Any opinions on SpectalLayers 6? How does it compare to Photosounder?

[midi_transmission]

Looks like a really cool software and it's on sale at the moment. Does anybody use it? How is it? Any cool thing you're doing with it?

And how does it compare to Photosounder?

[Dirtgrain]

i just need something i can clean up useless ambient audio frequencies. i might jump on the SL deal. looking thru the manual and doc. i just get a weird vibe about Magix. its like they are a Corel kind of company. not a market leader and just gimicky ads. i dont know.

First, there is not SpectraLayers deal (as yesterday) out there yet. It could be soon, since version 7 is already announced and that could take a month, but not much more than that.

Then regular launch SL deals are not that attractive. At first years (2012), it was sold for $399 new, with yearly $199 upgrades. Since most versions came with relevant novel features, even skipping one meant $600 cost in three years, which course is astronomical, crazy pricing for most users.
Then Sony Creative Software (Japan/US), sold their Pro software division to MAGIX (GER) a few years ago, but Spectralayers/Divideframe (France) has always only been an associated developer. The founder is a research pioneer in the field and is always coming with novel features, the kind that can be later copied and streamlined by the likes of iZotope.

Anyway, (it is an unusual story, so needs to be told). At 2018 we found that Steinberg stepped in, which is good because SL aim is to be the specialized tool to attach to all DAWs and workflows and Steinberg is behind the ARA protocol, that supposedly reached maturity with ARA2.
So SL6 was jointly released, but still is waiting for full implementation, up to now and SL has yet to deliver the promised (and published) ARA2 functionality and so users are waiting that update, which should be delivered before Spectralayers 7 is released. Once it works in one version it will work in the next too.

All that said, the reason for choosing RX7 Standard over SL7 would be its steep learning curve and what your actual workflow needs are.
iZotope gravitates toward ONE KNOB solves all, whereas SL is the every-time-deeper photoshop of audio (Photosounder is an economic alternative, that appears to be resurrected...).
So if you do manual frame by frame kind of cleaning/design, like forensic or detailed sound design work, then the powerful SL selection palette might be what you need.
However SL also has very efficient spectral "casting" and "molding" easy tools which are the bigger weapon there is at the Loudness Wars, but highly destructive, to the point of leaving your stems unrecoverable for future alternative mastering, if you don't save them elsewhere before the process.

Back to the offers, pricing could have changed like it has in most of the industry (including RX). Since 2018, SL legacy versions had been offered at Samplitude Suite sales, and also at other specific vendors sales. However SL past versions are not recommended, mainly because what iZotope RX7 and other spectral editors do today is mostly the same (or more) of what SL,1,2,3,4 do.
So discard those earlier SL versions... Version 6 is yet to deliver and we will soon see what version 7 price is. The only reason to buy an early version of SL would be in order to later get a discount upgrade to latest SL version. And there were a couple of weeks at Steinberg SL launch, when updates were offered for $50 and $100 depending on your version number, but only happened once.

//Personally I wish that Steinberg manages to build a larger and varied customer base. It will provide feedback, help with testing and with the learning curve at forums and groups, plus generate novel uses and workflows, apart from ease integration with other software platforms. Cubase is there, a valuable learning that has taken more than 20 years...