Kilohearts Disperser - what's it for and how to best use it?

[challism]

Disperser has often times been referred to as "secret sauce". It's highly regarded and recommended by many users. I'm trialing it now (thinking about paying the $79 Mix Rig bundle upgrade). I feel a bit underwhelmed with Disperser and don't exactly know what it's doing or when and why one would want to use it. So I'm looking for any tips for best results from users who love it. There are only 3 controls on the device, but I'm having some trouble knowing how to dial it in for best results. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[TritoneAddiction]

I'm one of those people that love it. But I've noticed it's not for everyone. Some people can't tell the difference it brings, unless they go overboard with it and the effect becomes all lasery.

I mainly use it on kicks, snares. But I use it on transient bass sounds and plucky sounds as well.
I typically only adjust amount and the frequency. I let pinch be untouched.
For me the trick is to dial in the amount pretty subtly. I'm not after a huge audible difference. I just want the sounds to pop out better, be a bit more snappy.

[Loque]

search.php?keywords=disperser&terms=all ... mit=Search

It adds a little "punchy boing" if you need it.

[DaveyG]

Add me to the list of people who are underwhelmed by it. A triumph of marketing BS over end result. It's in the snake oil category for me. YMMV.

[selig]

Add me to the list of people who are underwhelmed by it. A triumph of marketing BS over end result. It's in the snake oil category for me. YMMV.

Same - I tried to like it, I WANTED to like it. But i couldn’t get anything useful out of it, and never heard a demo that convinced me otherwise. And I consider myself pretty open to new concepts over the years, being an early adopter of new technologies over the years…

[challism]

It adds a little "punchy boing" if you need it.

After reading this comment, my wife is insisting that I buy Disperser immediately.

[Loque]

It adds a little "punchy boing" if you need it.

After reading this comment, my wife is insisting that I buy Disperser immediately.

I should get a marketing job

[MattLeschuck]

I own the ultimate bundle and as much as I love the workflow of multi pass, snap heap and the majority of their snap ins, Disperser may be my least favorite of them all. I haven’t ever found a use for it or a example that convinced me otherwise.

[Aosta]

Same,
Tried it and the bang for buck was not worth it for what it does, would never pay the asking price for it.

[dioxide]

I demoed it way back and again I was unimpressed. Earlier this year I was reading about phase tricks but I couldn't demo it again as you only get one demo.

As far as I know Disperser is meant to be used for this kind of phase adjustment. However it seems that the u-he and built in phasers can also do this trick. I'm unsure if Disperser does this better than a standard Phaser, but the price is ludicrously high for a one-trick pony device, so I guess I will never find out.

https://gearspace.com/board/electronic- ... aping.html

[dusan.cani]

Here is the BEST example I've heard showing the Disperser usability:

viewtopic.php?p=421815#p421815

If you played with this device a litte bit, you can definitely hear the character that can be brought to the sound.

I think that exaggerated marketing and high price negatively influenced the psychological perception of this device

[deeplink]

Just as a note;

I believe I did a fairly accurate replication of Disperser using just stock devices (Sweeper) in the 1U-FX Series.
You do need R12 for this combinator, but if you like I can explain how to do it with R11 and Sweeper.

Download link: 1U-Mod Disperser

[selig]

Here is the BEST example I've heard showing the Disperser usability:

viewtopic.php?p=421815#p421815

If you played with this device a litte bit, you can definitely hear the character that can be brought to the sound.

I think that exaggerated marketing and high price negatively influenced the psychological perception of this device

Without hearing the before and after how can you know what role Disperser is playing?

[challism]

Yeah, after trialing for a few days, I can say I definitely wouldn't buy it on it's own for $59. But I'm looking at getting it as part of the Mix Rig Bundle upgrade ($79). I just have a gut feeling that the rigs might disappear sometime in the future, so I'm going to get the upgrade. Some of the other REs in the upgrade make the purchase worthwhile (namely FET Compressor, Kratos, and ModularRE). I was just expecting to be a little bit more impressed (or even a little bit impressed) with Disperser, given all the praise (hype) I've heard about it over the years. But I'll likely own it from this rig upgrade, so maybe I'll find some good uses for it. I've tried putting it on snares and bass drums and it does add a subtle punchiness to the sound, however, I can't help but think that similar results could be achieved with other devices. That $59 price tag is ridiculous for this.

[joeyluck]

I'm another big fan of Disperser. I don't understand the "snake oil" claims. It clearly affects the sound and whether you like that sound or not is your preference. Like TritoneAddiction, I use it on kicks and bass. I don't use it subtly though. I like it for adding lots of punch and juiciness. I use it for other sound design stuff too, like applying it to big impact hits for film.

[challism]

I'm another big fan of Disperser. I don't understand the "snake oil" claims. It clearly affects the sound and whether you like that sound or not is your preference. Like TritoneAddiction, I use it on kicks and bass. I don't use it subtly though. I like it for adding lots of punch and juiciness. I use it for other sound design stuff too, like applying it to big impact hits for film.

I can definitely hear the effect on kick and snares. I've been playing around with Disperser on kids and snares since Tritone mentioned it yesterday. How do you tend to dial in Disperser? Do you use the pinch knob, or do you leave that alone like Tritone said? How do you set the frequency, by ear or what?

[joeyluck]

I'm another big fan of Disperser. I don't understand the "snake oil" claims. It clearly affects the sound and whether you like that sound or not is your preference. Like TritoneAddiction, I use it on kicks and bass. I don't use it subtly though. I like it for adding lots of punch and juiciness. I use it for other sound design stuff too, like applying it to big impact hits for film.

I can definitely hear the effect on kick and snares. I've been playing around with Disperser on kids and snares since Tritone mentioned it yesterday. How do you tend to dial in Disperser? Do you use the pinch knob, or do you leave that alone like Tritone said? How do you set the frequency, by ear or what?

It's all by ear for me for all parameters. I usually never have the pinch greater than 50%. Sometimes with basses I will dial in the frequency to match the root note.

[okaino]

Vst version of disperser is on sale for $29 till 3/31/22

[crimsonwarlock]

I've been playing around with Disperser on kids....

I don't think that is legal

[dusan.cani]

Here is the BEST example I've heard showing the Disperser usability:

viewtopic.php?p=421815#p421815

If you played with this device a litte bit, you can definitely hear the character that can be brought to the sound.

I think that exaggerated marketing and high price negatively influenced the psychological perception of this device

Without hearing the before and after how can you know what role Disperser is playing?

If you played with this device a litte bit, you can definitely hear the character that can be brought to the sound.

[dvdrtldg]

I like Disperser but I don't expect miracles from it. I use it mostly when I need a kick to poke through the mix just a little more than it already is, the effect is pleasing but subtle. Picked it up for $20 a few Black Fridays ago, not sure I'd pay full price but it's definitely not snake oil imo

[challism]

I like Disperser but I don't expect miracles from it. I use it mostly when I need a kick to poke through the mix just a little more than it already is, the effect is pleasing but subtle. Picked it up for $20 a few Black Fridays ago, not sure I'd pay full price but it's definitely not snake oil imo

Yeah, I agree that it's not snake oil. I can clearly hear it doing something, and I can see how it has it's uses (or should I say USE... as it is a bit of a one-trick pony).

[Billy+]

Yeah, I agree that it's not snake oil. I can clearly hear it doing something, and I can see how it has it's uses (or should I say USE... as it is a bit of a one-trick pony).

It's definitely a "one trick pony" much the same as pump but they both do their trick very well (Olympic Standard) and nothing else comes close - I definitely wouldn't buy it at full price but during a sale I would snap it up (£30 on PiB ATM for the vst) I've got the RE version but given the current situation I'm sure hedging bets with a mixture of RE and vst's is probably a good idea.

[selig]

Without hearing the before and after how can you know what role Disperser is playing?

If you played with this device a litte bit, you can definitely hear the character that can be brought to the sound.

As far as hearing it, I hear what I consider to be artifacts - I had maybe assumed it to be more of an enhancer rather than adding a sound to the original (which is how I hear it).

That said, the Sweeper effect is very good at creating dramatic EQ curves that can make a drum practically jump out of the speakers (in a good way), so I find that device more useful for adding punch and power to drums than disperser for some reason, which seems to be mostly good at adding a 'pew pew' sound to drums!
It's only 'odd' because they are basically doing the same thing, phase shifting. Go figure, I put it down to a combination of personal preference and horses for courses.

[challism]

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