Exciter/Enhancer Plugin

Does anyone know a LASDPA Exciter or Enhancer? I’m really lacking of one, so if there is one out there, let me know!

Thanks,
Benjamin

Here’s how to make one:

First, if for some reason you don’t have the SWH plugins from http://plugin.org.uk/ installed, you should get them. Assuming they’re already installed, fire up an Ardour session and create an fx bus to use as the exciter return, and create a send to it from the track(s) you want to process (post-fader is probably best, so that the exciter signal will maintain it’s mix ratio while you adjust the level of the original signal in the mix).

Now the fun part - an exciter is basically a high-pass (or possibly band-pass) filter followed by something that generates out-of-phase harmonics - so create a plugin chain on the bus (pre-fader is probably best) consisting of the GLAME Highpass Filter followed by the Harmonic Generator, open control windows for them, and activate. A good starting point for the high-pass filter is around 1-2k, depending on the sound you’re processing, so set it there for now, then set the harmonic generator up so that Fundamental Magnitude is 0 and 3rd harmonic magnitude is -1 (you can delve into adjusting the proportion of different harmonics if you want to, but this is a good place to start).

Now, with the source marerial playing, adjust the bus level and filter cutoff so that only the highest frequencies of the source material are being processed (depending on the effect you want, of course) and only a small amount of the processed signal is being mixed in via the bus fader. This will add in high frequency content that was missing in the original signal without adding much to the total signal amplitude.

Adjust to taste, and have fun. Hope that helps. :slight_smile:

1 Like

Hey! Huge Thanks man!

This is EXACTLY what I was looking for, or: better!
I used a VST Exciter in Cubase before, but now I’ve got an exciter with absolute control over!

I still have some probs with Linux/Jack/Ardour, but now I really enjoy using them, since that was the last effect I was missing!

Again thanks,
Benjamin

p.s. something went wrong and I had to type this message twice, maybe there will be two equal replies from me

No problem. :slight_smile:

Having the flexibility from using a send/return and combined modular plugins is fun, I’m learning to love it. It might be nice if there was a somewhat simplified “exciter” plugin with basic controls that could be used in-line on a track, though, since there seems to be demand for that effect. I’m guessing somebody with moderate coding skills could probably put one together using parts of these plugins without getting too much into DSP maths…

I’ll bring this up if you don’t mind :slight_smile:
I’m going to give yawfle’s tip a go, but back to the basic question: is there a single enhancer/exciter plugin that can be used in Ardour? I’m looking for something to improve my vocal tracks (while I keep learning how to exploit all the possibilities of eq’s and compressors…)

I have one that sort of works. If you’re running x86 Linux I can let you have a .so; otherwise you’ll have
to take sources and compile them yourself. They’re too much of a mess for me to release yet - but I will do
eventually, since it’s mostly bits of other plugins ripped out and stuck back together again.

One thing to bear in mind in the build-it-yourself approach is that you really want to stick a low-pass filter
on the input to the harmonics generator as well as the high-pass - and throw away /everything/ above 7kHz before it hits
the harmonics generate (because the 3rd harmonic of anything above 7kHz is over the Nyquist limit anyway,
so you might as well ditch it while it’s easy to do so).

Anyway, just holler if you want the .so, and I’ll try to get round to putting it on a http site for people to try out

@Benjamin Scherrer: I’ve been using my MX-EQ and MX-DYN plugins to get a similar kind of effect. If you put the EQ first and then the Dynamics, you can set the EQ to provide a High Pass by keeping the Mid Gain at 0dB and reducing the LF to -20dB. Then if necessary add a bit more HF boost. This then feeds the Dynamics which has a built in Tape Saturation style overdrive. So you set the dynamics to 1:1 Ratio and 0dB threshold (so the compressor isn’t compressing) and adjust the In and Out gain controls on the dynamics to get the level of harmonics you need. You then mix a small amount of this with the clean sound - either by using a buss or as I’ve done sometimes, by loading the same audio file onto two channels (with the harmonic effect on only one of the two channels) and then altering the mix between the clean and distorted tracks. Requires a bit of experimenting with the EQ and distortion settings, it depends what effect you want.

I might do an enhancer / exciter plugin at some point soon…