


- #Decapitator soundtoys plugin free full#
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It's a quick, easy and very satisfying route towards the kind of distortion that makes you wonder whether something has actually caught fire in your equipment rack. I suspect that very few users will be able to restrain themselves from immediately hitting the inviting Punish button - which, according to the manual, adds 20dB to whatever amount of gain is being applied by the Drive dial. Another toggle switch drastically increases the filter slope, making the response more like that of a speaker cabinet - though Sound Toys make no claims of accurate modelling in this department. Next comes your choice of distortion algorithm, after which a low‑pass filter lets you trim away any fizzy frequencies. It then passes through a Tone control, which allows you to skew its overall frequency response towards the bottom or top of the frequency spectrum. The input signal is first processed using a high‑pass filter, with an additional Thump switch adding an optional resonant hump at the cutoff frequency. The rest of the signal chain is disarmingly simple. This alone elevates Decapitator to planes of usefulness not occupied by many other distortion plug‑ins. Next to the output level control is a toggle switch labelled Auto: activate this and the output level is automatically adjusted to compensate for the setting of the Drive control, so as you crank up the distortion, the overall signal stays at much the same level. Decapitator offers a neat solution to this problem. One of the pitfalls with any distortion device is that changing the amount of distortion nearly always causes a massive jump or drop in output level, resulting in much twiddling of trim controls or channel faders, and making it hard to compare different settings fairly. The last two algorithms are homages to the Thermionic Culture Culture Vulture, modelling its triode and pentode settings respectively. The first three are based around notoriously 'coloured' preamp stages from classic hardware: the preamp from an ancient Ampex reel‑to‑reel recorder, the Chandler/EMI TG Channel, and the Neve 1057, an early design that used germanium transistors.
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Instead, it seems that they have (unofficially) taken their inspiration from a variety of devices that are widely used in professional circles to 'warm up' sounds at the recording or the mixing stage.
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Sound Toys make very clear that Decapitator is intended neither as a guitar amp simulator nor an emulation of tape saturation. You can probably imagine my reaction to the news that Sound Toys were adding a plug‑in devoted solely to analogue‑style saturation and distortion: joy! I'm not sure what Sound Toys do differently from other plug‑in developers, but their saturation algorithms have always sounded fantastic, and I'm sure I'm not alone in having used Filter Freak as a distortion plug‑in, with the actual filter bypassed. One of the elements that makes Sound Toys favourites Filter Freak and Echo Boy so special is the output stage, which allows you to apply a variety of flavours of saturation and distortion to signals. And they share some neat design touches with the other plug‑ins in the range, such as the ability to 'lock' individual controls so that they remain in their current position when a new preset is loaded. The interfaces are simple and friendly, with any complexity beneath the surface neatly reduced to a handful of knobs and buttons. They boast a nicely organised, usefully named and great‑sounding selection of presets. It's immediately clear that both new plug‑ins embody the values Sound Toys users are familiar with from the other effects in the range. The plug‑ins are authorised using an iLok key, as before, and all common plug‑in formats are now supported - including (hurrah!) VST.
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All the plug-ins that comprise the bundle are available individually, but you save a lot of money by opting for the full collection. Version 4 of their celebrated Native Effects bundle introduces two newcomers: PanMan and Decapitator. Sound Toys aren't the most prolific plug‑in developers on the planet, but when they do produce something new, we rightly expect it to be a bit special. For the latest additions to their Native Effects bundle, Sound Toys have updated two vintage effects for the DAW age.
