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Harmonic Exciters
Was watching a video from Recording Revolution this morning, and it was pretty interesting. He’s talking about how they in particular enhance the sound of synths, by adding some air/harmonic interest, something that acoustic instruments have more naturally. I have all the Fabfilter plugins in Auria, and PSP micro warmer. But he had a couple of things that were not just saturation/compression, and they seemed to make a huge difference. This was on a Mac of course. Anyone using anything like this? Any recommendations?
Here’s the video I was watching. Don’t know if it’s a faux pas to post this here, hopefully not. https://youtu.be/m2YJgdVoQDc
Comments
The volume changes when he switches on the plugins. So it's going to sound better just because of that.
After listening to the soloed track of tha tone synth, while I’m sure there’s a bit too that, it does sound quite a bit better.
Quite possibly. It's just really annoying that he didn't normalize the volume. It's kind of a rookie mistake TBH.
I use a few different exciter's, find they can help bring out nice details when they work, main ones I use are the aphex aural exciter by waves, mainly on pads to help scoop out the low end and add more definition to the highs, although it can sound quite brittle and harsh at times. Been getting into noveltech exciters by plugin alliance, which can help bring things out in sounds and fx sends, one of them is on sale at the end of the month.
My favourite one though is overloud dopamine, still using the demo, as it gives you 14days and after that 10 minute sessions. When I'm bouncing some audio to free up cpu, if it's needs a certain something still, I'll try dopamine just before I print the file, most times it stays on, find it far more musical than my other exciters, little goes a long way. One that's also worth checking out is audiority harmonic maximizer, which is a multiband exciter and saturation in one, on sale at the mo for €10 till wednesday, picked it up yesterday, so not had time to give it a thorough workout, sounds good and I like the extra level of control, due to being multiband, saturation sounds quite nice on it too.
http://vstbuzz.com/deals/78-off-harmonic-maximizer-audiority-vstauaax/
Not sure if the OP is looking for a plug-in or an app, but I'll suggest Moebius Lab.
Thanks guys. As long add I can get it to work worth auria, perfect.
I don't have it, but FabFilter Saturn could work well for excitation.
That one I have, and it's great. Some of the units he had were more than just harmonic distortion, at least, that was the implication.
There are a number of effects that can create harmonics, but saturation/distortion are the most common. This is 5 years old, but should give you some ideas and more info about exciters/enhancers.
http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/9-excellent-exciter-plug-ins-538311
From what I've read, you'll want to use it sparingly, as it can be fatiguing to the listener.
Tx, @telecharge
Moebius looks like what I'm interested in. Anyone tried it out?
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moebius-lab/id1108915352?mt=8
I have an old Aphex Bass Xciter/Big Bottom pedal that I run some stuff through. Can get some insane results from pushing the settings! I generally don't bother though, or just use it for extreme results. Synths are very malleable and harmonically adaptable by design!
That said, AUM's Saturation makes pretty much everything better!
Rick,
I use Moebius, but I use it for mangling purposes, and can't speak to its value as an Aural Exciter.
Have you looked into Alexsandar Mazla's Resonator Audio Unit? I don't have it, but it looks as if it may get you close to what you are looking for. Perhaps someone who does use it can confirm this?
That does look interesting, and it's cheap, too.
Rick, Saturn does work as an harmonic exciter, very close to the original exciter, which was artesanaly made by APHEX. Look inside the Mastering menu, choose More Exciting (DAX) and start from there. Another way that is very popular to achieve harmonic exciting is to apply a Bandaxall EQ curve, 6-8 dB at 20KHz and a Q of 1 or less. Pro Q2 can do that!
Tx, @theconnactic, will do. I was playing with Saturn last night, it does work very nicely to warm up synth tones.
Don't buy this, I just did on impulse after reading the post. Not quality.
Ooops...sorry.
Thanks for the warning.
It's cool. Was one of the things on my wishlist a while back and I've been running a super surplus since Zeeon came out, so what the heck.
I certainly would never recommend it.
Glad I checked back.
Thanks @oat_phipps .
That is something that he normally preaches and am surprised he has not done it here.
mobieus is cool. I would call it a textural effect. you would t go for it if you wanted some monster distortion, or beautiful reverb. It is kind of the effect chain that falls in between all the other effects. I use it to give my tones that extra little “something” to make a sound interesting to listen to. I think it’s worth buying for sure
Thanks, @eross. That's really what I'm looking for. I like picking basic tones from a synth, and then trying to bring some additional life to them.