Voxengo LF Max Punch
Been using these for about 6 years and I wanted to express how much I appreciate them. HarmoniEQ is such an asset to adding color. In the tradition of the Pultec EQP-1 I often bring frequencies down with the stock Reaper EQ and bring them back up with HarmoniEQ, adding color when I don't even need an EQ adjustment. It's been especially effortless to change an electric guitar's tone when I feel like, "I wish he'd played a tele here instead of that SG." Even after I picked up Warm Audio WA-412 for overall coloration, HarmoniEQ is still invaluable for shaping coloration so I'm less in need of spending thousands on different analog devices to achieve the specific profile I'm after.
I have some feature suggestions, first would be to add a non-colored EQ for pulling down frequencies so the Pultec trick is fully integrated, and also I think it could benefit from higher oversampling factors since the difference between 4x and 8x is plainly audible to me, would love to see 12x, 16x, 24x, and even 32x since CPU is pretty abundant these days. Even folks who are light on CPU can adjust the mix at lower oversampling, then set up a render queue with the oversampling cranked, and have the DAW process it slowly overnight while they sleep.
I still use the old version of SPAN because I'm set in my ways, but also those average and peak RMS readings are such great measures to ensure my mixes are the same general volume.
The bass saturation feature in LF Max Punch gets so much use, even on vocals to give them a "closer" feel to them, on overheads and ambient mics to get more room impact on the lows, places I never would have thought to use them. Brilliant tool!
Elephant is the only remotely pumpy limiter I'll use. I like my mixes to be highly realistic, which means I can't stand LA1176's, but sometimes a bit of pump sets the right tone without sounding desperate. Elephant nails that every time.
Here's some pearls for folks who don't appreciate how awesome a phase adjustment tool PHA-979 is. Any recording that's live or live off the floor with ambient mics, you can use PHA-979 to phase-align direct mics to the ambient mics by adjusting the phase so the lower frequencies combine the most (might actually be nice to have a mono version just for this). Then put a PHA-979 on an aux bus with L/R set to -90/+90, to generate a side channel. Mute the ambient mics and send all your direct mics through that side channel bus and feather it up until you can barely notice the widening effect. Now unmute the ambient mics, and you can't tell where they end and the direct mics begin. It's the glue between the two without the muddying of early reflection reverb. I haven't found any other plug-in that accomplishes that nearly as well as PHA-979, and it's not nearly enough anti-phase to ruin the mix when summed mono.
Voxengo plugs do more than just a good job, they really make the job more enjoyable.
AC2SPLI have to say that voxengo plugins are incredible and often much better than more expensive equivalents "when they are available" as many voxengo plugins have no equivalent. I'm blown away by their sonic excellence and the ease with which you can find textures with great musicality and interest. The interface is clear and functional without unnecessary and distracting decorations. There's everything you need to control sounds or sculpt them.
Soniformer offers advanced and transparent dynamics processing, with all types of compression and expansion possible (upward, downward, de-compression, de-expansion). It's useful for beautiful, homogeneous multiband compression as well as for recovering a file lacking in dynamics, correcting phase corelation problems.
Sobor is simply one of the best reverbs I've ever heard and I've got quite a collection of them! It's the only one I use regularly 100%wet because the small spaces it produces allow you to create nuanced 3d depth with complete transparency. But of course it's also possible to create unrealistic spaces ranging from plate reverb to vintage models.
LF Max Punch is so well thought out in its conception that it gives the right presence and punch to low tones much more easily and better than with the other enhancers I'd used before or the other various ‘classic’ techniques, and once you've tried it, you can't do without it.
I can assure you that I regret having missed out on the offer to upgrade to the complete bundle when it was possible... I have reduced my vst folder but everything I own from voxengo is there - these are the tools I use for each of my projects! Thank you Voxengo.
David Scrufari