The number of mind-blowing, incredibly useful plug-ins flooding the market continues to amaze me. It seems there are plug-ins for almost every task, from basic dynamics to outlandish effects and invaluable editing tools. Although it’s hard to pick a favorite, I particularly appreciate software that helps automate mundane, laborious editing tasks. Digidesign’s new AudioSuite plug-in, SoundReplacer, is just such a plug-in.

As its name implies, this software can take just about any sound and replace it with another. Pretty straightforward, nothing that exciting here, right? But SoundReplacer is deeper than its name implies. For this “Field Test,” Version 1.1 was put through the paces on a 24 MIXplus system running Pro Tools 5.0.

SoundReplacer loads up to three samples simultaneously (represented by color-coded trigger points and fader controls). Click for larger image.

Installation of SoundReplacer is completely routine—you simply run the installer program on the CD. The plug-in is plunked into your DAE folder’s Plug-Ins folder, and a Presets folder is put into the Plug-In Settings folder. The Settings folder is a bit larger than most (324K), as it contains actual audio files, the samples that go along with its demo presets.

The tutorial session, which takes up about 15 MB of disk space, is also dropped into your hard drive. It’s nothing to write home about, but it’s helpful if you have no idea what the program is good for—probably not the case if you actually went out and bought it. However, this plug-in is a breeze to navigate, and most folks will be able to get right to work on it with hardly a glance at the manual. If you need the SoundReplacer manual, however, it is one of several in the Digidesign Plug-In User’s Guide; a copy of the booklet comes with the program. It’s well-written and has some solid user tips. I recommend flipping through it.

Copy protection is via key disk, as usual. You get one install, so don’t lose it.

Happy Triggers
As many as three samples can be loaded into SoundReplacer simultaneously. Each sample can be set to trigger at a different threshold. Dedicated sliders, one per sample, allow easy adjustment of the thresholds. The threshold zones are visible in scales of gray, from light (most sensitive) to dark (least sensitive). Individual trigger points are delineated by different colored horizontal lines: yellow for sample 1, red for sample 2, and blue for sample 3. The colors and controls combine to make a user interface that’s a breeze to work with.

A dynamics slider controls how new samples trace the original track’s velocities. Settings range from 0.25:1 (1Ú4 the original velocities) to 4:1 (four times more dynamic than the original velocities). A 1:1 ratio is the plug-in’s default setting. The dynamics control is global, affecting all three sample zones. (Discrete control over each zone, via individual sliders, would be particularly cool—maybe in the future.) The ability to tweak the velocities of your replacement samples is invaluable for music production. For example, replacing a live snare with a 909-type snare, but without the velocities of the live track, will produce a more electronic, drum machine-like, sound.

The mix ratio between the original track and the replacement samples is fully adjustable from zero to 100%. The mix function, like the dynamics function, is global, affecting the wet/dry ratio of all the samples. (Discrete mix control of each sample would be a nice feature to include.) The ability to blend the original track’s sound with the replacement samples is a nice option, opening the door to some great creative sound mangling possibilities.

SoundReplacer can drop phase-coherent samples. That is, the program will actually align the peaks of the replacement samples to match the peaks of the waveforms in the original track—don’t try this with conventional MIDI triggering! No time compression or expansion is used; it’s simply a matter of how the program places the samples. Of course, this effect can be detrimental to timing, especially with music or really tight cues. Because SoundReplacer is concentrating on phase coherency over a sample-accurate start time, waveforms with radically different attacks may not line up properly. If, say, you want to replace a percussive clave sound with a whooshing vocal “aah” sound, you should disable Peak Align so that only the sample start times are aligned (the default setting is Peak Align On).

Samples from different threshold zones can be automatically crossfaded. With this function on (another default that’s on when you open the plug-in), the samples are seamlessly blended together, even if one sample’s attack triggers before the end of another’s decay. You can turn crossfading off if you prefer having everything hard-cut. However, I found crossfading generally gave the smoothest results. It was active most of the time when I used the plug-in because it created very natural-sounding percussion tracks as samples with different velocities were crossfaded back and forth. The crossfade time, unfortunately, is not adjustable.

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Reprinted with permission from Mix Magazine, June, 2000
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