nice (& cheap) new restoration plugin bundle

[TotalSonic]

Just a heads up for those who like me are always on the lookout for affordable but good sounding audio restoration plugins - I just found out about the Acon Digital Studio Clean suite -
www.acondigital.com/us_StudioClean.html

It's a bundle of 4 DX plugins - broadband noise reduction, a click/crackle remover, a clipped peak restorer, and a high harmonics generator - all for $69.

Another mastering engineer whose ear I respect gave a lot of praise to the DeClipper so figured it was worthy trying them out. I just tested the Acon DeNoiser and for this specific track I was working on that had lots of broadband noise on it worked out better (i.e. less artifacts with just as effective reduction) than either of the older DX plugins I have - Sony NR2 and Virtos Noise Wizard.

Works great and seems stable in SAWStudio and uses a reasonable amount of cpu - the guy just got my $69 just for that. Looking forward to testing the other 3 plugins out - particularly the DeClicker. Frankly the Sony activation scheme annoys me so I've been trying to find a substitute that works just as well for their click/crackle remover for a while - so hoping that this also is good on the Acon - I'll post on my results after I get done testing.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[bcorkery]

Thanks Steve.
This is worth a look-see.

[sebastiandybing]

Thanks

It looks good...and he got a pitch shifter,
need also to try that one.

Sebastian

[Bill Park]

I don't know if you noticed, but he shows a number of different plugs on his "Products" page, and you can buy all of the studio plugs (except Audio Lava) PLUS his audio editor for $129.

Bill

[Angie]

Interesting. I'll give it a try. Steve, I'm anxious to hear further thoughts on it when you've had a chance to play with it a little more.

[studio-c]

One of the four effects in this bundle is called Studio Rebirth. It says it adds synthesized high frequency harmonics to add life to old or dull recordings. I'm wondering if this is an Aphex Aural Exciter type effect. There has been interest in these kinds of plugins here in the past few months.

[TotalSonic]

ok - just tested the DeClicker that comes in this bundle and it works great! - haven't tested the other 2 plugins in the bundle yet - but based on these two I'm definitely recommending this stuff.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[MikeDee]

I went with the Power Bundle, which includes the pitch shifter.

Unfortunately, the pitch shifter crashes SAWStudio.

1. I add a sound file to the MT, Track 1.
2. I patch in the Acon Digital Media StudioPitch (pre or post fader...makes no difference).
3. I hit play and modify the plug-in's settings (or I can modify, then hit play).
4. I hit stop.
5. I hit play once again...and the plug-in causes SS to crash.

I have attached screenshots of the two error messages that pop up during the crash (which happens whenever the plug-in is added...it is not an edl issue, since I didn't begin with one).

Oh, well...let's hope all the other Acon plug-ins don't cause SS to crash.

Best regards,

[TotalSonic]

Hey Mike -
I didn't test (or recommend!!) the Pitch Shifter - it's always best to demo plugins out before purchasing them!

fwiw - Sonoris PitchTime (for when I want a "quality sound"), Delay Dots freeware DX Pitchworks, and some freebie VST stuff such as the Toby Bear ShivaShifta (for when I just want a weird effect) all do pitchshifting chores in SAW well.

Anyway - on my relatively modest systems (Win2k, 3GHz P4, 1gig RAM) both the DeNoiser and DeClicker have worked well without any crashes.

Best regards,
STeve Berson

[MikeDee]

Hi, Steve -

I usually don't let things like that bother me...I always manage to work around 'em.

I discovered that the crash occurs only when pitch-shifting DOWN.

In any event, I found a way to tame the beast...right-click to start and stop in the plug-in's [SAWStudio] "frame," up in the gray area, where the triangle is. (It's the only place within the plug-in that right-clicking will work.) Doing so avoids the crash.

Fortunately, this appears to be the only plug-in that appears to crash SS.

Best regards,