Zynaptiq Intensity

[The Sponge]

As I have been all too guilty of buying whatever the latest & greatest ,instant fix it plugins in the past, Much to the detriment of my bank account.I am reluctant to even try this one.
But based on all the reviews this plugin has got it seems very tempting.
I would be interested for those of you that have had a period of time to use it ,Is it still the best thing since sliced bread?.

[Mike Senior]

Is it still the best thing since sliced bread?.

Er, well I checked it out for my most recent Cambridge-MT podcast and I honestly think they're having a larf. 380 euros?! Personally, I got comparably useful results with a parallel instance of ReaXcomp. Still, each to their own...

[The Sponge]

Thanks for the feedback Mike. your books are a constant resource for when I think I know it all, After a few pages I realize there is so much I don't.

[Drew Stephenson]

Thanks for the feedback Mike. your books are a constant resource for when I think I know it all, After a few pages I realize there is so much I don't.

Quoted for truth!

In a related note, one of the regulars on here (Think it might have been James P?) said he had preferred Gullfoss.

[Mike Senior]

Thanks for the kind words . I'll have to try Gullfoss now...

Incidentally, if you wanted to hear my slightly less serious take on Zynaptiq's Intensity, Jon Whitten and I riffed about it in the latest episode of my new free podcast 'Project Studio Tea Break'. It's in Episode 6, just past the invisible gorilla...

[James Perrett]

In a related note, one of the regulars on here (Think it might have been James P?) said he had preferred Gullfoss.

Don't think it was me - the only Gullfoss I've experienced is the Icelandic waterfall (which is very spectacular).

Mike's suggestion of paralleling ReaXcomp is interesting though.

[Drew Stephenson]

Ah, sorry. Now I shall have to do a search and see it was.

[Drew Stephenson]

My bad, it was Molecular: https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... ss#p568829

[molecular]

My bad, it was Molecular: https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... ss#p568829

Guilty!

I don’t think they are really comparable directly, but for some reason I was trying out some “make this better” finishing touches, and the Intensity one seemed to be just smashing the audio a bit and over hyping it, even when used tamely. I felt it was a faux-mastering botch.

Gulfoss I kept as it seemed to do a really nice job of controlling difficult mids dynamically which struck me as a more useful thing to do.

[justuseaneq]

Is it still the best thing since sliced bread?.

Er, well I checked it out for my most recent Cambridge-MT podcast and I honestly think they're having a larf. 380 euros?! Personally, I got comparably useful results with a parallel instance of ReaXcomp. Still, each to their own...

Hi Mike! What compressor settings did you use to get a similar vibe to Intensity? Thanks!!!

[Mike Senior]

Is it still the best thing since sliced bread?.

Er, well I checked it out for my most recent Cambridge-MT podcast and I honestly think they're having a larf. 380 euros?! Personally, I got comparably useful results with a parallel instance of ReaXcomp. Still, each to their own...

Hi Mike! What compressor settings did you use to get a similar vibe to Intensity? Thanks!!!

Wow -- that's a deep cut! I think I posted that episode about seven years ago... As luck would have it, I recently collated my backups of (I think) all 100-odd of those podcasts, though, so I can actually answer that question.






...not that I'd recommend using this as some kind of preset, though, because the exact ratios, thresholds, and make-up gains were all set up by ear -- I almost certainly started with1.5:1 in each band and with the make-up gains at unity. (That said, you could probably steal my crossover freqencies and time-constants for most mainstream styles without too much problem, I'd have thought.) I also set the mix between the parallel channel and the direct channel by ear. I think the parallel channel raised the LUFs loudness by about 1.5dB, if that gives an idea of how much of the compressed sound I was adding. Certainly I didn't use a ton of it, because the parallel channel was sounding pretty mashed -- as you can probably imagine given the fairly fast time constants and 4-10dB gain reduction in each band!

Hope that helps!

[Sir Hannes]

Intensity is on almost every track and stereo output and in really every project I am working on since years: my working horse plugin and although it is pretty old it does the job for me as a composer and sound designer: I need just 2-4 presets (general, heavy, details, solify mids) and how much I want to dial in. The blue sliders I use sometimes if only working on one frequency band. The mix slider I use also for sound design and mixing purposes like a build up.

Not having enough time to really go into each frequencies, this is my time saver, never regret to spend the money. On the other side as a specialist I wouldn't buy this, to less control. Having the knowledge, I'd choose each tool on its own over Intensity.

[lingyai]

I sometimes stick it on the master buss to see if it works as a magic sound-gooderiser and about half the time I keep it there.