LoFi Vintage Clipper

Name: LoFi Vintage Clipper
Price: 79 USD
Author: Nembrini Audio

by Nembrini Audio · Clipper · Vintage-style clipper and saturator

Not rated yet

A clipper and saturation plugin from Nembrini Audio inspired by old tape machines and mixing consoles.

It limits transients and adds density on tracks, busses and the mix bus, and is on sale for $19.99 (regular $79).

Best for: Drums, Drum Bus, Bass, Mix Bus, Sound Design. Genres: Lo-Fi, Hip-Hop & Trap, Electronic & EDM, Rock & Indie.

Keywords: bus processing, vintage, lo-fi, mix bus, mixing, simple, drums, bass, enhancement, tape, metering, colored, drum bus, full mix, gentle, gritty, heavy, inspired by, minimal controls, single-band, soft clip, sound design.

What it does

LoFi Vintage Clipper is a simple clipper and saturator from Nembrini Audio, built to "add grit and weight to your mix". It offers two custom algorithms that work on the input signal, and you pick the one that suits the source.

Distortion: a tuned clip algorithm that limits transients and increases the density of a track.
Saturation: an algorithm that imitates vintage analog gear, such as old tape machines and the input and output stages of mixing consoles.
Range: from gentle soft clipping to heavy distortion.
Metering and output: input and output peak meters with an output volume control.
Where to use it: single tracks, busses and the mix bus, mainly to control transients and add weight.

The current version is 2.0.7, and it was on sale when checked.

Source: Nembrini Audio product page

When to use it

LoFi Vintage Clipper is the pick when you want clipping with color and a very fast workflow. Compared with StandardCLIP and KClip 3, it is about character rather than clean, transparent peak control, and it has far fewer settings. It is also simpler than Gold Clip or bx_clipper, with no tone controls; Bedroom Producers Blog wished for input gain and tone options. On sale it costs less than most rated clippers, which makes it an easy extra for drums and busses.

Best for: colored clipping and saturation on drums, bass and lo-fi busses.
Genres: lo-fi, hip-hop, electronic, rock.
Look elsewhere if: you need transparent clipping for mastering, or detailed control over the knee and oversampling; StandardCLIP or KClip 3 fit better.

What producers say

The few reviews praise its sound and ease of use; the main reservation is how few controls it has.

KVR users rate it 5 out of 5 from 1 review (2019), calling it "the best and most useful simple saturator" and "well worth the full price".
Bedroom Producers Blog (2019, version 1 launch, when it was briefly free) liked the very simple interface and fast workflow but wanted more parameters, such as input gain and tone.

Where to buy

Nembrini Audio: $79

Tutorials and reviews

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