general observation: this forum is not very alive...

SpectraLayers
1

posts get unanswered, maintenance update still shows 6.0.20… in this forum…

even steinberg doesn’t mentioned the 6.0.30 maintenance update on their home page.

they did advertise for the elements version.

i bought first spectralayers pro 6 and almost immediately wavelab pro 10.

for me spectralayers is mostly for sound design. using it in cubase, i also want to. but i use mainly vst instruments. yes render in place…

i am still learning spectralayers pro 6, i get the basics, it works, it is, like photoshop, you must do a lot yourself, but that is what i want. whith a little, or little, help of algorythms…

i really, really like spectralayers pro 6.

is too much niche? or rx 7 advanced (izotope does great stuff, and yes i have all the elements version, because they are free, not a real reason for getting them, and not using them, haha. i love iris 2, by the way, that’s why i dig spectralayers. and trash 2 of course, or breaktweaker…, but i never will go into the tonal bundle 2 thing, the AI isn’t for me, and my kind of music, it doesn’t understand…) is, because of the ai, more popular.

just wondering. the elements tutorials help, although i can self-learn… somethings you don’t see, etc.
no tutorials for pro… or less…

2

Yes, it is surprising that .30 was never highlighted. And I am surprised that there hasn’t been a .40 update to address some of the bugs and display issues in .30 and earlier. I suspect that SpectraLayers isn’t getting the ‘love’ from Steinberg that it deserves - beta testing seems to be lacking thus far.

SpectraLayers is significantly different in many ways from RX7 (and I do have RX7 Advanced). RX’s approach is increasingly to automate the refinement/correction of the original audio, and RX is way more expansive in its offering than SpectraLayers - RX is more of a SpectraLayers combined with SoundForge combined with a heap of excellent plugins.

SpectraLayers is excellent (for me anyway) for forensically cleaning up background location audio to get rid of or reduce intrusive sounds like clicks, nearby loud voices, wind noise (as long as its not too intrusive), mechanical sounds, etc. For me, SpectraLayers is better in this regard than RX though, to be fair, I have been using SpectraLayers since version 1 so I am quite comfortable with it.

I really hope that SL7 won’t just be the version of SL that SL6 build .40 should have been.

3

i have only rx 7 elements, as i stated, don’t have any experience with advanced.

as you describe, and is stated more than one time, it is chirurgical spectral editor. it has some “plugins”, but mainly, it is working with the mouse, or a wacom tablet (in my case). forensically is maybe a better term.

i have the feeling that sl 7 comes, before addressing the bugs. that there won’t be a .40 build, but i can be wrong.

and i do it the other way around, i have wavelab pro 10, and spectralayers (just like in soundforge) can edit.

strangely, i am not that of cleaner…, but since i have spectralayers pro 6, i clean… so to speak… not that a lot, but field recordings, i used them always with the background noises, i have my own way of editing them, changing them, therefore spectralayers as an addition.
but i noticed that sometimes a field recording that has been cleaned, and i keep the other version, give me more possibilities.
i am an ITB’er, make my own music. in my own style. so, wind noises, i use. but i have a recording with wind noise, i remember now, that try to clean, before i had spectralayers. it was the sound of water on the beach, i did it another way, and the special feeling was gone, but it could be used in a track, or better, as a sample in a drumkit… wind drums…
perhaps i shall take a look at that recording again, it was made with a smartphone, that adds also hums, and other stuff… it was made a long time ago, i am writing out load. i will stop with a link, for a poll i made, yes it isn’t the best way, but i was curious:

o well.

o well.

4

Yes, Spectralayers’ development appears to be going through relevant times.
ARA2 implementation was done in a rather novel way which has proven to be tough to perfect. This feature is important since it allows SL to be an integral part of audio edition with several different platforms and using varying combinations of tools. Lets have in mind that specialized users tend to implement unique workflows, which may cause a high number of clicks, just going forwards and backwards from DAW to the Editor…

From some time upcoming Spectralayers version 7 has been offered together with Samplitude X5 Suite, and now -a couple of weeks after X5 release-, ARA 2 feature is yet to be fully implemented, otherwise a working solution would had been already released with a SL6 update.
Remember that ARA2 has been published all along since Spectralayers V6 release. Even SoundOnSound review highlighted that feature at the second paragraph of its article (at the 20% section visible even for nonpaying readers) Steinberg SpectraLayers Pro 6

Therefore, Spectralayers being a partially independent developer, has -at some time- to deliver a fully working ARA2 solution for Spectralayers 6, which will naturally be ported to version 7. Just considering this, and the fact that there is the need to add the interesting new features and improvements a new SL version upgrade brings, particularly with such inventive tool as Spectralayers… So yes, SL development team probably is very busy at the moment.
It is then on us frequent users and posters, to help if we may.

5

Yeah, this is a small team having to pull through a lot of code… a ton of code.

Robin the creator was very active some months after the release of the product getting feedback from anyone who was here at the time, discussing new ideas, troubleshooting bugs and issues, tuning ARA2 performance, etc. You don’t have to go very far back to see that he was in here almost every day replying to almost every thread that warranted a reply. He even was communicating with me via PM on specific ideas and proper implementation and was upfront about saying which ideas could likely make it into the next version.

My guess is, he is busy coding all those discussions we had.

6



yes that explains a lot, i bought spectralayers pro 6, only a few months back, with wavelab pro 10. nice with cubase pro 10.5…

i am not at that level, that i can really help users. here. not noob anymore, in spectralayers, but need more experience, i.e. skills…

and it is not an attack on the developer/s or on robin, who has designed a program that for me is, great. i am very enthousiastic about spectralayers, that is why posted this. i didn’t know spectralayers before steinberg “acquired” it. and i waited, before i bought it.
i also had doubts, what it could do, for me. no doubts at all anymore. i am a sounddesigner, use many programs, or workflows, depended on mood (yes!) and what i want to achieve. spectralayers is part of these workflows.

i did a poll on KVR, that is now not anymore at the top of the effects thread.

one person called it an expert tool, i see it more as specialized tool, but if you really go deep, it is more than specialized… so an expert tool? and specialized tool? a tool that only appeals a certain kind of people?

o i am glad it is here, and that i discovered it, strange that i never had heard of it before. it is right up my alley. and why did i wait, the timing perhaps. i have learned more, than i have made tracks. about more than half year. and it is paying of.

o well.

but a little more love from steinberg… and i saw robins postings, he does listen. so passionate developer me thinks.