# Sonnox - June 1 Sale



## Zoot_Rollo (May 28, 2021)

i was always interested in Sonnox, but pricing had been prohibitive.

With so many alternatives these days, are they a value at these sale prices?


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## easyrider (May 28, 2021)

Sonnox are top end plugins….Looks to me they they have no choice lowering the price of entry due to the saturated Market.


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## muk (May 28, 2021)

The Inflator is absolutely worth it. I don't have the other two plugins so can't comment on them. The Inflator can somehow make a track appear louder without changing the volume. It's quite a unique trick that I can't achieve with any other plugin I have. Very useful on certain material.


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## mscp (May 28, 2021)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> i was always interested in Sonnox, but pricing had been prohibitive.
> 
> With so many alternatives these days, are they a value at these sale prices?


Yes. I’ve been using them since the Sony days.


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## clisma (May 28, 2021)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> With so many alternatives these days, are they a value at these sale prices?


I would say that some certainly are. The ones I regularly still reach for are *Oxford Dynamics* (still a great channel strip, lots of control, fantastic sound, easy to use) and *Envolution* (I have several transient manipulation plugs and this one gives more options to sculpt your sound, which can make it a bit trickier to use than the average transient designer plug, but very worth it to me).

Inflator is indeed very useful when you need that sort of sound, though lately I don’t fire it up much. The last one on the list is their reverb: very capable, lots of options to get your sound just so, but a bit of a learning curve and with what else is on the market, I would not pick this up a second time. But it does still get used.


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## X-Bassist (May 28, 2021)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> i was always interested in Sonnox, but pricing had been prohibitive.
> 
> With so many alternatives these days, are they a value at these sale prices?


Just noticed inflator is only $39 at Sweetwater (75% off) until June 1st...








Sonnox Oxford Inflator Native Plug-in


Oxford Tube-Emulated Dynamics Processor Plug-In - Mac/PC AAX, RTAS, VST, AU




www.sweetwater.com





Of course, now the sweetwater website has stalled, but according to google search all the sonnex plugins look like they are on sale $40-$60 each...

Edit: Wrong! Got on the website, just infiltrator ($39), limiter ($66), and drum gate ($58) are on sale.


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## Land of Missing Parts (May 28, 2021)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> i was always interested in Sonnox, but pricing had been prohibitive.
> 
> With so many alternatives these days, are they a value at these sale prices?


Zoot returns!


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## Living Fossil (May 28, 2021)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> With so many alternatives these days, are they a value at these sale prices?


There have been discussions about Inflator at the Gearslutz (now: Gearspace) forum where it was stated that the Inflator is basically a Waveshaper. There was also a bunch of presets for download that can be used in Melda's free Waveshaver that capture different settings.
To my ears they sound identical, but i haven't made any forensic analysis.

However, at the actual prize of the Inflator i don't think it's wrong to buy it, since you get a piece of software with a carefully crafted UI.


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## Toecutter (May 28, 2021)

Living Fossil said:


> There have been discussions about Inflator at the Gearslutz (now: Gearspace) forum where it was stated that the Inflator is basically a Waveshaper. There was also a bunch of presets for download that can be used in Melda's free Waveshaver that capture different settings.
> To my ears they sound identical, but i haven't made any forensic analysis.
> 
> However, at the actual prize of the Inflator i don't think it's wrong to buy it, since you get a piece of software with a carefully crafted UI.


Yep that was ear opening for sure.


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## robgb (May 28, 2021)

As I've said before, Sonnox plugin GUI looks like something out of the late 90's.


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## Zoot_Rollo (May 28, 2021)

Land of Missing Parts said:


> Zoot returns!


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## vitocorleone123 (May 28, 2021)

From what I've gathered, these are now priced competitively with the rest of the market (which has caught up, or surpassed them). Sorta similar to Soundtoys. Great tools that were leaders in their time that are now still just as great, but no longer leaders.


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## Zoot_Rollo (May 28, 2021)

robgb said:


> As I've said before, Sonnox plugin GUI looks like something out of the late 90's.




relic'd.


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## germancomponist (May 28, 2021)

robgb said:


> As I've said before, Sonnox plugin GUI looks like something out of the late 90's.


I don't care obout this, I care on the sound only.


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## jcrosby (May 29, 2021)

Living Fossil said:


> There have been discussions about Inflator at the Gearslutz (now: Gearspace) forum where it was stated that the Inflator is basically a Waveshaper. There was also a bunch of presets for download that can be used in Melda's free Waveshaver that capture different settings.
> To my ears they sound identical, but i haven't made any forensic analysis.
> 
> However, at the actual prize of the Inflator i don't think it's wrong to buy it, since you get a piece of software with a carefully crafted UI.


More or less... It's odd harmonics only though, so it's basically just a soft clipper. (Which technically is just a waveshper...) It sounds fantastic. 

But you can get the same effect with more control and some great metering with StandardClip... $25. I have both, use both, love both... I tend to reach for SC more these days simply because the oscilloscope is invaluable, you can see exactly have much your clipping by, and it has three clipping modes with high oversampling options that can be set to upsample only when you bounce...

StandardClip can sound essentially identical, and at $25 it's a no brainer. I'd compare it to Valhalla verbs, in that it's permanently priced incredibly well with no need for a sale, and punches way above its weight class...


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## Living Fossil (May 29, 2021)

jcrosby said:


> But you can get the same effect with more control and some great metering with StandardClip... $25. I have both, use both, love both... I tend to reach for SC more these days simply because the oscilloscope is invaluable, you can see exactly have much your clipping by, and it has three clipping modes with high oversampling options that can be set to upsample only when you bounce...


For clipping i really love Newfangled's Saturate (part of the Elevate bundle), which has a very smart algorithm that preserves more details of the clipped portion of the sound (iirc).

However, i would wish an upsample only when you bounce option for many plugins...


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## Kamil Biedrzycki (May 29, 2021)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> i was always interested in Sonnox, but pricing had been prohibitive.
> 
> With so many alternatives these days, are they a value at these sale prices?


Wow, Thank you! 
Maybe Inflator is not the best plugin but I really love it on many tracks.
Buy?  Done!


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## KMA (May 29, 2021)

Inflator has become indispensable for me.
Highly recommend, especially at this price.


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## Henu (May 29, 2021)

If you mix real drums, get the gate. It's the _absolutely best _drum gate in the market, period.


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## Kamil Biedrzycki (May 29, 2021)

Henu said:


> If you mix real drums, get the gate. It's the _absolutely best _drum gate in the market, period.


it's a different topic of course, but instead of a gate I manually cut all crosstalks  It’s time consuming but it’s better than every gate.


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## muziksculp (May 29, 2021)

robgb said:


> As I've said before, Sonnox plugin GUI looks like something out of the late 90's.


LOL.. Yes, they do, but they sound wonderful. 

I have my eyes on their Dynamic EQ. I have most of their other plugins.


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## kingminotaur (May 29, 2021)

jcrosby said:


> More or less... It's odd harmonics only though, so it's basically just a soft clipper. (Which technically is just a waveshper...) It sounds fantastic.
> 
> But you can get the same effect with more control and some great metering with StandardClip... $25. I have both, use both, love both... I tend to reach for SC more these days simply because the oscilloscope is invaluable, you can see exactly have much your clipping by, and it has three clipping modes with high oversampling options that can be set to upsample only when you bounce...
> 
> StandardClip can sound essentially identical, and at $25 it's a no brainer. I'd compare it to Valhalla verbs, in that it's permanently priced incredibly well with no need for a sale, and punches way above its weight class...


I find great satisfaction getting the trashiest early digital reverb sound available with Valhalla Vintage.


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## jcrosby (May 29, 2021)

Living Fossil said:


> For clipping i really love Newfangled's Saturate (part of the Elevate bundle), which has a very smart algorithm that preserves more details of the clipped portion of the sound (iirc).
> 
> However, i would wish an upsample only when you bounce option for many plugins...


Saturate's great as well. Both are good alternatives to Inflator. I do still love inflator though. It certainly still sounds as great as ever...


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## robgb (May 29, 2021)

germancomponist said:


> I don't care obout this, I care on the sound only.


Sound first yes, but a good design counts too. And I say this despite using many Reaper plugins.


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## Henu (May 29, 2021)

Kamil Biedrzycki said:


> it's a different topic of course, but instead of a gate I manually cut all crosstalks  It’s time consuming but it’s better than every gate.


All kicks and snares too? :D The thing with this one, however, is the multibanding which makes it so good. So you can actually leave e.g. the floor tom ringing there without the cymbal bleed, to give you an example of how it differs from a regular amplitude-based gate. Another thing is that this has a built-in drum leveler whicn helps a lot with inconsistent playing. 
Naturally, if you do mostly roomy jazz mixes, this may be not for you but anything pop-rock-metal- oriented and you'll be screaming using it. I'd warmly recommend to give it test drive if you haven't tried it out yet!


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## brett (May 30, 2021)

Their Transmod plug is fantastic too. Don’t know if this will be included in the sale tho


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## Kamil Biedrzycki (May 30, 2021)

Henu said:


> All kicks and snares too? :D The thing with this one, however, is the multibanding which makes it so good. So you can actually leave e.g. the floor tom ringing there without the cymbal bleed, to give you an example of how it differs from a regular amplitude-based gate. Another thing is that this has a built-in drum leveler whicn helps a lot with inconsistent playing.
> Naturally, if you do mostly roomy jazz mixes, this may be not for you but anything pop-rock-metal- oriented and you'll be screaming using it. I'd warmly recommend to give it test drive if you haven't tried it out yet!


Of course it depends on genre. If you have good overheads sound then gated kick or toms give you more space and punch. Everytime I check what sounds best but if I should use gate then I use StripSilence option in Pro Tools and ears.


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## AudioLoco (May 30, 2021)

That price for Inflator is really stoopeed good....
Inflator on the drum bus is da s..t
Invaluable plugin for me


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