Dominion

This was the first useful free transient shaper, and one of the first useful VST transient shapers free or otherwise. It has held-up well.

The saturation comes off a little harsh today, but I still pull this guy out when the signal I'm processing is a little too complex for a traditional compressor.

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Another winner from Sascha.

Dominion's an esoteric plugin - well worth the d/l, even though you may not use it all the time. The sort of plugin that tends to be of specialist nature and you'd normally expect only a reputable "name" company to release (with the price tag to match). It's an envelope shaper that allows you to emphasize or reduce the attack and sustain characteristic of whatever you throw at it. So what use is that?
On drums (which is probably what most people use it for) you can emphasize the initial transients (the very quick "hit"). Only one other FX - Transient Designer - springs to mind - and that's a h/w expensive unit... and well-acclaimed too. So what it does is make the drum track sound alot more snappy and in-yer-face. It can give it more energy by emphasizing the first stick hit, which is very important if you've used compressors etc on the drum track - comps usually take away some of the energy and realism of drums even though they increase the overall volume - and most comps will also reduce the high frequencies and sizzle. Dominion lets you put that all back into the drums that have already been compressed - so you get snappy livelier drums that also sound louder after the compression.

Not an obvious effect, but once you play around with it, you'll notice your drum tracks just have that extra little "commercial" sheen to them. You can use all manner of Eq, compressors, limiters etc on drums, but they can often sound dull - Dominion puts some life back into them - especially useful for more accoustic type drums rather than electronic drums.

But the bonus is you can also increase the sustain portion - which in audible terms is similar to what you get with a compressor. Sometimes a comp can only be used so much before it ruins the feel of a drum track, or makes noise too noticeable - so try out Dominion instead of a comp - it may do the job, and you can still boost the attack to get the snap as well as the body.

It doesn't have to be drums - use Dominion to emphasize the attack of accoustic guitar without needing to use bucketloads of Eq to emphasize the picking! Or to bring up the body of a guitar track. Use it to tone down background reverb in a noisy loop or an audio clip that you got wrong but can't rerecord for whatever reason. Use it to take a drumloop further back in the mix, or bring it forward. Use it on kicks even to emphasize the initial click without using mid range Eq boost on a sensitive mix.

Features - the bonus is the added harmonic enhancer and saturation circuit - all of usual Sascha high standard - not overly obvious but just enough to give a little more sheen without being harsh. Will work in stereo or mono, and has his trademark top quality brick wall limiter to really beef up your sound if that's what you want.

Cons - apparently has some P4 denormal issues, but he has a d/l'able fix for that.

Like exciters etc - complicated but just adds the quality extras you can't get normally.Read Review