PluginAny VST3 host
Wrap one plugin. Hear what it does.
Windows 10/11, VST3, 64-bit. The demo runs 7 days on each computer. One licence covers 3 computers. The demo is the same installer as the paid version, so a key turns it into the full version.
Put sndwch on a track, then the plugin you actually want to judge, then sndwch again. The first one adds gain. The second takes exactly the same amount back out. Push the plugin as hard as you like: the level going past it does not move, so what reaches your ears is the processing and not the volume. sndwch does nothing else, and that is the point.
Insert sndwch, then the plugin you want to hear, then sndwch again. Set the gain on the first one. The second takes the same amount back out. Whatever sits between them is covered, so a whole chain works the same way, and there is nothing else to set up.
The first instance you insert becomes P1, the half that adds the gain — its knobs are the row marked Plugin 1. The second becomes P2 and takes the gain back out. There is no routing to draw and nothing to link by hand: the two connect automatically, and until the partner shows up the button between the rows reads Searching. A fresh pair also picks a free group by itself, so several pairs can live in one session without ever finding the wrong partner — and if you want to decide who pairs with whom, choose a group from the menu on both ends.
Push the compressor until it is doing far too much. Push the saturator until it falls apart. The level coming out of the pair stays where it was, so what reaches your ears is the processing and not the volume. Then back it off until it is doing the right amount.
Turn anything up slightly and it does not sound louder, it sounds better. That is how hearing works, and it is not a lapse in concentration. Every compressor, saturator, clipper and limiter gets louder as you push it, which is the exact moment you need to judge it honestly.
sndwch takes out exactly what it put in. It has no idea what the plugin did in between, so if you raise that plugin's own output or makeup gain, that gain is still in the signal and you are being fooled again. Leave those where they are while you listen.
Open either instance and you get the same window. The top row is always the first plugin and the bottom row is always the second, in both of them. There is no main window, nothing to keep in step by hand, and no wrong one to open.
With the pair connected, the meters on the left are the signal going into the first plugin and the ones on the right are the signal coming out of the second. That is the whole comparison, in two columns. Peak and RMS each carry three numbers: the left channel, both channels together, and the right channel. The row above the ladder is the loudest reading since it was last cleared. The row below is what is happening right now.
Four knobs in two rows. The top row belongs to the first plugin, the bottom row to the second. They never change places, and both windows draw both rows, so it makes no difference which of the two you have open. Link ties the two knobs of one row together so they move as a stereo pair.
The same arrangement again, for mid and side instead of left and right. Top row is the first plugin, bottom row the second, and link ties that row's pair. Reach for it when what you are chasing sits in the middle of the image or out at the edges rather than on one channel.
sndwch has two blocks inside it: the left and right one, and the mid and side one. This button changes which of the two the signal meets first. Nothing is added or removed by pressing it, only the order changes.
One button between the two rows, and there is one for the left and right chain and another for mid and side. Synced holds the two rows against each other: whatever you add on the first plugin is taken back off on the second, so the pair stays exact. Local lets them go, so you can set the two ends independently. Before a partner is found the same button reads Searching.
Two states held at once. Set something up on A, try a different idea on B, and flip between them without losing either one.