KVR Audio

Greybox Audio · Post by **Greybox Audio** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 9:28 am

I recently joined the happy DDMF customers over the weekend. I'm currently trying to better understand the behaviour of all those classic EQs and it's been really helpful so far. Stability has been great so far and even Waves Plugins have been working flawless

I've been mostly comparing different 1073 emulations and it'd be great, if there was a way to either store multiple snapshots, or to be able to instantly switch between multiple plugins without having to close and reload them. However the MetaPlugin Demo has proven as a great workaround for this.

My only real complaint would be, that I find the cursor values sometimes pretty hard to read, especially when I'm hovering over a frequency line (see screenshot). Maybe something like a separate readout above the graph could be added with a future update?

mcbpete · Post by **mcbpete** » Tue Mar 13, 2018 11:03 am

Bought this yesterday and it's definitely been educational seeing the tiny minutiae of changes various plugins make to the sound even if my ears can't hear those changes ! One thing I found interesting and made my brain hurt trying to work out the answer was the linear analysis - what 'sound' is produced so it creates a stable equal power throughout the entire spectrum, is there a version of white noise that isn't pseudo random ?

Burillo · Post by **Burillo** » Tue Mar 13, 2018 11:58 am

try Voxengo SPAN with MAX mode, and put sine sweep into it.

mcbpete · Post by **mcbpete** » Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:42 pm

I've just seen this post from Compyfox mentioning 'a DIRAC test pulse' being a good reference sound for frequency response : viewtopic.php?p=6082001#p6081875

Is this what I'd need, and if so how do I generate one ?

docdued · Post by **docdued** » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:47 pm

Plugindoctor does use a "Dirac test pulse", which, when used with a finite sample rate, is simply a value of +1 in the first sample of the buffer, and then zeroes in all other samples. This signal has a completely flat spectrum and is therefore ideal to diagnose the linear reponse of a plugin.

Burillo · Post by **Burillo** » Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:59 pm

...except that i seem to remember that Dirac test pulse will produce bad results for plugins that have saturation/distortion, and that it's better to use sine sweep in those cases.

EDIT: see this thread viewtopic.php?p=6082903

docdued · Post by **docdued** » Wed Mar 14, 2018 8:40 pm

Well, the Dirac test pulse captures the linear response. The response to a sine wave, especially the generation of extra frequencies (higher harmonics etc) tells you something about the nonlinear response. This is what the "harmonic analysis" tab in Plugindoctor is good for. Currently with a single, but variable sine frequency for THD and two frequencies for IMD response. A full plot of e.g. THD as a function of input sine frequency will be added soon.

Burillo · Post by **Burillo** » Thu Mar 15, 2018 4:13 pm

i wasn't talking about response to a sine wave, but about capturing "linear" response from non-linear devices. it appears that Dirac pulse is not a reliable way to measure frequency response if there's saturation involved.

MogwaiBoy · Post by **MogwaiBoy** » Thu Mar 15, 2018 10:04 pm

Semi-related. Been waiting for Waves Q-Clone to go on $29 sale and finally it has. But I'm wondering if it's a waste of time now Plugindoctor is go. Was looking to use Q-Clone to evaluate/emulate curves of other EQ plugs.

Niowiad · Post by **Niowiad** » Thu Mar 15, 2018 11:39 pm

As far as I'm concerned, I haven't used the QClone once, since I got PluginDoctor :/
Especially since the update which allowed to open the waveshell file.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Wed Mar 28, 2018 5:14 pm

Burillo wrote:i wasn't talking about response to a sine wave, but about capturing "linear" response from non-linear devices. it appears that Dirac pulse is not a reliable way to measure frequency response if there's saturation involved.

It can be reliable if you know the "reference level" for the saturation. If you "undershoot" the test signal (read: it's quiet enough to not mass-trigger any saturation), then you can get fairly accurate results. If it overshots, then the frequency curves change.

A prime example is a compressor (which is also a "distortion device"). If the incoming test signal is too hot, your frequency plot is all over the place. If it's not exceeding thresholds or special "inner workings" of the tool in question, you should get a fairly good readout clearly telling you if the plugin ads "color" even before engaging it or not.

You can try this perfectly with Klanghelm tools, as you can shift the reference level from -18dBFS to 0dBFS

bbaggins · Post by **bbaggins** » Mon Apr 02, 2018 6:55 pm

I know this tool hasn't been available for very long, but has anyone so far passed on a plugin purchase based on something PluginDoctor informed them about? Or perhaps given a neglected plugin another chance?

kmonkey · Post by **kmonkey** » Mon Apr 02, 2018 7:03 pm

krabbencutter wrote: it'd be great, if there was a way to either store multiple snapshots, or to be able to instantly switch between multiple plugins without having to close and reload them.

I don't have plugindoctor yet and someone will correct me if i am wrong but i swear i saw at gearslutz someone posting how he is able to do just that! Store snapshot from one plugin then recreate EQ curve with another plugin within Plugindoctor. Kinda like he had layered pictures one bellow another all inside plugin doctor. That way he was able to clone plugin curves and compare different plugins. Apparently there is a snapshot feature it's just not obvious.

Again don't take me for real maybe i got wrong info but that was impression i was getting.

edit: yeah it's here if that is what you are looking for:

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/showpos ... tcount=182

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Tue Apr 03, 2018 12:44 am

Since the Free Version can't do that, you do need a regular (commercial) license

Funkybot's Evil Twin · Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:17 am

bbaggins wrote:I know this tool hasn't been available for very long, but has anyone so far passed on a plugin purchase based on something PluginDoctor informed them about? Or perhaps given a neglected plugin another chance?

That's actually an interesting question I hadn't considered. So my own personal experience to date has been more of a mixed bag in terms of the scenarios you describe. Some plugins have gotten a second life, others I'm using less, and I actually ended up buying plugins I otherwise would not have.

Take for example, the Arturia preamps. I wasn't too interested at first as I already had a lot of competing products, but checked them out anyway. Loading up the Neve and comparing it to others, I was surprised at a few things, for instance: 1) the Arturia had the same ripple in the frequency response where the mid-band meets the hi-shelf that the Slate had, 2) the curves themselves were very similar between the two, but 3) the Arturia had much aliasing than the Slate. In fact, all three Arturia preamps had very interesting things in terms of their frequency response and above average aliasing performance. So I ended up buying them, and I'm using the Slate plugins less.

DDMF Plugindoctor