New Kilohearts clipper

[swilow11]

New snapin/plugin from Kilohearts which is just a basic Clipper. Sounds okay, probably won't see much use outside of Phase Plant but a nice addition to the arsenal. No oversampling though (i dont think). But love how streamlined and simple Kilohearts stuff is. The less knobs, the better.

Anyone have any thoughts about it?

[DNAudio]

What you said pretty much sums up everything that can be said about it. It's as basic as it gets and that's fine when it's primarily for snap heap. I do wish Kilohearts would try and create their own specific "sound" with these FX, even if it's as basic as pre/post filters to make things brighter or darker. The compressor, limiter, dynamics, ect. all sound indistinct from other offerings which is probably what they were going for without even thinking about it but imo a bit of quirkiness can help make a brand stand out from the competition (which is important nowadays given how similar everything is)

[swilow11]

Basically yep, it's a Clipper. But nice to have that as an option. I don't love the limiter snapin all that much, I would normally put the transient shaper last but not really doing anything and have the soft clip option enabled. So this is useful.

Agreed re: maybe adding a bit more character to the snapins. I like most of them in the context of Phase Plant but they are incredibly neutral for the most part. Besides the trance gate, standard filter, frequency and pitch shifter, I don't use them outside Phase Plant/Snapheap...

[TIMT]

What you said pretty much sums up everything that can be said about it. It's as basic as it gets and that's fine when it's primarily for snap heap. I do wish Kilohearts would try and create their own specific "sound" with these FX, even if it's as basic as pre/post filters to make things brighter or darker. The compressor, limiter, dynamics, ect. all sound indistinct from other offerings which is probably what they were going for without even thinking about it but imo a bit of quirkiness can help make a brand stand out from the competition (which is important nowadays given how similar everything is)

It's all cookbook DSP that's why. The convolver is cool and has some features i haven't seen anywhere else, but i can leave the rest as i already have 1 or 2 plugins with cookbook algos(Melda for example). Becomes a bit redundant after awhile unless the entire ecosystem e.g Multipass appeals to you or something

[MattLeschuck]

At least to me, its all about what you can build in Snap Heap with the snap-ins. Thats what makes Kilohearts so special. I haven't seen anything as flexible as this. I use it regularly as a professional game sound design engineer.

[bagpipe200]

At least to me, its all about what you can build in Snap Heap with the snap-ins. Thats what makes Kilohearts so special. I haven't seen anything as flexible as this. I use it regularly as a professional game sound design engineer.

What does Snap Heap offer over using the individual Kilohearts VSTs? I've fired Snap Heap up a few times but I've never really found any advantage over just using individual effects.

I use Reaper. Maybe there are advantages depending on your DAW?

[swilow11]

At least to me, its all about what you can build in Snap Heap with the snap-ins. Thats what makes Kilohearts so special. I haven't seen anything as flexible as this. I use it regularly as a professional game sound design engineer.

What does Snap Heap offer over using the individual Kilohearts VSTs? I've fired Snap Heap up a few times but I've never really found any advantage over just using individual effects.

I use Reaper. Maybe there are advantages depending on your DAW?

Serial/parallel routing, the full Kilohearts modulation ecosystem, being able to save and recall FX chains, etc. Of course, much of what it does can be replicated in the DAW but this sort of container makes it a touch easier.

Plus it is super fun and engaging to to create your own Shimmer reverb, glitch effects, custom filters, etc.

[MattLeschuck]

At least to me, its all about what you can build in Snap Heap with the snap-ins. Thats what makes Kilohearts so special. I haven't seen anything as flexible as this. I use it regularly as a professional game sound design engineer.

What does Snap Heap offer over using the individual Kilohearts VSTs? I've fired Snap Heap up a few times but I've never really found any advantage over just using individual effects.

I use Reaper. Maybe there are advantages depending on your DAW?

Parallel processing and deep modulation that can be controlled by a single source. You can load Snap Heap within Snap Heap, so if you are like me that likes to build essentially your own saturation plugin, utility plugin, delay plugin, etc, you can load all those Snap Heap patches within a single Snap Heap. I find that this keeps things super tidy and easy to follow. Each lane has its own dedicated mix knob, which is great for automation. All this can be done within a single insert.

I could go on with a list of reasons why i think its special / unique, but those are some of the core reasons that quickly come to mind.

[JO512]

I use Reaper. Maybe there are advantages depending on your DAW?

There are some really powerful modulation possibilities in Snap Heap. I really like the LFO Table, for example. You can also modulate how much a modulator modulates. So many possibilities!

[FTsounds]

I agree most of their stuff are "clean" i think the reason is because with snap heap and multipass you can create almost everything.
Right now it's mostly something for thinker/creatives, where you like to have fun creating very cool stuff, such melda mxxx, and that's great, because when you already have a specific sound it's hard to go back.

What i felt i was missing on phase plant, compared with other synths are good lp filters. I really coudn't create certain, even common, sounds out of it.
So i recreated some lp filters from other machines and even made custom, and it was a kinda mindblowing how much difference this makes to the sound.
It's also nice the ability to swap filters on phase plant (the filters are made with snap heap) and having the cutoff modulation always linked, something you cannot do with the integrated filters, because when you change the type, it's like basically a different snapin.

If you are interested you can find the filters i made here https://ftsounds.com/b/e5EDs

[GaryG]

I use Reaper. Maybe there are advantages depending on your DAW?

There are some really powerful modulation possibilities in Snap Heap. I really like the LFO Table, for example. You can also modulate how much a modulator modulates. So many possibilities!

I use Snap Heap in Reaper

Reapers fx containers and modulation possibilities are great but can be... messy. If the modules do what I need then Snapheap is a nice tidy alternative imo. But then I use BYOME and Triad for the same reasons too if I want some more 'creative' effects .