ThrillseekerXTC – bringing mojo back
ThrillseekerXTC mkII is a psychoacoustic audio exciter based on a parallel dynamic equalizer circuit. It takes our hearing sensitivity into account especially regarding the perception of audio transients, tonality and loudness.
The mkII version now introduces:
• Plugin operating level calibration for better gainstaging and output volume compensated processing.
• A reworked DRIVE/MOJO stage featuring full bandwidth signal saturation and a strong
focus on perceived depth and dimension. It provides all those subtle qualities we typically associate with the high-end analog outboard gear.
• Special attention has been taken to the mid frequency range by introducing signal compression which improves mid-range coherence and presence.
• Relevant parts of the plugin are running at higher internal sampling frequencies to minimize aliasing artifacts.
Available for Windows VST in 32 and 64bit as freeware. Download your copy here.
Variety Of Sound 
Yay, great news! I really like how subtle this plugin works, its great for mixing. Cant wait to try the new version!
I love this plugin and used it often when I was using Windows, but…
I know there will be no plan for the Mac version. just hoping it.
But thank you for making new version.
Incredible work here. Bloody amazing sound. Have loved XTC since you released it all those years ago! HUGE THANKS!
Thank you, thank you so much
Fantastic. All the Thrillseekers are my fave Plugs you made. Thanks for your generous work
Do we report bugs here? I managed to make it ‘give up’ by playing with the internal headroom control. It got super saturated then just cut completly out and the output needle disapeared! it stayed like that even after returning the parameter to normal. there was still input registering and the midband compression leds were pinned but complete silence on the output.
it was using vst2 64bit version inside ableton 11.
don’t know if it’s anything to worry about but I rememerer nastyVCS also cut during the beta. So not sure if related.
Seems like one of the saturators is not 100% stable at large gain – will put that on the patch list …
Thanks for the report!
how very analog! haha
Ohhhh!!! Congrat and thanks, I was waiting a lot for it..
Amazing, cant wait to try 64 bit. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this and all your other work. Truly wonderful. Thanks!
Very good news !!
Thanks
Thank you Bootsy. Best wishes..
Greetings from Japan!
I wish someday we can use SlickHDR 64Bit (worst reputation for its ability. I use it almost every projects)
I Absolutely agree from South Korea.
Good news! Waiting for x64 version long time.
I love your plugins! Would you ever consider making them in .aax format as well?
If not, any tips on how to use your plugins in Pro Tools?
Thanks,
Kelvin
Well.. In Reaper x64 (copy n’ paste x64 vstplugins folder) is not loading… 🤷♂️
64-bit plugins in cubase are recognized to me as 32-bit. I can’t use them. What can be?
maybe it’s being bridged from 64 to 32?
In 64 bit (cubase 10.5, W10) no vst recognizes me. After I tried on Nuendo 4 x86, the 32bit vst doesn’t work either. Previous versions worked perfectly.
Just switching the DRIVE/MOJO section on seems to switch polarity of the output. Doesn’t really matter when using the MIX knob … however, some rather sophisticated setups might require to use DAW-controlled mix amounts (e.g. when trying to spice up and mix back parallel processed duplicates of the main audio), and then only 0% or 100% mixes sound right. Is that intended per design, or even inevitable? Would it be safe to simply use a polarity switcher as a workaround? Great work BTW!
It is not a simple polarity switch and you can’t mix it back into a dry signal. That is by design.
Still using all your 32 bit plugins for my mixes! Thank you for this and welcome back!
Thrillseeker colouring the sound so gentle… Once again Thanks!
Many thanks !!! XTC is one of the plugins that i use to most of my mixes, with Thrillseeker VBL. I am so happy that you made the 64 bit version !
PLease release the OSX version!!!
Not gonna happen. They were developed in flow stone in his spare time. It’s a Windows only environment. Would take a serious amount of work to re write from scratch I think.
Nice plugin! It will be very useful for subtle mixing moves. Is there any possibility of adding linear phase filters in future updates?
This MkII version adds richness to the sound, with less risk of harshness that the MkI could sometimes produce. Nice work.
MKII is great! There are times I really love the new Mid band with compressor. But there are other times the Mid band of MKI without compression is preferable. Maybe a switch for the compressor (fingers crossed)?
Wonderful! 🙂 ❤
I love this plugin but it works on my daw 1 out 10 times. Otherwise, it make my project and my daw crash. How can it be fixed ? Win10, FL20, up to date, only this plugin causes crashes.
There’s a mysterious sentence at the end of the manual… could you explain it?
“Any additional audio content in the LOW frequency band is just added to the mid signal.”
🙏
In the end this only means that for the lower frequency band additional harmonic overtones (e.g. by distortion/saturation) are added only in the mid signal and not in the side signal.
Very clear, thank you! This is really well thought. This whole box is really well thought, and it sounds exceptional. Definitely a secret weapon. I am, we are grateful for your time and energy and contribution to the audio world, it is exemplary. May God bless you!
Thank you!
🤩 Thank you so much! 😘
Unfortunately the Thrillseeker sounds very different when you vary the sample rate. The same setting sounds at 96kHz very different than at 48kHz.
At least if you use the Mojo and Drive buttons. When you set the Mojo and Drive to Maximum and double the sample rate, you can hear clearly that the Mojo frequency is doubled also.
All right, I am not 100% sure, but it seems that to close and load again the project after changing the sample rate fixes it.
I am using Reaper.
But when I have open two projects and I raise the sample rate of one of the two projects, the sound of the Thrillseeker also changes at the other project with the low sample rate. At least until I confirm the lower sample rate in the other projects settings.
And then, after I have confirmed the lower sample rate at the other project, Thrillseeker also works fine at the other project with the high sample rate.
But to confirm the high sample rate like it works with the low sample rate, doesn’t work. I either have to save, close and load again the high sample rate project, or I have to confirm the low sample rate at another project with a low sample rate.
I hope it makes sense…
Now, is it a Thrillseeker or Reaper issue? I don’t know, I haven’t found this problem with other plugins.
But when rendering it, it again sounds very different…
Perhaps someone has an answer, for what sample rate the plugin is coded originally. What is the original sound the developers meant? The sound at 48kHz? Or the thinner sound at 96kHz?
I tried also 192kHz, you get a really thin sound, and at 8kHz it sounds extreme cavernous blubbery.
I was also getting the XTC plugin cutting out when rendering in Reaper. It was fine doing the dry run but when I’d render the sound would just stop. I tracked it down to XTC and saw the output meter needle was gone. I went thru the mix and found it was caused by the guitar submix… and then to 2 specific tracks and finally pinpointed the exact location that caused the cutout. It seems the 2 tracks were throwing a very brief spike so I split the track and put a fade in and out at the split and that eliminated that troublesome spike and allowed the master to render.
I find the ThrillseekerXTC plug very useful on my submaster and was afraid I’d have to look for a replacement. Very glad I don’t.
BTW… I’m running Reaper at 64bit and tracking at 24/96.
So, so much ❤️ Thank you for your being, and generosity. 😘 🎶 Best wishes, Joseph.
Thanks for the report! Coincidentally, I’ve just release an updated version which contains also some fixes. Would be interesting if the issue persists. You can safely install both versions in parallel, in case you want to double-check.
Please do it for MacOs 🙏❤️🙏❤️🙏
I’m still waiting