Multiband Clipping with the New Kraftur Plugin from Soundtheory

[@SonicScoop]

Have you used Kraftur? What do you think? Try it for free at soundtheory.com

[@Beautiful7]

I just purchased this today and I am super happy. Thank you for the knowledge .

[@SonicScoop]

Awesome to hear!

[@jonathanthedeceptikon]

Thanks for the excellent video! Answered a ton of my questions about the plugin. Truly appreciate you diving into the details here.

[@SonicScoop]

Thanks so much for the superchat! And thanks for tuning in.

[@jonathanthedeceptikon]

@@SonicScoop You’re very welcome!

[@TracingFlares]

missing the clip metering here too 😊if this is a problem you could make 3 clip meters for each band

[@joechapman8208]

Great video but can we please never have processing of loud music with people shouting to each other about it while two more guys speak over it? That was absolutely maddening, especially since he was touring the features and how it all works.

[@metalhead3ecr]

@@joechapman8208 yep, not the best example to talk over... that's my bad. It's actually a great clip when not talked over. You hear how the drums and the voices change at extreme settings, and it's pretty intuitive to understand what each control does on that particular clip. But give the free trial a spin and if you need a trial extension just write into support and i'll provide one

[@joechapman8208]

@@metalhead3ecr No worries, I already own it! I was watching just for more insights from the company staff

[@KYTHERAOfficial]

Sooooo confusing

[@gregkocis]

I was just about to say the same thing. I kept pausing the video, thinking another video might be playing on my system.

[@carlos-ni4hn]

Hey justin this year when will start mix con?

[@SonicScoop]

Most likely October.

[@UncleBenjs]

Late to this, but seen this plugin recently. Seems interesting although the stuff I record gets clipped on the way in (by quite a few db)

[@SonicScoop]

In the hip hop world, sometimes the correct answer to that problem is *even more clipping* X-D -Justin

[@michaelmurray2595]

I couldn't get Kraftur working in Reaper 7.19 on Windows 10 - doesn't recognise the DLL. And the Windows installer could do with some work.

[@1loveMusic2003]

Clipping doesn't control dynamics it cuts off anything above threshold. Any information above threshold is deleted not controlled or turned down. This introduces saturation. This is my understanding.

[@SonicScoop]

Clipping does control dynamics, by turning down anything above the threshold :-) A *perfectly hard clipper* turns anything above the threshold down by an infinite amount-instantly-which visually looks like "cutting off" the top of the waveform. However, nothing is "deleted". The audio is all there, it's just not allowed to pass the threshold. But most clippers, including the main clippers in KRAFTUR, are not exactly hard clippers. They are at least somewhat *soft clippers*, and can often be made even softer. Softer clippers turn down signals before they even hit the threshold, and will turn down signals above the threshold, but not by an infinite amount. Yes, this process does introduce harmonic distortion, which could be called saturation. However, basically every dynamics processor introduces some degree of harmonic distortion (aka saturation)! Clippers do introduce more harmonic distortion than limiters, but less pumping and breathing. Limiters have more pumping and breathing than clippers, but less harmonic distortion. Used subtly, clippers can be pretty transparent, and they can allow the limiters that follow them to be more transparent. Pushed to their extremes (as we do here for demonstration) clippers can be very apparent. But they don't have to be. I hope that helps! -Justin

[@TracingFlares]

the metering of Kraftur is a mess. Input and output should go side by side. Otherwise no way to really compare the two. You would have to continuously go left and right with your eyes to see of you can catch some.. but you can't as it is moving. Also where is the clipping meter?? Seems to me that this one is waaay not finished yet. And one more... i do not need toys for visuialization and fancy graphics... what is needed is something that can add to the table. No excuse for the clipping meter or clipping band meters. Without these not going to buy... and may not buy it at all as in my tests this does nothing an eq, Saturn and little comp could not do😊

[@mianregan3197]

i still dont get what is that single band doing in the process。。。

[@thegroove2000]

Dont people have volume controls on their gear these days?

[@thegroove2000]

To ones understanding loudness is not thickness. Analog clipping can do this so the software then doesnt deliver in that department.

[@TannerByTheSea]

😳

[@TannerByTheSea]

Man what did I miss

[@SonicScoop]

A very cool clipper!

[@Rhuggins]

I picked this up. I think its cool but the lack of Gain Reduction metering irks me

[@SinclairSound]

Well if you are running 24 bit audio, then zero is zero. There is no more gain past zero to reduce. So you are really just moving around where 'zero' is by pushing gain for a band. You also have control the transfer curve into hard clipping. The matching function is simply a courtesy so you aren't deceived by gain. You are however reducing dynamic range. A simple crest factor meter can help you understand how much you have reduced dynamic range.

[@Rhuggins]

@@SinclairSound why use a second meter when literally one simple visual metric of gain reduction could have been included. Its like trying to use a separate meter on a compressor to determine how much gain reduction is happening

[@metalhead3ecr]

@@Rhugginsseveral of these types of questions were answered in the live chat, but it doesn't seem available right now. In any case, we briefly touch on this in the video. We are working on adding a readout for the total amount of clipping. It's not a straightforward process as there are several possible processing paths within kraftur and reducing that down to a single meaningful number is not trivial unlike a compressor or single stage clipper. We do recommend using additional metering for the material and standard you subscribe to.

[@Rhuggins]

@@metalhead3ecr your GUI is beautiful and clearly high effort, but I would happily trade some of the flare for more function. Even the color changing on the band-specific output metering, would be useful. Ideally, GR on a per-band basis, as well as GR for the broadband clipper would be indicated. I wouldnt expect this to take into account various ratios of dry signal in real time. As a user, I could infer that if I’m getting 1db of reduction on each band in a 100% multiband configuration, and 4dbs on the broadband clipper in 100% broadband configuration - that some interpolation between those - and the dry signal -would lead to a range of possible GR values, and I’m totally OK with the plugin not displaying that in real tike. I still have input and output after all. But we need SOMETHING here, since the mere presence of your crossover filters can increase or decrease peak level compared to the dry (actually dry, pre plugin, not phase compensated “dry” signal in the plugin) signal. As of right now its impossible to get accurate data without considerable effort