Product Reviews by KVR Members

I'm suprised that this one hasn't garnered a review yet, so here goes.

I'm no real expert on reverbs - I've tried most of the free/cheap ones and I'm familiar with their limitations; mainly that they tend to sound grainy or metallic. Even the expensive ones aren't really getting close to a realistic number of reflections. What piqued my interest in this one is that it's based on Dattorro's figure-of-eight reverb structure - search for the theory online if you're interested. Basically, it's different from the normal comb filtering and allpass filter approach. So you expect it to sound a little different from all the me-too cheap algo reverbs. And it does! Very different! Very nice, in fact. It's much smoother than you have any right to expect for the amazing price of NO dollars. Not only that, but it's also open source. Yup, Mr Eastwood is generous enough to open up the code for all to see.

The controls are simple - all the controls have meaningful labels which do what you expect. And the CPU overhead is surprisingly low.

If I had to gripe, I'd mention a couple of things. All the controls are calibrated 0-100. I'd like to see some kind of units on the controls where that makes sense eg the predelay calibrated in milliseconds. And a bit of documentation would be nice. But it's really the sound that counts. If you're a reverb junkie, or you just need a simple, great sounding verb, you've just found it. Big thanks to the author for this great plugin.

I was using Density MkIII by Variety of Sound [just for its smooth compressor] and was looking to see if I could improve on that without spending too much money. I own a number of ToneBoosters' other plugins and I'm really impressed with them. In the end it came down to a choice between this and Klanghelm's DC8C which looks great and gets good reviews.

In the end I opted for the ToneBoosters BusCompressor for two reasons - it does everything I need without superfluous complexity, and Klanghelm don't offer a free trial, whereas ToneBoosters offer full versions of their plugins to try before you buy. I'll probably buy DC8C on another occasion but for now all I needed was a decent transparent compressor without too much complexity. TB BusCompressor fits the bill perfectly - it has all the normal options you expect to see. In addition it has a few 'expert' setting for transient release, filtering the level detector, upward compression and so on. It looks and sounds better than any other compressor in its price range (including all the free ones I tried). I'm surprised that it's not recommended more often.

Just like all the other TB plugins it sounds neither good nor bad - it just sounds 'right'. Exactly as it should. I like the ability to set the transient compression percentage - really helped me out.

Being really critical I'll mention two things. First TB plugins don't have an undo feature - I'd like to see this. Second, TB don't cover all their plugins in the downloadable manual - this being one of them. I'd like some documentation to cover the specifics of the expert settings. But neither of those is enough to detract from an outstanding product, so overall I'll give it 10 out of 10. If you want a coloured 'effect' compressor then you'll need to look elsewhere - but everyone needs a great sounding transparent compressor and this one should be very high on your list.

Update 19th Dec 2014.

I've just upgraded to the latest version of this plugin. The GUI's had a nice overhaul, but there are also a couple of very interesting functional changes. The release curve now has additional fine tuning parameters, and the hold time is now measured in cycles (rather than milliseconds) which helps eliminate intermodulation distortion. Most crucially, for me, is the really clever Noise control - the plugin analyses the signal not only in frequency but also by harmonic vs non-harmonic (noise) components. You can then use the Noise setting to weight the amount of compression given to each component. On vocals this 'Noise compression' acts more on the sibilant components with makes a noticeable difference to the amount of de-essing needed. In some cases it eliminates the need for de-essing altogether. I don't know what else they've improved but it sounds even better all round. This plugin just moved up to the next level. If it only had a sidechain input it might just be my desert island compressor...

This is an outstanding product. Just as an EQ it earns its place in any studio - 30 different filter types which all sound just as they should. There are also AutoLink filters where you simply place the points on the frequency graph to 'draw' the filter curve - so you get the best of both worlds. On top of that you can also define a compression curve for each filter to give you dynamic EQ. In fact it's more flexible than just compression - you can draw almost any kind of curve for some really interesting effects. I think some people may overlook this plugin because the flx name doesn't really hint at the dynamic EQ possibilites. The potential really is endless with this little gem and it looks fantastic too. It doesn't sound good or bad - it just sounds 'right' - it does its job without drawing attention to itself - exactly how it should be.

ToneBoosters is a great company - don't be fooled by the low prices - their business model is based on selling the highest quality plugins at very affordable prices. They're also very fair - you can download and try full versions of the plugins before you buy. I own this and the TrackEssentials package which is also great value.

Update 21 Dec 2014 - I've been using this for a while now. The possibilites really are endless, but one very useful thing I've just discovered is how great this works as a de-esser. There are two versions of this plugin (both included in the price) - you need to use the FLX4 plugin that has a sidechain input. I use an EQ to broadly filter out everything except the problem frequencies, then I route that to the sidechain input on TB Flx4 and use it to drive the compressor curves of the filters - then you can fine tune the flx filter (s) to sculpt out the problem frequencies. It's not like multiband de-essing because you can partially overlap the filters, and use different compression curves and attack/release on each one, so it's much more powerful. Most singers have a distinct 'ess' profile, so it's easy and quick to fine tune the filters for each artist.

I don't normally write reviews, but I've just bought this and I'm really impressed with it.

Like many people I have problems with sibillance in my voice recordings. In the past I've tried various plugins including ToneBoosters De-esser, Spitfish, Sleepy Time DSP Lisp and a few others. I quite liked most of these, but none was really perfect. I tried the demo version of FabFilter DS - everyone seems to rate their stuff very highly. It's really good, but it's also really expensive.

Then I found this product. I'd never heard of HoRNet before - I found them because they were giving stuff away on the Computer Music Magazine DVD.

The plugin is based on the usual compressor method of de-essing except that it splits the high frequencies in to 6 separate bands and seems to apply compression to each separately - so it takes an existing method and improves upon it.

The controls couldn't be simpler. There's no threshold controls to bother with. It's just an Amount of De-essing control and a Wet/Dry that lets you add back some of the original signal if the plugin takes out too much.

What does it sound like? Perfect! I couldn't believe how good it sounds. With other cheap/free plugins the de-essing didn't sound natural. The esses sounded conspicuously squashed and unnatural, or it sounded lispy before it took out enough of the ess. But this sounds just right.

Caveat: I've only tried it on my own (male) voice and only for spoken word because that's what I do. But the speed of the compressor seems be be tuned just right for my personal brand of sibillance.

Conclusion: for the price, it's a steal. It's stupidly cheap and there's a demo version you can download and try. I can't think of how it could be better, so I'm giving it 10/10. It might not have the fancy graphics of the upmarket offerings, but it does the job really well and fills a gap in the market at a very affordable price.

Update: The user interface has been updated slightly for version 1.1. It's now got more bands - which I'm guessing may be useful with female voices. And each band can now be separately turned on or off. I haven't tried these new features yet, but they seem to make it a little more flexible.