Product Reviews by KVR Members

Cool tool for enhancing the stereo field of your individual tracks or masters. The 2 ways to enhance stereo space combined into a single plugin. I had separate tools already to either control the Haas effect or adjusting the space during the more common M/S method, but didn't got (or knew) about a single tool which combines both. Great.

Also I like that you even have 2 ways to "post-control" the effect, by blending in the intensity (top parameter) and adjusting the volume balance between the left and right channel (bottom parameter). Excellent.

Now why I give only 3 stars for such a helpful tool?

1. The explanation and understanding of how parameters work and relate to each other in Haas-Mode seems illogical or isn't well explained. Now, first let's break down, how the Haas Effect works.
   
   In a shrinked down version: If an original sound and a slightly delayed reflection (from 2 ms up to 35ms) reach the listener's ears, the listener perceives both coming from the same direction as the first incoming wave (Law of the first wave front) and now what Helmut Haas found out, both combined signals alter the perceived sound.
   
   In Spread Light, You have a single "Tilt" parameter to control 2 things, the delay time to one side and the presence to the other, (like found in other Haas-typically Plugins).
   
   Now what is unique here is that they say the "Width" control seems to be the amount of the Haas-Effect (In my understanding basically a Dry/Wet mix for the delay, so far so good).
   
   But now they also state that even if you have the "Tilt" parameter set to 0 (no delay to one side = no Haas-Effect) and you turn the "Width" control over 100 (the default value), the signal will get more spatial width.
   
   How is that possible? Does that mean M/S width is also added in "Haas-Mode" when I turn the "Width" knob?
   
   If so, it might could bring an outstanding audial experience, but however isn't a clean Haas-Effect. (Something what I really want to have in some cases).
   
   Now of course I could be wrong in my understanding, but even this confusion should show that the manual could give a little more in-depth views about what is going on under the hood here.
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2. The "Tilt" parameter only provides a mystical range of -1.0 to 1.0 (What do these values actually stand for?).
   
   It does not offer a way to adjust (or even visualize) the exact time of the delayed signal in ms. That is a huge disadvantage in comparison to other Haas-plugins and can lead to problems in future projects, where I need that accuracy for phase correction if phase cancelations occur.
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3. The parameters are so extremely light displayed on the dark background, they are barely readable. Even the capability to resize the interface doesn't make it better.
   
   Adding to this, that Yum Audio itself is considering 'Spread Light' a tool for mastering, it probably can give problems to a whole bunch of costumers. That definitely needs an improvement.
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4. The products from this company are overpriced, and so is 'Spread Light'. 49$ list price is heavy.
   
   And keep in mind, that this is actually a "Light" version of another plugin they offer.
   
   It would have been amazing if this plugin isn't only free for a limited time as rather free for all times. This also could bring the company way more future costumers. A trick many other developer do constantly, because it works.
   
   Unfortunately, they didn't seen this potential yet, and the plugins itself offer very good quality. But simply not worth the price tag.
   
   
   
   Last but not least: A bug report :P
   "Tilt" parameter: Instead of the value [0.01] it shows [0.]. As opposed to that, at the negative side, the value [-0.01] is displayed correctly. This can lead to problems because some users might think [0.] = [0.00], which it isn't. It is [0.01].

Good tuner. The main and monophonic tuner is pretty well. It offers a stabilization feature of up to 1000 ms, which determines how long a detected note last on the display. For those who can't read in the speed of light, a great feature.

The polytuner feature unfortunately not serves its purpose. The actual notes do not get recognized, like it is the case at the main (monophonic) tuner. Rather it displays a fixed visualization of the determined notes and an amount of how much (I guess in cents) you are away from the correct tuning. No numbers, nothing. Just a few peaks going up and down.

Also the peaks last too short to really get an impression of the actual tuning of the string (it misses the stabilization feature of the main tuner).

That does not work out well.

But a cool thing about MTuner is that you can feed the detected note (as well as the pitchband data, if "Emit Pitchbend" is marked) as MIDI data into any synthesizer or sampler with a little routing.

That can lead to good results when you want to space up a little too monophonic content.

Perfect for noise sweeps (up-/downlifer etc.), because you already got the necessary filter(s) inside of the noise generator thanks to its in-built EQ. Also the plugin lets you get pretty creative with the filters due to the 2 multi-map parameters (macros).

The EQ is basically a copy of Melda's 'MEqualizer' plugin, a 6-band parametric EQ, but unlike 'MEqualizer', the EQ inside of this plugin does not offer the control over Gain, Freq and Q of all bands directly from the main interface. Yes, we can adjust it for every single band in the dedicated floating window, but still lags the workflow a bit.

Cool thing is that you can adjust the Dry/Wet or actually the amount of the filters, if things went too extreme.

You also can just put noise on the Mid or Sides or Left or Right, if you want to. Melda plugins offer this advanced routing capability by default.

Now to the announce, the modulators are not 4. They are only 2, and accessible only if you upgrade the free bundle for 49$. But you got the already stated 4 macros, for doing some advanced filter techniques.

Another thing I would have like to see would be the capability to blend different noise signals, because now you only have to option to choose 1 sound and adust the amount of the effect.

It's a test tone generator and as audio effect you can put it into any audio track and blend it with the original auduio. And its absolutely great in doing that.

But you also can use it as a limited monophonic synthesizer (which helds notes until the next MIDI Note-On message) since it allows MIDI data to be fed into it.
[Tip: You can use Melda's own and also free 'MUtility' plugin with the option 'Silence when Playback is OFF' to shut the audio.]

You can create so many different wave formes and shapes, it's unbelievable.

A shame that Melda didn't upgraded it with polyphonic input, MIDI-Note-Off sensivity and maybe some LFOs to control some parameters, creating a great basic synthesizer out of this one.

Good EQ with special features (adding harmonics to bands, saturation). The most important: You can use it for M/S or L/R eqing, have advanced visualized help and you got a 'Dry/Wet' mix knob for parallel eqing. But it also has some disadvantages as described in a minute.

Free M/S Equalizer are not easy to find, which makes MEqualizer a great opportunity, if you haven't got a M/S Equalizer in your arsenal yet.

Now, there are also some disadvantages immediately connected to that. You can adjust specific bands to process either the Mid, Side or both (Mid/Side) - (which is a very cool feature, and even some of my paid plugins can't do) -, but on the other hand you are limited to 6 bands for both, the Mid and the Side channel.

Comparing that to other known M/S or L/R plugins, where you have up to 8 bands per Mid and Side or Left or Right (up to 16 bands in total), this is very limited.

Now Melda states in the manual/tips of the plugin, that if you want to do so, you just need to have to 2 instances of MEqualizer in serial, one instance processing the Mid and one the Side signal, but for me as consumer that really doesn't hit the spot as I'm used to do that inside of one and only plugin, and not two. Always switching between both is a no-no for me, and I rather use a different EQ in the place of MEqualizer then, if I need a more flexible M/S EQ.

Another thing is that the behavior is a little weird when soloing a specific band through the in-depth floating window. The problem is that it doesn't solo a band actually as rather disables all other filters. That's not what you want to do when soloing a band. If soloed, I want to hear the specific band isolated and not the unaffected bands as well.

You still have a secondary option to isolate a band by setting "Auto-Listen" on and clicking on the band's cutoff point in the visualization, but for this you need to hold down the left-mouse click to keep the band isolated and you also could change the frequency cutoff and gain, if the mouse moves while holding down, which is a little incomfortable.

Other things about the plugin:

Bad:

- Visualization very little in the free version (you need to upgrade the free bundle for 49$ to be able to resize the inferface)
- Values of the bands in the main window are too light and small and not very good to see.
- High-and Lowpass-Filter only available in 6dB and 12dB per octave.
- Seems to Capture the key commands to your DAW.

Good:

- Auto-Gain Compensation available.
- You can add upper Harmonics to every single band.
- Visualized help areas (f.e. detecting corresponding notes / instrument layout)
- Add Saturation for a more musical sound.
- Switching between each band's floating window for in-depth parameters is easy - just jump between numbers in the top bar there.

Resume:

A good and helpful tool for being free. It can not really compete with other (paid) M/S plugins because it simply is very limited regarding its bands and in the matter not being flexible enough, plus missing clean and comfortable solo, but for anyone who hasn't something similar it might be very good option.

For me personally because of its special features - the Dry/Wet knob for parallel eqing, the visualized note areas and switching between Mid, Side or Mid/Side per band easily - I will come back to it if I need it and keep it in my box.

Cool Autopan plugin.

I like the active visualizations and the editing options to shape the curve to one's own desire. Also the up to 10 shapes per plugin instance is great for testing which one is the most suited.

Now, the vertical design is unique but however feels a little incomfortable when editing to be honest (even if it actually gives a better immersion of how the sound is traveling between L and R). Having a metric to time or beats/bars on the x-axis is my preference. I wish there would be an option to swap PanCake to 'horizontal mode'.

Another thing: The text of the parameters and its values as well as some elements are extremely small and very hard to read on modern desktops. And on other location, many space is useless wasted at the interface.

The design in general could also be improved. The modulation to be stronger visible and beat divisions (maybe by numeric values) a little bit better to notice.

After more than 10 years, an update would be really appreciated.

New: Xfer updated the interface recently, plus the GUI is resizable now.

About OTT:

The plugin is build after a preset for Ableton Live's multiband compressor, with the intention of giving the same signature sound to producer who use different DAWs than Ableton Live.

Testing both in direct comparison, The sound is very close the original preset, but OTT is actually louder than its idol (+1.3 dB Peak, +0.8 integrated LUFS) and seems (maybe because of that) to have a thicker impression.

But also keep in mind that Ableton's multiband compressor has a lot more features than OTT. So if you use Ableton Live, you probably stick better with the actual preset and compressor plugin, because it offers additional features OTT doesn't.

The sound of OTT in general is very high-mid to high frequency attuenated, with a tendency to almost sounding harsh and hardly tame the low end. But which exactly seems to work quite well for certain synth sounds, which led to its major popularity during the 2010's.

'Depth' acts as dry/Wet, 'Time' seems to adjust how fast Attack/Release is working for all bands. 'IN Gain' and 'Out Gain' let you adjust the according volume.

Now what I am missing intensively, especially for such a complex effect (even if it is just a rebuild of a preset), is more explanations or tips about the use, work and relations of its parameters. OTT does not provide any clues or tips to guide and help to get along with it.

Bad. A reason more to better stick with the original, if you have access to it.

Another thing, many people complaining about is the non-linear phase cancelations which occur at the crossovers and led many to completely dig the plugin.

Take a look at the thread in the Xfer forum, where Steve Duda (the developer) gives response to it:
https://xferrecords.com/forums/general/ott-phase-rotation-fix

I personally share the same opinion that many other plugins do phase shifting as well and noone is complaing about it there either, but I also think it could give the plugin a better shape and lifespan, if he/they would consider updated 'OTT' in this manner.

This Autopan plugin is outstanding, no doubt about it.

First of all to mention, You can adjust the pan law. A huge improvement to the automatic panning plugins found in most DAWs, which do not offer the control over it.

You can costumize the pan curve in so many ways (it is even possible to load in a sample and use it as kind of wavetable), really shape it however you want to your needs.

A very specific feature: You can add harmonics and control volume and phase of them. Amazing.

Another features:

- Sync to your DAW in divsions from 128/1 to up to 1/128th in triplets, tuplets and dotted intervals.
- M/S mode.
- Invert, Normalize the shape.
- Cross-fade shapes when shape is changing.
- Smoothing of discontinuities between 1 and 0 values by using interpolation.

If you use autopan effects a lot, you should definitely get this plugin.

Great multi-fx distortion unit (i.e. hard clip, soft clip, assymetrical distortion), not only for the hardstyle genre.

Thanks to the dry/wet 'Mix' knob, you can dial in a perfect amount to give the signal this certain crisp and presence, without sounding too harsh. Very useful.

Only negative thing is that the interface is a little small for modern desktops (no resizing available) and the greyed parameters and values are a bit hard to read at the dark background.

A very good and versatile chorus unit, with a huge amount of parameters. The sound is great and you have so many options to costumize (i.e. up to 8 voices, modulation shapes, spatial width, depth of the efffect individually to dry/wet, delay of the dry signal, bass and treble for some basic eqing, separation - which does some tricky effects).

Still available as 64-bit VST2, this is a plugin is there since a long time but it still beats down its modern (at least free) competitors in my opinion, simply because of its features. A shame that it isn't more popular.

Only downside is that values and some parameter names aren't shown natively in the GUI, meaning you only can tweak the parameter and listen to how the sound changes. (Tip: The host can detect the parameters and the values, so if you have blank parameters available in your DAW, you can use these to dial in and see the correct parameter values)

I used TAL-Chorus-LX before and love it for the sound, but it is quite limited in its features. Now Azurite offers this flexibility, which is great. I'm going to have both as my new go-to chorus plugins.