Crysonic

Well this review is not focusing that much on the plugins sound. The main reason for this is that the latest "bug-fixed" version 3.5 simply won't load in Wavelab. I have of course contacted Crysonic 'support' and 'info' email. But I haven't heard anything, and I have to say this was expected, as I have had trouble with this plugin since its v.3.0 release and have contacted Crysonic again and again during the last months, but they simply don't answer my emails.
It such a sadness, that they try to run a business this way.

The first version I installed of Spectralive NXT 3 (the 3.0) did actually "play" in Wavelab and I was also able to get pretty good results using the plugin, judged by the playback sound alone. It was able to change the sound in desirable ways, although it has to be said, that most of the knobs don't tell what they do, and since the documentation is ehh, not very informative, it's simply trial and error for the most part.

What I did find out though was that using Wavelabs render function (which is what you use when you want to make a mixdown with all FX to a file) the results were very, very far from the sound at real-time playback.

So I don't know what to say. Bad coding I guess.!?

If the Crysonic staff was willing to help I would accept trouble, if I knew it was actually going to be fixed.

But as things are I would not, under any circumstances recommend this to anyone. With so many fine choices both sound and support-wise in the plugin field, look elsewhere. Going Crysonic with this plugin is most likely a waste of time and money!

If you really like what you hear - please remember to judge the sound you get in a mix also (using render, mixdown etc.)

BTW: I got it at a hefty discount rate, but that doesn't help if it doesn't work.

A big dissapointment!



UPDATE - UPDATE

Since my above review, a new version 3,5 has been released fixing the loading issue in Wavelab.

That said other problems remains:
There are still issues when it comes to the sound of rendered audio, compared to the realtime playback. And don't forget that I wrote to Crysonic support about this several times over the last months, so they really should have been aware of this issue and fixed it.

The result: Even though I used all the plugins limiter buttons [and there are many] the sound was peaking at +2,1 db instead of Odb, on the rendered audio-file, which means that the limiter doesn't work.
Moreover these passages had audible distortion..!?

So my warning concerning this plugin remains!Read Review

Note: KVR has a problem with allowing members to edit their reviews apparently, so I have signed on as another member (xsys) to correct my mistake (the first review). That review was written after several days of reviewing many different limiters, and was unwarranted.

Since I originally posted such a scathing review, I thought I would re-investigate this product, and try to find something positive to write about it. It does have a simple interface, and it takes a minimum amount of tweaking to get it to work. In fact, just slap it on a bus and its already limiting. It does consistently handle your peaks, and that can be useful.

The ease of use is definitely a positive aspect of this product, and I can add that the addition of the tube distortion emulation with coloring is also interesting. It did seem to do something, and there were moments in the material when the coloring did sound slightly better than the un-colored material, but I don’t know if I would tie the sound to tube emulation exactly. The other unique features (like “physics” algorithms) are new to any software of this nature, and it is difficult to tell what it is doing. The “Virtual Spring” effect evidently refers to (just guessing here) string theory (i.e. the most basic element is a springy string), but does this give the author leeway for making a “physics” connection? I don’t really know, but it is certainly welcome if it does something (or develops into something). I did see some alteration of the resulting waveform when adjusting these parameters, so it may be doing what it says.

The documentation is very sparse, but you don’t need any to start using it. However, it would be nice to have some detailed explanation regarding the physics and how we are supposed to optimize the use of this new feature. There are no presets, but again, it is very simple to use. The support response was a little slow, but they did respond within 24 hours (they are in Australia). That is fine in my book. During my testing, I did experience a computer hard freeze while I was adjusting one of the knobs, but this may have been unrelated (and did not repeat). Otherwise, it appeared to be stable, and it provided functionality that had some use…even if it was for the sole purpose of brick-walling audio peaks. I question whether this product is really doing proper peak reduction that can be trusted as a “Master” limiter in a professional setting. I am not a professional audio engineer, but it seems like it can be trusted to use as a simple brick-wall limiter at the end of the plugin chain.

Is that worth money? It is difficult to say that this is worth the asking price…there are a lot of free plugins that do brickwall limiting. It would also be unfair to say it is worthless. I would like to see a few more controls (simple input and output gain controls would be nice), and a detailed explanation of what the “physics” means to me in terms of mastering my audio. Maybe a few before-and-after audio files on the website would be helpful, demonstrating exactly what is unique about this product that justifies the price.Read Review