Announcing beta-test of PKHarmonic VST plugin

[pkane]

Ok, perfect, once the harmonics are adjusted, do I have to press the bypass button at the bottom of the interface to memorize the preferences, or does this button have another function and if so, what is it for? Thank you very much.

The settings are applied automatically. Bypass button turns off all harmonics, letting you compare harmonics vs. no harmonics.

 

[DUKE-DUKE]

The settings are applied automatically. Bypass button turns off all harmonics, letting you compare harmonics vs. no harmonics.

Ok perfect.

Thanks to you everything is already installed and ready to start testing.

Tomorrow Sunday I will start with them and I will explain my perceptions about it.

I reiterate my enormous gratitude for your infinite patience in helping me in the configuration of this plugin and to solve my doubts.

Thank you very much pkane, best regards and happy weekend!

 

[Lieglein]

This is very nice. Have thought about implementing oversampling?

 

[pkane]

This is very nice. Have thought about implementing oversampling?

Thanks! What would be the purpose of oversampling?

 

[Lieglein]

Thanks! What would be the purpose of oversampling?

Preventing aliasing.

 

[pkane]

Preventing aliasing.

All harmonic adjustments are performed in the time domain. There is no aliasing as such.

 

[Lieglein]

All harmonic adjustments are performed in the time domain. There is no aliasing as such.

Am I doing something wrong?
96kHz samplerate

 

[pkane]

Am I doing something wrong?
96kHz samplerate

The non-linearity applies just like it would in an analog device, and it's not limited to the sampling rate. There are frequencies that are generated that may be above the sampling rate of the signal. Try low-pass filtering before Nyquist to reduce their effect.

 

[Lieglein]

Try low-pass filtering before Nyquist to reduce their effect.

I do not understand this.
Where do you apply the filter to get rid of aliasing? Before or after the plugin?

If you apply the filter before the plugin, frequencies above 48kHz get cut off, but then you'll get the result as shown in the picture, because the analyzer already does exactly this.
If you apply the filter after the plugin, let's say a very sharp one at 15.1kHz, you'll get rid of the frequencies above 15.1kHz, but only after aliasing is already applied from the plugin. So basically the picture as shown, without the frequencies above 15kHz. So aliasing is still there.

Or am I getting something wrong?

 

[pkane]

I do not understand this.
Where do you apply the filter to get rid of aliasing? Before or after the plugin?

If you apply the filter before the plugin, frequencies above 48kHz get cut off, but then you'll get the result as shown in the picture, because the analyzer already does exactly this.
If you apply the filter after the plugin, let's say a very sharp one at 15.1kHz, you'll get rid of the frequencies above 15.1kHz, but only after aliasing is already applied from the plugin. So basically the picture as shown, without the frequencies above 15kHz. So aliasing is still there.

Or am I getting something wrong?

You're right, aliasing would be introduced for any high amplitude frequencies with harmonics that extend past Nyquist. Not a big issue for music that shouldn't have high level, high frequencies. So, PK Harmonic is better used with higher sampling rates, like 88k, 96k, etc.

 

[Lieglein]

So, PK Harmonic is better used with higher sampling rates, like 88k, 96k, etc.

Exactly. This is why I annotated oversampling as a feature.
Maybe x4 or even x8.

However, the harmonics introduced from this plugin, are not so heavy in comparison to tube equipment anyways.
Maybe one'll find some time in the future, to implement some more nice features.

 

[louis660]

Very useful plugin! Hope my tiny donation will help.

I've been playing with Topping D90LE+LA90, combined with this plugin. By adding H2&H3, I can replicate the sound of my Pass Labs X350.5 power amp (to some extent).
Now I am planning a DSP PC and selling all expensive DACs&AMPs.

Please add phase control, as Nelson Pass states that negative phase H2 gives a deeper soundstage and improved localization.

 

[pkane]

Very useful plugin! Hope my tiny donation will help.

I've been playing with Topping D90LE+LA90, combined with this plugin. By adding H2&H3, I can replicate the sound of my Pass Labs X350.5 power amp (to some extent).
Now I am planning a DSP PC and selling all expensive DACs&AMPs.

Please add phase control, as Nelson Pass states that negative phase H2 gives a deeper soundstage and improved localization.

Thank you for the donation!

So what does a "negative phase H2" mean? I've seen Nelson's comments on it, but I'm not sure what that means. Is it that the actual angle is negative? That doesn't seem like it should do anything. Or is it negative relative to the original phase of H2? Or negative relative to the phase of some other harmonic or the fundamental?

I do have a version of this in another app that supports specifying phase angles for the harmonics. It actually works pretty well to cancel out existing harmonics and to improve linearity of the device, at least within a limited frequency range (yes, it improves THD). The algorithm is more complex and compute-intensive than the one currently in PKHarmonic, so it takes a while longer to generate the non-linearity. It wouldn't work too well for quick A/B comparisons or frequent adjustments as it can take 5-10 seconds for it to compute after each change. Once computed, though, the performance is just as good as PKHarmonic is now with little CPU load and ability to handle higher sampling rates.

 

[SeasButter]

This VST is great，only harmonics distortion，no extra noise. The sound is interesting.

 

[SeasButter]

There is a question. When distortion added, the sound became louder, sometimes CLIPPING appeared. Could you please add a button or a slider that can adjust output level to avoid clipping? Or there will be any other method to avoid clipping?

 

[pkane]

There is a question. When distortion added, the sound became louder, sometimes CLIPPING appeared. Could you please add a button or a slider that can adjust output level to avoid clipping? Or there will be any other method to avoid clipping?

The level is auto-adjusted by comparing levels using pink noise (after every harmonic adjustment). This may or may not result in audible levels being exactly the same, since harmonics can add to the fullness of the sound (and even add compression) that can make the same levels sound louder to the human ear. The clip indicator can be simply the result of intersample -overs, it doesn’t mean real clipping is occurring, just that the level is reaching close to 0dBFS.

 

[SeasButter]

The level is auto-adjusted by comparing levels using pink noise (after every harmonic adjustment). This may or may not result in audible levels being exactly the same, since harmonics can add to the fullness of the sound (and even add compression) that can make the same levels sound louder to the human ear. The clip indicator can be simply the result of intersample -overs, it doesn’t mean real clipping is occurring, just that the level is reaching close to 0dBFS.

Thanks for replying. I tried test signal of different level, the amount of distortion changed along SPL. Did you set this to imitate tube？

 

[pkane]

Thanks for replying. I tried test signal of different level, the amount of distortion changed along SPL. Did you set this to imitate tube？

There's no special handling for tube or other emulation in the plugin. What you're seeing is just the nature of non-linearity -- different parts of the transfer function curve will have a different effect on the signal. As you adjust signal level, you'll use different parts of the transfer curve. That's normal and expected, and will vary based on how much distortion and what type of distortion you dial in using the plug-in.

 

[maty]

In December 2022 I changed the old AV (modified by me) for the hybrid Magnat MA 900 (without internal modifications, under warranty, although I had to improve the RF/EMI filtering of the electrical grid).

As I was going, I get the best sound, also with orchestral masses, with this configuration:

 

[pkane]

In December 2022 I changed the old AV (modified by me) for the hybrid Magnat MA 900 (without internal modifications, under warranty, although I had to improve the RF/EMI filtering of the electrical grid).

As I was going, I get the best sound, also with orchestral masses, with this configuration:

View attachment 273564

So no distortion, all turned off?