From my experience with keytracking a HPF in many plugins to get rid of the fundamental freq it is a pain in the ass and I can clearly say it is NOT snake oil, the auto mode seems to work extremely well and its an easy and instant tool esp for more melodic music. would u really prefer to automate the freq of the HPF to cut the fundamental every time? I'm not sure, I wouldn't wanna do that its kind of painful. so this tool IS useful, maybe they can make the full price 35$ rather than 50, but I don't know any eq that can do it this easily (Uvi Shade does a decent job but still does take some setting up to do) And for future reviews you could maybe just use an instrument, and something melodic than a static sub for comparison, aswell as trying to remake what the Effect does with other FX. Hopefully you'll see this as positive feedback and let me know a thought or two of yours.
Here's an example : in Serum when making a Reese bass, if you simply turn up Unison your fundamental is now phasing and is inconsistent. The fix is to go into the wavetable editor and run the "Remove Fundamental" action, and then reintroduce the pure fundamental with the Sub oscillator. This creates a perfect Reese with totally solid sub. This was only possible because Serum offers this feature. To do this manually with a HPF - how do you know where to set the filter? You have to listen to every note in the bassline, calculate the lowest first harmonic above fundamental and ensure your HPF includes it. What if you change your bassline - now you have to recalculate this. Honestly this plugin very much solves issues with layering!
almost every modern synth offers high-pass-filters and keytracking which would be the more failsave way to achieve this anyway. 35€ for a high-pass-filter connected to a tuner seem snake oily to me
Haven't tried the plugin bc I have no need for it; however, I do see a use case for this. It's in the plugin text description you go over- LAYERING. Many times when layering many stacks of synths a simple and cheap tool that can remove the fundamental and track the pitch over note changes can be extremely useful for putting on a Synth Stack bus and leaving the rest to the Subs you create, while maintaining a certain level of consistency in the sound design.
I think it is meant to cut the fundamental automatically so you can add another bass sound just for the fundamental (e.g. sine wave or low distortion 808)..
I would like to see how this compares to Sound Radix Surfer EQ and the EQ in Izotope Nectar. I believe both of those can follow melodic pitches too, and for parametric bands, not just filters.
The auto function could be useful if you don't want to bother with automation. You should have experimented more with that since that's about the only thing that could make this plugin worth getting.
I have been experimenting with morphing two bass signals (Hardstyle kick with a Slap House bass) and the outcome sounds dope, but the main point of that process is to ensure the accuracy of the crossover frequency being good enough to sound full and compliment one another. The Auto function would solve the issue of maintaining the fundamental content of the bass when pitching the kick, sometimes even above 7 semitones to which a static HPF would likely diminish the characteristics in those ranges. The use case of this plugin is better suited for creative producers than mix or mastering engineers who'd rarely need to do a HPF on a track (unless they have individual stems). As the marketing text says, it's meant for relayering basses where changes in pitch can destroy the sound pitch-based changes are crucial for the bass sounds to compliment the signal correctly.
Yeah this plug-in is fine. Guys who don't make electronic music don't understand. He understands why you would high pass a distorted guitar sound, but doesn't understand why you would high pass a bassline. You might think "well why not just bump one of your oscillators up an octave in the sound design process instead?". This is purely about getting a clean fundamental after using unison/detune/reverb on bass sounds. Some synthesizers allow you to remove the fundamental from specific oscillators (like serum), but most don't. Also, lots of sound design plugins don't have linear phase, and are always running in a low latency mode (like OTT, or other Multiband anything), that completely mauls your fundamental. You would want to high pass that sound, and add a new fundamental. This plugin is being purchased for the tracking feature on auto-mode. Removing the fundamental from the signal instead of a simple EQ cut and automate is a time saver.
Yes, but no. Literally the only useful feature on this is the auto tracking. That is the only thing, because everything else you can already do with your stock plugins. But it's not much of a time saver if singular the time saver feature don't work as it should. Making one short automation per sample is faster than having to tweak this until you get the least bad outcome from it, and in the case of longer riff or melody, you can do automation by tracking the midi notes and then render the automation to audio or use automation and audio track separately. The latter is not necessarily faster but fast enough with perfectly reliable outcome. TLDR; The usefulness of this plugin comes solely from the auto tracking feature, but because it doesn't work, the plugin doesn't work.
@@cholkymilkmirage4984 Sorta, not really, but also yes. It for confining the instrument into it's own space. Which does eventually serve the end goal of cleaning things up. Boosting the octave of the original instrument doesn't confine anything, it just moves it to another frequency space. A high pass that removes the fundamental but keeps the 'distortions' is a 'psychoacoustical' technique that causes someones brain to assume a low frequency where it doesn't exist, effectively trapping an instrument in a frequency range to allow more room for others, while also allowing it to seemingly exist in a frequency range it has been filtered out of. When you do this, you can have multiple instruments seeming to exist in the same frequency window while not actually stepping on each other or talking over each other.
Only thing I am mildly intrigued by is that when the auto mode actually works, it apparently tracks the pitch of the (sub)bass and removes low frequency energy accordingly for a more even feeling. So I imagine it turns into a fundamental following cutter then.
@@beat_spot i have done the same with other plugins but it just sounds unnatural to me. A basic highpass filter will already cut more the lower the frequency is and less the higher it is. Having the filter moving around just makes the sound move around in the mix instead of staying where i placed it. I dunno, but its not for me.
Gotta say I think you're totally missing the point of this plugin - it's a auto moving HPF based on the detected root note. That actually sounds very useful to me.
Thanks for checking this one out because I did purchase it because I’m new to producing music and I’m not really sure what plugins to get. I thought it was a good buy until I used it and it was cutting off important frequencies.
Yes sometimes you might need a high pass filter for some reason, but since you can do the same thing with a free stock eq in any daw it is a waste of money.
@@DeiNostri It was a waste of money but I’ve purchased the sub plug-in which is an sub or bass generator and I thought sub cut was something like an expansion for the sub. Well I’m not very experienced to making music sound very professional and wondered if this was something I needed because I could do this with stock or other EQs.
@@Gobymike There is a ton of uneccessary plugins produced all the time. It is cheaper to buy stuff now than ever, unfortunately there is alot of companies that produce plugins just to make money without professional pride. There is a difference between earning money and ripping people of getting paid without earning it, that my honest opinion. I hope you have alot of fun making music, just as I have since 1993 :)
@@DeiNostri thanks you for everything it really means a lot. I am learning alot from this channel. That’s why I watch all the snake oil videos and more for a broader understanding of how plug-in makers aren’t always honest.
You don't "need" plugins like this, but it has an interesting usage in EDM and other electronic music genres. Some of the more interesting/distorted bass sounds can end up being a bit "unclear" in the lowest frequencies, so it sometimes pays to reduce or remove them to gain low-end clarity. But since sub-bass is an important part of EDM, you can/should replace the notes at the lowest frequencies with an undistorted sound like a sine wave. Hence, this plugin is useful for automatically reducing distorted sub sounds, and the company's other plugin can be used to replace them with cleaner sounds. Layering is all the rage these days. You used to have to do it all manually and use a variety of EQs. Now there are "one knob" plugins to basically do that all for you. Most of the time, though, your end listener won't even notice the improvement, however, because they're listening on a device that doesn't reproduce sub bass frequencies accurately (or at all) anyway. You'd be better of spending your money on plugins that make improvements that anyone can hear. (e.g. a synth, or a preset pack, or some sort of sound-mangling/creativity plugin).
Although, as a producer a plugin like this could be quite handy... I have Pro-Q but sometimes automating a Low-Cut on a fundamental (Bass, Piano, Synth) can take away from the creative process, and sometimes wished I had one-knob with an auto function on it... idk... For engineering might be limited, but for a quick fix, might be handy
Surfer EQ can do the same but with the options of using multiple bands and different filter/EQ shapes, plus more options for the auto tracking. Maybe the plugin on this video is useful for some people but I think the majority of the time Surfer EQ is going to be the better option.
Thanks for pointing me to this very useful plugin! Just bought it! Makes a lot of sense to (dynamically) clean up the low end, when stacking bass sounds. It's like the lo-cut of Surfer-EQ in a simple plugin!
If this was a resonant highpass filter this plugin would make more sense, you could emphasise the fundamentals while cutting the stuff you don't need. I think it really has a single use for auto mode which is taking out the sub bass of your bass sound so you can add a clean sine bass instead.
that's the reason why you want this plugin. It's also pretty handy for mixing purposes, like mixing an 808 from scratch by lowpassing it (it's not just HPF, but LPF too).
I understand the value of a high pass filter, but I fail to see why someone would pay $35 to do it with this one trick plugin when there are numerous other good options to get that will do this and so much more?
Is this thing a bit like Bark of Dog, but dynamic in that it constantly searches (in auto mode) for the right frequency to cut rather than being fixed?
I would have liked seeing what it does to the phase using PluginDoctor. A High Pass with the cutoff dancing around the lows in Auto mode without accounting for phase shifting could do a lot more harm than good.
@@ImDino Problem is that the phase shift doesn't really become a problem until we start summing signals. Can't really judge how it will behave with a listening test on a single track.
@@Unit27 phase shift does become a problem without phasing out other stuff, it sounds less natural (on it's own), that's what I mean by transparency. So you can absolutely judge a plugin by a solo listen. As for phasing out layered sounds, you're going to run the risk of doing that with any plugin.
You don't understand this plugin, again. This plugin is perfect for individual KEY DEPENDENT tracks. Like basses, guitars, synthesizers, which constantly change their fundamental. Only surferEQ would be something similar, but in this case it is only a HPF.
If you've seen a spectral analyser, your first "voice" (core frequency) is in constant flux, having something that tracks that movement is awesome! When general boosting/cutting occurs in a general area, there is a lot of sub mess taking up valuable headroom and clutter. By just cutting, I'm only taking out the clutter from the lowest note/voice and have to tolerate or hand edit the mess in higher notes/voices (the mess being between the high pass lowest note and any sub mess between there and a higher fundamental). I've actually been looking for one of these. And if it works as I think it's supposed to, it's not snake oil.
Oooh, i have so many things to say about this video. Sry if this is going to be long and no one reads that :D 1. I like the UI of that plugin. The way it visualizes the lowend frequencies seems to absolutely capture the vibe of highpassing the lowend and is useful. Reducing the range of the cutoff parameter to only the lowend is an advantage because you can make sensitive adjustments without holding shift like you'd have to in Pro-Q, so it does have an advantage for sure. The plugin is missing a 2nd parameter to add a little bell-bump just after the lowpass cutoff though, as that is something that I usually do to make the steep cuts a bit more natural. 2. The audio-driven automatic frequency detection doesn't seem to update fast enough sometimes. It was very audible in that last demo-sound where you also raised an eyebrow. I felt that. I'd suggest to the developers to instead (or also) add a MIDI-triggered keytracking feature. That would at least help on the sounds where some MIDI-input is given, like on vsti synth tracks. But then again, one could also just use Rift Filter Lite for that. 3. Your Brickwall-Highpass into 808-Tail-Trick is cool! However it felt like you had to cut off a lot of the good juice for that to kick in. I'd suggest a parallel bandpass filter instead. More precisely, the one(s) in the plugin that I created, called Manta. I have a video about that on my channel if you are interested. The plugin is free, but if you decide to make a snake-oil video about it you can treat it like a commercial plugin, because I never hold back! 4. 35€ is indeed a bit much for something that is just a little highpass filter, technically. I wouldn't call it snake oil just because of that, but definitely keeps me from buying it. If some people want to buy it they should do that tho. I can see that it might appeal enough to people who just want all their plugins to look really modern or something. It's more of a feel-thing i think
@@fightinggamesforever3364 functionality is essential, but i respect it when developers also manage to create an atmosphere with the interface. making music is a sensual activity, so i want all senses to be more or less aligned
Wytse, Thanks as always for your reviews. Some feedback from a fan of yours: I think it still might have been worthwhile to review a plugin like this- although it seems reasonable that you were skeptical about the value; however, comparing it to Pro-Q maybe wasn't the right way to go: some folks won't have already invested in FabFilter (as it seems like you were assuming). I will say I kind of liked the waveform visualization around the knob given the singular-purpose of the filter. I do agree with you that it probably has no value for you given your arsenal, but who is your audience; and does value mean the same to them as to you? I think your assessment of its value might have made more sense if you had used say a DAW stock plugin for comparison: if you could have made the same point that this thing has no incremental value over something that's priced between "free/included" and roughly the price of this plugin. Moreover, if you could have demonstrated a null test using stock plugins you'd have easily established snake oil - but I think your selection of Pro-Q for comparison wasn't appropriate in this case.
Indeed, not everybody has an EQ like ProEQ, especially since it costs $ 130 USD. But I must say, $ 30 for this product is a bit high. For $ 9.95 it would be more appealing. Keep in mind that a lot of people who follow your videos can't afford expensive plugins. Especially people from 3rd World Countries such as me. ;-)
For instance, me, I use Waves Graphical EQ that I got for $ 15 in a promo 2 years ago (buy 2 get one free, something like that). Would never buy Pro-Q for $ 130 as its priced right now.
@@WilliamWusikKalfelz I think you can write your own eq, "with blackjack and hookers" ;) I agree with you about pricing as fab there and this trinket. If it was $10 I think a lot of people would have bought it just in case. If you buy such plugins for 30,40,60... I'd rather buy a monster-allinone like fab once.
big takeaway has nothing to do with the plugin: saturate and shelve your low end. that's what i love about WSS videos, the little master class nuggets sprinkled throughout the snake oils.
If you could use the auto mode in parallel or just a mix knob on it could fix the over-cutting , and than it might be useful for quick bass control for producers working w mainly sub basses
@@Whiteseastudio ...that's what I said! 'From Dutch 'spelled with a K not a C'. Pay attention Wytse... kut 😉 So to make it English replace the 'K' in Kut ,with a 'C' and add an 'N' ...and you get 'CNUT' 🧡
Good luck automating your EQ for 64 tracks. This plugin is easily the most value you can get per square dollar as a mixing engineer who actually works as a mixing engineer.
who does that for 64 tracks? realistically it would be maybe 3 for the average person. that is like saying that you shouldn't get serum because it does not have 64 oscillators lol
@@vikhr I wouldn't have to break it down in a room with smart people, but since you ask: that's the whole point that this is not something you could realistically do even for 10 tracks on a regular basis. With this plugin, you can.
You can exactly replicate the auto mode using Kilohearts snap heap's note follower and a filter module, for half the price... with the additional bonus of also being able to use the filter and 29 other additional effects modules in a 6+ lane highly modular effects chain plugin.
Something like this is the standard repertoire of standard built-in the DAW plugins. Why would I need a plugin for this if Cubase can do this with it’s built-in EQ?
Hi Wytse, I really love your ReSPECS t-shirt design, but I'm too old / shy to handle the back print :) I generally don't want people to ask me anything when I'm out :) Would you consider making a version with just the front print? I promise to buy it if you do!
I agree with you Wytse. Only reason I could come up with is the "getting a result fast" situation. But if you are familiar enough with your EQ, then it is fast enough to use that anyway. Also, am I the only one that find the before in some of their examples better than the after? :P True, not for mixing, but as is...?
Exactly! One could consider FF eq to be a hp with lots of additional options, maybe too many. And the fact that some don't like FF's guus is ignored completely. When I am faced with a gui like FF, music is the last thing I want to make, it just looks too cold, analytic and mathematical, a one knob solution can be way more inspiring
I thought it could be great for live use, so I assigned the cut to a knob on my midi pad controller for tweaking my kick-track while playing. Earlier I've just been using a free "GVST GLow" plugin, but it has a boring GUI. The problem I got with "Sub Cut" one was that it looses the knob assignment when it's not in focus, and in some DAWs it's not even automatable. -So sorry Iceberg, that is a dealbreaker.
Its a surf eq for sub. I get it. Do I need it. I don't know. But can't believe you didn't connect those dots. No offence, the point seemed to go over your head.
What do you mean when you say the auto mode doesn't work? It's basically the whole selling point of this plugin and you tried it for about 5 seconds in the video without understanding what it was doing or what it's intended to be used for. Also pretty absurd to compare this against a $180 EQ plugin
Excluding the "Auto" setting of this plugin, it just being a high-pass filter is pretty disappointing. Like, yeah, my stock DAW can probably do this, so what's the point?
Everybody is bashing but it’s basically automating what you would do with pro-q and a MIDI track to move the frequency. Maybe a bit expansive, but not 0 value.
As much as I love your videos, you can't decide it like this. Not everybody has an EQ like ProEQ, especially since it costs $ 130 USD. But I must say, $ 30 for this product is a bit high. For $ 9.95 it would be more appealing. Keep in mind that a lot of people who follow your videos can't afford expensive plugins. Especially people from 3rd World Countries such as me. ;-)
Your stock EQ might not have as steep of a curve as this one, but it's really all you need if you are lacking the cash. It's better to save it up for something really useful instead of throwing it away on tiny one trick ponies.
fabfilter proQ is expensive, true. but if you work in music, it is worth to invest that money, and if not, stock eq in the daw is still good as long as you cant afford expensive software. i think that proQ is the first plugin, that everybody should think about getting as soon as becoming more serious with music production, and then rather not invest any money in cheaper plugins that are fun but not really necessary because of being able to do similar things with stock plugins. if you spend 10$ here for a filter, 20 dollars there for some additional reverb, 15$ for a compressor, that would mean that you actually can afford proQ 3 if you just saved all the money spent for little toys over some time...
EDIT: I tryed the "AUTO" Function on a very low bassline around F1, and it weirdly recognized an octave higher F2 as a fundamental frefuency.. so it automaticaly cut away all the sub. You can not to choose which harmonics frequencies it suppose to follow. They are selling it accompanied to "The Sub" plugin which could replace missing subs I suppose.
a quick fundamental remover would have saved me an assload of time... i think this plug-in is mostly aimed at sound designers and electronica producers
I doubt that it's for audio engineers, it's probably more for bedroom beat makers that have to have ALL the latest plugins to feel up-to-date or relevant. Maybe it has low CPU usage so you can put it on every channel without impacting your DAW performance... Dunno.
I've been contacted by Iceberg Audio too and accepted to review this plugin. However, unlike you, I've found an interesting value proposition in it. The point is not about the HPF per se, anyone can hipass a signal. The point is about following the pitch in real-time, and that's something I've seen possible only with SurferEQ, which comes at a higher price range and is less user-friendly. I like your content most of the times, but other times you have this "I know it all" attitude that, in this video for example, falls short. This plugin is great for both mixing and production purposes. It happens that you have to mix a crappy 808 that moves wildly from scratch and you can't afford to just set a static EQ. If you're mixing bass-heavy music, you can't always ask the producer to remove the fundamental from their synth shots for both time and synth capabilities reasons (not all synths allow to tweak partials).
Seems like a genius idea badly implemented ; they should have a whole tracking section with parameters to make sure tracking of the fundamental works as you want it, and then have a whole EQ that is tuned to the fundamental. In many applications you want to EQ with respect to the fundamental (e.g. boosting harmonics), so having an EQ that is expressed in relative frequencies (1/2f, 2f, 4f, ...) to the fundamental rather than absolute makes a lot of sense.
Because they know most people do not know any better any they just want to make a quick buck . Thanks for this channel and your reviews bud - cheers from Canada
Please do a snake oil video on the new Waves BB Tubes. They're advertising it with an unbelievable amount of hype for what seems to be just another tube saturation plugin...
i suppose the people that this is targeted for would recognize its usefulness for them immediately. I don't think I'd ever reach for a tool like this personally.
one can def use this plugin for a live recording of a clean electric guitar sound with fat (#12-#13) string. i usually use waves R-Eq2 with low cut/high pass, but this one will be more suitable...i think it also has some dynamic eq quality built in...etc....etc...cool plug
I think this plugin is not made for audio engineers but rather for people who don't know much about it or just want to make things as simple as possible. I wouldn't use it because i like more control and it costs 35 bucks which is a joke.
You used it wrong. It's made to for instance clean up the relationship between a sub layer and top-bass layer which you do a lot in EDM. _Ofcourse_ it's going all over the place when you put it on a kick (or a whole song of which the kick is the lowest sound) because as you know - the sub of the kick progresses downward to it's root note. Obviously the tracking worked flawlessly on your sinewave, to say that it doesn't work is far from the truth.
Just a question, off topic, sorry. I watched this video ruclips.net/video/lsB_Jf50R0Q/видео.html by Tukan Studios. He has some interesting observations on automatic gain copensation, the reason he doesn't incude in in his plugins. I know you judge plugins quite harshly that don't include gain compensation, so I wonder what you think about his arguments.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
From my experience with keytracking a HPF in many plugins to get rid of the fundamental freq it is a pain in the ass and I can clearly say it is NOT snake oil, the auto mode seems to work extremely well and its an easy and instant tool esp for more melodic music. would u really prefer to automate the freq of the HPF to cut the fundamental every time? I'm not sure, I wouldn't wanna do that its kind of painful. so this tool IS useful, maybe they can make the full price 35$ rather than 50, but I don't know any eq that can do it this easily (Uvi Shade does a decent job but still does take some setting up to do)
And for future reviews you could maybe just use an instrument, and something melodic than a static sub for comparison, aswell as trying to remake what the Effect does with other FX.
Hopefully you'll see this as positive feedback and let me know a thought or two of yours.
Here's an example : in Serum when making a Reese bass, if you simply turn up Unison your fundamental is now phasing and is inconsistent. The fix is to go into the wavetable editor and run the "Remove Fundamental" action, and then reintroduce the pure fundamental with the Sub oscillator. This creates a perfect Reese with totally solid sub. This was only possible because Serum offers this feature. To do this manually with a HPF - how do you know where to set the filter? You have to listen to every note in the bassline, calculate the lowest first harmonic above fundamental and ensure your HPF includes it. What if you change your bassline - now you have to recalculate this. Honestly this plugin very much solves issues with layering!
surfer EQ can do this as well
almost every modern synth offers high-pass-filters and keytracking which would be the more failsave way to achieve this anyway.
35€ for a high-pass-filter connected to a tuner seem snake oily to me
@@metaphysx_625 Indeed. You are 100% sir. This plugin is complete bs.
Automatic filter shifting based on key detection is a pretty good idea if well executed. THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS WORTH? No.
you don't need to calculate nothing. just highpass everything bellow 150hz like a normal person, those are the frequencies that clash the most
Haven't tried the plugin bc I have no need for it; however, I do see a use case for this. It's in the plugin text description you go over- LAYERING. Many times when layering many stacks of synths a simple and cheap tool that can remove the fundamental and track the pitch over note changes can be extremely useful for putting on a Synth Stack bus and leaving the rest to the Subs you create, while maintaining a certain level of consistency in the sound design.
I think it is meant to cut the fundamental automatically so you can add another bass sound just for the fundamental (e.g. sine wave or low distortion 808)..
I would like to see how this compares to Sound Radix Surfer EQ and the EQ in Izotope Nectar. I believe both of those can follow melodic pitches too, and for parametric bands, not just filters.
I was thinking the same thing. One can probably set the Surfer EQ to do the same thing.
and Melda MAutodynamicEQ
@@seanposner8884 oooh didn't know that!
The auto function could be useful if you don't want to bother with automation. You should have experimented more with that since that's about the only thing that could make this plugin worth getting.
I have been experimenting with morphing two bass signals (Hardstyle kick with a Slap House bass) and the outcome sounds dope, but the main point of that process is to ensure the accuracy of the crossover frequency being good enough to sound full and compliment one another. The Auto function would solve the issue of maintaining the fundamental content of the bass when pitching the kick, sometimes even above 7 semitones to which a static HPF would likely diminish the characteristics in those ranges.
The use case of this plugin is better suited for creative producers than mix or mastering engineers who'd rarely need to do a HPF on a track (unless they have individual stems). As the marketing text says, it's meant for relayering basses where changes in pitch can destroy the sound pitch-based changes are crucial for the bass sounds to compliment the signal correctly.
you can do it in midi with surfer EQ or bass exorsist :)
Yeah this plug-in is fine. Guys who don't make electronic music don't understand. He understands why you would high pass a distorted guitar sound, but doesn't understand why you would high pass a bassline. You might think "well why not just bump one of your oscillators up an octave in the sound design process instead?". This is purely about getting a clean fundamental after using unison/detune/reverb on bass sounds. Some synthesizers allow you to remove the fundamental from specific oscillators (like serum), but most don't. Also, lots of sound design plugins don't have linear phase, and are always running in a low latency mode (like OTT, or other Multiband anything), that completely mauls your fundamental. You would want to high pass that sound, and add a new fundamental. This plugin is being purchased for the tracking feature on auto-mode. Removing the fundamental from the signal instead of a simple EQ cut and automate is a time saver.
Very well explained - thanks!
Yes, but no. Literally the only useful feature on this is the auto tracking. That is the only thing, because everything else you can already do with your stock plugins. But it's not much of a time saver if singular the time saver feature don't work as it should. Making one short automation per sample is faster than having to tweak this until you get the least bad outcome from it, and in the case of longer riff or melody, you can do automation by tracking the midi notes and then render the automation to audio or use automation and audio track separately. The latter is not necessarily faster but fast enough with perfectly reliable outcome.
TLDR; The usefulness of this plugin comes solely from the auto tracking feature, but because it doesn't work, the plugin doesn't work.
so basically it cleans things up?
Orrr just use EQ or a basic filter. 😅
@@cholkymilkmirage4984 Sorta, not really, but also yes. It for confining the instrument into it's own space. Which does eventually serve the end goal of cleaning things up. Boosting the octave of the original instrument doesn't confine anything, it just moves it to another frequency space. A high pass that removes the fundamental but keeps the 'distortions' is a 'psychoacoustical' technique that causes someones brain to assume a low frequency where it doesn't exist, effectively trapping an instrument in a frequency range to allow more room for others, while also allowing it to seemingly exist in a frequency range it has been filtered out of. When you do this, you can have multiple instruments seeming to exist in the same frequency window while not actually stepping on each other or talking over each other.
Only thing I am mildly intrigued by is that when the auto mode actually works, it apparently tracks the pitch of the (sub)bass and removes low frequency energy accordingly for a more even feeling. So I imagine it turns into a fundamental following cutter then.
only way that is useful is for sidechain. instead of ducking, cutting the lows is an option which can be equally as invisible if not better
Very much like surfer eq
which I'm pretty sure you can do with the melda autofilter, which is free.
that's the reason why you want this plugin.
@@beat_spot i have done the same with other plugins but it just sounds unnatural to me. A basic highpass filter will already cut more the lower the frequency is and less the higher it is. Having the filter moving around just makes the sound move around in the mix instead of staying where i placed it. I dunno, but its not for me.
Gotta say I think you're totally missing the point of this plugin - it's a auto moving HPF based on the detected root note. That actually sounds very useful to me.
Thanks for checking this one out because I did purchase it because I’m new to producing music and I’m not really sure what plugins to get. I thought it was a good buy until I used it and it was cutting off important frequencies.
Yes sometimes you might need a high pass filter for some reason, but since you can do the same thing with a free stock eq in any daw it is a waste of money.
@@DeiNostri It was a waste of money but I’ve purchased the sub plug-in which is an sub or bass generator and I thought sub cut was something like an expansion for the sub. Well I’m not very experienced to making music sound very professional and wondered if this was something I needed because I could do this with stock or other EQs.
@@Gobymike There is a ton of uneccessary plugins produced all the time. It is cheaper to buy stuff now than ever, unfortunately there is alot of companies that produce plugins just to make money without professional pride. There is a difference between earning money and ripping people of getting paid without earning it, that my honest opinion. I hope you have alot of fun making music, just as I have since 1993 :)
@@DeiNostri thanks you for everything it really means a lot. I am learning alot from this channel. That’s why I watch all the snake oil videos and more for a broader understanding of how plug-in makers aren’t always honest.
You don't "need" plugins like this, but it has an interesting usage in EDM and other electronic music genres. Some of the more interesting/distorted bass sounds can end up being a bit "unclear" in the lowest frequencies, so it sometimes pays to reduce or remove them to gain low-end clarity. But since sub-bass is an important part of EDM, you can/should replace the notes at the lowest frequencies with an undistorted sound like a sine wave. Hence, this plugin is useful for automatically reducing distorted sub sounds, and the company's other plugin can be used to replace them with cleaner sounds. Layering is all the rage these days. You used to have to do it all manually and use a variety of EQs. Now there are "one knob" plugins to basically do that all for you. Most of the time, though, your end listener won't even notice the improvement, however, because they're listening on a device that doesn't reproduce sub bass frequencies accurately (or at all) anyway. You'd be better of spending your money on plugins that make improvements that anyone can hear. (e.g. a synth, or a preset pack, or some sort of sound-mangling/creativity plugin).
Although, as a producer a plugin like this could be quite handy... I have Pro-Q but sometimes automating a Low-Cut on a fundamental (Bass, Piano, Synth) can take away from the creative process, and sometimes wished I had one-knob with an auto function on it... idk... For engineering might be limited, but for a quick fix, might be handy
Indeed +1 :-)
Surfer EQ can do the same but with the options of using multiple bands and different filter/EQ shapes, plus more options for the auto tracking. Maybe the plugin on this video is useful for some people but I think the majority of the time Surfer EQ is going to be the better option.
Thanks for pointing me to this very useful plugin! Just bought it! Makes a lot of sense to (dynamically) clean up the low end, when stacking bass sounds. It's like the lo-cut of Surfer-EQ in a simple plugin!
8:55 - sample material
This plugin I think was made to sell together with their main plugin "the sub" a sub bass generator.
If this was a resonant highpass filter this plugin would make more sense, you could emphasise the fundamentals while cutting the stuff you don't need. I think it really has a single use for auto mode which is taking out the sub bass of your bass sound so you can add a clean sine bass instead.
that's the reason why you want this plugin. It's also pretty handy for mixing purposes, like mixing an 808 from scratch by lowpassing it (it's not just HPF, but LPF too).
The Auto function is nice though.
This plugin is most valuable in the EDM production perspective.
I understand the value of a high pass filter, but I fail to see why someone would pay $35 to do it with this one trick plugin when there are numerous other good options to get that will do this and so much more?
You add a high pass filter to the synth and track it with the note number. Unlike the Snake oil above, a high pass on a synth can have polyphony 🙄.
@@gutterg0d when you have a mixer which has 'high pass/low pass filter built in, so......🙄
@@saricubra2867 This is just a redundant plugin. Snake oil implies that they make false claims, I don't see any of that.
Is this thing a bit like Bark of Dog, but dynamic in that it constantly searches (in auto mode) for the right frequency to cut rather than being fixed?
I would have liked seeing what it does to the phase using PluginDoctor. A High Pass with the cutoff dancing around the lows in Auto mode without accounting for phase shifting could do a lot more harm than good.
Same thoughts, but it seemed transparent enough.
@@ImDino Problem is that the phase shift doesn't really become a problem until we start summing signals. Can't really judge how it will behave with a listening test on a single track.
@@Unit27 phase shift does become a problem without phasing out other stuff, it sounds less natural (on it's own), that's what I mean by transparency. So you can absolutely judge a plugin by a solo listen. As for phasing out layered sounds, you're going to run the risk of doing that with any plugin.
You don't understand this plugin, again. This plugin is perfect for individual KEY DEPENDENT tracks. Like basses, guitars, synthesizers, which constantly change their fundamental. Only surferEQ would be something similar, but in this case it is only a HPF.
If you've seen a spectral analyser, your first "voice" (core frequency) is in constant flux, having something that tracks that movement is awesome! When general boosting/cutting occurs in a general area, there is a lot of sub mess taking up valuable headroom and clutter. By just cutting, I'm only taking out the clutter from the lowest note/voice and have to tolerate or hand edit the mess in higher notes/voices (the mess being between the high pass lowest note and any sub mess between there and a higher fundamental). I've actually been looking for one of these. And if it works as I think it's supposed to, it's not snake oil.
do you know of any good multiband mute plugins?
It has a very nice unique UI. Get's good reviews on Plugin Boutique.
Does the Auto do anything good on higher frequency instruments?
the brickwall effect was interesting. thanx^^
Oooh, i have so many things to say about this video. Sry if this is going to be long and no one reads that :D
1. I like the UI of that plugin. The way it visualizes the lowend frequencies seems to absolutely capture the vibe of highpassing the lowend and is useful. Reducing the range of the cutoff parameter to only the lowend is an advantage because you can make sensitive adjustments without holding shift like you'd have to in Pro-Q, so it does have an advantage for sure. The plugin is missing a 2nd parameter to add a little bell-bump just after the lowpass cutoff though, as that is something that I usually do to make the steep cuts a bit more natural.
2. The audio-driven automatic frequency detection doesn't seem to update fast enough sometimes. It was very audible in that last demo-sound where you also raised an eyebrow. I felt that. I'd suggest to the developers to instead (or also) add a MIDI-triggered keytracking feature. That would at least help on the sounds where some MIDI-input is given, like on vsti synth tracks. But then again, one could also just use Rift Filter Lite for that.
3. Your Brickwall-Highpass into 808-Tail-Trick is cool! However it felt like you had to cut off a lot of the good juice for that to kick in. I'd suggest a parallel bandpass filter instead. More precisely, the one(s) in the plugin that I created, called Manta. I have a video about that on my channel if you are interested. The plugin is free, but if you decide to make a snake-oil video about it you can treat it like a commercial plugin, because I never hold back!
4. 35€ is indeed a bit much for something that is just a little highpass filter, technically. I wouldn't call it snake oil just because of that, but definitely keeps me from buying it. If some people want to buy it they should do that tho. I can see that it might appeal enough to people who just want all their plugins to look really modern or something. It's more of a feel-thing i think
If you value the look of your plugins over their use, then you should probably check yourself. (Not you, peeps in general).
@@fightinggamesforever3364 functionality is essential, but i respect it when developers also manage to create an atmosphere with the interface. making music is a sensual activity, so i want all senses to be more or less aligned
Wytse, Thanks as always for your reviews. Some feedback from a fan of yours: I think it still might have been worthwhile to review a plugin like this- although it seems reasonable that you were skeptical about the value; however, comparing it to Pro-Q maybe wasn't the right way to go: some folks won't have already invested in FabFilter (as it seems like you were assuming).
I will say I kind of liked the waveform visualization around the knob given the singular-purpose of the filter. I do agree with you that it probably has no value for you given your arsenal, but who is your audience; and does value mean the same to them as to you?
I think your assessment of its value might have made more sense if you had used say a DAW stock plugin for comparison: if you could have made the same point that this thing has no incremental value over something that's priced between "free/included" and roughly the price of this plugin. Moreover, if you could have demonstrated a null test using stock plugins you'd have easily established snake oil - but I think your selection of Pro-Q for comparison wasn't appropriate in this case.
Indeed, not everybody has an EQ like ProEQ, especially since it costs $ 130 USD. But I must say, $ 30 for this product is a bit high. For $ 9.95 it would be more appealing. Keep in mind that a lot of people who follow your videos can't afford expensive plugins. Especially people from 3rd World Countries such as me. ;-)
For instance, me, I use Waves Graphical EQ that I got for $ 15 in a promo 2 years ago (buy 2 get one free, something like that). Would never buy Pro-Q for $ 130 as its priced right now.
@@WilliamWusikKalfelz I think you can write your own eq, "with blackjack and hookers" ;) I agree with you about pricing as fab there and this trinket. If it was $10 I think a lot of people would have bought it just in case. If you buy such plugins for 30,40,60... I'd rather buy a monster-allinone like fab once.
Does anyone know what "cut" means in dutch? Im curious now🤣
It's written with a k (instead of c) in dutch ...
big takeaway has nothing to do with the plugin: saturate and shelve your low end.
that's what i love about WSS videos, the little master class nuggets sprinkled throughout the snake oils.
Thats indeed what I like to do 🙃
If you could use the auto mode in parallel or just a mix knob on it could fix the over-cutting , and than it might be useful for quick bass control for producers working w mainly sub basses
I saw the screenshot and exactly knew what Wytse would feel about it.
If you're wondering. From Dutch...spelled with a 'K' not a 'C' with an 'N' missing.
Its spelled with a K… Kut 😉
@@Whiteseastudio ...that's what I said! 'From Dutch 'spelled with a K not a C'. Pay attention Wytse... kut 😉 So to make it English replace the 'K' in Kut ,with a 'C' and add an 'N' ...and you get 'CNUT' 🧡
Good luck automating your EQ for 64 tracks. This plugin is easily the most value you can get per square dollar as a mixing engineer who actually works as a mixing engineer.
Do you automate the HPF for 64 tracks in a mix? 😄 I would never hire you if that's your ability to focus in a mix session.
who does that for 64 tracks? realistically it would be maybe 3 for the average person. that is like saying that you shouldn't get serum because it does not have 64 oscillators lol
@@vikhr I wouldn't have to break it down in a room with smart people, but since you ask: that's the whole point that this is not something you could realistically do even for 10 tracks on a regular basis. With this plugin, you can.
@whiteseastudio there is some occasional ringing in the audio only when you talk or am i going nuts ? did you use the plugin on your mic-track ?
You can exactly replicate the auto mode using Kilohearts snap heap's note follower and a filter module, for half the price...
with the additional bonus of also being able to use the filter and 29 other additional effects modules in a 6+ lane highly modular effects chain plugin.
Something like this is the standard repertoire of standard built-in the DAW plugins. Why would I need a plugin for this if Cubase can do this with it’s built-in EQ?
Hi Wytse, I really love your ReSPECS t-shirt design, but I'm too old / shy to handle the back print :) I generally don't want people to ask me anything when I'm out :) Would you consider making a version with just the front print? I promise to buy it if you do!
What does cut mean in Dutch? I couldn't find anything..
Wait what does “cut” mean in the Netherlands?
"sup Kut!"
I feel you haha, that could honestly fly as a slang way of greeting your mates at the local bar, maybe 10 years ago 😅
It seems to me that most people are trying to enhance the low end, not diminish it!
Seems like it might be cool to parallel process with the auto mode.
If it uses *significantly* lower CPU than a full, multifeatured, EQ, it might have value to some people I suppose....
maybe check out t5he CPU usage. If it's low usage, there might be value in that?
Thank you for showing the plug in i will be using everyday!! I was looking for something exactly like this.
I agree with you Wytse. Only reason I could come up with is the "getting a result fast" situation. But if you are familiar enough with your EQ, then it is fast enough to use that anyway.
Also, am I the only one that find the before in some of their examples better than the after? :P True, not for mixing, but as is...?
Exactly! One could consider FF eq to be a hp with lots of additional options, maybe too many. And the fact that some don't like FF's guus is ignored completely. When I am faced with a gui like FF, music is the last thing I want to make, it just looks too cold, analytic and mathematical, a one knob solution can be way more inspiring
You should invite developer of this plugin and ask him... why? This is sneak oil...
I thought it could be great for live use, so I assigned the cut to a knob on my midi pad controller for tweaking my kick-track while playing.
Earlier I've just been using a free "GVST GLow" plugin, but it has a boring GUI. The problem I got with "Sub Cut" one was that it looses the knob assignment when it's not in focus, and in some DAWs it's not even automatable. -So sorry Iceberg, that is a dealbreaker.
Now I'm wondering what cut means in Dutch...
Kut
Its a surf eq for sub. I get it. Do I need it. I don't know. But can't believe you didn't connect those dots. No offence, the point seemed to go over your head.
What do you mean when you say the auto mode doesn't work? It's basically the whole selling point of this plugin and you tried it for about 5 seconds in the video without understanding what it was doing or what it's intended to be used for. Also pretty absurd to compare this against a $180 EQ plugin
in my oIn my opinion, plugins like this are designed for newbies, and companies take advantage of newbies. easy money
Thanks to the comment or who suggested boosting 800hz! 👍
Thank you infinitely for all your hard work ! :)
Working in a mine is hard work
Haha hard work haha
I dig your irony
Excluding the "Auto" setting of this plugin, it just being a high-pass filter is pretty disappointing. Like, yeah, my stock DAW can probably do this, so what's the point?
but.. it has a big knob in the middle.
Muchas gracias!
This reminds me of the one knob filter Waves plugin.!🥱
Hey white sea studios..maak jij wel eens tracks?? Kan ik die is horen?? Gr from holland ;)
Nee, hij doet alleen meesteren.
Everybody is bashing but it’s basically automating what you would do with pro-q and a MIDI track to move the frequency.
Maybe a bit expansive, but not 0 value.
What a HP filter, never heard of that and I'm sure there is no other plugin that can do it
But...Why? One of the most philosophic questions in human history.
In the Netherlands we say, it's all about 'de duit en de fluit.'
As much as I love your videos, you can't decide it like this. Not everybody has an EQ like ProEQ, especially since it costs $ 130 USD. But I must say, $ 30 for this product is a bit high. For $ 9.95 it would be more appealing. Keep in mind that a lot of people who follow your videos can't afford expensive plugins. Especially people from 3rd World Countries such as me. ;-)
Your stock EQ might not have as steep of a curve as this one, but it's really all you need if you are lacking the cash. It's better to save it up for something really useful instead of throwing it away on tiny one trick ponies.
fabfilter proQ is expensive, true. but if you work in music, it is worth to invest that money, and if not, stock eq in the daw is still good as long as you cant afford expensive software. i think that proQ is the first plugin, that everybody should think about getting as soon as becoming more serious with music production, and then rather not invest any money in cheaper plugins that are fun but not really necessary because of being able to do similar things with stock plugins. if you spend 10$ here for a filter, 20 dollars there for some additional reverb, 15$ for a compressor, that would mean that you actually can afford proQ 3 if you just saved all the money spent for little toys over some time...
Check out the ToneBoosters Equalizer 4 - it is $30 and similar to FabFilter ProQ in terms of interface features. Can do a 60 Slope on Hipass.
The one thing I really like about this plugin is the Auto mode. I can see that being super useful. Otherwise, I would say it's snake oil.
But this plugin follows your root note automaticaly!! That is the most important part.
EDIT: I tryed the "AUTO" Function on a very low bassline around F1, and it weirdly recognized an octave higher F2 as a fundamental frefuency.. so it automaticaly cut away all the sub. You can not to choose which harmonics frequencies it suppose to follow.
They are selling it accompanied to "The Sub" plugin which could replace missing subs I suppose.
Great video!
Please review the waves bb tubes!
I would only buy it was $99 and by Harrison...
Now I need to know what cut means in the Netherlands.
If you put an N before the T, it will be the English version of this Dutch word
This is a game changer for low end.
a quick fundamental remover would have saved me an assload of time... i think this plug-in is mostly aimed at sound designers and electronica producers
Is this from an alternate timeline where Airwindows doesn't exist, or what?
I doubt that it's for audio engineers, it's probably more for bedroom beat makers that have to have ALL the latest plugins to feel up-to-date or relevant.
Maybe it has low CPU usage so you can put it on every channel without impacting your DAW performance... Dunno.
Good vidéo
Bark of Dog is a suped up parallel resonant high pass filter, but definitely suped up.
The visualizers on the plug-in are really cool lol I would probably buy it just for that. I mean if it was way cheaper of course
In this case the pre ringing sounds kinda cool
It might be a different HP receipe
I've been contacted by Iceberg Audio too and accepted to review this plugin. However, unlike you, I've found an interesting value proposition in it.
The point is not about the HPF per se, anyone can hipass a signal. The point is about following the pitch in real-time, and that's something I've seen possible only with SurferEQ, which comes at a higher price range and is less user-friendly.
I like your content most of the times, but other times you have this "I know it all" attitude that, in this video for example, falls short.
This plugin is great for both mixing and production purposes. It happens that you have to mix a crappy 808 that moves wildly from scratch and you can't afford to just set a static EQ.
If you're mixing bass-heavy music, you can't always ask the producer to remove the fundamental from their synth shots for both time and synth capabilities reasons (not all synths allow to tweak partials).
Why?
Seems like a genius idea badly implemented ; they should have a whole tracking section with parameters to make sure tracking of the fundamental works as you want it, and then have a whole EQ that is tuned to the fundamental. In many applications you want to EQ with respect to the fundamental (e.g. boosting harmonics), so having an EQ that is expressed in relative frequencies (1/2f, 2f, 4f, ...) to the fundamental rather than absolute makes a lot of sense.
Because they know most people do not know any better any they just want to make a quick buck . Thanks for this channel and your reviews bud - cheers from Canada
Sooo... What does "Sub Cut" mean in Dutch...? 🤔
They should let it go as free download so that would make any sense
kut in Dutch is an unfortunate word :{
I love you, man! :D
Sorry mayne but this intro is legendary ! "But Why"? 😂😂😂😂
Poor Wytse. Hopefully Sinterklaas will give you tube hardware for all your troubles =]
Only plugins this year, because Sinterklaas is flying by plane.. the pakjesboat is sunken.
@@st33Npuist They better be good ones then 😁
@@DerekPower Bettermaker for sure.
Please do a snake oil video on the new Waves BB Tubes. They're advertising it with an unbelievable amount of hype for what seems to be just another tube saturation plugin...
It’s actually a sick plugin! Just try it out
@@cristopherjohansson1323 Ok but what makes it stand out from all the other saturation plugins, if anything?
i suppose the people that this is targeted for would recognize its usefulness for them immediately. I don't think I'd ever reach for a tool like this personally.
one can def use this plugin for a live recording of a clean electric guitar sound with fat (#12-#13) string. i usually use waves R-Eq2 with low cut/high pass, but this one will be more suitable...i think it also has some dynamic eq quality built in...etc....etc...cool plug
Where are the people with "why is he using plugin doctor" and "just use your ears"?
Yeah it's funny that they sell HPF when you can get HPF in any eq plugin you can get on the market. And for free!
I think this plugin is not made for audio engineers but rather for people who don't know much about it or just want to make things as simple as possible. I wouldn't use it because i like more control and it costs 35 bucks which is a joke.
You used it wrong. It's made to for instance clean up the relationship between a sub layer and top-bass layer which you do a lot in EDM. _Ofcourse_ it's going all over the place when you put it on a kick (or a whole song of which the kick is the lowest sound) because as you know - the sub of the kick progresses downward to it's root note. Obviously the tracking worked flawlessly on your sinewave, to say that it doesn't work is far from the truth.
Yeah, everybody in home studios are worried about their low end, so it's a great marketing gimmick. Money, money, money.
Just a question, off topic, sorry. I watched this video ruclips.net/video/lsB_Jf50R0Q/видео.html by Tukan Studios. He has some interesting observations on automatic gain copensation, the reason he doesn't incude in in his plugins. I know you judge plugins quite harshly that don't include gain compensation, so I wonder what you think about his arguments.
Yo, Iceberg. Why not make a "resonate" type of high-pass? Instead of just three filter types, add a fourth.
Expensive keytracking filter