Zynaptiq UNCHIRP

Description

UNCHIRP is a plug-in for removing the most obnoxious artefacts associated with lossy audio encoding and other FFT-based processes, such as spectral de-noising. Reduce musical noise, suppress high-frequency chirping (also known as underwater sound, warbling or the tweeties), fix transient smearing, and restore lost high frequencies – UNCHIRP does it all in one go. If you need to salvage poorly encoded music, speech that has gone through a low bit rate uplink, material that has been de-noised too strongly, or footage recorded with consumer mobile devices – or if you simply want to add contour and vibrance to already great sounding recordings – UNCHIRP is your (only) friend.

Both lossy codecs as well as many of today’s DSP processes (like de-noisers) make heavy use of a process called the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). This method has some major advantages. It also has some major drawbacks, which are the root cause of a variety of artefacts, such as Musical Noise, High-Frequency Modulation (a.k.a. Chirping), Transient Smearing, and overall “blurring” due to low localization in the time domain. Because of the way human hearing works, these artefacts are very obvious and sound distinctly unnatural. Additionally, lossy codecs and de-noisers often cause a loss of high frequencies, further degrading your audio. UNCHIRP is the medicine for all of these artifact types.

Two Is More Than One

UNCHIRP identifies the birdies and applies proprietary processing to make them disappear. It offers two different, simultaneously available algorithms to achieve this, Musical Noise Reduction and Dechirping, each featuring its own technological approach, unique sonic properties and its own breakpoint curve editor for frequency-dependent processing. At Zynaptiq, we like over-delivering.

Snap!

Like our award-winning de-reverberator UNVEIL, UNCHIRP allows bypassing transients for natural sounding results even with extreme settings. But we didn’t stop there – we’ve added frequency dependency to the bypass threshold, and frequency-dependent transient attenuation/boost. The new Transient Synthesis can replace transients compromised by FFT processing such as lossy encoding, or by excessive dynamics processing. Finally, the Sync function synchronizes processing to the signal’s transients, adding overall clarity and coherence. These algorithms work equally well for fixing problem material as well as for augmenting already great sounding recordings, adding impact, detail and contour. It’s like pulling a curtain aside. Try it, you’ll love it.

Features

• Suppression of high frequency “chirping” artefacts.
• Reduction of “musical noise” artefacts.
• Transient Synthesis to augment or replace smeared, over-limited or otherwise compromised transients.
• Psycho-Acoustically optimized Treble Boost circuit with Enhance and Excite modes.
• Break-Point Curve Editor-based frequency-dependent processing.
• Side-only algorithm mode for working with joint-stereo encoded material.
• HD algorithm mode for increased quality processing with higher CPU load (off-line processing recommended).
• SYNC parameter allows processing to be synchronized to signal transients for increasing clarity.
• Output limiter for unsupervised use in batch processing applications.
• Highly time-efficient workflow and UI.

Tech Specs

Mac

macOS 10.15.x or newer, 64 bit
Apple Silicon CPU, or Intel CPU with at least 2 Cores (i7 or better recommended)
Apple AU (AudioUnits), Steinberg VST 2.4, VST 3 or Avid AAX Native compatible host software, processing audio as 32 bit float

Windows

Windows 10 or newer
Intel CPU with at least 2 Cores; i7 or better recommended
Steinberg VST 2.4, VST 3 or Avid AAX compatible 64-bit host software, processing audio as 32 bit float

Important Notes: An iLok account or iLok 2/3-based activation is required in order to register this product. An internet connection is required for software activation.

Copy Protection

Zynaptiq products use the latest PACE copy protection, which allows you to place your activation on your machine or on an iLok 2* (not included). You will need a free iLok.com account to use our software, even for the demos – but you do not necessarily need the iLok 2 dongle if your machine has internet access (activation of a system without internet connectivity requires an iLok 2 device). All required software is installed along with our plugins, but we generally recommend downloading the latest versions directly from iLok.com.

Please Note: The older, first-generation iLok is not supported!

CPU Load

While they are highly optimized, Zynaptiq plugins use a LOT of CPU due to the complex nature of the magic they perform. Please use the free trial to evaluate whether your system has sufficient resources to utilize the software effectively!

Zynaptiq recommends setting your playback buffer size to at least 512 or ideally 1024 samples for optimum performance.

As Zynaptiq plugins sport unique features not found in any other software, Zynaptiq highly recommends reading the User Manuals to ensure that you get the most out of them!