KVR Audio

ncthom · Post by **ncthom** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 1:42 pm

Tantrum, the second plugin from Creative Intent, is a new take on digital distortion. It's born from the same unique phase distortion as in our first product, Temper, but has grown into a far more powerful, dynamic sound.

Learn more and try the free demo on our website: https://creativeintent.co/products/tantrum

I want to share a little more of the backstory with you all too, since KVR was a great source of support for my first product. We announced Temper, our first attempt at digital distortion, about nine months ago here on KVR. It's been available for free on our store since February (go get it if you haven't!), and we've been thrilled with the response it's getting.

After a few months with Temper, I realized that I still hadn't quite scratched the itch– there was more I could squeeze out of the phase distortion algorithm that makes Temper unique, and so began continued development. At a certain point it became clear the new developments needed to be a product of its own, and now, I'm happy to say that Tantrum can mangle sounds in a way that Temper can't come close to, yet carries the versatility to be a subtle, careful tool at the same time.

I'm excited to see what you all think of it, please get in touch!

Halonmusic · Post by **Halonmusic** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 5:37 pm

Cool. Love Temper so shure will love this one too.

jbarish · Post by **jbarish** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 5:48 pm

Does this one have the same phase issue in Logic 10.4.1 that wasn't fixed in Temper??

ncthom · Post by **ncthom** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 6:51 pm

@jbarish - No phase issues that I'm aware of. I've got your comment from the Temper thread next up on my todo list. Your post came right during crunch time trying to wrap Tantrum up, so I haven't had a chance to get to it yet– sorry about that. I encourage you to grab the demo of Tantrum and see if it's causing you problems. I'll happily take feedback there as well.

@halonmusic Great

Would love to know what you think

Halonmusic · Post by **Halonmusic** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 7:42 pm

ncthom wrote:@jbarish - No phase issues that I'm aware of. I've got your comment from the Temper thread next up on my todo list. Your post came right during crunch time trying to wrap Tantrum up, so I haven't had a chance to get to it yet– sorry about that. I encourage you to grab the demo of Tantrum and see if it's causing you problems. I'll happily take feedback there as well.

@halonmusic Great Would love to know what you think

MogwaiBoy · Post by **MogwaiBoy** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:17 pm

Thank you for offering Temper for free

Liero · Post by **Liero** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:19 pm

So beyond the marketing hype what this actually is... is a combination of waveshaper and an allpass filter?

ncthom · Post by **ncthom** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:28 pm

@MogwaiBoy you're very welcome!

@Liero yup, you're pretty close. I'll be releasing a walkthrough demo later this week to dive a little more into the sound and what it can do. In the mean time, there's a high-level signal flow diagram available in the user guide linked on the Tantrum product page. The saturation stage includes a 3-band EQ followed by a wave shaper with some classic shapes and a few homemade shapes. The phase modulation stage uses a series of allpass filters with modulated coefficients.

jbarish · Post by **jbarish** » Wed Apr 04, 2018 2:22 am

Yes, the comb filtering / out of phaseness is still there. Simple test. Put Tantrum (I used Classic Tape preset) on the insert channel of a drum loop and turn the mix knob all the way to the left (100% dry). Then start slowly turning the mix knob up and before you can even get a quarter of the way up with the mix knob you'll hear the dry signal start to go out of phase with the wet signal. This is on Logic 10.4.1 and Sierra. It's even more obvious when used on a send. The demo limitations are annoying as hell with the constant volume drops and it really could use a bypass button on the plugin itself.

ncthom · Post by **ncthom** » Wed Apr 04, 2018 12:05 pm

Yep, you're right. I took a look, believe I miscalculated my wet/dry delay compensation. I will have this fixed in the first update as soon as I can, thanks for telling me. And I'll have a Temper update asap as well.

I take your point on the volume drops too, unfortunately "annoying as hell" is the point of a demo restriction. But I've made a note of your feedback and if making a change there becomes really important I'll be happy to do it. Cheers!

jbarish · Post by **jbarish** » Wed Apr 04, 2018 4:36 pm

ncthom wrote:Yep, you're right. I took a look, believe I miscalculated my wet/dry delay compensation. I will have this fixed in the first update as soon as I can, thanks for telling me. And I'll have a Temper update asap as well.

I take your point on the volume drops too, unfortunately "annoying as hell" is the point of a demo restriction. But I've made a note of your feedback and if making a change there becomes really important I'll be happy to do it. Cheers!

Glad to hear you found the problem.
The fade out demo restriction is of course supposed to prevent people from using your product for free but when it becomes so obtrusive as to become a nuisance that makes evaluating your plugin annoying, then it chases potential business away. It can be a fine line but I think the current fades are much too short. Your plug isn't overly complicated feature wise so every 30 seconds wouldn't be unreasonable and is not at all unusual amongst current demo restrictions. PM if you'd like me to test Tantrum when it's fixed. Also any chance of a bypass button being added??

Russell Grand · Post by **Russell Grand** » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:13 pm

jbarish wrote:
ncthom wrote:Yep, you're right. I took a look, believe I miscalculated my wet/dry delay compensation. I will have this fixed in the first update as soon as I can, thanks for telling me. And I'll have a Temper update asap as well.

I take your point on the volume drops too, unfortunately "annoying as hell" is the point of a demo restriction. But I've made a note of your feedback and if making a change there becomes really important I'll be happy to do it. Cheers!
Glad to hear you found the problem.
The fade out demo restriction is of course supposed to prevent people from using your product for free but when it becomes so obtrusive as to become a nuisance that makes evaluating your plugin annoying, then it chases potential business away. It can be a fine line but I think the current fades are much too short. Your plug isn't overly complicated feature wise so every 30 seconds wouldn't be unreasonable and is not at all unusual amongst current demo restrictions. PM if you'd like me to test Tantrum when it's fixed. Also any chance of a bypass button being added??

Yep, like you said: there's an extremely fine line between making a demo useable and being so lax in demo restrictions that it's way too easy for people to use a demo in their productions without ever purchasing the product. While I understand your desire for 30 second intervals, that's more than enough time to record a few bars using Tantrum and loop it (obviously it depends on the type of music and whether one records say 3 minutes of guitar or on a looped beat) without ever having to buy the plug, which all but defeats the purpose of a demo restriction. In my opinion 30 seconds leaves way much time for people to take advantage of it. So while I see your issue, if it were up to me I wouldn't be more generous with the fade outs. To be fair though, I would probably opt for 14-day full demo instead of fade outs.

mutantdog · Post by **mutantdog** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 10:39 am

The problem with having fades that are too frequent is that it becomes impossible to actually test a plugin in any sort of realistic context. Sure, you might like the sound of an effect in isolation but does it work well in a mix? What about if the demo restriction inhibits your tweaking to the point where it removes any enjoyment, wouldn't that put you off buying it?

I haven't demoed this myself but by the sounds of it I'd probably give up after a couple of minutes and uninstall it.

TIMT · Post by **TIMT** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 11:08 am

Wow..product sound demos just seem to be getting more and more ambiguous don't they.....that youtube video is up there with some of the most useless introductory sound demos i have ever heard.is the takeaway that this will help me make really cheesy music like that of the video?if this is a distortion plugin,i'm really not hearing much if any distortion or saturation for that matter in that video(can't check out the VST demo as i'm on holiday)

ncthom · Post by **ncthom** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 12:40 pm

Thanks for the discussion guys, I hear you. Unfortunately this seems like just an issue where along the spectrum of possible demo restrictions, any choice I make somewhere in the middle creates a group of people who are upset and a group of people who are fine. On the extremes of this spectrum, I probably make no sales. I hope you can appreciate that I just had to make a decision, so I did. If it turns out that that decision puts you in the "upset" group, that's too bad, but sure, go ahead and uninstall it. No harm done. Perhaps in the future I'll take Russell's idea for a time-expiring full featured demo, I quite like that.

@TIMT – That's the launch video, we have a walkthrough video coming up today or tomorrow. Keep an eye out for that, I think it will answer a lot of your questions.

And for those of you who have taken the time to try out the demo– hope you're enjoying it!

Happy to hear your feedback.

Nick

Tantrum from Creative Intent (Distortion Plugin, VST/VST3/AU)