Voxengo SPAN Plus 1.22 spectrum analyzer plugin released

[Aleksey Vaneev]

January 17, 2023: Voxengo is happy to announce the release of SPAN Plus version 1.22 - an extended real-time “fast Fourier transform” audio spectrum analyzer plug-in for professional music and audio production applications. SPAN Plus is available in AAX, AudioUnit, VST, and VST3 plug-in formats, for macOS and Windows computers.

SPAN Plus is an extended version of the freeware SPAN plug-in: SPAN Plus provides several additional features such as PNG file export, real-time spectrum import/export, static spectrums display, and a “wide” spectrum display.

Changes in this version:

* Removed SSSE3 requirement on Windows.
* Reduced visual tearing on Windows.
* Increased averaged spectrum calculation performance thus reducing time it takes to update the GUI.
* Improved spectrum averaging precision for >1/3oct.
* Static spectrum's name is now assigned/changed on "Take" only if it is currently "unnamed".
* Changed FFT analyzer's minimal averaging time to 5ms (down from 50ms).
* Changed static spectrum shift range to -42..42 dB (up from -32..32).
* Added a small delay to the "Max Crest Factor" estimation, to reduce over-reaction to transients at playback start.
* Fixed a system DPI scaling-related VST3 GUI resizing issue in Cubase, on Windows.



SPAN Plus provides you with a very flexible “mode” system which you can use to setup your spectrum analyzer preferences. You may specify Fourier block size in samples, FFT window overlap percentage, spectrum's visual slope. Beside that you can choose to display secondary spectrum of a desired type (e.g. real-time maximum, all-time maximum). Spectrum can be smoothed out visually for an easier examination.

SPAN Plus supports multi-channel analysis and can be set to display spectrums from two different channels or channel groups at the same time. Spectrum's color can be chosen to taste.

SPAN Plus also features output level metering with adjustable ballistics and integration time, K-metering (including calibration K-metering). SPAN Plus displays level metering statistics, headroom estimation and clipping detection. Correlation metering is available as well.

SPAN Plus features:

* Real-time spectrum import/export
* PNG file export
* CSV spectrum file load/save
* Static spectrums display
* Output signal power statistics
* Spectrum smoothing
* User interface window resizing
* True peak and clipping statistics
* Correlation meter
* EBU R128 LUFS/LU metering
* K-metering
* Stereo and multi-channel analysis
* Mid/side analysis
* Internal channel routing
* Channel grouping
* Preset manager
* Undo/redo history
* A/B comparisons
* Contextual hint messages
* All sample rates support
* Retina and HighDPI support

Demo version of SPAN Plus can be downloaded freely at the Voxengo web site: https://www.voxengo.com/product/spanplus/?eref=fo

[Halonmusic]

[ralfrobert]

Thanks, Aleksey. Any other interesting news from Voxengo?

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Thanks, Aleksey. Any other interesting news from Voxengo?

As usual, incremental updates to other products are on the way.

[Junkyard Sam]

I always appreciate Voxengo updates. You can tell the best developers because they refine and perfect their tools over time... And the developers care about the little things. So you get really polished tools you can rely on.

I love Voxengo the way I love Reaper. They're not the same, but what they have in common is efficiency, stability, and quality. Reliability.

SOBOR is a beautiful reverb. TEOTE is part of the final polish on every song. Marquis & Elephant are a compressor/limiter combo that might be equaled by other great tools, but can't be beat.

And that's just scratching the surface. So many good tools. Getting back to SPAN (and even better SPAN Plus) ---

Before SPAN the advice was "just use your ears" which is great but I had nothing scientific to rely on for analysation... But SPAN helped me to understand tonal balance and frequency overlaps which cause mud.

Long live Voxengo, and I hope this classic library of tools can survive the current madness of the world.

PS. On a parting note, Voxengo has a "premium membership" which is a one time fee for the whole suite of FX... And since I got it, several of my favorites were kindly added for free... Not to mention all the incremental lifetime updates. One of the best FX purchases I ever made.

[El°HYM]

I always appreciate Voxengo updates. You can tell the best developers because they refine and perfect their tools over time... And the developers care about the little things. So you get really polished tools you can rely on.

I love Voxengo the way I love Reaper. They're not the same, but what they have in common is efficiency, stability, and quality. Reliability.

SOBOR is a beautiful reverb. TEOTE is part of the final polish on every song. Marquis & Elephant are a compressor/limiter combo that might be equaled by other great tools, but can't be beat.

And that's just scratching the surface. So many good tools. Getting back to SPAN (and even better SPAN Plus) ---

Before SPAN the advice was "just use your ears" which is great but I had nothing scientific to rely on for analysation... But SPAN helped me to understand tonal balance and frequency overlaps which cause mud.

Long live Voxengo, and I hope this classic library of tools can survive the current madness of the world.

PS. On a parting note, Voxengo has a "premium membership" which is a one time fee for the whole suite of FX... And since I got it, several of my favorites were kindly added for free... Not to mention all the incremental lifetime updates. One of the best FX purchases I ever made.

This!

[Aleksey Vaneev]

I wonder, what's a better outcome?? a "black rectangle" by Malevitch, "white rectangle" by Malevitch, "red rectangle" by Malevitch?

[Aleksey Vaneev]

maybe "beige rectangle" is better?

[Dirtgrain]

Word up--nice update. Thanks

[e@rs]

All SPAN Plus downloads show 1.21, what happened to version 1.22?

[Ploki]

All SPAN Plus downloads show 1.21, what happened to version 1.22?

copy the link and replace "121" with "122" and it should download it

not that it answers what happened in any way

[e@rs]

Thanx, but the trick doesn't seem to work (at least for Win, didn't try the others).

Anyway, I already have the 1.22 installer, yet didn't install it and now I'm a bit scared to install it as it was removed from Voxengo's site with no explanation.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Sorry for the mess with v1.22 and v1.21. There was a problem with authorizing v1.22 so I had to revert to v1.21 for a while. I will release v1.23 soon which will fix the problem.

[Cyanide Lovesong]

For anyone who has SPAN or SPAN Plus, be sure to look at the settings. You can customize it in very helpful ways.

Adjusting the slope, such that straight across is brighter or darker is an obvious one...

But there's also a mode that normalizes/scales the view vertically which helps you get a detailed sense of your overall mix slope, peaks, and valleys.

You can capture a tonal balance curve and use it in the background for reference.

And if you like SPAN, Curve EQ and Prime EQ are a logical next step... And of course TEOTE is a must own.

Thanks, Voxengo, for the continued updates and support.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Version 1.23 is now available for download.