Venn Audio

Woah! the free convolver is huge!!! that's the piece missing from the kilohearts free suite. I'll happily be running these as the basics for reaper :).

My only complaint is that the free convolver doesn't have wet% decimal resolution. A log-scale knob to have more resolution in the 0-10% wet range would be awesome.

When I first tried the plugin, I was very disappointed. Changing the different modes, adjusting the threshold to very low values didn't made me excited. The sound change was only subtle or not in a taste I like for distortion or saturation. Couldn't understand the hype about it.

Playing a bit more with the knobs, I figured out that the most important parameter of the plugin is, very suprisingly, the input gain control (in conjunction with the output gain control to adjust the volume to unity gain).

Driving the signal into the plugin quite extremely and by adjusting the output volume provides a more rich and thick sound without to even come close to clip the signal in the conventional way. Great!

Checking my analyzer by listening to an asumed way louder signal, it was very shocking that the peak volume even was less than before (Quintic mode has been used). Another more in-depth check gave the answer: Peak was reduced by around 3db, but average LUFS was increased by almost 1.7 dB. So it seems that FreeClip is not only a distortion plugin, it can be used to control dynamics as well.

Very useful for that purpose and now I know that I will use this plugin more often than I thought.

There are still 3 nitpicks why I reduce one star:

1. No Bypass-button. (Why, oh why? It could have been so easy to implement) If you use this tool for mixing or mastering, you need that feature for A/B comparison very, very often.
2. No manual, no tips, no explanation. I would have liked if the developers could have given more insights or tips about the use of the plugin (especially the different clip modes). And this is not only meant for this plugin. Venn Audio seems to not quite like the nearer documentation of their plugins. Other manufacturers provide very much (even additional) information. Shame.

Another thing I would like to see in the plugin would be a Dry/Wet knob.

I would wish that the developer could improve these things.

Great spatial plugin, but it is important to understand that 'Quick Haas' actually has nothing to do with the Haas-Effect itself. Rather, it is concepted by the cognizance of its subsequent psychoacoustic results and tries to emulate the environment which led to these.

But first, let's determine a few misunderstandings from the info delivered by Venn Audio.

"The 'Haas Effect', also known as the precedence effect..."

Both are different things, although they are often equated. The 'Precedence-Effect' or 'Law of the First Wavefront' is base for the 'Haas-Effect'.

", is a psychoacoustic effect where listeners can perceive the spacial position of an audio signal depending on very small delays between the left and right channels of the audio signal."

No. The Haas-Effect has nothing to do with stereophonics in general and the spacial position, at which a listener is perceiving a sound to come from, is also not determined by the delays between left and right channel/ear (at least not covered by the Haas-Effect -> Delay stereophonics belong to a different topic).

The 'Precedence-Effect' or 'Law of the First Wavefront' portrays that if one direct sound and a single reflection (until a certain threshold delay - about 50ms) is emitted, the listener perceives the sound as single event coming from the direction of the first incoming wave.

Now Helmut Haas wrote 1949 in his dissertation "On the influence of a simple echo on the audibility of speech":

"The direct sound that first arrives at the listener determines the direction only. In this case, only one auditory event occurs. The reflection arriving with a propagation delay of Δ t > 2 ms increases the volume of the auditory event, changes the timbre and increases the impression of greater spatial expansion. Even if the following signal (reflection) has a higher level and with a propagation delay within Δ t < 35 ms arrives, the signal that arrives first alone determines the perceived direction of arrival."

Haas found out that a reflection, perceived as single event with the sound, which arrived first (the direct sound), with a delay of more than 2 ms, has the psychoacoustic effect of changing volume, timbre and spatial impression of the whole entired sound.

Exactly this change in sound is 'Quick Haas' trying to recreate as rather to recreate the Haas-Effect or the Precedence Effect per se (which is impossible).

After my tests, 'Quick Haas' is doing that by applying a delay to the opposite stereo channel, which acts as the reflection.

When I adjust for example the dial to the value "L 3.0ms" (Command: To the Left - 3.0ms), the signal of the right channel is delayed by 3 ms, recreating (almost) the same sound colorations (changes in volume, timbre, spatial impression) as perceived by the Haas-Effect.

I tested 'Quick Haas' alongside another delay plugin and the results were very close. But 'Quick Haas' still sounded a bit more spatial which seems like they might have added some further effects to make the sound wider and closer to the "Haas-Sound". But it still boils down to the concept of direct sound on one stereo channel and delayed reflection on the other.

Resume:

In an abbreviated form: The plugin delays either the right or left channel by 0,01 up to 19 ms, dependent upon whether you drag the dial to the left or right. It could use some additonal effects to the make the sound wider, but due to my tests, it doesn't alter the volume of either channel.

It is not a panning device, although it can be easily but falsely perceived as such.

Note that the input routing whether you choose Stereo, Dual Mono of Left or Right channel, or Mono mixed of L+R, can make a difference to the sound.

I hope I could help you a at least a little with the understanding about the Haas-Effect and this plugin.

There are several free Utility plugins available, and any one of those has its own advantages and disadvantages.

What makes Venn Audios's Utility plugin unique are the features of not only pan and gain stage each stereo channel individually, but also have volume controls for the mid and side. A huge thing if you're mixing a lot.

Another special ones are the clipping options (due to Venn Audio is known for its soft and hard clipping plugins - Check out FreeClip), the HP and LP Filters, the PAD button and for me the "Dual Mono" option in which you have the ability to adjust the exact point of the stereo signal to be converted to mono by using the "Pre mono balance" knob.

Now it also has some disadvantages.

1. The gain controls for stereo as well as left and right channels go only down to -35db. Of course, I could use the stereo knob and the left and right sliders in conjunction or use the PAD button to completely get rid of the signal but that is however bad if I'm using it by automation and f.e. need a continous fade out of the signal. Why not just letting it go to -infinity or at least -60db like the mid and side volume sliders?

2. No control for the PAN law after which the PAN algorithm is working (just like in every DAW's own mixer). I prefer MUtility by MeldaProduction for offering this.

3. Values can not be typed in. The parameters can be used only by click & drag or automation.

Another thing annoying me much is not providing enough information about the inner working and any explanation about the parameter. No manual, no tips, nothing. Yes, most of the parameters are self-explanatory but do some of them work in conjunction with each other, if yes which and in which order does the signal pass through the plugin's sections?

But great plugin nonetheless, really worth using it frequently.

I think everyone has a favourite mastering weapon, that last minute icing for the cake. For me, I'd say it's Venn's V-Clip. I don't use it for all projects, but when it comes to taming transients and smoothing out levels transparently, V-Clip is it. Its visualization alone is worth the price of admission. The fact that there's also oversampling makes it a winner, especially if you use V-Clip for its distortion and saturation abilities. Definitely a keeper.

I love me some Cubase but there's been one annoying little issue they still haven't fixed even in 12.0, and that is the ability to easily increase or decrease the volume of the individual left/right audio waveforms. You really shouldn't have to jump through hoops such as exporting the waveform, adjusting it in an external audio program like SoundForge or Soundop, then importing it back in, or splitting the waveform in two within Cubase by rendering it in place as two separate files.

Venn's Utility does just what it claims - and it does it with ease. No muss, no fuss. Because it's such a lightweight plugin, you can just leave it live on a track to make future adjustments if you wish. It works well, has its own metering, and is free. Thanks, Venn, for providing this VST.

In a way this is the next version of Free Clip, but with more features, yet the same minimal CPU footprint and the same fast loading time. The sound is great, it has cool oversampling features and there are even distortion and a wavefolding distortion option. Furthermore the is the custom section, where you can combine such algorithms for the posiotive and negative site of the audio signal and do even an intended offset.

What made me buy this little cool tool is the GUI. It is so nice to use and the visual feedbacks of the signal is just great. More plugins should have such graphics. Totally worth the money; while it even does not cost that much at all! Thanks to the dev! (=.

This is a useful clipper with a nice sound and nice oversampling features. Also the CPU usage and loading time is just incredible low. The modes do sound different and are easy to access. Only thing I did not like that much is the GUI. The input and output volume is a bit clumsy to set. Luckily I found the "next version" of this plugin, which isn't free, but costs not so much: V-Clip. While this gives you more options, which are not always needed.

For people with a small budget this Free Clip is a really nice and useful clipper for free.