# Sonnox Inflator for Orchestra



## Vsevolod (Nov 24, 2019)

Hello! Does anyone else use Sonnox Inflator to saturate your orchestral soundtracks? This plugin was a revelation for me, although some say that it is already old. I add it to Master Bus. I love the effect knob at a position of 30 to 50%. Could you set this to 100%? I feel the maximum saturation. The sound is pleasant, dense and large, pleasant harmonics are added. But is it worth introducing such distortions for the whole orchestra?

Recently I came across this video on instagram by composer Benjamin Wallfisch. In this video, it uses a value of 100%. And apparently Curve remains in the value 0. Original link:


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## Minko (Nov 25, 2019)

Hello Vsevold,

I only know the Inflator from dance music. It is old, but old is not bad unless it is buggy and cpu intensive. Really handy tool to get things loud. I also use Flux Syrah for this. But that is different thing.

I would like to see the video, but the link is broken or doesn't work here.Very curious.

I do know Meyerson uses Fabfilter Saturn here and there.

I used charly from prime studio some times. But I've been told just deliver the stems. Don't bother with the mastering.

In the end it is your music, so you decide what is needed.


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## BlueStar (Nov 25, 2019)

Hi Vsevold,

you're in good company: I have recently seen the Inflator on the masterbus in a Alex Pfeffer youtube-video about ProjectSAM Symphobia 4 PANDORA.

There is a similar, tool from Sonnox called: "Oxford Envolution".
If I understand it right, it's similar to the Inflator, but it can change the transients depending on the frequency-range you have choosen. This is used by Alan Meyersson for example to bring out certain transients of a Taiko sound.


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## Paul Cardon (Nov 25, 2019)

Just a note that Inflator is actually a *very simple sine shaper saturator.* If you have any other plugins that let you create waveshaping curves or have a "sine" option (plus mix control for your 30% to 50% above), then you can get close to the same effect. It's overpriced nowadays for something that does so little under the hood, and if you look up developer posts about what Inflator is actually doing, they obfuscate its function greatly for this reason.


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## Vsevolod (Nov 25, 2019)

Thanks a lot for the quick reply and clarification guys! Inflator adds a magical effect to the whole mix. New harmonics appear. In general, Inflator - vitamins for Film Score.



> I would like to see the video, but the link is broken or doesn't work here.Very curious.


I downloaded the composer video from Instagram:

View attachment 22498781_141432363143220_5901976657517871104_n.mp4

















> you're in good company: I have recently seen the Inflator on the masterbus in a Alex Pfeffer youtube-video about ProjectSAM Symphobia 4 PANDORA.



Thanks! I watched this video. Wow! Alex uses 47% effect. Almost my 50!

I am more than sure that Benjamin has an Inflator here.  And perhaps the effect is in the value of about 100. In my experiments, I achieved a similar sound for strings. Nice score! Nice sound!



P.S. My post is too long to post a couple more of my fragments before and after with inflator. But try putting it where the celeste sounds. That sounds very nice.


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## Chance Boudreaux (Nov 26, 2019)

Paul Cardon said:


> Just a note that Inflator is actually a *very simple sine shaper saturator.* If you have any other plugins that let you create waveshaping curves or have a "sine" option (plus mix control for your 30% to 50% above), then you can get the same effect. It's overpriced nowadays for something that does so little under the hood, and if you look up developer posts about what Inflator is actually doing, they obfuscate it greatly for this reason.


Is that really all it does? It receives so much praise I almost considered getting it. But if it's nothing more than a simple saturator... selling it at that price borders on the criminal.


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## Fry777 (Nov 26, 2019)

I heard of great things about Inflator too...
So would that be equally feasible with Soundtoys Decapitator or any straightforward saturation plugin?


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## Dietz (Nov 26, 2019)

Paul Cardon said:


> Just a note that Inflator is actually a *very simple sine shaper saturator.* If you have any other plugins that let you create waveshaping curves or have a "sine" option (plus mix control for your 30% to 50% above), then you can get the same effect. [...]



... which is not completely true as the Inflator is able to work in multiband-mode, which reduces intermodulation artefacts to a huge amount, and it seems to use some kind of oversampling as it's not prone to aliasing. That latter plagues many "cheapish" saturator plug-ins which I wouldn't strap across my master bus for exactly that reason.

... that said, I rarely use it like this anyway.  Sonnox' Inflator is my secret (yeah, I know  ...) weapon for that single instrument or signal I would otherwise lose in a dense mix. Since a couple of years I tend to put it on a parallel bus which is used for added presence and "closeness" of one or two decisive signals, like a main vocal in a pop/rock mix.


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## Dietz (Nov 26, 2019)

Fry777 said:


> I heard of great things about Inflator too...
> So would that be equally feasible with Soundtoys Decapitator or any straightforward saturation plugin?


I am a huge fan of all Soundtoys plug-ins, but the Decapitator is hard to use in the same subtle, but efficient way as the Inflator is able to. It's easy to over-use both, though. ;-P


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## re-peat (Nov 26, 2019)

Chance Boudreaux said:


> Is that really all it does? (...)



What Mr. Cardon has to say about the Inflator is all wrong. The Inflator is first and foremost a sophisticated loudness enhancer which uses a.o. complex context-aware algorithms with adaptive timing instead of traditional, time-fixed compression and limiting — thus completely avoiding the notorious pumping sound associated with excessive use of these latter two processes — to increase the perceived level of an audio track, often beyond belief.
On top of that, it does some non-linear voodoo as well which is what gave the Inflator its reputation of being not only a unique loudness enhancer but also a remarkable saturator and generator-of-analog-warmth.

Very powerful plugin that, despite its age, still stands alone.

_


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## gsilbers (Nov 26, 2019)

yep... the inflator seems to have some magic pixie dust that triggers us engineers if called simple harmonic enhancer 









Sony Oxford Inflator - Please Demistify? - Page 2 - Gearspace.com


Great, thanks!



www.gearslutz.com


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## babylonwaves (Nov 26, 2019)

Paul Cardon said:


> Just a note that Inflator is actually a *very simple sine shaper saturator.*



did you ever compare the two side by side (e.g. the one in Live with Inflator)? To my ears, that's not the same result at all.


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## Vsevolod (Nov 26, 2019)

Thanks for the helpful info guys!  Can you share how you use Inflator via Send? What parallel processing do you still use with Inflator and how do you mix with a common signal? Thanks!


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## Paul Cardon (Nov 26, 2019)

re-peat said:


> What Mr. Cardon has to say about the Inflator is all wrong. The Inflator is first and foremost a sophisticated loudness enhancer which uses a.o. complex context-aware algorithms with adaptive timing instead of traditional, time-fixed compression and limiting — thus completely avoiding the notorious pumping sound associated with excessive use of these latter two processes — to increase the perceived level of an audio track, often beyond belief.
> On top of that, it does some non-linear voodoo as well which is what gave the Inflator its reputation of being not only a unique loudness enhancer but also a remarkable saturator and generator-of-analog-warmth.
> 
> Very powerful plugin that, despite its age, still stands alone.
> ...


Are you cracking out the ad copy on me?

This is pretty wrong. A few collegues and I spent a lot of time checking out plugins with the wonderful (though super buggy) VST Plugin Analyzer tool back when 32-bit plugins were still common, and it was VERY apparent that what Inflator does is very very simplistic from every test and analysis we looked at. (harmonics analysis, waveform response graphs, phase responses, etc.)

If I still had Inflator and its 32-bit version installed and VST Plugin Analyzer, I could run those tests and show you. If you do, I suggest you do the same.

It's correct that it uses non-linear "voodoo", but the voodoo is dead simple stuff (static waveshaping).

They call it inflator because it "inflates" the waveform with that simple waveshaping sine curve.


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## Paul Cardon (Nov 26, 2019)

Dietz said:


> ... which is not completely true as the Inflator is able to work in multiband-mode, which reduces intermodulation artefacts to a huge amount, and it seems to use some kind of oversampling as it's not prone to aliasing. That latter plagues many "cheapish" saturator plug-ins which I wouldn't strap across my master bus for exactly that reason.
> 
> ... that said, I rarely use it like this anyway.  Sonnox' Inflator is my secret (yeah, I know  ...) weapon for that single instrument or signal I would otherwise lose in a dense mix. Since a couple of years I tend to put it on a parallel bus which is used for added presence and "closeness" of one or two decisive signals, like a main vocal in a pop/rock mix.


This is a good point! The multiband mode is cool (though some other plugins can do this) and the oversampling is also cool (some other plugins can also do this).


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## Paul Cardon (Nov 26, 2019)

babylonwaves said:


> did you ever compare the two side by side (e.g. the one in Live with Inflator)? To my ears, that's not the same result at all.


There's a good handful of things that can change this, such as the exact curve it uses, the clipping limiter enabled or not, oversampling, and the multiband option. Overall, it's still practically the same basic functions, just a little more polished than Ableton's, but there are other plugins that reach the same overall functionality and sound with more controls and abilities to spare.


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## Paul Cardon (Nov 26, 2019)

Sorry for 4 posts in a row, but if you own the plugin and like what it does to your tracks, then use it! If you know it and you want it, sure, but when there are so many other plugins with much more comprehensive feature sets out there that can do nearly the same thing, it makes for a base price that just isn't very attractive nowadays.


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## Fry777 (Nov 26, 2019)

Paul Cardon said:


> there are other plugins that reach the same overall functionality and sound with more controls and abilities to spare.



Could you elaborate which ones ? Thanks


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## Silence-is-Golden (Nov 26, 2019)

No matter the discussion about its internal operations, proof of the pudding for me is if it adds “musically” to the sound. And for me it clearly does!
I never use too much of it so its a sublte enhancement.
To me it compares to Kush’s plugin Clariphonic.


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## Dietz (Nov 27, 2019)

Silence-is-Golden said:


> To me it compares to Kush’s plugin Clariphonic.


... in the sense that you should use both of them sparingly, you mean? Then I agree. You can't compare the two on a technical level, though.


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## Paul Cardon (Nov 27, 2019)

Fry777 said:


> Could you elaborate which ones ? Thanks


If you want something that's stupid simple and easy to work with, Inflator is still fine, but I highly recommend Trash 2. It has multiband functionality, togglable oversampling, and fine waveshaping control in its "Trash" modules, but it also comes with a fun collection of other creative tools as well. It's only $99 full price and is often on sale and bundled with other iZotope offerings.


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## Yury Tikhomirov (Nov 27, 2019)

Yeah, I feel it: add Trash to your Orchestra, or visa versa.
Btw, me personally sticking to Soft Clipping algo in StandardCLIP which as someone else has mentioned could do Inflator’ thing (and this beast has x128 oversampling too)


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## Vsevolod (Nov 28, 2019)

Great discussion! Guys, when you create a separate bus track and add an inflator to it, then you mix it with each instrument via send? With Pre or Post Fader? And then you adjust the fader of the bus itself with the plugin? Thanks!


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## Dietz (Nov 28, 2019)

Vsevolod said:


> [...] when you create a separate bus track and add an inflator to it, then you mix it with each instrument via send? With Pre or Post Fader? And then you adjust the fader of the bus itself with the plugin? [...]



There are no rules, of course, but personally I have an AUX-send set to post-fade operation which feeds the parallel Inflator-bus with the individual signal(s) at 0 dB (i.e. unity gain) or a bit less. The parallel bus is mixed with the actual mix bus in a final "internal sum" channel with a brick-wall limiter, just to keep things under control. Usually, the parallel bus is kept 6 to 10 dB lower in volume than the mix bus, but that depends completely on the context.

My "secret" Inflator settings are input at +6 dB, multi-band operation on, clip @ 0 dB off, effect 66%, curve 33%, output -6 dB.

8-)

HTH,


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## re-peat (Nov 28, 2019)

I’ve never used Inflator as a send. Always as an insert. Not suggesting that one way is better than the other, just saying that I always insert it. Which also allows me to automate the settings (‘Effect’ & ‘Curve’), carefully increasing the energy a bit at moments which need it, and decrease it again when those moments have passed. Works great.

- - -

Not a bad word about *Trash2* — a phenomenally powerful plug-in — but, surely, altogether a completely different tool than Inflator? I would never turn to Trash to do the things I use Inflator for. (And yes, I would also never consider Inflator to do the gazillion of things that Trash excels at.)

_


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## Dietz (Nov 28, 2019)

re-peat said:


> I’ve never used Inflator as a send. Always as an insert.


Nothing wrong with that - that's the conventional, straight-forward way to use this plug-in.

The way I use it evolved from years of using parallel busses for mixdowns. At a certain point the idea arose to make the parallel bus even more efficient by using the Inflator there - _only_ there, I might add. I'm not suggesting that this is the way everybody does it - which in fact is the only reason why I shared this approach. No need to give it a try if you don't like the idea (which has helped to mix a handful of gold- and platinum-awarded albums  ...).


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## re-peat (Nov 28, 2019)

Definitely going to try it out one of these days, Dietz. Thanks!

_


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## Paul Cardon (Nov 28, 2019)

re-peat said:


> I’ve never used Inflator as a send. Always as an insert. Not suggesting that one way is better than the other, just saying that I always insert it. Which also allows me to automate the settings (‘Effect’ & ‘Curve’), carefully increasing the energy a bit at moments which need it, and decrease it again when those moments have passed. Works great.
> 
> - - -
> 
> ...


The outward impression of the tool is WILDLY different of course, and I'm positive the devs didn't imagine it being used for subtle waveshaping, but practically yes, it can do quite close to the same things Inflator does, if not entirely.

I'm not saying Inflator is useless (it's certainly going to be more efficient than loading up an entire instance of Trash 2, for example), I'm just saying the cost-to-function ratio is wildly off nowadays and the devs ride on its reputation and obfuscating its functionality with fun ad copy like you shared above to keep it relevant. There's no secret sauce to what it does.


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## Vsevolod (Nov 28, 2019)

Dietz said:


> There are no rules, of course, but personally I have an AUX-send set to post-fade operation which feeds the parallel Inflator-bus with the individual signal(s) at 0 dB (i.e. unity gain) or a bit less. The parallel bus is mixed with the actual mix bus in a final "internal sum" channel with a brick-wall limiter, just to keep things under control. Usually, the parallel bus is kept 6 to 10 dB lower in volume than the mix bus, but that depends completely on the context.
> 
> My "secret" Inflator settings are input at +6 dB, multi-band operation on, clip @ 0 dB off, effect 66%, curve 33%, output -6 dB.
> 
> ...



Thank you for the helpful advice, Dietz! I work at Reaper. There are no such concepts as AUX in this DAW. There you can make AUX from any track. But I will definitely try your method! 

Yesterday, before your post, I tried using inflator via send and I found that in Pre Fader mode I only hear the effect of inflator, and in Post, the source signal is doubled. I used send on every group of instruments in the orchestra. And yes, for me, the parallel bus volume also worked about 4-10db lower.



> I’ve never used Inflator as a send. Always as an insert.



I tried using inflator on the master bus through the insert, but I can not control the saturation of the high frequencies. My strings lose their life when I lower the curve. In a film context, strings should not sound very bright. Any small changes are already audible. For this reason, it is possible through send that I have more control over the high frequencies, preliminary lowering a bit of the high shelf on the EQ. For other situations, Inflator works great through insert. I like the way the inflator saturates the low frequencies and the lower mid for the current task. I just fell in love with it!


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## re-peat (Nov 30, 2019)

Paul Cardon said:


> (...) fun ad copy like you shared above (...)


That fun ad copy, as you call it, was quite necessary because a few posts earlier, someone gave entirely wrong information about Inflator.



Vsevolod said:


> (...) I tried using inflator on the master bus through the insert, but I can not control the saturation of the high frequencies. (...) I like the way the inflator saturates the low frequencies (...)



I don’t get why people keep persisting with thinking of Inflator as if it were primarily a saturator, and using it as such (and most puzzling of all: finding fault with it in its capacity as a saturator). Inflator is not a saturator. If you're thinking of adding some saturation to your tracks and you want to have full control over the type and amount, use something else, there are several decent saturating plugins out there.

Inflator is — the ad copy needs repeating — first and foremost, a tool to enhance the perceived loudness of a track with and without the unappealing squashing and pumping you often get when using traditional tools (compressors, maximiers, limiters) for the job. That’s the core Inflator business. As it happens, yes, the plugin can also impart some saturation-like 'warmth' to the audio which it processes, but that is merely a bonus feature of the software — and one which most users seem to like — but certainly not the prime reason why these users choose this plugin.

_


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## Paul Cardon (Nov 30, 2019)

re-peat said:


> That fun ad copy, as you call it, was quite necessary because a few posts earlier, someone gave entirely wrong information about Inflator.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


And it does so with simple sine-curve waveshaping/saturation. It's super simple math applied statically to the inputted waveform, plus some extra features such as a multiband mode and a curve weight control. You can mimic every function of it in other more feature-complete waveshapers, making its price outdated today.


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## Waywyn (Dec 14, 2019)

First of all thanks to @BlueStar for the mention 
A bit late here but yes, at most of my stuff I am using the Inflator. To me, it really shines when you set it AFTER the final limiter. This is where it unfolds its true power.

I could be wrong though but as far as I learned the Inflator also does some fancy overtone "distortion" and therefore doesn't really get it the way with saturation, compression, limiting.


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## Paul Cardon (Dec 15, 2019)

re-peat said:


> That fun ad copy, as you call it, was quite necessary because a few posts earlier, someone gave entirely wrong information about Inflator.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Redownloaded the 32-bit version of Inflator and made a little video showing off some of the readings in VST Plugin Analyzer. Hope this helps!




The behavior demonstrated IS textbook signal saturation. A simple mathematic remapping of the waveform.


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## Fredeke (Dec 16, 2019)

Paul Cardon said:


> Just a note that Inflator is actually a *very simple sine shaper saturator.* If you have any other plugins that let you create waveshaping curves or have a "sine" option (plus mix control for your 30% to 50% above), then you can get close to the same effect. It's overpriced nowadays for something that does so little under the hood, and if you look up developer posts about what Inflator is actually doing, they obfuscate its function greatly for this reason.


Then there's a JS plugin bundled with Reaper that does this. It's called the Waveshaping Distortion. I love it.

Paul: could you tell us what plugins those snapshots are of? (ok, the second one is obvious)


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## Paul Cardon (Dec 16, 2019)

Fredeke said:


> Then there's a JS plugin bundled with Reaper that does this. It's called the Waveshaping Distortion. I love it.
> 
> Paul: could you tell us what plugins those snapshots are of? (ok, the second one is obvious)


It's a single program called VST Plugin Analyzer (it breaks out into multiple windows). It's buggy and only works on 32-bit plugins, but I used to play with it a lot in the past. The developer has talked about making an updated version that works on 64-bit plugins but that was YEARS ago and it's been dead air since.

EDIT: I haven't used it, but just did a little more digging and it looks like there are some other tools available for this sort of analysis that work on 64-bit plugins: https://ddmf.eu/plugindoctor/ 
Not free but it has a demo. Might check this out in the future


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## re-peat (Dec 16, 2019)

I have the *DDMF*. Much the same thing as the old Plugin Analyzer, I assume. Very comprehensive tool anyway. It’s at $25 or thereabouts at the moment I believe.

But … I honestly don’t get what we’re supposed to learn from this strange test, Paul. The Inflator has got nothing to get its teeth into — nothing that triggers it into showing how it deals with incoming audio — if you feed it a clinical analyzer wave that is dynamically and frequency-content-wise as repetitive, uninteresting, dead and unchallenging as can be. That’s like testing a compressor with the sound of an asthmatic amoeba that was buried three years ago: a rather pointless excercise, if you ask me, and certainly not one to draw meaningful conclusions from.

You gotta give the Inflator something that wakes it up. Your wave doesn’t do that. It may be a useful aid to reveal specific details of certain measurable aspects of the processing that’s going on — if you find that kind of thing interesting —, but it doesn’t tell us a single thing about what the Inflator is actually doing (when given, and this is important, _suitable material_), and how it lifts the perceived level of incoming audio (without unpleasant side-effects) the way it does.

Here’s *a little something* I made today to show the difference that the Inflator can make when inserted in the MasterOut, either with or without a limiter before it. (Halfway through the video I enable the Flux Elixir limiter.)

I kept the pre-MasterOut audio mostly free from dynamic processing to retain as much dynamics as virtual instruments are capable of. As is inevitable with V.I.’s, it’s still a fairly flat and lifeless affair compared to what you'd get with well-recorded audio from musicians-playing-real-instruments (which would get the best out of the Inflator), but it’s definitely a lot more instructive and illuminating as testing material, in my opinion, than a single sweeping wave from an analyzer.

(Logic’s output is reduced by 10dB, but that’s only because Screenflow — the video capturing software — tends to clip if Logic’s output level is set any higher.)

For anyone who's interested, here’s *another video* (from ProTools Expert) — a much better one than mine, actually — that further shows why so many musicians and engineers rarely work without the Inflator once they have bought it and learned how to use it.

_


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## Paul Cardon (Dec 16, 2019)

re-peat said:


> I have the *DDMF*. Much the same thing as the old Plugin Analyzer, I assume. Very comprehensive tool anyway. It’s at $25 or thereabouts at the moment I believe.
> 
> But … I honestly don’t get what we’re supposed to learn from this strange test, Paul. The Inflator has got nothing to get its teeth into — nothing that triggers it into showing how it deals with incoming audio — if you feed it a clinical analyzer wave that is dynamically and frequency-content-wise as repetitive, uninteresting, dead and unchallenging as can be. That’s like testing a compressor with the sound of an asthmatic amoeba that was buried three years ago: a rather pointless excercise, if you ask me, and certainly not one to draw meaningful conclusions from.
> 
> ...


Again, I'm not saying Inflator is bad. I'm saying it's stupid simple. It's a good effect, but not worth the price.


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## Fredeke (Dec 17, 2019)

Btw guys - I hope I'm not getting too off topic here, but -

There was a DX distortion plugin back in the late 90s / early 2000s where you would just draw a response curve with the mouse (using either spline curves or raw pixel drawing). So you could draw any kind of crazy curve, it was super simple yet absolutely great.

I think it was bundled with Sound Forge (back when it was published by original developer Sonic Foundry) and/or Cool Edit Pro (aka Audition before it was bought by Adobe).

Alas, I haven't found a modern, VST equivalent. Does anyone know of such ?

Apparently FuncShaper kinda does this, but you've got to enter a formula. I'd rather just draw curves.


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## chrisr (Dec 17, 2019)

Fredeke said:


> Then there's a JS plugin bundled with Reaper that does this. It's called the Waveshaping Distortion. I love it.



Thanks for the tip! There should be a word for the feeling of discovering something awesome that was there in front if you all along. I get it often with Reaper particularly, and occasionally with my other daws too.


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## Paul Cardon (Dec 17, 2019)

Fredeke said:


> Btw guys - I hope I'm not getting too off topic here, but -
> 
> There was a DX distortion plugin back in the late 90s / early 2000s where you would just draw a response curve with the mouse (using either spline curves or raw pixel drawing). So you could draw any kind of crazy curve, it was super simple yet absolutely great.
> 
> ...


Trash 2 again! It doesn’t let you draw in a wave shaping curve, but you can create points with linear lines or weighted curves, symmetrical or otherwise.


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## John Longley (Jan 8, 2020)

Inflator is fun, and best used on a sub group. In mastering I frequently catch people who blow their mixes up with poor monitoring and I cant uncook it. It's a great plugin and can really add some subtle saturation when used sparingly. Same thing goes for all wave shaper/clippers. I find it useful creatively in mixing on drum/percussion groups and strings with extreme caution if it's very bright or aggressive program. The amazing thing is how old this thing is and it still holds up.


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## tc9000 (Jan 8, 2020)

John Longley said:


> I frequently catch people who blow their mixes up with poor monitoring and I cant uncook it.



I need this on a T-Shirt. XXXXL please.


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## John Longley (Jan 8, 2020)

tc9000 said:


> I need this on a T-Shirt. XXXXL please.


Preach!


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## cug (Oct 29, 2020)

Sonnox Inflator is on sale for a limited time. Excellent price, around $39US


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## JEPA (Oct 29, 2020)

great deal!


cug said:


> Sonnox Inflator is on sale for a limited time. Excellent price, around $39US


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