Snapback: The Instant Drum Layering Effect – v1.1 UPDATE

[kraster]

Slapback looks interesting (and cheap enough), but I’m having concerns regarding latency. How are y’all getting around it, is it worth the hassle? Is it a hassle at all?

I don’t see myself making music with 25-100+ ms latency, so I’d probably bounce a lot and pick out the hits I want to use? Idk. Then again, I’m not sure I’d gain a lot compared to my existing workflow.

I should probably just try the demo, but I’d like to hear some real life input. Thanks.

It's not a live tool. It' very much a "commit once you're happy" tool.

I had two in series on a break. One to detect the kicks and one to detect the snares.

Completely transformed the break. Once I was happy I just committed.

The envelope is very good at isolating the components in a loops.

It really is a very neat set of tools. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

[_al_]

We have plans to add more filter types to FilterShaper XL (and to the FilterShaper in ShaperBox), yes, but it's not a big priority right now. We actually already habe more filter types implemented, including a really cool Moog emulation, but then it always takes ages for us to fine-tune and we only want to add new algorithms if we're 100% happy with the result.

I do applaud your attention to detail, but at the same time... are you sure your filters will need to be analogue modelled, in order to please your users?
Obviously I can only speak for myself, but I can see the potential for Shaperbox to become my go-to multi fx, that I can slap on any track that needs a little spicing up.

But at the same time, I've noticed the newer additions to SB taking a little bit more cpu than the previous additions?

And this concerns me a bit. I want SB to be my creative channel strip that I can throw on anything, but if Cableguys push for that last 10% of sound quality, maybe we''ll end up with a plugin that I would only place on a couple of busses, due to cpu concerns!

That's really not a direction I would like to see you go. We have proper analog emulations for all that stuff.
And honestly, SB seems designed as a VST for people who want to do things, rather than trying to sell itself with gimmicky claims.
This is kinda how I view Shaperbox. It's like an elegant extension of my DAW.

At the very least, I will hope that there will be an eco mode for any emu stuff you are planning on adding!

I mean, yeah... we already got the standard HP / LP which I hope won't change too much, but I can assure you, if a comb filter appeared in SB, I would not be trying to find issues in filter quality, as I would be too busy putting it to good use lol.

Just my humble opinion as a long term user

[elassi]

That's really not a direction I would like to see you go.

Without dropping my points on the table (because it's too much hassle right now) I vote for the opposite.

[nanostream]

It's not a live tool. It' very much a "commit once you're happy" tool.

Yeah, seems that way. Thanks!

[_al_]

That's really not a direction I would like to see you go.

Without dropping my points on the table (because it's too much hassle right now) I vote for the opposite.

Like I say, if there was an Eco mode, I wouldn't be concerned.
And if I'm honest, I mostly use SB's filters for faux sidechain duties (hp on the kick), but I really don't want to see something like the reverb or future comb start creeping up to Ozone's cpu levels.
I'll just go back to Melda if that happens.

So what do you think of this idea... keeping SB as a workhorse, while putting his latest cutting edge filters into FilterShaper XL?
And that way, FilterShaper XL won't feel so defunct, as it will have an advantage over SB for certain people.
FilterShaper XL has a gui that looks more suited to anal emus anyway.

Think that's the way I would play it.
But hey...he hasn't let us down yet, so lets see.
I don't think I've ever seen anyone complain about Cableguys tbh

[bite_me]

FilterShaper XL has a gui that looks more suited to anal emus anyway.

Wow, that´s filthy.

[billinder33]

Bought without demo'ing due to the great introductory price. I tested it on a rough outline of a song where the beat felt kind of stale. So I inserted Snapback on the kick, snare, and hat, using a different snapback sample on each. The plugin has an intuitive, self-explanatory interface and is quick to get good-sounding results. It added tons of grooviness to a beat that initially sounded very dry. The analog snapbacks work great on kicks, and a clap snapback on an already clappy snare gave the beat some extra funk that wasn't there before. Really, really cool.

I usually design my kicks and snares from scratch and lately I've fallen into this lazy pattern of making everything very dry and transient forward, and forgot how much character you can get by building in some snapback. It makes the whole drum design process much faster versus having to layer samples in the DAW and bounce. With the added benefit of not having to deal with hits that don't start exactly on the beat during the arranging process. Obviously there's latency involved, but I didn't find it onerous in terms of mixing and arranging.

3 things I wish this plugin had.

First, some realtime randomization and modulation would be great. Randomizing the likelihood of the snapback or transient occurrence. Plus the ability to modulate amounts of snap, attack, decay, etc. would help humanize the feel. Yes I know you can do this in the DAW, but it's be easier doing it right in the plugin.

Second, I wish the shift was greater than 4ms because I occasionally wanted to make the sample 'tighter' than shift would allow. Third, rather than a single stage threshold, I wish it had the ability to create a threshold range so you could better single out hits of a certain volume in a loop.

None of these wishlist items are dealbreakers though. It's a really useful plugin and I'm pretty sure it'll be a mainstay in my drum design workflow. Great introductory price too.

[kraster]

+1 on the randomisation.

I also think that randomising the position of the SnapBack within a narrow window would a nice bit of variety.

Also being able to crop the start of the sample would be handy. You can pitch up to shorten the sound but it’s not ideal.

Also none of thes are dealbreakers but would be nice to have.

[chagzuki]

This is great for sketching/auditioning sounds. I'd manipulate the audio using different tools for fine control, or as someone else said to place reverse hits in specific places etc..

[_leras]

Cannot be repeated often enough...
It´s hard to come up with new ideas nowadays and it´s still astonishing (in a negative sense) about what minor nonsense people are still complaining.
Keep up the fantastic work and I hope this sells well!

It's not a new idea per se, as it's a pretty well known production technique.

I also think that ideally you'd be able to browse existing folders for samples, but maybe the import isn't too clunky.

As someone who uses this technique quite a lot, I'm looking forward to seeing if this makes the process simpler. For me it's pretty manual to reverse sounds, edit and line them up to get the right timing.

[Morty-C-137]

As a shaperbox owner (love it) I tried my best to emulate this using either the noise or reverb module (you can load up your own sounds in those modules), but there is no way in hell you can get the sound far enough in front of the sound that triggers it; the trigger can be shifted + or - 4ms but thats not enough to get the sample in front of the sound.

Snapback is very convenient and sleek. Well worth the $29 imho.

[revvy]

Looks fab. Very tempted to get this, my first CG plugin.

Guess I can justify it to myself as my (only) blackFri treat. Well, along with the new boots.Ah, and the nice T-shirt.

EDIT: bought. It's great! Super simple but flexible enough.

[Trancit]

It's not a new idea per se, as it's a pretty well known production technique.

But after all this time the first plugin simplifying a process which is normal quite time consuming and tedious...

I also think that ideally you'd be able to browse existing folders for samples, but maybe the import isn't too clunky.

Just put a symlink from your user sample folder in there and done... not the most difficult tweak I think...

[revvy]

When the SB video talks about adding SB to a sound in e.g. a full drum loop, you can only do that if the sound you want to add SB too is the loudest part of the loop no?

i.e. you set the threshold high for the loudest sound and cannot do this if the element you want from the loop is in the middle of the volume/threshold range, right? I want to apply it to an element of the loop that is not the loudest element.

[_leras]

It's not a new idea per se, as it's a pretty well known production technique.

But after all this time the first plugin simplifying a process which is normal quite time consuming and tedious...

I also think that ideally you'd be able to browse existing folders for samples, but maybe the import isn't too clunky.

Just put a symlink from your user sample folder in there and done... not the most difficult tweak I think...

Yes - fingers crossed, hopefully it'll work nicely. Very nice addition to shaperbox.

I have tons of sample folders - way too many So there's not one folder I can point to. That said, I haven't seen how it works yet, and will give this a try, so thanks for the suggestion!