I never knew this problem existed, so if I switch to 96k do I need this plugin?

https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-special-filters-bundle/

 

yes and no. I didnt know i needed it, until i got it. I now cant live without it. The entire bundle honestly. The arbiter plugin from the bundle is insane. My go to dynamic eq / MB compressor type thingy now. Extremely transparent.

Ultrasonic is wonderful. I like how it visually shows what its removing, so you can turn the plugins on and off before the instance of ultrasonic, to see if its really needed or not. It does what its supposed to do, and does it very well.

Highly recommend the entire bundle, and pretty much everything else TDR makes.

 

I haven't bought and used any of the bundle besides Arbiter which is brilliant and the best de-esser that I've used as well as a fantastic plosive foil that gets the job done wonderfully. It's alone to me worth the 80 bucks for the entire bundle.

 

Yep, love it and use them all in the bundle. If you're at 96, place Ultrasonic before any plugin that can cause non-linearities (preamps, distortion, etc).

 

highly depends on actual DAW implementation of signal processing,
I guess download free demo and try for yourself

 

When you saturate, clip, it all creates harmonics, with higher sample rates with or without oversampling. It might also happen aliasing, from moderate, or quiet to almost no. Yes, it is all way beyond hearing freq range. But adding another saturator, clipper will create more harmonics, IMD, aliasing, from the whole range including unfiltered ultrasound, so it is better to cut everything above 20kHz or above 22kHz for "not to distort what we don't hear", otherwise it will be mirrored back to hearing range audio. Extra digital sterility, cleaner than ever. Theoretically it is useful, practically it is too subtle, or slightly more than subtle. In any case it will be masked by audio, will be drowned there. Mostly, saturation and clipper give more harmonics and IMD than aliasing. Theoretically, aliasing is a kind of IMD, just digital, Nyquist range area dependent. IMD are harmonics mirrored back frequencies from audio (happens in digital and analog), it is a kind of feature, maths, physics. Aliasing is harmonics mirrored back from Nyquist area (digital only), it is a kind of limitation, digital math.

Remember also, it is all an accumulation effect of IMD and inharmonics from plugin to plugin which create distortions (exciter, clipper, saturator, dynamics a la limiters,compressors with fastest attacks etc. etc). Layers of byproducts, not also additive, but multiplication as well.
In lower sample rates (44.1k, 48k) oversampling does this all: upsamples, does a frequency "headroom" range for to create harmonics above 20k, diminishes aliasing, downsamples (back to project sample rate with ultrasonic high-cut filtering).


You may use lowpass filters in linear phase, intermediate phase, or use free phase like in Equilibrium, or DDMF's linear phase eq with linear phase amount, Ozone maybe, or kinda. Using high shelves are way transparent in phase. Or minimum, analog, natural phase, even IIR and low latency mode (in higher rates it has way less cramping to almost no). You decide, smear ultrasonic shortly with small pre ringing and small post ringing, or phase distortion with big post ringing and with some time delay in a bit lower than ultrasonic (it begins earlier or so to say lower highs), or to sculpt something average (free phase, intermediate phase). Options to choose. I would prefer 21k-22k high cut or high shelf with almost "too sharp" (24dB/oct or higher, up to 96dB/oct or bit less, not higher), with some Q above default 0.71 (closer to 1), linear phase FIR, low or medium quality of filtering.

Haven't tried newer improved TDR Ultrasonic. I have only an old alpha-version freebie from them. Airwindows.

In telegram there is a TDR group(chat) with their JS plugins, close copies of brand plugins, and deeeep analysis of 3rd party plugins, tests etc bla blah bla

 

Last edited: Aug 17, 2024

It's amazing how many plugins start out fixing problems people never knew existed, before the plugin to fix it is created. At least it is from a reputable developer, but if it was not...

 

Can you hear any difference?

 

It doesn't matter if a person hears any difference if the plugin doctor hears it.

 

At 96k with proper monitoring, definitely. With just my HD 600 + tinnitus probably not.

No plugin doctor here. 16/44.1 works for Jon Hopkins. Y'all do you.

 

you can hear a difference. especially if you work in genres that require a lot of clipping, saturation and the like. Things like bass music, dubstep, heavier techno genres etc.

 

I personally only believe in conclusions that were based on a consistent method such as the scientific. You wanna know if there's a difference? Set up a good blind test. If you consistently fail it, even tho you have a superb monitoring system and whatnot, it most probably means that the difference is highly negligible. And if that's the case, why would anyone care for it?

People have bias, a fucking ton of bias, even the color of a plugin and its order in the mix chain can create bias. But people have no idea, I'd bet that a good portion of what people say in music production forums are based on a bias they're not even aware of. Crazy shit.

Anyways, the blind test costs a bit of your time studying and setting it up, and the free trial.
The bundle costs $80.

It wouldn't hurt to try.

 

This is usually another good red flag for snake oil. Audio programs and plugins do not care what genre of music the audio file you load into them is.

 

thats true in some cases. in this one it's not.

If you work in classical music, or folk, and your signal chain is a simple eq, maybe light glue compressor, you probably dont need this.

If you make heavy DnB music where your signal chain is saturation-compressor- eq- saturation- multiband copressor- eq- saturation- OTT comp etc, you can greatly benefit from this.

 

I used to do a chain very similar to this for printing house music and techno stems prior to mixing them, and sometimes still do. It's from an old Daniel Wyatt fx chain recommendation. But you are talking about clippers in the first post I commented on. If I wanted something really competitive loudness, I would have clippers all over the place like you mentioned, and I follow my own loose interpretation of CTZ (clip to zero) strategy. This is the pdf of Clip to Zero strategy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/...xNRLebQ7pps3rXewPM/edit#heading=h.lwtkibvu0gr
I might not do it to stuff I will not mix like orchestral, etc. But it is pretty damn general purpose LOUD otherwise. Way louder, in fact.

 

clip to zero is great for those sort of genres. its crazy how well it can work. But yah, this last chain i use more in the sound design phase, less so in mixing, although it can be applied there. When im designing Neuro basses and the like, ive found ultrasonic really helps.

 

https://www.audiodeluxe.com/products/audio-plugins/tokyo-dawn-labs-tdr-special-filters-bundle
$49.99 for the bundle right now on Audiodeluxe , just bought it.