iZotope Vinyl vs Unfiltered Audio Needlepoint

[lightsfadelow]

I have used Needlepoint since it was in beta. I think it is a really good plugin which does a particular type of effect well if you get the hang of it. One thing I would recommend is not trying to find the "perfect" settings for a particular track. My experience is things like surface dust/pops don't always sound as randomized as I would like it in a given setting. What I would recommend is putting it on a track with some subtle settings and then printing that track with the effect. Then, take that printed track and run it again through Needlepoint with the settings changed. It makes things more mixed up than a single pass through that you try to make perfect. Just keep rinsing and repeating till satisfied.

Interesting idea. But couldn’t you achieve exactly the same outcome with 2 instances of the plugin on the track?

You could try that but if you have a modulation lane it is going to modulate both instances the same. Maybe that is fine and two instances is less work but I don't want the modulations to track each other since I want to make it more naturally random sounding.

I didn’t realize you were modulating one or the instances, but you should be able to modulate the two instances separately nonetheless. When you enable modulation, every instance of an effect should show up as a modulation target and you can add an independent curve for each one. (At least that’s how it works in Logic and Cubase.) I suspect this is only untrue if you are using MIDI CC data to modulate the effect. Is there another scenario where they would get the same modulation data?

[DNnX]

I haven't tried Unfiltered one, but I've never consider iZotope Vinyl as realistic vinyl simulator. Anyway, it's still a handy tool to do some process

[JerGoertz]

I really enjoyed playing around with TDR's SimuLathe demo. The only major thing missing for using vinyl as an "effect" seems to be pitch/speed variation. Give that a shot if you're interested.

[simon.a.billington]

Needlepoint is super flexible and it has more options than Vinyl. If you're into that sort of thing, then it's definitely a must have in my opinion. I haven't really gelled with Silo, not really a fan of the reverbs on it either. Maybe if it had the modulation section that their earlier plugins have I'd like it more. Really a missed oportunity imho. I think there are better granular fx out there, including BYOME and TRIAD which can both do granular and then some. Safe to say I'd go with Needlepoint.

Needlepoint is indeed much more configurable and in-depth. Vinyl's strength is in its simplicity and no fuss, fast setup and tweak.

Concerning Silo's reverb, they're not you're every day pretty reverb. They are especially artefact ridden to compliment the granular effect engine. So you have to look at it differently. Possibly the smoothest, neutral sounding algorithm is Flare. But neutral in Silo has an entirely different meaning.