KVR Audio

antic604 · Post by **antic604** » Fri Mar 12, 2021 3:03 pm

Lowtility 2 is a low-end filter and mid/side utility plugin. It lets you cleanly cut the low frequencies from your mix, and modify the stereo width of the low end.

Couldn't find any mention of it, so even though it's not new I figured it's good to have a thread about it. Anyone familiar with it and how it compares to - often much more expensive - other similar plugins, like Nugen's "Monofilter" ($119)?

evo2slo · Post by **evo2slo** » Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:38 pm

I think Lowtility is great and am a big fan of all Venomode plugins. I like having both the full and low views for the stereo and phase meters, and while an analyzer would be nice as an option in the filter view window it's not really necessary. The layout is clean and very fast to work with.

I also have Monofilter (got for $18 as an upgrade to the light version that I got from the Focusrite collective for free). I far prefer using Lowtility because of the mode options, variable low cut slopes, and intuitive layout. I am also biased as I have had excellent support communications with Venomode, and a frustrating experience with support from Nugen.

The big advantage of Monofilter over Lowtility is that it has a linear phase mode. This is important to minimize phase shifting from steep filter cuts when processing the same signal in parallel, like multiple mic sources or duplicate tracks. It can also smudge transients though, so usually minimum phase is best which is probably why Venomode chose that for Lowtility. Be cautious of phase issues when using Lowtility on correlated sources, but the phase flip options can help with that.

Another note about Monofilter: delay compensation is not reported to my DAW (Cubase) unless I turn the plug in off and then on again. Proper compensation is crucial for linear phase, and that kind of sloppiness from Nugen (and lack of updates) makes me hesitant to use it.

TIMT · Post by **TIMT** » Sat Mar 13, 2021 7:44 am

Yeah. This could do with a linear phase mode too. I barely ever come across a situation where a 1st order highpass combined with lowshelf doesn't do the trick to tame the energy in the difference though. The highpass is just to make sure no DC crap spills into the difference which can sound weird on modern stuff. Though, some people find that charming and is a big part of the sound of stereo on "inferior"recording mediums like tape and vinyl

ericzang · Post by **ericzang** » Sat Mar 13, 2021 8:17 am

While specialized low width plugins have a nice streamlined approach, for myself I still find the most flexibility just using an eq with mid side options. I usually use a low shelf on the side when I want to retain a slight amount of width (for example the low string of a stereo recorded/widened acoustic guitar). Sometimes I find I want to compensate the resulting overall reduction of low freq content by adding a +1-2db shelf to the mid.

monophonK · Post by **monophonK** » Fri Apr 29, 2022 8:33 pm

Updated Lowtility to version 2.1.0, adding native support for Apple M1 processors.
The update is free for existing users, and can be downloaded from the Venomode website.
Added: Apple M1 support.
Added: Audition low end width section.
Added: Slider values can be manually typed.
Added: Improved GUI drawing performance.
Changed: Dropped 32-bit Windows support.
Fixed: Sometimes crashing on session reload.
Fixed: Graph lines flickering when dragging window.
Fixed: Custom scaling not working correctly in Reaper.

https://venomode.com/lowtility

martinjuenke · Post by **martinjuenke** » Sat Apr 30, 2022 7:02 am

This is a very usefull and good item.

"Lowtility" from Venomode, GBP15