Airwindows

Overheads

TL;DW: Overheads is for compressing only part of the sound, strangely!

I could say this was a compressor for putting on drum overheads to take out the drums and leave only the cymbals, but that would only be scratching the surface…

Overheads is one of those old Airwindows plugins built on really strange ideas. Let’s assume we want to compress drums but leave cymbals. How might we do that? We could filter, but why would we do that when we could do something more perverse? Instead, let’s take a really short delay, like a flange. Next, invert it: compression gets driven by the source audio minus the delayed. Then expand the delay. Then what?

Then, high frequencies tend to slip through the cracks between the delay gap. They don’t get affected as strongly. But deeper frequencies will produce one part louder than the other, and subtracting produces an output that can kick in the compression. Except it might not, because the sounds might not line up. So add a control called ‘Node’ to move the delay gap. But how do you know what to do with ‘node’? Best change it to something else: ‘Sharp’, for instance (which is what happened). Then what?

So, put ‘Sharp’ in the middle somewhere. Start cranking up Compr to compress it, and you’ll hear the sound squish, then negate: an area in the sound will dynamically invert, as if you’re deleting the snare or kick or whatever, but it will be weird. Move ‘Sharp’ around to adjust it: larger ‘Sharp’ should let it grab slightly deeper sounds, smaller ‘Sharp’ shifts the cancellation up a little. Push ‘Compr’ further to hear what it does. To actually use it for its intended purpose, back it off so you’re only slightly clamping down the drums and leaving the cymbals, making space for spot mics. It’ll mess with the cymbals: see if you like how that works.

Or: do whatever go nuts, do crimes, ruin everything. Put it on every drum and set them all differently. Get a really bizarre sound that’s not like anything else, live long, prosper. (if you do, join my Patreon!)

No promises.

Oh, also, as seen in the video, if you use this on a sine wave at just the right level, it will turn the sine wave into a triangle. I totally didn’t mean for it to do that, and am not really sure how it manages it. Beware. Have fun :)

download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg
download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg
download LinuxVSTs.zip
download LinuxARMVSTs.zip for the Pi
download Retro 32 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac AUs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac VSTs.zip
Mediafire Backup of all downloads
All this is free and open source under the MIT license, brought to you by my Patreon.
VCV Rack module

Date March 17, 2024
Author Chris
Comments 5 Comments

Air3

TL;DW: Air3 creates a new form of air-band EQ based on Kalman filtering.

Air3.zip(495k)

This should be fun :)

Welcome to the experiment zone, once again, with Air3: an air band EQ based on an extension of Kalman filtering, which isn’t normally used for audio purposes. As usual, Airwindows is bringing in algorithms that act weirdly because they come out of finance or science. In this case, it’s science.

What’s Kalman filtering? You’ll be hearing more about it, but it’s a method of trying to bring accuracy out of noisy data by projecting what the real data might be, and then incorporating sensor readings based on how closely they correspond to the projection. The key idea there is ‘based on’, because Kalman is all about willingness to throw out bad data and try and zero in on what’s really happening.

Of course, in audio, it’s ALL real. There’s nothing to throw out, it’s all legit. Give Air3 some audio, and it begins to do its analysis and projections based on something that doesn’t exist: a hypothetical underlying sound, upon which your real-world cymbal sparkle or voice breathiness are just ‘noise’ to be removed. It’s not even based on frequencies, it’s trying to chart out a ‘real’ sound based on what’s already a real sound.

What happens? For one, you get a rolled-off sound that is very, very convincing. It’s easy to believe the sound was just that way to start with. You don’t get a sense of brightness reduction, it just sounds natural. Air3 is shunting off the whole air band to a separate control, and what it leaves behind is very plausible and doesn’t sound filtered. Great for reduction of tizz, glare and detail.

And then you take that redirected air band, bring it back in, and crank it up five times as loud, and Air3 comes alive.

I’ve not heard a better EQ for this super-high stuff. It seems really good at lighting up any audio you send through it. Bear in mind that much like both Air and Air2 before it, this is not an EQ in the normal sense at all. Air and Air2 used the algorithms I also put in Energy, and what Air3 does has more in common with DeBess or Acceleration than it does an EQ. It’s going way into concepts of measuring the rate of change of the rate of change and trying to project that onto expected future samples… it’s got a large amount of boost on tap, but can be a bit unpredictable. If you simply cut the Gnd control (for Ground) you get just whatever air there was, if you cut the Air control you remove it, but if you boost the Air control lots and cut Gnd, you get another sound from the sheer intensity of boosting being done.

I think this is going to be hard to beat for this purpose, especially used subtly, and expect to be including it into upcoming stuff that doesn’t have to act like ‘an EQ’. Still a lot of ‘lettered’ Console versions that need to be made, to emulate analog gear. This one’s for imagining where we can go after that, for a new sort of mixing in the box that doesn’t follow the constrictions of analog gear, letting you dial in tone characteristics as much as frequencies.

For now, enjoy Air3, and if you’ve got opinions on what needs to follow it next, drop by a livestream: you have Air3 today because a livestream viewer asked for it to come out ASAP, and here we are. There’s lots more. I’ll keep working on all this stuff, it’s great to see it all come together :)

download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg
download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg
download LinuxVSTs.zip
download LinuxARMVSTs.zip for the Pi
download Retro 32 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac AUs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac VSTs.zip
Mediafire Backup of all downloads
All this is free and open source under the MIT license, brought to you by my Patreon.
VCV Rack module

Date March 10, 2024
Author Chris
Comments 4 Comments

FinalClip

TL;DW: FinalClip is one stage of ADClip8 set up to clip +6dB for Final Cut Pro.

FinalClip.zip(482k)

If you like ADClip8, this came first and is basically the seed of ADClip8.

FinalClip is a few variations on ClipOnly2, with a bit of slew clipping thrown in, and adjusted to work specifically for Final Cut Pro, the video software I use. This is because if I put any normal clipper such as you’d use in a DAW into Final Cut, it applies the clip to the cut at 6dB down. I can only assume this has to do with how it gain stages stuff for video. There’s a way to gather clips into some sort of large composite clip and apply a ‘master buss’ plugin to the sum, and if you thought Airwindows Console in DAWs was awkward to set up, yikes! I’m not even trying to do that. I just run camera audio directly to the output of Final Cut and use that.

Because the clip point is 6 dB down, it seemed like I could build a special clipper just for Final Cut, that would always apply what I needed. I could control loud voice outbursts, soften the entry to/exit from clipped parts in the way ClipOnly2 does, and I could even throw in a very subtle slew-clip to just faintly soften treble information, so my sibilance off my Roswell Colares would never be annoying (it’s pretty good already, the mic tries to imitate an ELA M 251)

Not only did this work, it turned out that allowing multiple stages of exactly this gave me ADClip8! So everybody wins.

And of course I’m immediately letting people have the tool I made for me. If you experience normal clippers such as ClipOnly taking effect 6dB down, this is the one to use. Or, if for instance you’re hammering a peak limiter on your mix buss at way over +6dB to the buss, then you can try this to precondition what the limiter sees, and you might get a pleasing result.

But really, this just exists as a tool for me, or anyone who’s using Final Cut and would like to drag a simple Airwindows clipper onto a (video) clip in the timeline, and have it make peaks more elegant, with no red clip lights happening and no abrasive highs when things get loud. Using this, I don’t have to be that careful of my dynamic levels recording. If I suddenly yelp or talk loudly, clipping the camera’s recording, this plugin will straighten it out and smooth off the corners just a bit so the loud bit isn’t too objectionable.

Since there’s next to nothing to say about this plugin, nothing to do (no controls) and nothing to show (in a DAW, the interface is a blank rectangle or an empty line), the video’s full of everything else I do to get the audio for my plugin-posting videos. If you’d like to see my setup, have at it. Otherwise, totally ignore it and just use the plugin :)

download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg
download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg
download LinuxVSTs.zip
download LinuxARMVSTs.zip for the Pi
download Retro 32 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac AUs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac VSTs.zip
Mediafire Backup of all downloads
All this is free and open source under the MIT license, brought to you by my Patreon.
VCV Rack module

Date March 3, 2024
Author Chris
Comments 1 Comment

ADClip8

TL;DW: ADClip8 is the ultimate Airwindows loudenator/biggenator.

ADClip8.zip(506k)

The last time we saw an Airwindows ADClip, the full version rather than a neat and tidy stripped-down version, was October 8… of 2017. It’s been more than six years since the king of loudenators saw an update, in part because ClipOnly got followed by ClipOnly2, which was such a good high-sample-rate clipper that it was all I needed for years. ClipOnly2 is still the cleanest, purest way to take small amounts of peak clipping to your signal: it’s great as a safety clip.

But, while working on a new version tailored to the needs of Final Cut Pro (which is also coming), something new arose.

What would happen if the FCP version, which has a built-in slew clip and makes heavy use of Golden Ratios to arrive at its results, was adapted to a new ADClip? What if it was scaled to regular clipping levels, given a ceiling control to dial back its maximum to taste, what would happen if it was stacked up with a whole array of FinalClips in series like some of the other Airwindows plugins like to do? We’re no longer dealing with ClipOnly2. Much like the original ADClip7, we’re adding extra stuff and running a more complicated algorithm. But we’ve still got some of the special features of ADClip7, like the gain-matched mode and the Clips Only setting.

Enter ADClip8. It has more settings. They go Normal, Gain Matched, Clip Only… then, Afterburner, Explode, Nuke, Apocalypse, and lastly Apotheosis. No, really! That’s the new settings.

What they represent is added stages, so Normal is a single stage (as is Gain Matched), Clip Only shows you where clips begin, and then the new modes are named for the sounds they produce, at two, three, four, five and six stages of special slew-clipped ClipOnly2 style sample-rate aware clipping. In practice, think ‘bigger, bassier, thicker’ as you continue to add stages. You may not always want to run the full six stages, you might want to voice it to your needs.

The interesting part is how all this affects intersample peaking. Because the process brings in slew clipping and repeated use of the ClipOnly2 algorithm, which resists harsh entry into and exit from a clipped state, dialing up ADClip8 and cranking the gain produces an intensely saturated sound that resists intersample peaking not through filtration, but mechanically. It will literally put in transition samples to resist the intersample peaks from going beyond regular clipping. The more stages, the more thoroughly it resists ‘true peak’.

I would say don’t use this for evil but who am I kidding. If you beat everyone with ‘competitive loudness’ this way, please never expect me to listen to what you did, I’ll be hiding under my bed, regretting everything. :)

For what it’s worth, ‘Apotheosis’ mode should also be a very nice way to do extremely moderate transparent clipping of challenging material: ClipOnly2 will still be more transparent but only sounds like a slightly brighter version of ADClip8 Normal mode. Apotheosis mode simply does more and I wouldn’t blame anybody for preferring it. Hope you like ADClip8!

download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg
download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg
download LinuxVSTs.zip
download LinuxARMVSTs.zip for the Pi
download Retro 32 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac AUs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac VSTs.zip
Mediafire Backup of all downloads
All this is free and open source under the MIT license, brought to you by my Patreon.
VCV Rack module

Date February 25, 2024
Author Chris
Comments 3 Comments

Chris

Overheads

Air3

FinalClip

ADClip8

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