Ina GRM Spectral Transform

GRM Tools Spectral Transform (ST) is a bundle of four plug-ins that provide superb tools for sound enhancement and design.

Contrast

Add vibrancy, liveliness, depth, and subtle changes in timbre to sounds in mastering applications.

As one user said, "It makes my old tapes come alive again. Better than when they were originally recorded." Contrast can also be used to create a wide range of extreme transformations and effects.

How does it work?

Contrast takes a completely original approach to compression/expansion-type processing technique.

Contrast analyzes a user-defined frequency range within the spectrum of an input sound and groups the frequency components within that range according to the strength of their amplitudes. The groups are frequency components with strong amplitudes, frequency components with medium amplitudes, and frequency components with weak amplitudes. The strength of each of the groups can then be modified independently.

Why do this?

Because this approach allows you to redefine the character of a sound in a powerful and original way. If you decrease the strength of the medium and weak amplitudes, thus emphasizing the strong amplitudes, for example, you'll make a sound more mellow. If you strengthen the medium amplitudes relative to the stronger and weaker amplitudes, you'll add vibrancy, liveliness, and depth to a sound. If you strengthen the weak amplitudes relative to the others, you'll make the sound more metallic, harsh, and percussive.

Equalize

It gives you powerful and dynamic controls to rebalance the highs, lows, and midrange of a sound. In the stereo version of this plug-in, you can control the equalization curves of the left and right channels independently or together.

How does it work?

Equalize is a 31-band graphic equalizer. Each band, controlled by a single slider, is 1/3- octave according to the ISO norm. Intuitive mouse-and-key commands are used to manipulate the slider controls easily and responsively.

You can create an equalization curve with simple mouse gestures, for example, or move the curve to higher or lower frequencies, or control any number of sliders as a group. This plug-in turns an equalizer into a performance instrument.

Shift

Transpose or transform a sound by any combination of frequency scaling or frequency shifting.

How does it work?

Shift contains two functions that can be used separately or together.
The scale function transposes a sound by multiplying each spectral component by a constant frequency.

The shift function is a frequency shifter, sometimes referred to as a single-sideband ring modulator, that adds a constant frequency to each spectral component. When you use a frequency shifter, harmonic sounds become inharmonic.

Warp

Transform a sound by rearranging its frequency components in a completely free and creative way.

One user said, "This is the most far out, the most radical, the most bizarre, powerful, and effective sound transformation tool I have ever seen."

How does it work?

Notice on the screenshot above the horizontal bar input under the control window, and the vertical bar output to its left. Note also the curved line that crosses the window, each segment being connected to the other by a hinge point.

The input bar below the control window displays the frequency spectrum of the original sound along an increasing frequency axis from left to right. The intensity of the spectral components is represented by colors. Similarly, the vertical bar output shows the spectrum of the sound processed along an axis increasing from bottom to top.

The curve displayed in the control window defines the transformation that will be applied to the spectrum. If it is a diagonal line, there is no modification. Each point of the curve then associates with a frequency of the input signal the same frequency in the output signal. By clicking in the control window, a hinge point is created at a given location that will associate with a frequency of the original sound a different frequency in the transformed sound. Thus the spectrum of the original sound is continuously transformed and radical timbre changes can be achieved.

System Requirements

• Mac OS X 10.8 or higher with Intel processor
• Windows 7 or higher
• An iLok account is required for authorization. The license can be copied on your computer or on an iLok key.