All user reviews of 5/5 for the Soundtoys Decapitator

Simple installation and authorization, but it takes an I-Lok key.
Decapitator is a plug-in saturation. We immediately notice the big knob "Drive" which determines the level of saturation, and right next to the "Punish" button, which accentuates the effect until the distortion, as if the drive was up to 20 instead of 10. We subsequently two filters (Low Cut and High Cut) and a tone knob (bass / treble). With Low Cut, we have a "Thump" button which gives a slight resonance at the cutoff frequency, and with the High Cut a "Steep" button that makes the filter slope of 6 to 30db / octave pass. Remains a knob "dry / wet" (always good practice to keep spikes) and an output setting, which, thanks to the "Auto" button can automatically compensate for level changes according to the intensity of the drive and the "Style" selected. Style? Quésaco? Indeed, it has five buttons "Styles" (A, E, N, T, P) which correspond to different emulations. A saturation emulates a tape recorder preamp, E and N those slices consoles and those of T and P module vintage distortion. These "Styles" are described in detail in the little manual a dozen pages. Note for "Thump" buttons, "Steep" and "Auto", they are active when they are raised and off when they are lowered, which is unusual.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

This plug-in works without any problem on my Mac Pro with Mac OS 10.6.8 and Digital Performer. CPU consumption is insignificant.

OVERALL OPINION

I use Decapitator for three and a half years. I'm pretty well endowed with plug-ins distortion and saturation. But it is essentially competing with huge Ohmicide Ohm Force and very friendly Bad Buss Mojo Stillwell Audio (see my review of these great plug-ins.) All three are very good and I don ' have no general rule to use one rather than the other. Must be tested. Decapitator can be used both in small doses for a warm sound (in this case, I like the "Styles" A or N), so that more muscular with Inrush (where "Punish" button, I generally prefer the "Style" P.) In both cases, it produces an effect of quality and its pretty hot: The analog emulation is rather successful. I've used on voice (in a "industrial" part) and synths, but it works well on virtually any source. Very simple to set up, we get what we want quickly. Altogether, I'm very happy to have in my tool Decapitator and I do it again this choice despite its relatively high I found justified by its value.

Quick installation and pro authorization ILOK therefore stable and fast.
No inconsistency on macbook.
Pdf manual clear and well done, even if the SoundToys plug-ins are very intuitive.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

On macbook pro 2.53 GHz with 4GB of RAM
Plugin stable, no bugs and the final version since it no longer consumes too much CPU (between 1 and 6% depending on the settings and the complexity of the processed signal).
Three months of public beta testing, with two versions is a good job knowing that the first beta version did not include me in that some micro bugs.

OVERALL OPINION

The beta version was released in December and since I use it in all my mixes.
This is a very good saturation with very large effects according to the settings and a button "Punish" particularly devastating (hence the name of the plug).
Not tried other models because until now he dazzled me wherever I needed to saturate the signal.
Value for money I do not know because the upgrade bundle of V3 and V4 with Decapitator PanMan is only € 99! So I say to the possessors of the best available bundle V3 (I think the price is 179 € for the two plugs purchased separately).

The SoundToys Decapitator is an analog saturation/overdrive plug-in. I wasn't involved with the process of installing the plug-in, as I used this on a system that was not my own. The interface of the software is generally pretty easy to use and is straight forward. As far as parameters go, you've got knobs for mix, low cut, tone, high cut, and drive. It also has a button for 'punish' and five buttons to choose between different preset styles. A manual isn't necessary in my opinion, even though I haven't seen it so I can't say anything about its make up.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I have run SoundToys Decapitator on a Pro Tools HD system, so the performance I'm getting from it will be undoubtedly different from someone running it on a Pro Tools LE system or something comparable. However, this isn't the type of plug-in that will generally speaking take up too much processing power, so as long as you have a system where you're currently able to run plug-ins without a problem, I'd say that you probably shouldn't have any issues running this one.

OVERALL OPINION

These days there are a lot of plug-ins out there that aim and claim to add 'analog' warmth to your sound without actually inflicting any sort of analog component on the signal. For me, this is really an impossibility and I haven't found anything that will stand up to true analog gear and I don't think that I ever will. This being said, the SoundToys Decapitator sound pretty darn good for an 'analog' saturation plug-in. It isn't the end all be all by any long shot, but for adding some warmth here and there to your mixes, it will certainly be an asset. It won't cost too much money, making it the perfect addition to the plug-in suite for the home studio owner looking to compromise on a plug-in when a piece of analog gear might not be available.