GRM Tools Spectral Transform

Spectral design tools

GRM Tools Spectral Transform (ST) is a bundle of four plug-ins that provides extremely powerful tools to transform deeply the spectral content of your audio material.

Conceived and realized by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (Musical Research Group) of the National Audiovisual Institute, Paris, France, GRM Tools is the result of numerous years of research and development by composers and sound designers in sound transformation software.

As all new GRM Tools (third generation), Spectral Transform is available in RTAS, VST and Audio Unit formats and can also be used in Stand-Alone mode.

GRM Tools ST contains:

• Contrast: independent modification of three groups of frequency components, according to the strength of their amplitudes.
• Equalize: 31-band graphic equalizer.
• FreqWarp: transform a sound by rearranging its frequency components in a completely free and creative way.
• FreqShift: transform a sound by any combination of frequency scaling or frequency shifting.

What's new in version 3?:

• Agitation feature: This set of controllers is used to add random variations to the processing parameters.
• Window resizing: The plug-in window can be resized by clicking and dragging.
• Multi-format: VST, Audio Unit, RTAS plug-ins and Standalone application.
• MIDI control for all parameters.

Contrast

Use this plug-in to add vibrancy, liveliness, depth, and subtle changes in timbre to sounds in mastering applications. As one user said, "It makes my old tapes come alive again. Better than when they were originally recorded." Contrast can also be used to create a wide range of extreme transformations and effects.

Contrast takes a completely original approach to compression/expansion-type processing technique.

Contrast analyzes a user-defined frequency range within the spectrum of an input sound and groups the frequency components within that range according to the strength of their amplitudes. The groups are frequency components with strong amplitudes, frequency components with medium amplitudes, and frequency components with weak amplitudes. The strength of each of the groups can then be modified independently.

Why do this? Because this approach allows you to redefine the character of a sound in a powerful and original way. If you decrease the strength of the medium and weak amplitudes, thus emphasizing the strong amplitudes, for example, you'll make a sound more mellow. If you strengthen the medium amplitudes relative to the stronger and weaker amplitudes, you'll add vibrancy, liveliness, and depth to a sound. If you strengthen the weak amplitudes relative to the others, you'll make the sound more metallic, harsh, and percussive.

Equalize

This plug-in gives you powerful and dynamic controls to rebalance the highs, lows, and midrange of a sound. In the stereo version of this plug-in, you can control the equalization curves of left and right channels independently or together.

Equalize is a 31-band graphic equalizer. Each band, controlled by a single slider, is 1/3- octave according to the ISO norm. Intuitive mouse-and-key commands are used to manipulate the slider controls easily and responsively. You can create an equalization curve with simple mouse gestures, for example, or move the curve to higher or lower frequencies, or control any number of sliders as a group. This plug-in turns an equalizer into a performance instrument.

FreqShift

Use this plug-in to transpose or transform a sound by any combination of frequency scaling or frequency shifting.

Shift contains two functions that can be used separately or together.

The scale function transposes a sound by multiplying each spectral component by a constant frequency.

The shift function is a frequency shifter, sometimes referred to as a single-sideband ring modulator, that adds a constant frequency to each spectral component. When you use a frequency shifter, harmonic sounds become inharmonic.

FreqWarp

Use this plug-in to transform a sound by rearranging its frequency components in a completely free and creative way. One user said, "This is the most far out, the most radical, the most bizarre, powerful, and effective sound transformation tool I have ever seen."

Freq War allows you to transferring a frequency from the input sound to a new position in the output sound, and the output sound will contain a rearrangement of the frequency components of the input sound. This can result in a radical change in timbre.