Plus a third plug-in, also very good, that you might find strangely interesting as well.
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On the surface, TBTech’s SpecCraft offers little or nothing that you probably don’t have already — it’s a dynamic resonance suppressor and ‘smart’ EQ, and there’s more than a handful of those already by now, some of which are pretty good too — but if you still happen to be in the market for a tool that does this kind of processing, do yourself a big favour, download the demo and spend a few days with SpecCraft. And don’t skip the important step of getting to know the software inside-out before making a decision, because there’s much more to it than a first half-hour of casual usage might reveal.
One of the reasons I’m so enthusiastic about it is because, apart from SpecCraft being very-very-very good at what it does, I also clicked with it from the start. (Never did click with Mastering The Mix’s Reso, for example.) SpecCraft is very well thought-out and exceptionally designed (from a functional point of view, that is) software that manages to present some very sophisticated and deep processing power in a surprisingly user-friendly interface. Have been working with it for a few weeks now and I can’t think of a single thing that I feel they should have done differently.
SpecCraft still sells at its introduction price of $69.
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Up until a few months ago I wasn’t aware of Audiopunks’ existence. And there’s a good chance that most people who read this, won’t be either. The only reason I got to know about Audiopunks is because I’m subscribed to the Telefunken mailings and Audiopunks has been Telefunken’s developer of choice to help them with the digital recreation of the Telefunken Echomixer, a 1960 germanium pre-amp/distorter/spring reverb unit, the release of which was, obviously, proudly announced in their mailing.
While never particularly interested in that Echomixer (it’s great though, as I've now found out), I did pay attention when Audiopunks’ second plug-in was released: the Great British Spring, a recreation of an 80’s spring reverb device. Now, the tag ’80’s’ is usually enough for me to turn away immediately and move on, but I happened to click, almost by accident, on one of the audio examples of the plug-in and then it was too late: had to have it. Gorgeous spring reverb sound — full stereo, if you like — that, moreover, slides into a mix effortlessly and beautifully. Really quite special.
If you’re interested, don’t wait too long as both Audiopunks plug-ins are currently on sale. The Great British Springs is $49 (normally $79) and the Echomixer is $79 (usually $99). The two of them bundled sells for $99 instead of the regular $178. A good deal.
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Also recommended, but perhaps marginally less highly than the two previous entries (largely because of its rather hefty price), is Playfair Audio’s Dynamic Grading. You could call it a slightly unusual compressor, I suppose, but it’s more than that. Much more. I think of it more as a sort of dynamic ‘remapper’ allowing you to, well, remap dynamic ranges in the source signal to a higher or lower dynamic range in the output. And that’s just the start. The concept was inspired by, or derived from, colour and light grading in graphics software and Playfair Audio has done a really great job translating the idea to audio processing. Not a tool that has a solution for every dynamic problem you may encounter, but problems that *can* be addressed with Dynamic Grading are often addressed better and quicker than they could be with traditional dynamic processors.
In our next issue: Hofa’s seriously amazing IQ-Reverb.
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