THERMAL - Interactive Distortion Plugin by Output

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My bundle upgrade to Rev and Rev-X Loops plus their Expansions was $86. With THERMAL, they added $149 to make it $235, which is not good. I need to check about this with Output, so that I can take benefit during the next 25%/35% off sale.

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databroth wrote: Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:07 pm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbaueq3M-eM

I did a livestream of sound design with thermal
only using a saw wave as input

it is amazing in my opinion
Wow, sounds amazing indeed. Thanks for making this. :tu:

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Maybe this will be the distortion that finally passes my ‘but is it realy better than Trash 2’ test!
X32 Desk, i9 PC, S49MK2, Studio One, BWS, Live 12. PUSH 3 SA, Osmose, Summit, Pro 3, Prophet8, Syntakt, Digitone, Drumlogue, OP1-F, Eurorack, TD27 Drums, Nord Drum3P, Guitars, Basses, Amps and of course lots of pedals!

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Ok, so I'm doing a side by side between thermal and trash2
right off the bat, the biggest thing I'm noticing about trash is it clicks when adjusting parameters, this makes it super hard to dial in very subtle overdrive as there is a distinct click between values

trash definitely wins over in the potential to be subtle
you can just get way more surgical with trash's drive curves

however I found they have somewhat different sounds, with trash being a bit fuzzier and thermal being much more warm and natural

as fare as features go these are somewhat different beasts
trash has 2 stages of 4 band distortion, convolution, and 2 eqs, for designing distortion sounds, this is still the way to go

thermal however is a little more fun and easy to use
3 bands of distortion+feedback, but each band can also host an effect, then 2 more effects after that

personally when it came to heavier less subtle distortion settings I liked thermal better
Check out my website for synth/software articles reviews and presets http://databroth.com (new review every monday)

I also do experimental sound design and demos of plugins (no talking) on my youtube: https://www.youtube.com/databroth

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Its amazing how good (and how overlooked by iZotope) Trash2 is, I didn't buy Saturn2 after trying it against Trash, sure things are different and there are pros' and con's of both, but still workflow and subtleties aside nothing has realy come close to being better than Trash2 'overall'. Still, Thermal looks good and I do have everything else....but I can probably wait (Output also don't update or add new features much which is a negative point for me....)
X32 Desk, i9 PC, S49MK2, Studio One, BWS, Live 12. PUSH 3 SA, Osmose, Summit, Pro 3, Prophet8, Syntakt, Digitone, Drumlogue, OP1-F, Eurorack, TD27 Drums, Nord Drum3P, Guitars, Basses, Amps and of course lots of pedals!

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databroth wrote: Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:07 pm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbaueq3M-eM

I did a livestream of sound design with thermal
only using a saw wave as input

it is amazing in my opinion
:tu:

What's the CPU hit like? With the amount of visualisation going on, I feel like it's gonna be heavy.

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NI Crush Pack can do a few of these things and achieve a similar sound by the way. Thermal is of course more advanced and offers more capabilities and controls like multiband distortion, modulation options, effects and waveform view. Just saying.

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Yeh, this is where the no demo things becomes an issue, I am interested in the warm/subtle/saturation end more than the outlandish stuff, like to hear some demos of that at least (but ideally like to try it!)

I see PA is selling Black Box HG-2 for 40 bucks with todays deals, I may give that a demo fist....
X32 Desk, i9 PC, S49MK2, Studio One, BWS, Live 12. PUSH 3 SA, Osmose, Summit, Pro 3, Prophet8, Syntakt, Digitone, Drumlogue, OP1-F, Eurorack, TD27 Drums, Nord Drum3P, Guitars, Basses, Amps and of course lots of pedals!

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You may also want to try Phil's Cascade, which is also on sale at PA. It's one of their best, I think, and has a range of saturation and distortion, and it can definitely "warm" material. It's a bit unpredictable, but I got really interesting sounds out of this.

That said, I'd be very interested in more user experiences and videos on Thermal, which looks very tempting.

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If I can finish my studio reno and reconstruction in time, I might be able to compare Thermal with Elektron Analog Heat in terms of the distortion parts. Yes, I know one is software and the other is analog hardware but since the software often tries to model analog , it might be worth a shot? If Thermal comes 98% close, then the price difference between hard and software might warrant the software purchase. Btw, its also $99 for me to upgrade my bundle.

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The thing I find most interesting about thermal over other distortions, is the built in modulation. Can anybody name me another distortion where you can add movement to the distortion? I know it would be possible with max4live, but this kind of thing gets complex real fast.

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thagreatbelow wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:47 pm The thing I find most interesting about thermal over other distortions, is the built in modulation. Can anybody name me another distortion where you can add movement to the distortion? I know it would be possible with max4live, but this kind of thing gets complex real fast.
Saturn and Dent have a modulation
saturn even has custom lfos, though thermal's lfos are better imo
Check out my website for synth/software articles reviews and presets http://databroth.com (new review every monday)

I also do experimental sound design and demos of plugins (no talking) on my youtube: https://www.youtube.com/databroth

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Dent is completely underrated!

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martinjuenke wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 6:32 pm Dent is completely underrated!
Indeed. I just got Dent 2 for $0. I am surprised how awesome little monster it is.

No hurry to get Thermal. I paid $55 for Portal (and 2 Expansions), so I definitely won't spend more than that for Thermal.

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databroth wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 5:30 pm
thagreatbelow wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:47 pm The thing I find most interesting about thermal over other distortions, is the built in modulation. Can anybody name me another distortion where you can add movement to the distortion? I know it would be possible with max4live, but this kind of thing gets complex real fast.
Saturn and Dent have a modulation
saturn even has custom lfos, though thermal's lfos are better imo
Hmm interesting I wasn't aware of that. I own both, so now i'm gonna mess with those before deciding to get thermal. Well, I'm going to get thermal, but it becomes a matter of when.

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