The November 2024 edition of the (UK) Computer Music magazine has given 10/10 to SpectraLayers 11.
Pro:
Astonishing unmixing/separation
Advanced AI that’s actually helpful
Big workflow improvements
Transfer Brush moves effortlessly
Audio layers concept is flexible, powerful and elegant
Competitively priced
Con:
New Transient Pencil tool may be of limited usefulness
Quotes:
“… the AI-tech that underpins its most impressive unmixing and noise reduction/removal tricks delivers the best results we have yet heard.”
“The combo of powerful, flexible, multi-layered spectral audio editing with cutting edge AI-based neural networks adds up to the best SpectraLayers edition yet.”
The only reason why I’m speaking out against this is so that this feature could be improved so that I can actually take full USE of it and hopefully it will be better implemented in the next version of Spectralayers.
It’s good to be able to move selections in one click command but it would actually be USEFUL if all the tools had the ability to do it. Using the round brush or the square brush broadens the selection too much and it is tedious to always narrow the selection (for example one small partial or overtone). This feature would be USEFUL if the magic wand tool had the ability to transfer below in one click (instead of always having to resort to the shift + X command).
The feature would have been better USEFUL if it were implemented right here within the subset tool menu.
I’m using the Transfer Tool a lot right now; A LOT!
if I increase the selection to area size to over 250px, it is very, very slow going
that said, I very, very seldom need an size larger than 100px…mostly using at about 30px…and usually when I need that large a selection, a marquee-type tool is a great deal more efficient
so, the “effortless”-ness is entirely dependent upon CPU/ GPU power of the computer
I certainly have learned to streamline my workflow with Transfer Tool tho…for example, focus on layer hierarchy for target layer choice rather than select target from the tool settings area drop down…THAT alone is saving me masses of time
still, I am not focused on what I cannot do;
I’m quite focused upon what I can achieve.
…which is so far beyond anything I’ve ever been able to accomplish in previous endeavours in my audio editing life
and I’ve been in the audio game a long, long time
of course I recognize areas with anything I do for workflow improvement…and SL11 has plenty of those as I continually suggest to this forum
afaiaa, these specs are quite a bit more advanced than my
i7 8700K and GeForce 1050Ti
I have also had concerns about the sluggishness of the Transfer tool.
But today I have been sitting this whole afternoon using that tool in the new .40 version that arrived today, and I believe it runs more smoothly than before.
Could be suggestion of course, I haven’t used it with extreme zoom settings or maxed brush sizes today. But it actually moved effortlessly (standalone SL, MacStudio Max/64GB).
again, I’ve been cruising along for about an hour with Transfer tool…and I’m setting to 100-150px with no issues…just zipping along on my 5 yr old computer…so maybe after several hours I find a slow down…but sailing along now
