Inflator The Loudness Monster 

Dude this channel s too f*cking good. I was thinking about picking up this plug-in and have been trying to find a good video explaining exactly what it does under the hood. I must have watched like 7 videos before this one (including one from UA), and NONE of them explain the plug-in this well. Hats off, seriously, this channel is so consistent with down to earth, practical content. Just wanted to say thank you!!!

I finally got this recently and it's great. It's so funny though, once you've used it you can hear it in use on so many albums you've listened to hundreds of times before but never knew how they got that sound 👍

I sometimes use it as a „finisher“ on my drum buss or lead vocals, using it 25-30% of its effect. Then automate the effect fader or input fader instead of the volume fader is the track itself.

your clients got some fire songs lol damn, appreciate your tutorial by the way man..your communication skills are A1

It's a bout time that SOMEBODY has a coherent video on HOW this works, and all of its functions. THANK YOU, David!

The only thing I wish this incredible plugin has is a unity gain option to seamlessly compare before and after without the volume jump instead of having to manually do it.

My friend DAVID,I know a year passed since this one posted,you can't believe today,I decided to learn how inflator process,imagine I started searching on RU-vid,and the first channel,for fourteen minutes I couldn't be sure if am catching up knowlegde or not,the second one is this channel'MIX BUS TV' for only just your introduction,for two and half minutes is just way much better,I wonder how if am gonna through,I trust you man,your shits make a lot of sense,I appreciate the way you don't want to bargain cheep ,and coz it's your real thing,and you love what your doin!it's real honest though.your helping a lot of us 'home studio' for real,thanks man,greatings from East Africa Tanzania 🇹🇿

I've had this plug for years, but never thought to play around with input gain like that. Also never thought to take the clip button off. Lol. Nice vid

The "effect" fader is literally just a dry/wet control. The "effect" itself is a rather simple construct around the sin(x) function, like a wave folder. With "clip" enabled, it will just hard-clip samples x>0.5π to 1.0, because 0.5π is where the sin(x) function returns 1.0. The "curve" just accelerates or decellerates the x that is passed into the sin(x) function, most likely by pow()-ing it first. There is zero look-ahead, zero dynamics processing, zero expansion, absolutely nothing magical going on, just school book math. The thing is a waveshaper, and it doesn't even oversample (read: aliases like hell). While I agree that sine-based clipping is the best and most natural clipping method around (because it stays closer to linear for longer than other sigmoid functions) and everybody should use it instead of tanh() based clippers, this video doesn't convey any of that. Just a lot of unfounded claims and assumptions that further the worshipping of a plugin as supernatural - while it's provably trivial in nature. My guess is, it was on sale at the time and this was an unmarked paid (or otherwise compensated) promotion, just like the Softube Weiss video. Sorry if I'm wrong, but I don't know what else would cause someone to ramble on for so long about something while clearly having no clue about its inner workings. 🤷‍♀

SALE ALERT ! £28,75 today for Halloween :-) Thanks David !! (EDIT: Just got it, I already demo'ed it before but your video explains really well what's happening and it is very useful thanks !!)

Great music. Great demo!

YOU are the Inflator of RU-vid mixing channels! Thank you David.

Great video as always David! Best channel about audio on RU-vid BY FAR!

this one is definitely on my list of things to pick up. Currently I like using the XL knob with the brainworx limiter for a similar approach

I love your more honest responses haha. I bought this a couple years ago and have been neglecting it. I'll have to start trying it on things again. Thanks for the great reviews and other content you make.

Man great video on the Inflator. Great explanations and insights. Really appreciate. Thanks brother.

Thank you David. On my to buy list now. ;-)

Awsome Plugin -i use it as an Aux Send to almost all my channels. Proper Gain Staging on the channels and then inflate the crap out of em.

Hey David. It was a very insightful tutorial. Could you please make a mastering tutorial using inflator, clipper, and a limiter working together?

Man you aint never lied

I remember I tested that plugin some time ago and I was impressed with it... I like your vids, so honest and useful. A "maximizer" shootout would be funny...so many developer has released real interesting plugins in latest years. Thanks

🙌🏿🙌🏿great video

Once again, another fine demonstration with all of the right talking points. Thank you so much!

"I shouldn't do this." heh Thank you for sharing, David! no use keeping all the secrets to yourself :) I might pick this up soon and finally get around to acquiring the CLA plugins, too.

Inflator has been hyped and over hyped for way too long now. It’s marketing makes you feel it uses a special alorithm to achieve loudness. It is a basic waveshaper. Mwaveshaper from Melda does the absolute exact same thing, and more… for free. The only argument being thrown around is “yeah but world class engineers use it everyday”. Well this is the perfect example of the fact that the majority isn’t always right. And that those world class enginneers fell for the hype marketing of Sonnox. It’s a just simple waveshaper.

"I shouldn't do this." lmao!!!

Great Channel man, keep the good work and do not let a few individuals let you down. Thanks for everything :)

Ha! 17 Years using this plugin, and after watching this, I think I finally understand it properly now! Thinking back, this was THE sound of some of my best mixes.

Holy shit can't believe I slept on this after all these years. This thing really is magic. -2 with no effort at all 🤣

What the f.....,this is exactly what i need!!!!! Thanx for this Video Man!!!!!

Best audio channel on RU-vid. End of discussion.

Voxengo - Vari Saturator is a perfect alternative.

Another superb video. thank you

Using Inflator on my master bus sometimes with band split desingaged.

Nice Front242-ish, Cassandra Complex-ish, etc-ish like tune :)

I forgot how good this sounds, better than any of ozones setting for loud without pumping or distortion.

Great explanation, I bought this and haven't used it much but will be giving it another shot with this new info

ONE THING THAT YOU DONT DO MUCH IN YOUR VIDEOS ISSHOW THE BYPAST SIGNAL ON THE SAME VOLUME SO WE CAN ACTUALLY HEAR THE COLOUR OF THE PLUG IN...I THINK IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO DO

I’d like to see an example of a single track vocal for voice-over people.

An incredibly helpful review David. I'm new to this plugin loved the way you covered all aspects of this plugin. Describing what it is and what it is not and demos on how to use it effectively . . . thank you.

int it just a static wave shaper?

you are the loudness monster, señor; thanks for these videos !

Can I ask you what's the difference between something like the Standard Clipper and Inflator? In your opinion which one is the best?

The inflator was Dr Dre's secret on his 2001 album 😜😁

Awesome thanks, totally going to snap this up, I wasn't aware of it. Wish it had some type of auto gain compensation option toggle though? Sure it's easy enough to use without though

that was great, thanks!

Thank David!

I just copped this. -2db LUFS here I come! jk lol EDIT: So far I have found that adding multiple instances of Inflator can lead to really nice results rather than simply pushing one instance.

Shhhhh David!!! You told this secret a loooooong time ago... ( They shoulda been paying attention!!!)

Really liked the song at the end ("New Moon Wish" by NEST) if anyone is interested... Thank's for the demo just bought it on plugin boutique for cheap !

Superb, what it look ´s like in my room is when the curve it ´s increased the mix become wider, i don ´t like it for Hip Hop, or electronic at least on this mix u show us. thanks

Thanks sensei!

The good old inflater baby, the inflater is beast i been since 2006 i only use it to bring up my mix probably like extra 1 or 2Bd, i have use it in minute, i might start using again

ugh! nearly bought it on saturday night, now it's not on offer. maybe next time. thanks for the info.

You got nice music my G 🔥🔥🔥

Colors Void - (Titel?) hell yeah that song is kick ass

It's so weird to NOT have the video end with, "Hands on my neck.. Hands on my thro-oat. Man lift me up..."

It's great and it does what it sets out to do by making things LOUD! I compared it to my favorite clippers and it does not go louder without adding distortion. I was expecting another 1 or 2 dBs but I reach the same threshold before audible distortion sets in. When on sale it is a much cheaper alternative to the most expensive clipper/limiters out there.

OMG. I shouldn't watch this video!! it's soo tempting

David ditched this plugin for the P42 Climax new version lololololol For that new plugin, The Sat on M/S has me sold!!!

use it live with my digico s21 running multirack by waves, makes everything big

Love that moody, minimal tune with the female vocal 12:39 - Who dat? Inflator's nice, too, btw

very powerful plugin. Are there alternative out there from other plugin manufacturers?

Thx bro!

all about love

A blast from the past! forgot how good this plugin can make tracks shine. In a mastering scenario would you recommend this last in the chain or the brick wall limiter to catch the peaks after this? Also who was the artist on the example song 3 (minimalist industech) and song 4(slow dark piano)? cheers Dave!

I love this HIP HOP song Bro........ I mean the second song you used for this demonstration. Is it out bro?

11:28 cool track

Hi mixbus hope your doing well. Whats the diffrence between this and lets say shapeshifter (if you know that plugin?) What i hear you do i achieve with shapeshifter. Is this plugin still worth it for future garage/hiphop? Its on sale now on pb.

Hi Dave, Have you had a chance to to try out DSM (Dynamic Spectrum Mapper) I could never really get to grips with it but know that I should, it seems pretty straight forward and very powerful but for some reason I can't get to using it to its full potential. I wonder if you could do a video on how to use it properly and whether or not it could be used in conjunction with the above Inflator to achieve a higher power mix ? Thanks

Haha This is an instant buy.

Look at the plugin doctor analysis on it its literally just a sinoid clipper you can do this with a waveshaper.

I wish the comparison was Volume compensated . The level drops way to much when you bypass , hard to make a judgement.

You here a lot about “mixing secrets” online, and a lot of it is “meh”. Inflator is not one of those, it’s a legit monstrous tool that the big name mixers have been using the last decade. I saw it on so many producers mixbus when bouncing tracks. Be careful with subs, they can distort it easily, but I’ve yet to find another tool that does what inflator does as well as it does

Thanks for the info! Where is the offer though? The price on Sonnox website is lower than what’s on plug-in boutique! Is there a coupon code?

best one hands fucking down increases your mixes BALLS

since you got your channel back your eyes look different... WHERE IS THE REAL DAVE ????

Can this plugin be used on individual busses eg … drums bass keys vocals etc for colour and percived loudness and also Just before the final limiter as a clipper to cut off clips

Hi David, ...if I buy this and use it should it be very last in mastering chain so I would put it in this order limiter, clipper then inflator very last? Or should it be clipper, inflator and limiter last? Is it a waste of time if I push this to -9db lufs for Spotify when Spotify reduce it to -14db or will I still get perceived loudness on Spotify? Cheers mate

Hi David. Another excellent video! Thank you. When using the Inflator for mastering, is it typically the first plugin in the chain before any EQ, compression, stereo imaging and limiting?

What are the pros and cons of mixing into the Inflator?

12:18 has this been released!? what a track.

I'm so pissed i missed the sale but i bought it anyways :V

Black Friday Time ...30 bucks right know ;)

If you are using this in a mastering chain, where would you recommend placing it for maximum efficiency

Which limiter do you use in combination with the inflator?

Thank you for yet another awesome video! Do you use it on individual tracks and buses as well?

It's just a sinoid clipper lmao

Question in your your plugin chain should this plugin go first or last in your plugin chain to get the best results???

they have reduced it again now to £69. What did people pay in their sale upto the 2nd? was it lower than that, i cant remember what i was about to buy it for on saturday...

holy shit

Dave i need to do my music but also i am wasting away 9 st now. How do you divide your time in the studio and working out ? Thanks Sean.

i have the same keyboard as you!

Hey David thanks for this video! Do you normally put the inflator before your limiter? Also if using a clipper as well would that go before or after inflator? Thanks!

Holy sh... that is some special sauce right there. Yes please ;)

David can you please explain why would you use Inflator in mastering now that the "loudness war" is over? (Or so they say). I understand it's still useful in mixing, to increase density etc. But for loudness? Today it doesnt seem as crucial as it was years ago. Also, would you recommend inflator for scoustic music, jazz etc? Thanks a lot!

Would love to hear what you think about Inflator vs the fairly new clipper called Flatline, which claims to emulate clipping a high end analog to digital converter extremely accurately. Thanks for the great videos!

Isn't this doing almost what Limiter no6 does?

Such a useful video! Really appreciate this. Forgive me if I missed when you mentioned this, but do you suggest typically putting the inflator before or after your limiters? Thank you

Another plug-in to the must buy list… (after testing ovi) Would you recommend a lot of the sonnex plug-ins?