Windows replacement for Cargo Cult Spanner
 

Hi, I'm just completing my i9-12900K Alder Lake build for my studio to replace my ancient MP, after 20 years of working on Macs - I just finally lost confidence in what Apple will bring for a freelancer like me who needs extreme power and good expandability without breaking the bank.

I had scanned all my most used plugins before biting the bullet, but one important one I missed - the Spanner. I use it on all of my 5.1, 7.1 and Atmos mixes and this is obviously bad news (I do mostly score / music mixing, but dabble in other post occasionally).

I know that I can recreate most of the things I've done (channel width remapping, downmixing, repanning individual surround stem channels etc) with a worse user experience via either a multi-mono Trim or splitting streams into mono Auxes, but it's SLOW.

I also have Penteo but haven't yet tried the downmixing capabilities, and could consider grabbing Halo Downmix 3D (I have Upmix 3D already), but that one has a lot of features that I don't need while missing some simple ones that we have with Spanner (plus a hefty pricetag).

So, any possible Win alternatives that I have missed? (Waves DTS is not it, suggested on the Win forum)

I could even work with a simple channel rerouting plugin, but I don't think that exists. Here's the idea anyway: Possible in all in and out width instances (i.e. from mono in, 7.1.2 or more out to vice versa), with a square grid routing matrix and levels for all possible connections - this way I could at least "do my own math" and do any reroutings needed. It seems that Halo Downmix does have a routing grid in the settings but only for channel order standard changes, so no splitting signals.

Re: Windows replacement for Cargo Cult Spanner
 

Oh, and for the record - all of my other plugins (a few hundred) were available, and initial testing on the machine seems great, even with the officially still unsupported Win11 (for the Alder Lake task scheduler optimisations - looks like it's just "untested").

One of my biggest mixes, a 7.1.2 session running 7.1 content (I left the possibility of Atmos open) with 600 or so tracks and tons of plugins (that grinded my 12-core MP 3,46GHz at 1024 buffer to an endless commit cycle to be able to playback with only occasional interruptions) - 30% CPU usage and no spiking at 256 buffer (the lowest I could go when I was setting up without an interface connected). I'll continue testing, but it looks like the switch is happening with or without Spanner.

And for the interested, the current build is this:

i9-12900K
MSI PRO Z290-A DDR4 (due to DDR5 prices/availability, and having 2x hopefully HDX-capable PCIe slots)
Noctua NH-D15 CPU Cooler
Kingston Fury Beast 64GB DDR4 3200MHz/CL16
Samsung 980 Pro 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 (OS)
Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB M.2 PCIe 3.0 (Main audio)
Corsair HX1000 1000W PSU

I already had/ migrated these:

Fractal Designs Define R6 case
2x WD Black 6TB
GPU (a few options, possibly the Mac flashed GTX780 from my MP to start with)

(HDX card testing with the Mobo to commence today, the last thing to worry about besides Spanner functionailty...)

About DDR5, I might very possibly swap the CPU, Mobo and memory (and bring these home for a gaming machine upgrade) when Intel brings out the 13th gen Raptor Lakes, memory availability and specs should be ok by then. Further PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives also to be added as needed/when prices drop.

Re: Windows replacement for Cargo Cult Spanner
 

There really is no alternative sadly. The newest version of PT at least lets you route to differing formats.

Iosono Anymix is the only thing I know of that comes close. It can also upmix and do distance panning. But it seems abandoned. I used it on PC in the past.

Re: Windows replacement for Cargo Cult Spanner
 

What about Space Controller from Sound Particles? That seems to be the only competitive product to Spanner - if it's the panning capability you are looking for here.

They seem to have a Windows version for it.

https://soundparticles.com/products/spacecontroller

Re: Windows replacement for Cargo Cult Spanner
 

Thanks, that does look interesting, The sound field repanning looks like it would maybe allow for some of the channel rearranging things I've used Spanner for, albeit with a different workflow.

Re: Windows replacement for Cargo Cult Spanner
 

Skwaidu, can you copy automation from Spanner to the Avid Panner?

Re: Windows replacement for Cargo Cult Spanner
 

You can copy any automation lanes to a different control (i.e. plugin auto to pan auto), but often the scales don't match - I haven't tried it with Spanner. How so?

Re: Windows replacement for Cargo Cult Spanner
 

Thanks. Just needed to check with someone as I have purchase Spanner for my place but because I work in a facility that doesn't not use it, I haven't either.



At this stage, it is more important to be able to work off different sites at the same time.

Re: Windows replacement for Cargo Cult Spanner
 

Space Controller looks awesome!

Re: Windows replacement for Cargo Cult Spanner
 

I've been using Anymix Pro for surround work in Windows since it came out, and it does work well. I've never needed anything beyond 5.1, though, so I can't speak for how it works in wider or more recent formats. It does seem to be orphaned, which is a shame.