Devastor 2

Complementary to what has already been said before: I would suggest to call this Plugin "Saturating Filterbank". It is what I have been looking for some Time already: an analog Filterbank with "Warming-Capabilities". Nothing I have tested yet matched my Requirements - Devastor convinced me within Minutes. Endless Analog Depth, Warmth, Character. This Beast is an endless Playground and oscillates from soft Excitment to total Destruction.

Thumbs up for this one ... The Depth is really breathtaking (for a VST). It'll be a Joy to revise some GiGaB's of Sample Content with it!°.

Disclaimer: I've given Devastor-2 a 10 rating. I cannot see where they could improve it, other than adding more presets. If there was a 9.5, I'd probably go with that just to leave room for improvement.

INTRO
Devastor-2 by D16 Group is a flexible multi-band distortion unit that delivers exactly what it promises — "Endless mangling capabilities." It has two independent signal processing paths per channel. The interface is divided into two sections, configuration and preset management. There are three blocks: Diode-clipper distortion, dynamic gain module, and three filter sections that help shape the tone by emulating analogue filters. I read that Devastor-2 is inspired by the sound that's produced by diode-clipping circuits. Admittedly, I'm not familiar with that circuitry, but I did some research. Apparently, the Diode Clipper (limiter) is a wave shaping circuit that takes an input waveform and trims off its top half, bottom half or both halves together to produce an output waveform that resembles a flattened version of the input. I tried to understand exactly what this means, but gave up. Whatever it is and however it works, it helps to create a great sounding plugin, and that's what matters to me. ;-)

Over the years, I've owned dozens of distortion units, both hardware and software, and most of them were one-trick-ponies. I was expecting Devastor-2 to be a high quality fuzz box with some crunch options. So, initially, I was a little confused and had trouble understanding what exactly this unit was and how to use it. Yeah, it does basic distortion really well, but does so much more. This plugin is capable of adding a vast variety of processing, ranging from a gentle warmth to a violent mutilation. I now think of Devastor-2 as a dynamic tone shaper — it fattens, flattens, warms, cools, creams, crunches, etc. Although this plugin is capable of severe processing, I haven't been able to create any unwanted harsh sounds from it. For my taste — on the soft side, just a touch works wonders on acoustic guitars, piano, strings, etc.; on the rough side, it adds bite to electric guitars, bass, drums, etc.

FAVORITE FEATURES
• Simple purchase, download, install, and authorize procedure.

• Attractive, two size interface.

• Useful presets that serve as an excellent starting point for tweaking.

• Responsive knobs and buttons.

• Nine routing options.

• Easy to read, accurate meter.

• Well-written manual (although I find haphazard experimentation more fun).

• Extreme versatility.

• Stable.

• CPU friendly.

• Great price.

• Bold, creative developer.

OTHER THOUGHTS

• What on earth does the term "Devastor" mean? These cats are inventing their own English words, and oddly they seem to make sense to me. LOL.

• More presets, please.

SUMMARY
Devastor-2 takes the concept of distortion to a new level by providing unprecedented flexibility and control. This plugin can do so much; it's applications are virtually endless. At first, I was surprised by the versatility of this "distortion" unit, but I really shouldn't have been. All of D16 Group's releases are high quality and come with surprising features. They also come with unique names and an affordable price tag. I highly recommend this plugin to any eMusician, producer, film and game score, DJ, or sound designer looking for a multi-band distortion unit that can do a lot more to enhance tracks. Tommy Zai gives Devastor-2 two definite thumbs up. Thank you, D16 Group, for developing another audio plugin gem.