Vocal-Shaper VST does Dynamic Cleaning

[madwurmz]

This is a new plugin , for EQ on vocals, and one feature is called Dynamic Cleaning.
That means it will follow the frequency and boost the fundamentals... this could be really amazing and very useful , as EQ normally only hit one spot...
But the plugin is 40 dollar, on sale now just 19 dollar, that's almost ' too cheap' for it to be good! I'm going to test it soon...

https://www.waproduction.com/plugins/view/vocal-shaper

[selig]

I didn’t find that feature, but when I read stuff like this I think about all the amazing vocal mixes over the past 75+ years that never needed this feature.
That said, I’ve explored stuff like this using pitch to MIDI and ColoringEQ to follow the pitch. It may be handy in some cases but seems almost in the SISOAP arena of products.
That said there is a lot of other stuff included for that price, so may be worth it if you can demo it.

[huggermugger]

As often as not, I don't want to boost the fundamental of the vocal, unless I'm going for an intimate, moody close-miked sound. Generally (though not always) the fundamental is the strongest harmonic in a timbre, and it doesn't need any help.

[selig]

As often as not, I don't want to boost the fundamental of the vocal, unless I'm going for an intimate, moody close-miked sound. Generally (though not always) the fundamental is the strongest harmonic in a timbre, and it doesn't need any help.

I agree with vocals, am cutting lows more often than boosting. But in many other instruments it is where the body/girth lies.
That said, you may sometimes run across a thin vocal track (could be the source, could be someone cut too much when tracking) that needs exactly that. But a gentle wide boost is almost always better (and easier) than a narrow boost that needs to track the pitch. For reference, most vocal tracks don’t wander too far away from the starting note, often not exceeding an octave in total range (sometimes a little more). This doesn’t require tracking the fundamental unless you are doing the most narrow boost, which I cannot imagine would sound good in any situation!

I would think a low tracking CUT would make more sense (maybe even on vocals?), and I built the ColoringEQ to do just this, cutting the bass frequency from the kick dynamically by using the MIDI from the bass to “play” the pitch of the EQ band, and using velocity to control how deep the cut is. For stuff like this I would generally be more of a control freak anyway, not trusting an “automatic” tracking system as much as doing it “by hand”!

[madwurmz]

ha yes thanks for the response!
And I explained it wrong, it does 'Demud' a "pitch-tracking low resonance remover", so I guess that' s based on detecting the peaks and not directly 'boosting' , theoretically the result could be like a boost to the harmonic fundamentals, which I made a mistake calling it just fundamentals, I meant harmonics, and indeed especially not the first fundamental, indeed we cut those lows, so more like second third and 4th harmonics...

It offers a lot of other stuff too, but I think the pitch-tracking is very interesting.
I think all I'm saying is, if it was 100 dollar I would be more exited

I already got seduced into buying a couple of cheap plugins that also claim vocal magic with just a few knobs, but I still enjoy stacking REs the most.

[npinero1]

I bought this plugin and while it is CPU heavy in Reason, 10 to 11%, it sounds amazing.
Also, at $16, it is cost effective.

[breezy22]

I'll have to give vocal shaper a try, been looking for something that helps me with EQ

[tomusurp]

thanks for posting this because this seems like an incredible and useful plugin, and I'm VERY picky with plugins

this reminds of SurferEQ which has a great pitch tracking feature but unfortunately a bit pricey and I don't do vocals much. and pitch tracking is basically following the fundamental of your vocal dynamically and removing/demudding the preceding frequencies like a moving highpass

it's an interesting dynamic approach to mixing vocals because typically vocals will have a static highpass roll off. technically it would a slightly cleaner outcome and would make a little more frequencies available for the beat but this is really miniscule, although a valuable option

but what really impresses me is the built-in multi-effects. it also tells me they know what they are doing in terms of vocals because of the signal chain. in vocals at least usually you should always level, sub-eq, compress as the first in order. but then they have the extra cleanup, and also additive eq AND saturation

for $16 this seems like a steal, and keep in mind sometimes price means NOTHING. there are many shit plugins both cheap AND expensive. then there are great ones both cheap and expensive too. It always comes down to whether the company is a real or a fake/gimmick. Take Tokyo Dawn Lab plugins for example, literally $10 a piece in holiday sales but they are some of the most useful. Soothe2 $200 is a pricey one that is also great.

[madwurmz]

thanks for posting this because this seems like an incredible and useful plugin, and I'm VERY picky with plugins

Ha yes! I bought it and it's pretty useful! The mud clean-up is subtle, I wouldn't have mind if it was more obvious, or even exaggerate it and add pitch correct like that new VST called Chroma, that sounds like a vocoder.
I understand that's not the purpose of this tool yet it's not far fetched , because if this tool isolates the harmonics, it might as well get creative with it

I think dynamic processing and smart analyzing becomes more common in plugins, thanks to faster pcs and people moving beyond auto-tune.

[tomusurp]

thanks for posting this because this seems like an incredible and useful plugin, and I'm VERY picky with plugins

Ha yes! I bought it and it's pretty useful! The mud clean-up is subtle, I wouldn't have mind if it was more obvious, or even exaggerate it and add pitch correct like that new VST called Chroma, that sounds like a vocoder.
I understand that's not the purpose of this tool yet it's not far fetched , because if this tool isolates the harmonics, it might as well get creative with it

I think dynamic processing and smart analyzing becomes more common in plugins, thanks to faster pcs and people moving beyond auto-tune.

The plug-in would be even better if they added a pitch correction section. How is the leveler? For me nothing ever comes close to the Selig Leveler for vocals, he just nailed it perfectly

[madwurmz]

I didn't go through all the presets yet, but any preset is using the leveler and I just go with it.

The manual says about the Leveler:
"Unlike traditional processing, this Leveler utilises pink noise to continuously adjust vocal amplitude, ensuring a smooth and consistent performance"

and then it also has a compressor
"Based on the classic “child” compressor but optimised for vocals, this knob seamlessly adjusts compression levels based on input from the Leveler or directly from your recordings. "

So it does a lot of things, but before and after this VST I still put other vsts and REs to the vocals, then I bounce it and then might add even more

I don't really understand the Selig Leveler, but I do prefer the Selig De-esser instead of this plugin.

How is the leveler? For me nothing ever comes close to the Selig Leveler for vocals, he just nailed it perfectly