Been playing with your baby since last night and BuzzCut is defo my new favourite plugin hahaa 😝🤟 It’s insane dude! Sounds so good! Not guna lie I only just found the buzz threshold fader this morning and then it changed my life 🤤 Amazing work brother 🤟
Plugins sick bro
it’s some wizard shit and the second we seen this plugin we instantly thought my guys the guy! Main thing sounds 👌🏾👌🏾👌🏾🤌🏾🤌🏾🤌🏾
I think if it looked as serious as it is. Could be a touch. Don’t wanna knock mans hard work. It looks sick and nice to look at but I think few tweaks. Your defo on the vibey look would be sick to have a *simple* mode. I’m bigging it up in some backwards way.
And maybe change your site to intro price
It’s worth more
Personally
Got your VST by Claybrook and wow, actual wow. I think you've possibly tapped into the meta for clipping. This is gonna be my absolute go to for clipping now, by far. If you need a testimonial off me for your website I got you.
This is certainly an innovative and groundbreaking approach to Clipping Plus-ins.
In my opinion, it paves the way for many other plug-ins based on this concept.
I have never been a fan of Clipping; none of the ones I have tried could withstand a 3 dB reduction.
They just choked.
Buzzcut is the first clipper to survive my merciless testing!
This means it can be used sensibly when needed.
Congratulations on a great idea!
Yes your idea is good! You're effectively dithering a soft clip over the hard clip point, which allows you to produce a noisy softclip region that goes PAST what would normally be hardclipping. That's pretty cool, as the dithering helps bass noises work in that region and remain 'readable' to the ear. Love it. And I can see how it would directly apply to bass music. One technical note: I'm not sure if your technique literally 'dithers aliasing', and if it does, your oversampling turns around and defeats it. Because it'll deliver a distinct sound at each oversampling level, do NOT assume the highest oversampling will be the best sound. Sometimes you'll get more out of your technique run at 1x, so use your ears. Well done! Even if it's not literal 'dithering aliasing', it's something really interesting and musically useful.
Excellent destroyer of dynamic range. On the plus side, surprisingly effortless to get things loud . The first thing I tried it on was very electronic and just kind of twisting knobs and trying to understand what was going on (more on that later) I gained a couple lufs and it was sounding so clean that I switched over to something acoustic, pushed three lufs up, and it was still clean. I'm using 16x oversampling, but you wouldn't know it from the 3% cpu usage. On the negative side- it's hard to understand what I'm doing, and I keep accidentally doing unintentional stuff. Click and right click having strange, unique behaviors is a suspect choice in terms of intuitive UX. Might be power user friendly but I keep doing things on accident. The visualization doesn't do as much as some other clipper visualizations to assist in understanding what I'm doing (ie, how much I'm chopping, impact of asymmetry, etc). For the love of all that is holy why is there an icon-only "reset everything" button. I lost all my settings trying to figure out what the button did. Speaking of losing all my settings, both undo/redo and a/b would be lovely additions. You can't right click output to link/unlink with input, but the tooltip suggests you can. It would be nice to have the option for linked input, unlinked output- linked input to try to drive in, then unlinked output to adjust output. As it is I have to link to drive, then unlink to adjust output. I guess in summary, it sounds good and it's low on CPU which pretty much outweighs a rough UX so that's a recommendation to demo from me, but if the UX keeps improving it's gonna be a staple.
Buzzcut is a unique among the clippers/limiters I tried (Softube Clipper, TC BRICKWALL HD, Wave Breaker in ClipperX mode and Newfangled Audio Saturate) as it seems to noise shape the distortion from the clipping process making the distortion of the clipping process an enhancement to presentation of the soundstage. Where the other limiters I tried display varying amount of distortion from clipping, soft clipping or limiting , the distortion was not complimentary to the clipped/limited signal, accept for in part maybe Saturate which also seem to present the distortion of clipping in a somewhat pleasing way. Saturate can sound louder and more forward but appears to retain less dynamics and be less 3 dimensional compared to Buzzcut. Buzzcut was less forward without an overly-loud presentation with more musicality and articulation of the clipped signal. The Buzzcut clipped signal sounded better when at zero than the other clipper/limiters I tried on the track I was test them with. With Buzzcut, it was as if I was able to hear deeper into the signal as it retained more perceived dynamic as the spatial cues did not collapse like with the other clipper/limiters. The stereo field remained intact and became articulated/enhanced. If want you to retain the vibe of your song try enhancing it with Buzzcut - it is worth testing on it on your mix. It should be noted that articulating the distortion from clipping can also articulate any distortion that may have been masked in your song before your crank it up with clipping. If you are mixing in the box, it would be worth inserting Buzzcut across your 2-bus while you are mixing as you will hear your mix with a different perspective when comes to adding distortion to individual tracks. With Buzzcut the your mixing decisions may change when you can just let a less processed element of your mix slam into your final clipper and have it sound intentional rather than like another brick of sound in a wall of unintentional clipping distortion.
Can't really compete with some of these longer and more in depth feedbacks, but I just swapped out Gold Clip with this Buzzcut, and when tweaking the hard threshold and input as well as some of the other settings I was able to thicken up a master I've been working on in a way that got me a db and a half louder than I had been with seemingly no loss of impact. This tool is a keeper! The sound is great, the results speak for themselves, and this will be a first go to for me on future mastering work. As others have said the interface looks great, and the options for tone shaping are welcome. I love simplicity of a KClip and the interesting options with Gold/Orange clip and StandardCLIP, and this is just a different beast that behaves well on the material I've tested it on. Well done LuciD!
An excellent clipper that lets you go at least 1dB louder than all the others and sounds cleaner at the same volume. Tested against Gold Clip, Ash, Fire The Clip, Classic Clipper, Saturate, Standard Clip, etc. They all have their own unique sound, and Buzzcut is a welcome addition to the list. It's found its place on my master bus and I think it'll stay there for a while :).
Dave, firstly, you’re doing wonderful work here. Very impressive for a first commercial plugin. I mix and master mostly roots reggae, dub and bass-heavy music, where clipping is part of the sound. Erosion Clipping genuinely feels different. The stochastic threshold approach results in a less brittle, less flat digital top end when pushed. It does sound organic to my ears. The asymmetrical thresholds are especially useful for shaping even harmonics and adding subtle grit to subs without losing weight. I need to play around with this further, but early signs are promising. I do not expect anything for this review, but always appreciate the offer. For further context I am a user of Acustica’s Ash and Goldclip. This is a serious piece for the toolkit.
After comparing Buzzcut to industry mainstays like Standard Clip, Kazrog KClip, Goldclip, and Newfangled Saturate, it is clear that this plugin offers a "3D" dimensionality that its competitors often struggle to maintain. While Saturate can sound louder and more forward, it tends to collapse spatial cues, whereas Buzzcut keeps the stereo field intact and articulated, even when pushing a master to -6 LUFS. Unlike the "flat" and often uninteresting results found in Goldclip or Standard Clip at extreme settings, Buzzcut’s Stochastic Erosion allows for a musicality that feels more like an analog enhancement than a digital ceiling. An innovative way to view this technology is as "Probabilistic Peak Texturizing." Most clippers treat the threshold as a clinical geometric barrier; however, by applying dithering logic to the threshold itself, you are effectively turning a "hard wall" into a musical, organic texture. This approach ensures that information—especially in the low end—remains "readable" to the ear past the point where conventional clipping would simply delete the waveform. Improvement Tips for Future Iterations:
• Advanced Dither Flavors: Beyond the current noise tilt (Dark Pink to Bright Violet), the developer could implement Slew Dithering to further refine the handling of high-frequency transients, or Floating Point Dither to address precision at the DAW's internal bit-depth. Offering different statistical distribution models (like Gaussian or Triangular) would allow users to customize the "fuzziness" of the erosion.
• Mid/Side (M/S) Architecture: Implementing separate controls for Mid and Side channels would significantly enhance the plugin's 3D feel. Pairing Mid-channel asymmetrical clipping for specific sub-bass grit with Side-channel erosion for "analog air" would allow for massive loudness without losing center-channel punch.
• HQ Mode Visuals: Right-clicking the HQ button should provide a distinct visual indicator showing whether Linear Phase or Minimum Phase is currently selected, as users currently find it difficult to tell.
• Bypass Fatigue: Add a setting to replace the animated noise on the bypass screen with a still image to reduce visual fatigue during long sessions.
• Linked Control Logic: Fix the bug where double-clicking a linked slider only resets that specific control to 0 dB, rather than behaviorally resetting both linked parameters.
• Metering and Scale: Incorporate a dB scale on the oscilloscope and a dedicated Gain Reduction (GR) meter so users can precisely measure the amount of "erosion" taking place.
• Signal Flow: Move the Mix knob after the output gain to follow professional signal flow standards.
Thank You so much for this new concept!
Nice to see a different novel approach to loudenators! I gave it a go and it sounds pretty awesome thus far! I found the interface fairly intuitive, although you have quite a few different controls the tooltips are helpful (I beta test for many companies). Overall the sound so far seems very natural and easy to get loud and pretty clean with the dense, heavy music I make. Hope this is a success and you keep developing!
Super impressive Clipper!
i like the GUI, with the resize, Global Settings menu including the 'DAW sync' options and especially the 'Delta' mode.
Tried it on a work in progress and got more LUFS than i usually get.
Then tried it on a recently finished track that's being released end of March on a big German techno label.
I delivered a 'non-mastered' version and a 'pre-master' done by me and Buzzcut + Acon Limit sounded better while getting louder. WOW.
(i'm no clipping expert. Relatively new to implementing it. But i am using Fuse ocelot clip, standard clip, K-clip and some more already.....)
Seems it could become a fav
UI/UX for me is at least as important as sound. While we have more than enough great sounding plugins in 2026, UI/UX is still often a weak point. Buzzcut nails both sound and visuals, I think. I find so many of the things already in place here that I criticize or feature request other plugins for.
Sound shaping is very rewarding! The visual representation of the changes is engaging. It's surprisingly fun for a clipper plugin
Random observations:
- Onboarding is very good, with a clear GUI and tooltips enabled, because it's a little more complex than I first thought (though I do think a manual that goes a little more in depth would be beneficial and interesting)
- Option to link input/output with right-click is genius! So quick.
- Robust Settings menu
The one visual I don't like is the animated noise on the bypass display – it's visually fatiguing, and I'd prefer a still image there. An option for that in Settings would be very much appreciated.
Also, it would be cool to have a stronger indication when 'Asym Mode' is active for Soft Knee than just a small DC button in the lower third of the plugin changing. Maybe something in or near the display, as that's where our attention is when moving the curves.
Bugs or oddities I found:
1. Double-clicking on input or output resets the respective control to default. But when input/output are linked, they don't behave linked when resetting one of them.
Example: Input is +3 dB. Output is -3 dB. They're linked. I double click on Input, it jumps to 0 dB (3 dB down). Output stays at -3 dB. What I would expect is Output to also go to 0 dB (3 dB up).
Maybe an argument I don't see can be made for both behaviors having their place? A toggle could be placed in Settings.
2. Double-right click also resets controls to default. This can lead to accidents especially with the input/output gain-linking. I would suggest only left-double-click resets controls.
3. Right-click to toggle gain-link for Input/Output only works on Input slider, not the Output.
4. Right-clicking anywhere on the Input/Output slider "groove" makes the slider jump to that position. This should only happen when left-clicking.
And I agree with what has been said about needing clearer indication for which type of oversampling (LP/MP) is active. Same goes for the two modes of the MIX knob.
Talking about the MIX knob: unfortunately it's implemented before the output gain. The "correct" way would be after it.
Very cool first plugin.
I am blown away by the sound of this clipper. One of the first clippers in a while to truly do something different and the sound quality pays off. Ignoring all of the knee and asymmetrical settings, the hard clipper alone sounds so much more interesting when pushed hard compared to other hard knee clippers. Yes, there is still distortion, but it doesn't bother the ear as much. I tried using this heavily on a master and was shocked how well it held up comparing it to two other commonly used mastering clippers.
If I had one critique, it's that the controls are a bit finnicky and hard to wrap my head around. Some of the buttons kept getting engaged when I tried to just use the knobs, which kept throwing me off. I think those kinks will get worked out though, and this clipper is truly groundbreaking in its audio quality.
OK so i've spent a little time with it on a (very) bass heavy cue I finished yesterday, replaced my usual with Buzzcut.
It's a quick impression but this actually sounds pretty great, I was able to push it much harder than the clipper it replaced and the distortion effect of the clipping is quite pleasing instead of being ugly. A GR meter would be a nice addition, to see how much has been clipped.
The gui is well thought out too, lots of creative potential here, great job on your first release.
Being a sucker for clippers, I compared Buzzcut to my favourites: Dangerous Adplus, Ocelot Clipper, Gold Clip, StandardCLIP & V-Clip 2 on my latest masters.
This thing is so clean, crisp and open sounding!
I´m not a programmer but the sound somehow reminds me of Maat´s FiDef algos.
Will do some more testing but so far, I´m impressed!
This is one of the best and most innovative plugins out there right now. Buzzcut is a brilliant cut on a theory i played around with before, where injected dithering dithering noise working in tandem with clipping and and some handy controls allow to gain level and at the same time reduce digital harshness from the algorithmic processes, an itb version of what the process of a digital ADDA converter naturally does to the sound, which results in a more full and pleasant sound (dare i say analog-y) of whatever you throw on to it. Level AND aural creaminess ?! Count me in. The plugin itself is really well thought of and properly designed - clear and straight forward, the small but indispensable controls on the clippers and tools (like two dc offsets), allow to manipulate the signal in a way that is difficult to do with a full chain of dithers and clippers. Easy to use and sounds great. It's marketed for mixbus and mastering duties, but i suggest using it on individual busses and even instruments. Been dreaming with a tool like this and i couldn't possible done it better, bravo! Straight to my toolbox and it should go to yours too.
It’s a very interesting concept. I spent over three hours playing around with the clipper, and for me, it’s easily one of the best-sounding clippers I’ve heard so far.
Maybe it would be good if, when right-clicking the HQ button, you could more clearly see what is currently selected — Linear or Minimum Phase. As it is now, it’s very difficult to tell.
Impressive. Comparing to Flatline, my current go-to, on one dream pop track. Was able to pull an extra dB out of BC. Flatline occurs wider in the low end and "shorter", BC wider in the midrange and "taller" overall.
Interesting approach. It maintains clarity better than other clippers, sound remains crisp and defined; if I wouldn't know I would have suspected some type of multiband clipping. Because of that clarity, even at the same volume, it has the effect of sounding a bit louder.
I like the idea of offering IIR and FIR options for the oversampling filters (everybody should do that IMO). Aliasing is nicely kept in check, especially at 16x, without eating a ton of CPU. I also like the noise being able to mask it, basically an original implementation of dither, but with some interesting shaping and level options.
I'd love to have some kind of db scale on one side of the oscilloscope, just to have hint of how much it clips, but other than that it's a solid release.
I've already got way to many clippers, but I'm really liking this. This is a different and a fresh approach. It somehow uses noise to modulate the clipping to avoid inharmonic distortion and aliasing. I was able to push an already pushed mix even more without any audible consequences, reaching one extra dB than before, easily. When pushing hard the distortion is somehow more pleasing and the material remains clear and open.
It's a really well laid out plugin, but it takes a little time to get used to and understand everything and some settings are a little hard to grasp at first. Luckily there are helpful pop-up tips when you hover over the various buttons and sliders so that makes it more easy. It's got delta mode, so it's easy to set up and listen to how much you are affecting, and autogain. Both linear and minimum phase OS up to 16x is a big plus. Wish it had offline settings though. I appreciate the graphics also, and being able to see what your doing to the waveform.
I've been facinating by using noise in various subtle ways to enhance sources, so I really enjoyed playing with upward noise also, for adding textures. Reminds me a bit of fidef and similar plugins.
It's not just a clipper, but a creative sound-shaping tool! Everything seems very well thought out, and I'm not missing much, except maybe a manual. And offline OS settings.
Downloaded today and compared it to a vast amount of clippers I own on 2 bus.
This clipper is pretty unique and sounds incredibly open and clean. Very true to the source.
Regarding the dithering / noise approach, Airwindows and Maat Fidef come to mind .
I highly recommend to do your own testing - might be the one you´ve always been looking for!
Just loaded it in Reaper and ran it on snare and kick against my usual clippers. This thing sounded really nice with minimal tweaking. Has some good weight to it. I found i could drive it a bit harder than my usuals.
Low cpu usage is always nice.
I'll give it a more thorough test on a song i'm mixing later.
Nice work on your first plugin!
Okay this thing is actually really cool. I've got a lot of clippers and limiters (some with built in clipping) and I'm a huge fan of novel ideas like this one. I'm not hearing it as "noise", which I think is exactly what you're going for. Usually transients are essentially bursts of noise anyways, so it makes sense to clip like this. I'm surprised no one thought of this before, but I'm glad you did! I'd love to keep using this on projects.
I think the GUI is pretty unique and cool. I love it when stuff is functional but has its own aesthetic and isn't copying everything else that's come before it.
Wow super interesting! Without actually reading anything, I can't say I'm getting much 'info' out of the display at this point, but it sounds killer. I honestly can't recall using any other plugin where I was able to make my drums chug like that, sick!
Love the screensaver thing! nice touch! Great attention to detail and excellent graphical efficiency overall, even on my lowly Iris Xe, Core i5 the scope is very smooth and fast.
Visualizer mode plz... lol
I did notice this sounds particularly good with some resonant harmonics added to it. *shrug
It also does wonders for SW fuzz pedals...
I just bought it, fat as funk, good stuff boyo....
I threw this on a retro-modern soul track before Acon limit. Just messing about without full understanding I got this up to -11 LUFS -I from -18. That's enough for this track.
More importantly the brass, the bass, the keys really cleared up with Buzzcut helping out Acon more than my usual clippers. That typical mid range limiter mush was just gone.
Very happy. Will test more but expecting to pick this one up.
I get the feeling this is to clippers what dynamic eq was to static eqs.
Great job!
One of the weirdest and coolest tone shaper.
Make things exploding in loudness in a cool way. Or destroy things in a post 3rd Industrial Revolution way.
I need to investigate more.
I played with it for about an hour and shot it out (briefly) against my three go-tos, though only one of those go-tos is just a straight clipper. The other two are combo products that include EQ for one and compression for the other. Buzzcut fared pretty well and maintained nice, crisp punch better than two of the others. I think I need time to play with it as the interaction between soft and hard clipping I'm kind of used to, but the noise injection thing (which is what makes it unique) is new to me. Playing with the delta (thank you for the delta listen, BTW), I can hear the noise affecting quite a bit, but I don't feel like I get how I like it best, how to predict it etc. I think my mainstay edged it out by a bit still - with a slightly fuller and less crunchy end product - but also cost a lot more and I know that one really well, which this early on with a new one skews things in its favor, admittedly. I think you are on to something with this. Sounds legit.
Also just bought it!
The grit a bass can get with this is great so instant purchase
I’ve spent a good amount of time working with different clippers, with Gold Clip being my main one for a while. After trying this clipper, I can definitely say it has its own character.
In my hip hop productions, I was able to push things louder while keeping the punch and avoiding that brittle, collapsing feel that can happen when clipping gets aggressive. It feels controlled, solid, and surprisingly clean even when driven hard.
Really hoping I’m still able to get a license, this is a very awesome clipper and I’d love to keep it in my workflow.
What continues to stand out is how stable the distortion character remains when pushed into heavier territory. I tried the usual scenarios that often make clipping stages start to sound stressed: serial clipping, dense ceiling-pinned material, clipping feeding into downstream dynamics.
Instead of things turning brittle or developing that familiar hashy texture, the harmonic character stayed surprisingly cohesive. It almost feels like the distortion evolves more smoothly rather than piling up in a rigid way.
Pure speculation on my end, but I wonder if the erosion concept is playing a role here, maybe disrupting the usual ‘fixed ceiling’ behavior that makes repeated clipping artifacts so easy to hear. Whatever the reason, the top end just feels more composed when driven hard. Low end response also feels very solid. No strange softening or transient sag that sometimes creeps in with aggressive clipping. The punch stays intact while the density increases.
What’s interesting is that this doesn’t feel like replacing Gold Clip or Ocelot philosophically, they still have very distinct characters that I genuinely like. Buzzcut just seems to react differently when pushed harder, which happens to align very well with how I tend to use clippers.
Bought a license a few days ago, enjoying misusing it for an alternative crunchy texture.
i'm not really a loudness hunter. I usually settle around 9-10 db lufs, butI need any clipping or limiting used to be as close to invisible as possible and I got to an easy 7db lufs with this plugin. Impressive!
Sounds great! Using this for the heavy lifting: with a kiss of UAD Capitol mastering comp, a touch of XM limiter, and a Pultec Eq vst, beat Ozone by a mile, for a demo I'm finishing up. It kept the vocals and bass drum big and up front, without making them crispy and harsh. If I push it hard, it does flatten things out, but less so than other tools. (I'm very sensitive to dynamic loss.) My only hesitation with purchasing, is I can't really know what's happening without a gain reduction meter. That feature is important for protecting me from myself once my ears get a touch fatigued.
Really interesting results. I genuinely like Buzzcut and think it’s a very fresh approach. One thing I did notice: compared to my previous configuration, the low end felt slightly more open before . Not necessarily a negative, just an observation while level-matching to similar loudness. In some ways, I may actually prefer what yours is doing which feels like more of a brick wall on the low end.
Once I start pushing Buzzcut past a certain point, I do begin to hear the noise kick in and I want to spend more time experimenting with the controls and parameters. That said, this is a super compelling tool and it opens up some very interesting possibilities in the mastering workflow.
Really impressive work.
On a couple of very difficult mixdowns I have to master, Buzzcut proved to be surprisingly effective at evening out the very uneven peaks that remained after prior more gentle processing.
Just as mentioned I could push the master a tad louder than with my go-to.
Hard clipping + a dB and a half of erosion did the trick elegantly, very cool stuff !
That’s very promising.
Now, while I don’t like the esthetics of Buzzcut much, I’m torn wrt UX itself.
All the layered controls are great but a « one knob = one feature » - despite the numerous parameters - would be a good trade off for a more readable interface.
I also think some permanent display of crucial values like Ceiling / Erosion would make Buzzcut faster to use.
Speaking of quality of life features, I wish I could also directly type-in values for all the parameters.
The central display is cleverly executed and intuitive to use once you grasp what it does, but too finicky when it comes to the exact zone you have to click in to drag a specific parameter.
Very nice clipper. I'm getting great results vs my usual suspects, KClip 3, Classic Clipper, StandardCLIP, Neutron 5.
On the mixbus it allows me to push quite a bit and retain a clearness, quite impressive.
On drumgroups it also shines. Tweaking Buzz to get the perfect combination of dither and clip.
This really is one to watch!
I had been thinking about more ways to clip audio and your approach is something else.
+1 on the Mix knob after the output
Some things i noticed:
- When turning a knob up and the mouse pointer moves up, then the tip pop-up appears at the mouse pointer, instead of the knob i'm turning.
- It took me a while to understand that the knobs, Asym, Knee, Tilt and Hard must be clicked on/off. I sort of expected them to turn on by turning.
Good luck with the trial for now.
Okay, now I've had a chance to test this clipper a bit more, and I have to say it's definitely top-notch! I love the Classic Clipper from IK and Ash from Acustica, but this one adds a touch more clean volume. I compared it to Ash, Fire The Clip, Classic Clipper, Saturate, Gold Clip, Standard Clip, and XM Tape&Clip on a mix, and it's clearly the winner, even though I love the sound of Ash on this track. Buzzcut has 1dB more. I forgot to test Ocelot and the Softube Clipper (but I've never liked that clipper) and Orange Clip, but I already know Buzzcut will win. They all have their own character, and as I said, I love Ash and Classic Clipper for their tone, but Buzzcut maintains a certain clarity/depth that the others don't have, at least on the test track. Excellent job Dave and thanks again for the license!!!
Very interesting concept and while I still need to test more thoroughly, my first impressions are very positive. On some material I was able to get more loudness with less artefacts than my usual tools. On some material I felt like it was a different color, but not necessarily better or worse. In some contexts like drums the aliasing some times is actually the sound I prefer so it depends and you always have to use your ears. Need to test more and compare, but you should be able to make this plugin alias when you want, right?
All in all a very very solid clipper and tool to make things very loud. I don't know if it will replace all my other clippers, but definitely a useful tool.
Another session with this plugin. I find comparing clippers/loudness plugins requires a lot of concentration as they each seem to have their sweetspot at different settings so still need more time. I'm enjoying going back and forth though. I can't decide if I'm getting a slightly cleaner sound with TBPAClip at similar levels? There's a lot to tweak on Buzzcut so I might not have it optimized. It's interesting pushing Buzzcut into some sound design territory as well but that's probably not intended purpose.
Really interesting plugin.
Already tested and here are my toughts
At first i couldn't find the soft handle and it worked like a normal hardcliper with the bonus of buzz
Buzz can really shape the hard edges of hard clipping really well in some cases, really enjoying the results comparing with other hardclipers
then i discovered the SOFT handle , with the soft and knee now i can get a lof of variation, this soft clipper together with buzz and hard really shines. You can really shape the knee of the clipping and the bump before clipping can make a diference.
Really amazed because i use clippers a lot , the BUZZ with the soft/hard knee really makes a difference compared with other clippers.
I only tested in single sources and not in the mixbus
Congratulations on this one
the GUI for me can be better and a lot of good opinions already on the thread, yes, put meters for the clipper. No use for the test tones for me
Keep up the good work
Ok i have been giving a test on drums and bass vs my usual clippers.
In order to get a true understanding with out being swayed by volume increases i have been using these clippers in between tbpro ABLM and then adjusting the output of each clipper to easily flip between with minimal, if any level change required by ABLM.
Certainly Buzzcut has a sound and a very nice modern gui.
The ASYM dial is really good for small changes in the sound and i found it great on the bass loop that I tried it on.
On occasion i did notice that the changes in sound did not come back as to what i had heard 10 secs previously, yet i was still only tweaking the same dial. Confusing but this may have been a bug in the beta version of Bitwig….
However the HARD clip dial, for me as i was testing at an input of -18db vu has such a limited visual range when turned to the minimum and then just closes all the way. Thank fully you can grab the top horizontal red line to bring the threshold down further.
This was quite interesting as the bottom horizontal threshold line could be grabbed also to bring up separately. I could have sworn that the graphics was showing that I could change the wave separately from the bottom without affecting the top of the waveform, but on re-checking it doesn’t seem to….Unless I have inadvertently changed some other parameter...
With the dial it generally does them together but there just isn’t enough fine control with the range of the dial, which I hope gets looked at.
Edit: It appears that instance was not working correctly as something was going wrong and with a new instance the red lines only work together….and now they do again work separately!!!! I will have to try in Nuendo or something rather than Bitwig beta….
I will still play around with as I haven’t yet understood the tilt and the noise section which i liked yesterday but seem to not want any of that noise today!
LUFS metering is useful. I haven’t managed to get the peaks as contained / brick walled as my usual clipper, but that could be user error….
In practice this could be quite a fast workflow for clipping compared to some other highly tweak able ones, although tweaking can be done here.
Dragging the size of the GUI is very responsive, works well and would be useful if displaying several different channels at once.
Seems to be a pretty good contender that I will certainly keep an eye on and hope that some further tweaks/ updates are provided as this could be a very good contender and with a unique approach to clipping.
Thank you for bringing it to the marketplace
I just tried it with a very dynamic and harsh female vocal, and it smoothed out the high frequencies very nicely. I'll listen to it again tomorrow with a fresh pair of ears. But my first impression is that I like it.
Gave it a spin. And I'm pleasantly surprised. I've been holding off purchasing clippers because the more I read, the more it looks like all of them do basically the same thing: "hard, flat ceiling", quoting your own words. With this one though, I had to push very, very hard to hear distortion, once I started hearing the delta as what I would like added to my sound, the material got loud, probably could back off a bit, but what I heard was clear loudness and not loudness that would sound "obviously clipped". I don't know if that's what you are going for, but that's my take
I couldn’t get it added to mono tracks on Logic, so hopefully a true mono version is in the works. But liked that it's 0 latency.
I tested Buzzcut and it does sound nice. I think it still comes down to this characteristic of background energy being "pulled upward" with the main signal, definitely sounding louder but also losing dimension a bit. I'm not singling out Buzzcut, many of them do that. A select few have a truer transparency. All compromise of course, some compromise in different ways, in more severe ways. I do think it's one of the better sounding out there though. 👍
Ok, purchased. It's different; I find myself liking and using different things quite often. As I mostly do rock, somehow, I liked it on distorted guitars, vocals, drum overheads. Not much on the mix bus. Sure, it will find some use.
Anything that has an 'Erosion' function will get my vote because it reminds me of the 'Erosion' function you can blast terrain with in the Far Cry level editor.
Highly recommended. It's doing a very different thing but working in Delta mode it kinda reminds me of what the Apulsoft Unmask gets up to.
But I gotta say that (leaving aside the less than ideally visible input/output numbers I mentioned above) while I don't really have a specific problem with the UI (apart from being colourblind I feel like there's stuff I'm missing out on but I don't know what lol, ditto using a trackpad) - sorry, as a plugin it is definitely making more sense to me when I look at it as the sliders in the Reaper generic UI. So I guess I'd vote for the option of a flat interface.
Cool plugin! Here's my quick review. It's a really interesting sounding clipper! Even in just the most basic hard clip mode I could get it do it stands up against Standard Clip and others. When you start futzing with the additional features you can get something that is intriguingly more involving. The mix gets more inviting, the imaging seems to become more defined. I particularly enjoyed it on sections where it wasn't really clipping at all! Adjusting the asymmetry did allow more sub through and I could get some pleasing results. Ok... now the bad...
Although I felt could get good results I found it really confusing in use. Something closer to one knob per function would be a lot friendlier I think. The way the click/drag/right click logic changed between each knob was was disconcerting and made it difficult to navigate. I was continually having to read the tool tips and it felt like I was given direct access to parameters that I would change rarely and when I did it would be a very deliberate action. Like upward/downward and mono/stereo on the Tilt. I could see myself rarely needing these... Maybe something like the way Arturia plugins have a drop down Advanced section could work? Or maybe two different modes? Sound Design and Simple 2 Buss?
I found it very easy to get overs... even with True Ceiling enabled.
I don't know if it was just my machine but I didn't find the oscilloscope very useful. Couldn't find a timing option which allowed me to easily identify how much kick was clipping compared to snare. I really like the way that the Sonible Learn Limiter or Standard clip shows this! Both really understandable. Maybe not as sexy looking but very clear what's happening. I could get a general idea what was going on but it could be more helpful!
I didn't like the way the that if I linked input and output gain the waveform got smaller so I lost information as to how much I was clipping? Or did it no longer clip? Really hard to tell.... Ticking prefader scope changed this but then the oscilloscope seemed to run much faster making it REALLY hard to understand.
I felt that the subtractive erosion tick box should come out of the menu. As should true ceiling. Both things that I would flip in and out to try...
Hope this all makes sense and is helpful! It's a really intriguing plugin for sure. I'm sucker for the subtle noise manipulation on the master and could really see it becoming one of my commonly used tools....
I posted this on another forum, reposting here since this is where I learned about the plugin. I demoed it. For now, I'll give it an A for effort/ingenuity and a D for execution.
For reference, I'm the target user for this device - loud Bass Music/Trap/D&B/etc. I run a typical clip-to-zero loudness mix style, with TBPAclip as my mix and summing buss clipper and Krafter as my 2-buss/mastering clipper. I've got my production techniques refined to the point where I'm generally hitting -5.5 to -3.5 LUFs on drops before any master processing, so "more loudness" isn't really a problem I'm trying to solve. But I'm always open to new ideas, so wanted to give this one a try.
On the positive side, this BuzzClip seemed to have a nice rounding of transients that I've never heard in other clippers. I think this would be the main selling point and why some people claim it sounds more "analog" or "3D" than other clippers. Not sure if that's the 'erosion' or the interaction of all the processing stages, but that softening sound is very compelling.
On the negative side, lots of issues here. First, I don't find the controls all that intuitive and a decent manual would help. I rarely feel like I need a manual, but this one is an exception. I'd like to see detailed descriptions about how each control is implemented, because the tool tips aren't enough. It's not entirely clear what the internal signal flow is. Or what the interaction between the soft clipper, erosion, and hard clipper is. Or what all this means as it is represented by the Visualizer. The Visualizer is confusing - it looks like the erosion is happening in db range between the soft clip curve and the hard clip cutoff? But that logically doesn't make any sense in my primitive brain.
Second, even with True Peak engaged this plugin bleeds peak overs. I'm not even sure the TP actually works at all. Not good.
Third, it crashed Bitwig 4 times before I finally threw in the towel. Twice when changing the oversampling, once when messing with the noise function, and once seemingly for no reason at all. Granted, Bitwig 6 is a real picky ass and crashes a lot, but with Buzzcut the crashing is next level.
Finally, while the rounded transient sound Buzzcut provides is nice, it's also a lot of work and tinkering to get all the levels right. You can do something similar in Darkplace Sloth (admittedly not at all the same type of process) with basically one click-drag. IMO Buzzcut is a lot of work for a relatively minimal payoff. I'd probably be into this plugin if it was 1 or 2 quick moves to paydirt, but there are just too many things to keep an eye on when working with it - like it needs a 'safe' mode.
The improvements I would make (manual notwithstanding) is fixing the true peak, and coming up with a better set of visuals. Maybe separate visuals and metering for the soft clipping, erosion, and hard clipping processes. I find it really hard to understand what's going on with everything just jammed together and no explanation. Where is the signal in relation to the soft clipper? Am I pushing into the erosion via output from the soft clipper, or adding it into the signal? Or both? What are the levels moving as the signal moves from one stage to another?
There's a really good idea and some very nice DSP hidden inside Buzzcut, but this one feels like a prototype at this point. I wish the developer luck because it's really hard to bring a genuinely new idea into this crowded space, but he did it. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the evolution of this one.
So I demoed this one expecting miracles given all the amazing comments but, I'm just not getting it. Maybe I'm using it wrong (is there actually a manual?)
When pushed hard it created this uncomfortable sensation on my ears like a constant pressure wave, something I've experienced listening to some of those ultra extreme crushed DnB tracks sometimes. Definitely seems to flatten sense of depth ever so slightly. There's no doubt it can go very loud but, its not for me this one sadly.
I'll start with the cons.
1. I don't like looking for the treshold line on the screen.
2. I don't like the lack of values on the potentiometers.
3. He goes into audible distortion very quickly and eats a lot of sub/bass and the HF punch.
BUT
The same thing is done by Prism AD-1 (as well as Lyra), haha
And even taking into account all the disadvantages (and not particularly loud output in the end), it sounds just as soft, gentle, wide and musical!
It's definitely not suitable for every case, but it works pretty well. For example, Ghz will be louder and more powerful, but less dynamic.
It's a great color and a great compliment to the existing clippers on the market.
I was totally impressed. I love what you’re doing and the concept is brilliant. In some parts, I find the GUI a bit hard to see, but other than that, it’s great! Unfortunately, I’m a bit short on money right now, but congratulations on this amazing work!
