Looking for simple Smooth/Enhancer VST effect

[Markus_13]

I've used Smooth/Enhancer DX plugin from Sony Sound Forge, but FL Studio dropped DX-plugin support few years ago, so i'm looking for same effect available as VST. This plugin was dead simple with only single parameter: Smooth/Enhance with values range from -5 to 5 (i still can use it inside SoundForge, but sometimes i want it as a part of FX-chain inside FL studio for convenience). I guess it's possible to achieve same blurring effect using some wave-shaper or maybe even compressor, but i'm not rly sure tbh, and i liked sound of that specific plugin a lot, so i wonder if anybody can suggest some kind of a nice replacement...

[MogwaiBoy]

If you can get more details on exactly what it does, then that'll help us to help you

[Neon Breath]

I don't understand the question.

You are looking for a smoothing/blurring effect, applied in subtle way?

[thecontrolcentre]

Is there a new vst version in SF 12 possibly?

[CinningBao]

Here's a video of it in action - below 0 sounds like a 1 or 2 pole low pass filter, above 0 I hear no change!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qk9otUj1Ok

And all the manual says is:

Code: Select all

Smooth/Enhance
To start the XFX Smooth/Enhance plug-in, choose Smooth/Enhance from the Process menu. For more information on using the XFX Smooth/Enhance plug-in, click the Help button () in the Smooth/Enhance dialog or refer to the Sound Forge online help (from the Help menu, choose Contents and Index).

As a replacement I'd probably be looking at Tilt EQ plugins, maybe try this one?

http://matthiaskock.de/wordpress/tilteq ... 21/tilteq/

Or search for Tilt EQ plugins on the Hoogle

[DaveClark]

Hi all,

Eventually I found this (haven't used the function myself):

1. The Smooth function will smooth fast-changing transients in a sound and is useful for removing glitches.

2. The Enhance function boosts the very highest frequencies (close to the Nyquist frequency ) in the sound file, making the sound file sound more vivid. It is useful for compensating for the effects of downsampling or for bringing out very fast transients in a sound file.

It could be argued that this is something like a variable high shelving filter, perhaps a tilt filter, etc., but "smooth fast-changing transients" suggests averaging, clipping, limiting or something like that going on rather than or in addition to merely having a gain less than one.

The audio from the video, however, does sound like simple filtering, so a shelving filter or a filter with high shelving might be the first thing to try.

Regards,
Dave Clark

On Edit: Here is a link to a SpectraLayers 4.0 analysis of the audio from the video posted above. The narrator didn't coordinate his changing of the slider with the musical clip, but I did find one region that was played for max Smooth, max Enhance, and Null (Zero), then outlined these. Of course the narrator's voice is also there in each block.

Analysis of Audio in Video

[DaveClark]

Hi all,

Out of curiosity, I took another look at this Smooth/Enhance function in SoundForge Pro and determined that it is made up of eleven different very simple, even crude, filters. I created a plugin that emulates the same functionality:

SmEn (Smoother/Enhancer)

Scroll to the bottom of this page. 32-bit and 64-bit VST2/VST3 versions are available. To use as VST3, just as the little note says, change the .dll extension to .vst3 and put into the standard VST3 folder.

There is a Gain and a Clipper in addition to the Smooth/Enhance function. The Enhancer can produce some "overs" so I included the Clipper. The Gain is pre-Clipper so the Clipper with catch Gain overs, also. The Gain is just a straightforward multiply --- nothing fancy.

The Enhancer doesn't do a whole lot; as one poster said, it's hard to hear any difference. With white noise, though, you can see that it definitely increases the very top end.

Please do let me know if you have any problems.

Regards,
Dave Clark

[Aloysius]

Smooth/Enhance


Process Menu

From the Process menu, choose Smooth/Enhance to add or remove high-frequency content.

From the Process menu, choose Smooth/Enhance.

Drag the Operation slider toward Smooth or Enhance:

The Smooth function will smooth fast-changing transients in a sound and is useful for removing glitches.

The Enhance function boosts the very highest frequencies (close to the Nyquist frequency) in the sound file, making the sound file sound more vivid. It is useful for compensating for the effects of downsampling or for bringing out very fast transients in a sound file.

Sound Forge Pro note Smooth/EnhanceSince the enhance function boosts frequencies near the Nyquist frequency, the current sample rate will determine what frequencies will be affected. At 44,100 Hz, the effect can be very subtle.

[TIMT]

Based on the description it sounds a bit like a slew limiter that affects just the top frequencies and is then ran through a highshelf.Airwindows slew 2 can do that,but not the latter part (the highshelf)you could just try running a highshelf after it too.he has a few different flavours of this as well,like a vinyl one (forgot the name of it) and there's one in FromTape.even if its not,i find slew limiting/clipping much more effective at smoothing out transients than a highshelf filter as they work on the rate of change of the waveform rather than just diminish the energy or magnitude of the frequencies

If you are adamant it has to be the Sony one though,you could just use Xlutops DXShell in FL(if you google "Xlutop DXShell"it should be first result on google).it works pretty well with most DX plugins apart from the Arboretum (which i haven't found a single shell that they would work with)

[DaveClark]

Based on the description it sounds a bit like a slew limiter that affects just the top frequencies and is then ran through a highshelf.

Analysis of output reveals the simple recursive filter:

output = B*input - A*output

with A and B depending on which of the filters is chosen by the slider. As I posted previously, "... very simple, even crude...."

Regards,
Dave Clark