Cableguys have announced the release of VolumeShaper 4, the latest version of their highly acclaimed volume shaping and faux side-chaining audio processor for Windows and Mac OS. Read the article below for a closer look at the new version of this unique tool.
Chances are that you’ve read our review of the old VolumeShaper 3, the previous version of the plugin which was released back in March 2012. Almost two and a half years later, the talented team at Cableguys has released yet another version of their ultimate volume shaping toolbox. Without further ado, let’s sit down and take a closer look at what this brand new version of VolumeShaper has to offer.
Taking The Multi-Band Route
Perhaps the biggest improvement in Volumeshaper 4 is the fact that the plugin now supports multi-band processing. In practice, the multi-band processing capability adds a whole new dimension to this already super-precise volume shaping tool. The processed signal can now be treated in more subtle ways, for less obvious pumping effects or less prominent gating (for example, the user can now choose to duck only the lowest frequencies of the processed signal, without any audible changes to the mid and high frequencies).
Up to three available frequency bands (low/mid/high) can be adjusted freely and processed independently. To help with setting up the frequency bands as precisely as possible, Cableguys have included a neat real-time spectrum display, along with two different slope settings for the crossover points (6 dB/octave and 12 dB/octave). You can also preview the active frequency band by clicking the solo button which is located right above the spectrum display.
Preset Power
The user interface has been re-designed quite a bit, leading to a much faster workflow for some of the more common tasks such as gating, rhythmic gating and faux side-chaining. The lower section of the GUI now features a great little palette of preset curves which can be applied on the fly and further tweaked in the custom waveform editor. Of course, you can apply these preset curves to any of the three available frequency bands, for super quick multi-band setups.
The plugin now also supports the brilliant preset cloud which was introduced with the release of Curve 2. This means that you can now choose to share your presets with other VolumeShaper 4 users, as well as to download the presets which have been submitted by other users. This step is completely optional and you can also keep your preset library offline if you prefer. The plugin is shipped with a fairly large collection of factory presets, which offer a great starting point for further tweaking and a useful showcase of the plugin’s capabilities.
Putting It All Together
VolumeShaper becomes more and more feature-rich with each new version, but the developers cleverly avoid the trap of turning it into a bloated piece of software. The new features are adding quite a lot of value to the product and they fit perfectly with the brilliant custom waveform editor and other components which we’ve seen in the previous iterations of VolumeShaper.
With the new streamlined design, the plugin is now actually easier to use and it’s possible to get the same great results with less clicks. Multi-band editing makes VolumeShaper 4 more powerful than ever and more versatile than any similar amplitude shaping tool on today’s market.
Original source at BedroomProducersBlog.com
