The sound of tubes, transistors, and circuitry being pushed to the limit has long been the key ingredient in great-sounding analog recordings. Engineers use saturation to beef things up, thin them out, give them edge, add warmth, pull elements out of the mix, and create signature sounds. Aug 28, 2020 Noise Gate; Noise Suppression; And finally, The VST 2.x Plug-in; The focus of this article is on that last filter, which has the most potential to improve your audio. But it is a fair bit more complicated than the standard filters. VST stands for “Virtual Studio Technology,” and is a piece of software that runs alongside OBS in this.
CubicPadSynth is a wavetable synthesizer which uses PADsynth algorithm to generate oscillator tables. Cubic interpolation is used to get smooth sound even at inaudible low frequency range. LFO waveform can be directly drawn.
CubicPadSynth requires CPU which supports AVX or later SIMD instructions.
- It’s frustrating—muddy sound means a lack of clarity and definition with poor separation between instruments. In this article I’ll go through the most common causes of a muddy mix and how to avoid them. Here’s 5 steps to clean up a muddy mix: Get it right at the source; Manage your low end in the stereo field; Don’t be afraid to filter.
- From easy-to-use audio restoration plugins like Z-Noise to dedicated post production tools like the WNS Noise Suppressor, Waves offers a comprehensive range of noise reduction plugins.
- HoRNet CompExp is a compressor-expander vst plugin designed by Saverio Vigni, the design is base on a commander chip designed for telephone lines and used to reduce noise on an electronic device. Achieving a well balanced and a commercial ready track/sound with a compressor tool is far more said than done, achieve a faster result with CompExp.
- All these plugins are both PC and Mac VST and AU so will work with Studio One. Get One Of The Best Pro Tools Instrument Plug-ins Xpand!2 For Studio One Free - Normally $69.99 One of the best virtual instruments to ever ship with Pro Tools is Xpand!2.
The package includes following builds:
- Windows 64bit
- Linux 64bit
- macOS 64bit
macOS build isn’t tested because I don’t have Mac. If you found a bug, please file a issue to GitHub repository or send email to ryukau@gmail.com.
Linux build is built on Ubuntu 18.0.4 and tested on Bitwig and Reaper. If you are using distribution other than Ubuntu 18.04, plugin will not likely run. In this case, please take a look at build instruction.
Installation
Plugin
Place *.vst3 directory to:
/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/for Windows.$HOME/.vst3/for Linux./Users/$USERNAME/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST3/for macOS.
DAW may provides additional VST3 directory. For more information, please refer to the manual of the DAW.
Presets
Extract preset zip, then place preset directory to the OS specific path:
- Windows :
/Users/$USERNAME/Documents/VST3 Presets/Uhhyou - Linux :
$HOME/.vst3/presets/Uhhyou - macOS :
/Users/$USERNAME/Library/Audio/Presets/Uhhyou
Preset directory name must be the same as the plugin. Make Uhhyou directory if it does not exist.
Windows Specific
If DAW doesn’t recognize the plugin, try installing C++ redistributable (vc_redist.x64.exe). Installer can be found in the link below.
Linux Specific
On Ubuntu 18.0.4, those packages are required.
If DAW doesn’t recognize the plugin, take a look at Package Requirements section of the link below and make sure all the VST3 related package is installed.
REAPER on Linux may not recognize the plugin. A workaround is to delete a file ~/.config/REAPER/reaper-vstplugins64.ini and restart REAPER.
macOS Specific
When trying to run plugin first time, following message may appear on macOS.
In this case, open terminal and try running following command to unzipped .vst3 directory.
Plugin may be considered as unsigned/un-notarized application. In this case, try following the steps below.
- Open terminal and run
sudo spctl --master-disable. - Go to System Preferences → Security and Privacy → General → Allow apps downloaded from, then select “Anywhere”.
Beware that steps above degrades security of your system. To revert the settings, follow the steps below.
- Go to System Preferences → Security and Privacy → General → Allow apps downloaded from, then select option to “App Store and identified developers”.
- Open terminal and run
sudo spctl --master-enable.
Reference
Color Configuration
At first time, create color config file to:
/Users/USERNAME/AppData/Roaming/UhhyouPlugins/style/style.jsonon Windows.$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/UhhyouPlugins/style/style.jsonon Linux.- If
$XDG_CONFIG_HOMEis empty, make$HOME/.config/UhhyouPlugins/style/style.json.
- If
/Users/$USERNAME/Library/Preferences/UhhyouPlugins/style/style.jsonon macOS.
Below is a example of style.json.
Hex color codes are used.
- 6 digit color is RGB.
- 8 digit color is RGBA.
Vst Plugin Daw P Explosives Sound Reducer
First letter # is conventional. Plugins ignore the first letter of color code, thus ?102938, n11335577 are valid.
Do not use characters outside of 0-9a-f for color value.
fontPath: Absolute path to *.ttf font file. Not implemented in VST 3 version.foreground: Text color.foregroundButtonOn: Text color of active toggle button. Recommend to use the same value offoregroundorboxBackground.foregroundInactive: Text color of inactive components. Currently, only used for TabView.background: Background color.boxBackground: Background color of inside of box shaped components (Barbox, Button, Checkbox, OptionMenu, TextKnob, VSlider).border: Border color of box shaped components.borderCheckbox: Border color of CheckBox.borderLabel: Line color of parameter section label.unfocused: Color to fill unfocused components. Currently, only used for knobs.highlightMain: Color to indicate focus is on a component. Highlight colors are also used for value of slider components (BarBox and VSlider).highlightAccent: Same ashighlightMain. Used for cosmetics.highlightButton: Color to indicate focus is on a button.highlightWarning: Same ashighlightMain, but only used for parameters which requires extra caution.overlay: Overlay color. Used to overlay texts and indicators.overlayHighlight: Overlay color to highlight current focus.
Controls
Knob and slider can do:
- Ctrl + Left Click: Reset value.
- Shift + Left Drag: Fine adjustment.
There is an additional control for number sliders used for Octave, Seed etc.
- Middle Click : Flip minimum and maximum.
Control with many blue vertical bars (BarBox) have some keyboard shortcuts. LFO Wave on Main tab and Gain, Width, Pitch, Phase on Wavetable tab are using BarBox. Shortcuts are enabled after left clicking BarBox and mouse cursor is on the inside of BarBox. Cheat sheet is available on Infomation tab.
| Input | Control |
|---|---|
| Left Drag | Change Value |
| Shift + Left Drag | Change Value (Snapped) |
| Ctrl + Left Drag | Reset to Default |
| Ctrl + Shift + Left Drag | Change Value (Skip Between Frames) |
| Right Drag | Draw Line |
| Shift + Right Drag | Edit One Bar |
| Ctrl + Right Drag | Reset to Default |
| Ctrl + Shift + Right Drag | Toggle Lock |
| a | Alternate Sign |
| d | Reset Everything to Default |
| D | Toggle Min/Mid/Max |
| e | Emphasize Low |
| E | Emphasize High |
| f | Low-pass Filter |
| F | High-pass Filter |
| i | Invert Value (Preserve minimum) |
| I | Invert Value (Minimum to 0) |
| l | Toggle Lock under Mouse Cursor |
| L | Toggle Lock for All |
| n | Normalize (Preserve minimum) |
| N | Normalize (Minimum to 0) |
| p | Permute |
| r | Randomize |
| R | Sparse Randomize |
| s | Sort Descending Order |
| S | Sort Ascending Order |
| t | Subtle Randomize (Random walk) |
| T | Subtle Randomize (Converge to 0) |
| z | Undo |
| Z | Redo |
| , (Comma) | Rotate Back |
| . (Period) | Rotate Forward |
| 1 | Decrease |
| 2-9 | Decrease 2n-9n |
Snapping is not available for all BarBox. If you’d like to have snapping for certain BarBox, feel free to open issue to GitHub repository.
Edit One Bar with Shift + Right Drag holds a bar under the cursor when mouse right button is pressed. Then only changes that one bar while holding down mouse right button.
Toggle Lock with Ctrl + Shift + Right Drag behaves as line edit. When right mouse button (RMB) is pressed, it holds the opposite state of the bar below mouse cursor, then use the state for the rest of bars. For example, if RMB is pressed on a locked bar, dragging unlocks bars while holding down RMB.
Some BarBox has scroll bar to zoom in. Scroll bar has handles on left end and right end. To control zoom, use Left Drag on one of the handle. Scroll bar also has following controls:
- Right Click : Reset zoom.
- Mouse Wheel : Zoom in/out.
Caution
Pressing Refresh LFO or Refresh Table button stop sound. They also stop all midi notes.
Wavetable Specification
Length of a wavetable is 2^18 samples.
136 band-limited wavetables are generated for each MIDI note. Pitch bending is supported as high as 21100 Hz. 21100 Hz is derived from MIDI note number 136. Frequency of MIDI note number 137 is higher then 22050 Hz. That’s why 136 is selected.
When fundamental frequency of a note is lower than 8.18 Hz, some overtones on high frequency may lost. However, cubic interpolation may cause noise which makes those frequency not to be 0.
Wavetable is represented as 2D array with size of 136 * 2^18. Bicubic interpolation is used to get the value from the table. Coordinate on time/band-limit axis is determined by phase and frequency of oscillator.
The size of wavetable is large for a synthesizer. Xrun may occur if memory is slow. It may also consume more resources for higher notes because access pattern becomes close to random.
PADsynth Algorithm Overview
CubicPadSynth uses PADsynth algorithm, which is originated from ZynAddSubFX. Yoshimi is also using PADsynth algorithm.
Passing phase randomized spectrum to IDFT (inverse discrete fourier transform) generates a cyclic waveform which is smooth when connecting an end to another end. PADsynth is utilizing this property.
“Profile” function is used to synthesize spectrum. CubicPadSynth uses normal distribution curve for profile, which is same as original PADsynth algorithm. Center frequency of profile can be set arbitrary. In default, CubicPadSynth uses fundamental frequency set by Base Freq. and its overtones.
Block Diagram
If the image is small, use Ctrl + Mouse Wheel or “View Image” on right click menu to scale.
Diagram only shows overview. It’s not exact implementation.
Parameters
Main Tab
Tuning
Changes master pitch.
Milli is 1/1000 of semitone or 1/10 cent.
Changes tuning.
ET stands for equal temperament. Note that when ET is less than 12, some notes becomes silent due to frequency becomes too high or too low.
A4 [Hz] is frequency of note A4.
Gain
Gain envelope parameters.
A: Attack time which is the length from note-on to reaching peak value.D: Decay time which is the length from peak value to reaching sustain level.S: Sustain level which is the gain after decay.R: Release time which is the length from note-off to the gain reaching to 0.
Master output gain.
Lowpass
This is a psuedo low-pass filter. It shifts to wavetable which contains less overtone to get low-passed output.
Equation to get cutoff frequency is following.
128 used to calculate lpCut is an arbitrary value which came from MIDI note number range + 1. nTable is set to 136.
Changes filter cutoff frequency.
When set to right-most, cutoff frequency is set to make the number of overtone to be almost same regardless of pitch of note. When set to left-most, it only use the value of Cutoff.
Filter envelope parameters. Amount changes the amount of modulation to cutoff.
Pitch
Pitch envelope parameters.
Changes the sign of pitch envelope output.
Unison
Number of voices used by unison.
To avoid interruption of release, increase the number of nVoice in Misc. section. Note that increasing nVoice consumes more resources.
Detune is the difference of pitch between voices used in a unison.
When Random Detune is checked, amount of detune changes for each note-on.
Amount of randomization of gain for voices used in a unison.
Amount of randomization of phase for voices used in a unison.
This parameter makes no effect when Reset in Phase section is checked.
Spread is an amount of stereo spread for a unison.
Spread Type provides options to assign panpot values according to voice pitch.
Alternate L-R: AlternatesAscend L -> RandAscend R -> L.Alternate M-S: AlternatesHighOnMidandHighOnSide.Ascend L -> R: Ascend pitch from left to right.Ascend R -> L: Ascend pitch from right to left.HighOnMid: Ascend pitch from side to mid.HighOnSide: Ascend pitch from mid to side.Random: Randomize pan. May be biased.RotateL: Rotate to left for each note-on.RotateR: Rotate to right for each note-on.Shuffle: Randomly assign pan which is evenly ordered.
Daw Vst Plugins
LFO
Refresh LFO wavetable based on current value of LFO Wave.
Note that refreshing wavetable stops sound. It also interrupts MIDI notes.
Type of LFO wavetable interpolation.
Sets LFO frequency according to current tempo. Lower numeral represents the length of note. Upper numeral is the number of notes.
Value of Multiply is multiplied to the frequency calculated from Tempo.
When checked, resets LFO phase for each note-on.
LFO frequency modulation amount.
Changes cutoff freequency of low-pass filter for LFO.
LFO waveform.
Phase
Initial phase of oscillator.
When checked, resets oscillator phase to the value set by Phase.
When checked, randomize phase for each note-on. In this case, value of Phase becomes range of randomization.
Misc.
Time length to change some parameter value to current one. Unit is in second.
List of parameters related to Smooth. * represents wild card.
- All parameters in Tuning section.
- Gain
SGain
- Lowpass
CutoffKeyFollowSAmount
- Pitch
SAmountNegative
- LFO
TempoMultiplyAmountLowpass
- Phase
Phase
Maximum polyphony. Lowering the number of this option reduces CPU load.
When checked, most quiet note is released when the number of active voice is close to maximum polyphony. This can be used to reduce pop noise which occurs on note-on.
Wavetable Tab
Overtone Controls
Gain of profile.
Width of profile.
This value is multiplied to profile center frequency.
Range of randomization for the phase of profile.
Pitch
Fundamental frequency of wavetable. Note that if this value is small, master pitch becomes out of tune.
Changes profile center frequency.
When checked, randomize profile center frequency. Ignores values of Pitch in overtone control.
Spectrum
Scaling factor to shrink/expand the spectrum along to frequency axis.
Shift spectrum along to frequency axis.
When this value is higher than 1, it changes the shape of profile like a comb. The value specifies interval between peaks.
Changes profile shapes by using the value of Shape as an exponent.
Invert spectrum to make the maximum of absolute value to 0, and 0 to the max-abs value. Signs are preserved. Phases aren’t considered.
Phase
When checked, phase of a profile becomes an uniform value.
Random
Random seed. This value change random number sequence.
Modifier
Exponent for Gain in overtone control.
Multiplier for Width in overtone control.
Refresh Table
Refresh PADsynth wavetable based on current configuration of Wavetable tab.
Note that refreshing wavetable stops sound. It also interrupts MIDI notes.
Change Log
- 0.1.9
- Implemented process context requirements.
- Added/Changed BarBox functionality to match LV2 version.
- Edit one bar.
- Lock.
- Internal mouse wheel sensitivitly.
- Snapping (implemented, but not used).
- Starting bar of line edit is now fixed to anchor point.
- 0.1.8
- Added check that DSP is initialized or not.
- 0.1.7
- Added scroll bar to dense BarBox.
- Added undo/redo to BarBox.
- 0.1.6
- Added color configuration.
- 0.1.5
- Reverted parameter smoother to the old one which works with variable size audio buffer.
- 0.1.4
- Fixed a bug that refreshing wavetable before parameters are loaded at launch.
- Fixed off by one error in LFO wavetable with cubic interpolation.
- 0.1.3
- Fixed a bug that some shortcuts are disabled for BarBox.
- 0.1.2
- Changed
Refresh TableandRefresh LFOfrom VST message to parameter. This enables automation and midi mapping. - Changed BarBox shortcuts to be disabled when mouse cursor is on the outside of BarBox.
- Changed
- 0.1.1
- Fixed a bug that cause crash when drawing string.
- 0.1.0
- Initial release.
Old Versions
License
CubicPadSynth is licensed under GPLv3. Complete licenses are linked below.
Audio Vst Plugins Free
If the link above doesn’t work, please send email to ryukau@gmail.com.
About VST
VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, registered in Europe and other countries.
While you’re recording your guitar during your home studio projects there’s something you want immediately right: your guitar tone. You want it aggressive, evil, distorted with great saturation and right EQ. What more? Nothing, the problem is that you have to render it as you’re actually thinking about it. That’s the hard part. Let’s start saying that this tutorial is for those guys who are starting their first studio project and who are trying to have more from their guitar sound. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, this is how I like to do it, keeping it the simpliest I can. Moreover I use free plugin, not bad for your wallet, isn’t it?
I’m not a guitar player, not at all, I play every now and then guitar just to remember some riffs and record them quickly, with my cheap SG guitar (I bought it some years ago for about 100€ on ebay), B drop tuned with some awesome strings: RotoSoundDarkZone. I recorded some chords and some palm muted parts for this tutorial and, I mean, remember I’m not a guitar player, so forgive me! I use Reaper but you can apply all the concepts to whatever DAW you like.
Let’s move forward: create a new track and insert these FREE plugins:
- TSE TS808(version 2.0)
- TSE X50 (version 1.0.2)
- ReaGate
Use Vst Without Daw
Insert them following exactly this order in your VST chain. It turned out mandatory for me to add a gate at the end, Reaper’s ReaGate to be precise, because of the annoying noise coming from my SG cheap pickup, that was amplified by the VST chain. I just loaded the “rhythm guitar” preset tweaking a bit the threshold, the noise disappeared. Another really important point to stress is to remember to enable monitoring, otherwise you’re not gonna hearing anything from your speakers! On Reaper mixer find the little button on the right of the track volume fader and click it. Please remember to enable it, or it would be hard to hear you playing 🙂
Let’s have a more detailed look to the VST chain. The TSE TS808 is a good quality tube driver emulator, don’t think about it as a poor quality plugin just because it’s free, I found really few ones like this, moreover a brand new release has been recently released, and trust me, it sounds even better. This is exactly what we need to give to our tone the right amount of grit before sending the signal to the amp, on palm muting it will be a blast. For this tutorial I set it this way:
TSE X50 is a free VST clone of the famous and “evil” Peavey 5150, massively used in extreme metal. Even this plugin recently got a new release: a must. If your target is an aggressive distortion, it won’t let you down. If you remember my post on guitar amp simulators comparison, I used an old X50 version and it was already really good for me, then I modified the post with the new version and I realized how much better it sounded. My SG gets a badass tone with this settings:
Poulin LeCab 2 it’s a quite versatile cabinet simulator, if you already own some IR wav files it’s exactly what you need. What’s an IR? The Impulse Response is a signal that can be extracted (with a slightly complex procedure maybe someday we’ll talk about it in details) recording the signal of a real cabinet with a microphone. To keep it simple we can say that it’s the “fingerprint” of the cabinet and the related microphone. Why it’s important? Because you really can’t take just the output signal of the amplifier without the cabinet, try to think about it as if you had a real amp, would you record the direct output of your amplifier head without the cabinet? It would be awful and somehow dangerous for your recording system. Don’t do it. Neither with VSTs 😉 In this case I used God’s Cab IRs, they’re free and come with a detailed user manual, that explain the different techniques used to record the IRs. Load the WAVs files on LeCab, if you blend together more than one IR it would be like if you’re micing your cabinet from different point, experimenting different combination is quite interesting, this is how I like it with God’s Cab:
Here you are my final tone:
https://www.santoclemenzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/HeavyGuitarTone.mp3As you can notice the sound need to be enhanced: it would be nice to add an highpass filter to cut everything under about 100Hz, then, lowpass everything above the frequency you hear “frying” on the upper part of the spectrum, usually these frequencies give to your tone a very digital character, it’s better to reduce it.
To summarize you can reach every sound you need just using free plugins you can find on the web, this is how I record my ideas and riffs, quickly and for free, I couldn’t ask for more 😉
Please note: this post participate to the “Group Writing Project: Write a ‘How To…’ Post” by ProBlogger, have a look to the project!