find out about until you burn to CD, by which time it's too late, and there goes that CD into the bin. Some limiters have attack settings - if you do have an attack, that's where the clips can slip through: You'd think you could hear them, but if it's quick enough, you don't. Especially so with non-read-ahead dynamics plugins. So this is where Inspector is invaluable - it can tell you what your ears don't - no problem if you record to analogue, but potentially a fatal error with digital media.

I've also used Inspector to test out other plugins such as brickwall limiters - fortunately most do what they say, but every now and then you come across one that lets clips through - and Inspector is a great way of telling you which ones to keep and which ones to put in the dustbin.

Another minor grizzle - on several occasions I've noticed appreciable dBs of bass content showing on Inspector (I'm talking sub30 Hz here). This still shows even after supposedly filtering out the bass - and that's with a variety of Eq plugins/filters some of which are expensive and which I trust. I've checked for ground loops etc (and anyway, it's the wrong frequency for that) and it seems to be non existent, but shows up repeatedly in Inspector. Initially this gave me some concern that maybe it wasn't too accurate in other frequencies, but having checked it out it seems to be accurate over the rest of the spectrum - it stubbornly wavers around the 20-30Hz even when all music is stopped and all connections cut! - some kind of bug, but fortunately not of any real importance (could be for analysing your basslines and kicks - but for that kind of detail I use a more zoomable analyser anyway - one that I can get 20-120Hz filling the whole screen).

But really they are minor problems - it's invaluable for clipping, a good overall analyser and most importantly it barely uses any CPU at all! Compared to one that uses 30% on my system! So you can have multiple instances easily and just forget them.Read Review

If you have trouble hearing or visualizing what's going on with your audio, Inspector presents a wealth of information in a tidy window that helps you understand the bigger picture. I use this plugin with everything I do, as a track insert and/or on the master bus. It wraps well with a DX wrapper, too.

The free download will also install demos of Elemental Audio's excellent and very professional Eqium and Firium plugins. You owe it to yourself to try them out. (Just know that, after you've read through the succinct and clearly written help files and played with them for a few hours, you probably won't be able to live without them.)

One discovery I made when using Inspector with Chainer is that, if you open a bunch of instances of Inspector (one to a slot), then solo one slot (which could be a not-used slot), the other Inspector instances will freeze so you can scrutinize the displays at that moment in time. This is incredibly helpful when trying to home in on troublesome areas.

The folks at Elemental Audio have been very responsive to my questions and suggestions. Top flight.Read Review