Independent audio plug-in developer CodWaves has launched Quance, a resonance suppressor that finds harsh peaks in a recording and pulls them down in real time.
‘Quance began with a question: what if engineers helped design resonance control?’ says CodWaves founder, Gustavo Castelo. ‘We looked at current tools and set out to improve them. Then we did what every developer should do: we shared our prototypes with top recording engineers and producers and asked how we could improve them. Every conversation focused on workflow and performance, and each round of feedback shaped the plu-gin. Quance is the result.’
Among the plug-in’s key features are Intelligent Learn allowing Quance places focus points on the most prominent resonances and narrows the detection range around a seceted audio passage. An open pass keeps listening for problems that appear only in the chorus or on certain words. Tone Protect, meanwhile, tracks fundamentals, harmonics and vocal formants and Transient Protect relaxes reduction through the attack of a hit or a consonant – push a vocal hard and the vowels keep their colour or tame the ring on a snare and it keeps its crack.
Up to eight focus points and four detection ranges decide what gets reduced and what stays untouched. Five quality grades are offered across two engine families. Live Zero reports zero samples of latency, so singers can monitor through it and front of house can take it on stage. Studio Ultra delivers the finest frequency resolution for mixing and mastering.
Automatic Loudness Matching addresses the problem presented by removing resonances where levels are lowered and quieter sounds worse in a quick comparison. Quance compensates using a psychoacoustically weighted measurement, so every A/B becomes a judgement on tone alone.
Six Modes retune detection and protection for vocals, instruments, drums and full mixes. Sidechain unmasking lets a lead vocal carve space in a guitar bus with no drop in level. Four stereo modes, including Mid-Side, chase harshness in the centre or sides without the image wandering. Delta monitoring plays only what is being removed.
Quance ships with 53 factory presets named to reflect the job that they do, from Bright Mic Tamer to Podcast Room Ring.
System requirements are Windows 10 or newer (64-bit): VST3, AAX and macOS 10.15 or newer, Intel and Apple silicon: VST3, AU, AAX.