Review - Overtone by Soundpot

Overtone

Manufacture : Soundspot (https://www.soundspot.audio/downloads/overtone-mastering-eq/)

Category : Limiter

Format : VST 2.4, Audio Unit, AAX native

Price : 75£ (84.5€/100.5$)  NOW 1£ until 6^th January 2018

It’s a Mastering EQ plug-in from Soundspot. I purchased it last summer when they introduced it. Very cool EQ with M/S function and automatic saturation.

Overview : Obviously, it’s a programmed EQ with 4 knobs on each side (L/R or M/S)

Most important part is center.

There's the saturation indicator (I'll cover later below), channel solo buttons, channel link and bypass.

You can choose L/R or M/S by clicking on "Stereo" or "Mid/Side".

Every single knobs can be shelve, bell and filter(HP for lower frequencies, LP for higher ones) with Q value 0.25 upto 4.0

All knobs are notched, these are value of all notches :

1^st knob (from left to right)

20, 24, 28, 33, 39, 45, 54, 63, 74, 88, 103, 122, 144, 169, 200, 235, 277, 327, 385, 454, 535

2^nd knob

22, 26, 30, 36, 42, 49, 58, 69, 81, 95, 112, 132, 156, 184, 217, 256, 301, 355, 418, 493, 581

3^rd knob

688, 811, 956, 1.1k, 1.3k, 1.6k, 1.8k, 2.2k, 2.6k, 3k, 3.6k, 4.2k, 4.9k, 5.8k, 6.9k, 8.1k, 9.5k, 11k, 13k, 16k, 18k,

4^th knob

747, 880, 1k, 1.2k, 1.4k, 1.7k, 2k, 2.4k, 2.8k, 3.3k, 3.9k, 4.6k, 5.4k, 6.3k, 7.5k, 8.8k, 10k, 12k, 14k, 17k, 20k

All gain knobs can cut/boost 8dB their notches are 0.5dB between -3dB to 3dB then 1 from 4dB and more.

Automatic Saturation : I call it “automatic” because there’s no such a thing like saturation knob here. Saturation is applied when boosting. To use this function, you need to pass hotter signal into the EQ. The amount is indicated in the saturation indicator at the center. This EQ sounds crystal clear without saturation, and it sounds lovely with.

Conclusion : It’s very handy EQ with M/S processing, very subtle with very clean sound. Not only for mastering, it could be a good helper while mixing as well.

Review - Frontier by D16 group

Frontier

Manufacture : D16 Group (http://d16.pl/frontier)

Category : Limiter

Format : VST 2.4, Audio Unit, AAX native

Price : Free

This is a FREE limiter plug-in from D16 Group. It’s my favorite on-the-go limiter, very useful for all kind of things from simple maximizing to master limiting.

Overview : Very intuitive GUI, it’s very easy to use!

- Threshold : 

you can control compression amount with this knob

- Output Volume : 

you can set the output level of result

- Control Input : 

you can choose which channel would be the reference for dynamic process 

(L,R or Mid – I would say Mono rather than Mid)

- Release : 

Compression release Time

-Soft Clip : 

Soft clipping On/Off

Setup Menu : 

You can open the setup menu by clicking on the 'Options'.

You can setup default Online and Offline Quality value and default MIDI CC mapping.

Quality Menu : 

You can setup Online and Offline quality of opened plug-in (If you open an another one, these are NOT conserved)

Midi CC : 

You can right-click on any knob to assign a MIDI controller. 

Once you got your assignment, you can save it with MIDI menu on the down right side, you can load it down there as well. And You can also use saved MIDI mapping as a default mapping in the setup menu.

Preset : 

There is NO factory presets. 



But you can save it by command (Ctrl for Windows) + clicking on save button.














You can open the preset browser with the same button without pressing command(Ctrl) key on your keyboard.

*Every underlined menu opens with command(Ctrl) click

Conclusion : 

It is definitely something worth to have it. 
Very easy to use, sounds very good, and the BEST point – it’s FREE!