Kiriki Liszt releases JS Inflator, a freeware Sonnox Inflator clone in VST plugin format for Windows.
Sonnox’s Inflator is one of those storied plugins that’s probably a bit simpler under the hood than it seems.
Attempts to clone the sound of Inflator have been present for quite some time, with a notable one being a preset developed for MeldaProduction’s MWaveshaper, as shown in the video below.
JS Inflator is done in a similar vein but was developed for the express purpose of replicating the functionality of Sonnox’s Inflator. JS Inflator has an uncluttered interface, with a handful of controls present on the interface. The interface is easy to read, with a pair of meters denoting the input and output gain.
Bypass cuts the processing; it’s a typical bypass. Clip introduces soft clipping and prevents overages. If you’ve typically run Inflator before your mastering limiter, it functions identically here.
Curve manipulates the distortion curve of the waveshaper, with higher values representing more distortion or saturation applied to the incoming audio. Effect is a bit more nebulous control-wise, but it seems to serve as a blend knob when applying the waveshaping to your audio material.
So, how does it sound? I’ve been a long-time owner of the Oxford Inflator, and it stacks favorably. The original Inflator is perhaps more efficient on the CPU, but the differences between the two are negligible.
One area where the JS Inflator doesn’t quite stack up is in the multiband processing of the original. Wideband processing is the order of the day here, which is fine. If you’ve been on the fence about purchasing Inflator, this is a quick and effective alternative that costs nothing.
JS Inflator is a capable waveshaper, and it sounds great on most materials. The lack of oversampling isn’t a massive deal, as the original Inflator also lacks it.
For more coloration tools, check out our free BPB Saturator and BPB Dirty LA plugins.
JS Inflator is freeware and is found readily on this GitHub page. It is a Windows-only plugin and requires a 64-bit host. Supported plugin formats are VST and VST3, but you’ll need some development know-how to compile for VST2.
Download: JS Inflator
More:
16 Comments
Jeppespelar
onBeen using the JSFX-version in Reaper, think it sounds nice! Brings some subtle attitude and detail to vocals for example. Cool with a nice new gui!
Chris
onHmm, I tried it in Reaper, but it said:
“InflatorPacakge.vst3 is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error.”
…
“Error status 0xc000012f”
I had just downloaded and copied the vst3 in the build/release folder.
Was there more to the “install” than that?
alex
onWorks fine here in Reaper, under Windows 7. I’ll stick with JSFX RCInflator 2, though.
alex
onI’ve just found a Sonnox Oxford Inflator VS Reaper RC Inflator video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5FhTIhAwYc&ab_channel=SpirosPoullos
Chris
onThanks for confirming that. I’m on Windows 10. Not sure why it didn’t work for me, but I’m not overly concerned about it. I do have the JSFX RCInflator already, myself, and will probably just keep using that too.
Chris
onWorking for me now. The problem was that my download manager messed it up somehow. Re-downloaded without that, and it works.
alex
onOh, that’s why I saw “don’t use the download manager” when I wanted to download some plugs the other day. Good to know.
Dorcia
onNorton flagged and removed it immediately. Disappointed, I was looking forward to trying this one.
alex
onVirusTotal says it’s clean.
Jon B
onIt’s clean. Norton flags anything that isn’t code signed. I doubt this guy knows how to, so it’s your loss.
MRG
onWhen you say flagged, is it asking you what to do with it or it quarantines the file? If only asking, heh…
MRG
onSeems to work fine (Win7_x64/REAPER), nice alternative if you can’t use the JSFX. Seems a bit more CPU efficient too, not that your CPU will caught on fire anyway. Oh, by the way, it has that ‘circular knob’ VST3 thing going on if your DAW is not forcing linear action. Clean skeuo GUI, no shadow being in the way of things you should be able to read.
Pisxes
onFrank Pole has created a free Patcher version of the Sonnox Inflator for anyone who uses FL Studio. You can find it via his YouTube channel for anyone interested.
Peace
Richard
onHow to install?
John
onVST.
Windows.
USELESS.
Dorcia
onYou guys were right about Norton. It’s fine now. Great plugin. Excellent first effort to emulate inflator. I’m already using on mixes. Thank you so much!