Klive: new distinct pro

I don’t use the original much but it’s a decent saturation plug. I think it’s based on Overstayer gear?

The “pro” version adds some nice features. Transient shaping on a saturator is a good idea.

Well I've now had a brief look, and I got an immediate feeling of déjà vu with the original Distinct plugin - Distinct Pro seems a promising release with a lot of interesting adjustments on offer, but it needs some more work before I could recommend it to others.

The supplied Distinct Pro presets were invariably several dBs louder than the input signal, so first I tweaked them all so I could more easily perform some A/B comparisons, but Distinct Pro aliasing is currently a lot higher than its predecessor, even with its conservative default settings, and even with its 16x oversampling enabled, which is disappointing. A little more Beta testing wouldn't have gone amiss.

However, the developer is as usual extremely open to suggestions, with a Mix control already promised for adding a dash of extreme effect to a largely clean signal, so we can expect a few updates in short order.

Overall, given previous Kiive Audio products I suspect this will evolve into something significantly more useful, but I'm going to give it a miss for now.

Martin

I’m demoing as well, and I haven’t tested for aliasing, but it does have a bit of a cloudy haze to it. It hasn’t beat out my other saturators, but it did get a couple tracks to sit really nicely with just a touch of the sat/distortion/eq/transient shaping. It’s a good package of simple tools in one interface.

If they make some improvements it’ll be a hit.

Hah! I’m still looking for the perfect saturation plugin, and I’m currently between projects and doing lots of experimentation. What’s frustrating is that there are no saturators that I like everywhere, no go-to’s exactly.

Here’s some that I’m finding useful:

Fuse preamps, Flywheel tape emu (used on most busses)

Kush Blyss, LG Drive, preamps

Kelvin (only really like it on master bus)

Airwindows Focus

United Plugins Front DAW

Mixwave CA-70s, op amp boost

Process Audio Spicerack

Kazrog True Iron

I've bought far too many saturation/preamp plug-ins, as I love exploring their strengths and weaknesses.

Like robo, I tend to reach for one of my Fuse Audio preamp plug-ins first of all in projects, as they are all well modeled and overload in predictable and euphonic ways.

PSP BinAmp is a tastefully done model of the triode preamp portion of the Binson Echorec unit.

Kazrog True Iron is subtle but useful for a little transformer warmth, especially when used across multiple channels.

From Plugin Alliance I like Black Box Analog Design HG-2 (modeled from a hardware unit), & Elysia's Phils Cascade (modeled on a one-off hardware creation used vintage components).

I also bought Kelvin too after its many rave reviews, but haven't yet used it in anger as there are just too many options to explore (I like to create my own presets at various calibrated levels suitable for signals at -18dB VU from subtle through drive to grunge and broken, so I can patch them in quickly).

Other favourites include Sonimus Burnley 73 (a worthy Neve-like model), & PSP Saturator (more versatility).

However, before you spend any money, here are a few freebies to try out. Well worth investigating are Variety of Sound Tessla SE (great for adding transformer warmth and width/depth) and Tessla Pro mkIII (unique in adding pinpoint focus/detail). Also, the freeware Kit plugins Burier is fairly unique in being usable from subtle all the way through to total destruction from a single control.


Martin

Kiive Audio have already released an update to Distinct Pro v1.0.1. Here are the changes:

- changed In and out gain from + / - 12 db to 24 db (so you can drive it harder for more obvious effects)

- Added mix knobs for dyn and drive sections with link btn

- fixed ovsmp delay compensation when drive section is bypassed

The developer has also agreed to add 'reso' switches to the filters n the next update, to slightly increase the Q at the cutoff frequency, and is also considering adding a highpass filter option for the compressor sidechain  

It's great that he is so proactive to users in the early days after release, but on the other hand I know to my cost that you can also end up having to copy across plugin settings in your projects by hand from early versions to later ones, because the extra features break compatibility   

Martin

thx but seems to be intel not silicon ?

Yeah, I like Saturn2 a good bit. It’s grown on me. I wasn’t wild about it at first, but have really come to like quite a few of the algorithms. And its ease of use and UI is typical FF: very very good.