Add Punch With A Single Knob

US United Plugins release SounDevice Digital's Urban Puncher 01/09/21

Independent development teams federation United Plugins has announced the availability of Urban Puncher from founding partner SounDevice Digital. They say that it effectively acts as a one-knob tool to easily add 'punch' to drum loops (as intended) or, indeed, anything that can conceivably be called a drum hit, resulting in percussive material musically manifesting itself with a more solid, stronger feel in next to no time. Here's the full details in their own words...

As an established brand that is central to United Plugins, the independent development teams federation founded by people previously involved in the music industry, SounDevice Digital is named after Boris Carloff's Prague-based SounDevice Studio, which is where the two experienced developers concerned cook up the tools they feel are missing from modern music production, putting them in the hands of the plug-in-buying public. Put it this way: with Urban Puncher, SounDevice Digital has again succeeded in doing just that, this time as a definitive drum improvement tool fit for any urban music producer.

Putting Urban Puncher to work on drum loops as is its intended use -- albeit it instantly works equally well on anything that can conceivably be called a drum hit -- could not be simpler. Start by loading the plug-in into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) drum channel (before or after an EQ or compressor), then dial up its punch (%) setting to taste (up to 100) -- the more the onscreen fist glows, the bigger the punch that is applied to the drum loop -- and mix the resulting sound with that of the original track using the dry / wet (%) control (up to 100) to let the magic begin as percussive material musically manifests itself with a more solid, stronger feel in next to no time. The loop being processed may well start to shine through a mix within a few seconds by basically tweaking only one knob, in other words. While that punch (%) setting simultaneously controls several processes, it can best be described as an esoteric dynamic process with transients treatment and spectral shaping.

Such simple-to-apply yet far-from-simple processing may already be enough to satisfy some urban music producers, yet Urban Puncher provides more adventurous users with a saturation (%) control (up to 100) with which they can quickly apply an analogue- like transformer/tube blended emulation of saturation to give the 'punch' effect a completely different feel -- from easily blending the drum track into the overall track more musically via subtle usage to achieving a real-deal street sound by dialling it up all the way. When hitting the destroy button, however, all hell breaks loose as this triples the amount of saturation defined by the saturation (%) control setting, resulting in a heavier form of distortion!

Other than an obvious OFF / ON onscreen POWER switch -- albeit one that acts as an intelligent bypass, so no need to worry about any clicks or unwanted noise when bypassing the effect, elsewhere an output (dB) control defines the overall output volume of the Urban Puncher plug-in by +/-24dB while colourful IN (input) and OUT (output) 'LED ladders' also aid judging the processing proceedings from a visual viewpoint.

Ultimately, Urban Puncher's powerful processing need not necessarily be applied to drum loops only -- or, indeed, anything that can conceivably be called a drum hit, even -- since the plug-in can also be pressed into playing away, adding punch to other percussive-sounding instruments, such as acoustic guitar or piano. No need to be afraid to experiment beyond the boundaries of urban music production as percussive material can musically manifest itself in other ways in next to no time, too, thanks to the SounDevice Digital-developed Urban Puncher plug-in effectively acting as a one-knob tool to add a persuasive percussive 'punch' to almost anything.

Pricing and Availability:
SounDevice Digital's Urban Puncher is available to purchase for a time-limited introductory promo price of only €19.00 EUR until September 20, 2021 -- rising thereafter to its regular price of €59.00 EUR -- as an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-compatible plug-in (using internal 64-bit audio processing capable of handling any sample rate) directly from United Plugins (A 15-day, fully-functional trial version for macOS 10.10 and newer and Windows 8/10 can be downloaded for free.

Note that no iLok, dongle, or internet access is required for Urban Puncher activation. (All United Plugins software uses license files for activation and owners can freely use purchased software on all their computers as long as they are the user.)

More information: