Waves Aphex Aural Exciter

[jancivil]

I don't know anything about this product, but I use an exciter with fair frequency. Often it _is_ subtle.

What I use has a wide range of center frequency, and 0-50% means even number harmonics, above 50 odd. Then there is a drive level, & amount level.
Believe it or not, a low drive level and low amount is "subtle".

[Niowiad]

It definitely can be subtle, its "main knob" is a mix knob. Just use as little/much as needed.
It's one of my fav Waves plugins. One trick pony definitely, yet a really good one.
I could understand if we were talking full price, but saying it's not even worth the $24...

[acousticglue]

RothAir

[U-o]

RothAir

Eats too much CPU

[andrewklimek]

I found the Aphex was making a sharp cut around 1300hz and boosting everything above. Sometimes this worked surprisingly well, other times it killed the presence in a track. In the end I just learned that cut/boost trick and occasionally use it on my EQing. Seems better to have control over if/where/how much to cut. I also couldn't hear a difference once I matched my EQ. I know there's some saturation going on but I guess you could use anything for that. For free, I think Klangkelm IVGI is a great option.

The Audiothing Type A and Roth Air are more interesting cause they are doing some tricky dynamic/multiband stuff too... same with SKnote DolA which is probably my most used exciter type thing.

[Tj Shredder]

Try it on material without any highs. Material when pushing the high band by +20 db would not sound different. An exciter is aimed at those sort of problems. Think a badly aligned cassette recorder cutting of above 5kHz. The exciter will add spectral content where its missing completely...

[reggie1979]

I dunno. I always liked it and use it on some things. I didn't pay much for it.

[lfm]

I tried it and just found I did not get it or it sounded harsch to me - no matter what I did.
At the time it was a lovely female vocals I tried it on.

Then I did Waves Helios EQ(HLS) and was exactly what was needed. You get really subtle harmonics to it, and can go wild on mids as well without ever sounding harsch.

If it was Kramer bundle with Tape Machine, Pie compressor and HLS - get it. Very useful stuff.

[Reefius]

As an insert I don't like it, but on an FX track this thing is amazing. Just put the 'Mode' knob on 'AX' and set the send level on each track to your liking.

[simon.a.billington]

Tried the Aural Exciter... Never thought much of it... One trick pony really. If your tracks are so dull that this would help, there's something wrong with your tracks! You'll use it once and that'll be the end of it.

I actually found it does depend on the content you use with it.

This day and age many of us have plenty of tricks that we use along the way to help stop the track from becoming too dead and dull. Many of these techniques wouldn’t have been easily achievable back in the day of the Aural Exciter, maybe even impossible. Hell, the amount of processors we potentiall have available to use per channel is astronomical compared to those days.

Perhaps to really appreciate it we need to change what we do. Not for every mix, but it could be just another method at producing something slightly different sounding.

[Local Man]

Has anyone compared this to the stock exciter in Logic?
I've been using Logic for a few years now and for some reason I had ignored the exciter until a few months ago. I find it very useful in certain situations.

[Boone777]

Last time I used the exciter it was in Logic 9 back then I thought everything else sounded better than Logic's.

[simon.a.billington]

Has anyone compared this to the stock exciter in Logic?
I've been using Logic for a few years now and for some reason I had ignored the exciter until a few months ago. I find it very useful in certain situations.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

I ought to crack it out and give it another try.

[PatchAdamz]

I dunno. I always liked it and use it on some things. I didn't pay much for it.

Thats a good test AND how it sounds on mixes OUTSIDE the studio.