Plugin Alliance Kiive Audio Xtressor User Manual
- June 11, 2024
- Plugin Alliance
Table of Contents
Kiive Audio Xtressor
User Manual
Introduction
Inspired by a modern classic compressor found in almost every studio, Stressor
is the new ultimate multitool of compressors! With each ratio acting as its
own compressor, Xtessor gives you the versatility of numerous compressors in
one plugin! From crushing drums, to taming harsh vocals, Xtressor has it all.
Add punch to your mixes using British mode or play with your second & third
order harmonics using TYPE mode. Stressor will give you a mixing advantage
with its multitude of compression and saturation options!
System Requirements / Formats
- Mac 64bit / M1 Native: VST3, AU, AAX
- Windows 64bit: VST3, AAX
- 1 GHz Intel Dual Core Processor or AMD equivalent (PC)
- 4GB of RAM
- Mac OS X 10.7 or higher, 10.14 or higher recommended
- Windows 7 & Above
- Screen res: 1024 x 768 or higher
- 64 bit DAW support only
Plugin Alliance Licensing System
Xtressor uses Plugin Alliance’s proprietary licensing system that is
completely software based. No hardware license dongle, special drivers, or
serial numbers are required to run Xtressor. verything is handled from within
the software product. All of your licenses are stored in a single file located
on your computer or USB flash drive. This file must be updated whenever you
buy or start a trial for Xtressor.
We offer both online and offline activation. We highly recommend using online
activation. It is the fastest and easiest process. Activation requires you to
have a current Plugin Alliance account. If you don’t already have one, you can
create an account on Plugin Alliance’s website for free.
License Types
Plugin Alliance licensing system includes different types of licenses that
come with related restrictions on their use.
A full license unlocks a plugin for an unlimited amount of time. You get a
full license whenever you purchase Xtressor. These licenses can be activated
on up to 3 devices. If you want to use more devices, you can purchase
additional licenses to add 3 more devices with each license. A trial license
allows you to try a product for 14 days. Trial licenses are free of charge and
fully- functional, so you can use all the features of the plugin. A trial
license can be activated on up to 99 devices, but it will only be active for
14 days after the first activation. Lease licenses are licenses which are
valid for a specific period of time. The duration of your validity period
depends on the product you have purchased and is usually shown as a countdown
value in the lower toolbar of the plugin. If you have extended this period,
e.g. through a purchase, you may need to re-activate to refresh your license
file. This will extend the activation period so you can continue using the
plugin.
Subscription licenses are Lease licenses. Subscription payments are
handled automatically by Plugin Alliance’s system. However, you will need to
re-activate the plugin according to your subscription period. You may also
have an NFR license in your account. These licenses are given out with certain
promotions. They may have an expiration date or be unlimited and they cannot
be transferred.
Standalone Installers
Xtressor has standalone installers available. You can find these installers on
the product page on Kiive Audio or Plugin Alliance websites, or on the Manage
Registered Plugins page in your Plugin Alliance account. The same installer
allows you to start a trial or use a full license that you have already
purchased. We offer separate installers for each platform: Windows, MacOS.
After you have downloaded the installer for your platform, you can run it to
select the plugin formats that you want to install (VST3, AAX, or AU). The
format you need depends on the digital audio workstation (DAW) that you are
using. If you are unsure of which format your DAW requires, refer to the DAW
software documentation.
Plugin Alliance Installation Manager
Xtressor is available to download via Plugin Alliance Installation Manager. In
Plugin Alliance Installation Manager, you can select Xtressor in the formats
you need and install it directly on your computer-based audio workstation, or
transfer to a dedicated offline machine. To begin, download the Installation
Manager for your system (MacOS or Windows) from the Installation Manager page
on Plugin Alliance’s website. Then extract the zip file and drag the resulting
app to your Applications folder (MacOS) or Program Files folder (Windows). If
you want to install Xtressor on an offline computer, you can still use the
Installation Manager. See the instructions below.
Online Installation
If your audio workstation has an internet connection, use Plugin Alliance
Installation Manager on that computer and select the Download/Install
installation type in the sidebar.
You can type “Xtressor” in the search bar to find Xtressor and filter the
plugin formats that you want to install (64-bit VST2, VST3, AAX, or AU). This
will also determine which formats are downloaded and installed.
Select Xtressor and click the Download & Install button at the bottom right.
When the download is complete, click the Install button and Xtressor will be
available to use in any DAW that supports the formats you selected. Offline
Installation on a Computer
To install Xtressor on a computer without an internet connection, you will
first need access to an internet-connected computer to download and create an
installation package. On the online computer, run Plugin Alliance Installation
Manager and select the Download/Export option in the sidebar. The platform
options will appear: Mac or Windows 64-bit. Select the platform of your
offline device.
You can type “Xtressor” in the search bar to find Xtressor and filter the
plugin formats that you want to install (64-bit VST2, VST3, AAX, or AU). This
will also determine which formats are downloaded and installed.
Select Xtressor and click the Download & Export button at the bottom right.
When the download is complete, click the Save As button to choose a removable
drive on which to save the install package. It will be named
Installer.pabundle by default, but you can rename it to keep multiple packages
organized. Also be sure to copy the Plugin Alliance Installation Manager app
to your removable drive, as you will also need that app to install the
package. With a copy of the Plugin Alliance Installation Manager app and your
installer package, take the removable drive to your offline computer. Copy the
Installation Manager to your Applications folder (MacOS) or Program Files
folder (Windows), then run it. In the sidebar, select the Import/Install
option, then click the Import button on the lower right and select the install
package. The Installation Manager will verify the package and an Install
button will appear if the file is loaded and ready to go. Click the button to
install Xtressor on your offline device.
Activation
After you have installed Xtressor, start your digital audio workstation (DAW)
software. Most DAWs will wait until you instantiate a new plugin in a session
before starting the activation process. In Pro Tools, a new plugin will
produce the activation window during the plugin scan at startup. Pro Tools
will incorrectly report that a plugin is invalid if you don’t complete the
activation process at startup.
Click on the Activation Required text in the Xtressor
window to open the activation window. You will see a drop-down menu that lets
you choose which device to activate. Your options will be your computer or any
connected USB drives (see USB Activation below). Selecting Activate all my
licenses will activate your system on all the available, valid licenses in
your Plugin Alliance account. If there were any problems with the activation,
a message will describe the reason (such as not having enough available
machines on the license). Because all Plugin Alliance plugins use the same
license file, there is no need to reactivate the same plugin in different
DAWs. For example, if you activate Xtressor in Pro Tools, it will also be
active in Logic, as long as you are logged in to the same user account on the
same computer or using the same USB flash drive.
In addition, if you log in to a different Plugin Alliance account when
activating Xtressor, this will replace your license file. Only the plugins
that are active in this new account can be used.
Online Activation
If you chose I’m online in the activation window, you can enter your Plugin
Alliance account email address and password to connect to the server and get
the current version of your license file automatically. The account you use
here is the same one that you use to log in to Plugin Alliance’s website.
You can choose to save your log in by selecting the Save password checkbox
(Fig. 3). Your log in details are encrypted for security and can be used to
activate new Plugin Alliance products in the future without having to re-enter
your log in data every time.
Xtressor will be activated if you have a valid
license; otherwise, if you have not started a trial before, you will have the
option to start one. The 14-day trial period starts as soon as you activate
the plugin.
First-time Offline Activation
If your audio computer is not online, the Xtressor activation must be done
manually via another computer with internet access. Then, you can copy your
license file from the online computer to the offline one.
In this case, choose I’m offline in the activation window. Choose Save to file
and save the text file (Fig. 4), named machine_id.txt on a removable drive.
Now take the drive to your online computer and connect it.
Log in to your Plugin Alliance
account and make sure you have an active license for Xtressor. If you want to
start a trial for Xtressor for the first time, go to Plugin Alliance’s Create
Offline License page, select Xtressor, and click Create License. Visit Plugin
Alliance’s Manage Devices page, upload the machine_id.txt file in the Activate
New Device section and click Activate. Download the license file from the
Download License File section at the bottom of the Manage Devices page to your
removable drive. Take the drive back to your offline computer In the Xtressor
activation window, click Open license and choose the pa. license file from
your removable drive (Fig. 4). Finally, click Activate and Xtressor will be
available to start using.
Offline Activation for Existing Devices
Each offline computer only needs to be registered once in your Plugin Alliance
account. To activate Xtressor on a device that is already registered, you can
begin on the online computer and skip copying the machine_id.txt file.
To activate one plugin, go to Plugin Alliance’s Manage Registered Plugins page
in your account. Select Xtressor, and then select your computer in the drop-
down menu under
Activate Existing Device and click Activate (Fig. 7). Download the license
file from the Download License File section at the bottom of the page and save
it on a removable drive (Fig. 6). Take the drive to your offline computer.
To activate all your plugins at once, you can use the Manage Devices page
instead (Fig. 7). Download the license file from the Download License File
section at the bottom of the page and save it on a removable drive (Fig. 6).
Take the drive back to your offline computer. On the offline computer, open
the Xtressor activation window, click I’m offline, then Open license and
choose the pa.license file from your removable drive (Fig. 4). Finally, click
Activate and your plugins will be available to start using.
USB Activation
Xtressor is portable when you activate it using an ordinary USB flash drive.
With this flash drive, you can run Xtressor on any computer without the need
for the computer to be activated. This is especially useful for front-of-house
engineers on tour, or engineers who travel to different studios frequently. We
highly recommend activating a USB flash drive via an online computer.
Insert the flash drive and make sure that it is mounted in your file system.
On an online computer with Xtressor installed, open it in your DAW. Open the
activation window by clicking the key icon at the bottom right if it’s not
open already. Select your flash drive in the drop-down menu under Select the
device you would like to activate, then click I’m online. Enter your Plugin
Alliance account email address and password. The account you use here is the
same one that you use to log in to Plugin Alliance’s website. Click Activate
to connect to the server and save the current version of your license file to
your flash drive. Now Xtressor can be used on any computer just by plugging in
this flash drive. Some very old flash drives are unsupported and will not
appear in your device drop-down. If your USB flash drive is among the
unsupported models, please switch to a newer drive.
Deactivation
Each of your full license can be active on 3 devices at once. It is
available to move your licenses from a machine you no longer use to a new one.
You can also reclaim a license from a computer or flash drive that is lost or
broken. All of your license data is stored on Plugin Alliance’s servers, so no
need to worry about losing a license on a crashed hard drive. Log in to your
Plugin Alliance account and go to Manage Devices. In the Activated Devices
section, find the name of the device that you want to reclaim, then click the
Deactivate button. Trial licenses cannot be reclaimed, but they come with 99
available machines.
Since your license data is stored remotely, there is no need to deactivate a
computer or flash drive when you reformat it. Plugin Alliance licensing system
will recognize the same machine ID as long as there were no other hardware
changes and reuse the existing activation for the device.
Due to the way Windows generates the machine ID, certain hardware
modifications may change your computer’s machine ID. If this happens, you can
use the process above to deactivate the old machine ID, then activate the new
one using online or offline activation as needed. You may also consider using
USB Activation instead if this happens often on your Windows PC.
Please note that you cannot reclaim the same plugin license from more than
seven different machines, but if the same machine is deactivated more than
once, it will not be counted again. So if you frequently need to move your
licenses to new computers, please consider using a flash drive as one of your
three devices (see USB Activation).
Plugin Toolbar
Xtressor has a Plugin Alliance toolbar (Fig. 8) below the user interface,
giving you access to some basic plugin information, described below. PA
Logo
Clicking on the Plugin Alliance logo takes you to the Plugin Alliance website
via your web browser if your computer is online.
License Type
The center of the toolbar shows the type of license you are running. Licenses
with an expiration date will show the number of days until they expire.
$ Icon
If you have a trial or financed license for Xtressor, the dollar sign icon
will take you to Plugin Alliance’s website, where you can purchase a full
license or make your next payment.
Key Icon
The key icon opens the activation window, allowing you to refresh your license
file with device changes you made on Plugin Alliance’s website, activate a
newly purchased or extended trial, or activate a flash drive connected to your
computer.
? Icon
The question mark icon contains a context menu that links to the product page
and downloads section on Plugin Alliance’s website.
Contact Plugin Alliance Tech Support for assistance regarding installation or
activation problems and questions.
Top Bar Controls
| PRESETS selects one of the versatile presets created by Kiive Audio and
Featured Artists, or one of the user preset slots.
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| GAIN LINK compensates for your INPUT level by adjusting the OUTPUT level, so
volume is consistent. On by default.
| OVSMP sets the oversampling rate for xtressor, its default is Off, but it
can go up to 16x. Oversampling increases CPU usage but can reduce aliasing.
| Undo and redo can move back and forward in the history of tweaks you’ve made
to the controls.
| A B switches between two saved states of the plugin, useful for comparing
changes.
| Settings access the GUI resize control which changes the size of the window
from 75% to 150%. Defaults to 100%. As well as check the version number and
info on the plugin
| Width adjusts the stereo image of the entire plugin.
Main Controls
INPUT controls the input gain of the signal before it hits the
compression stage.
OUTPUT controls the output gain of the signal after it hits the compression
stage.
Note: This control is set automatically when auto gain is enabled.
Changing it disables auto gain.
RATIOS toggles between 8 ratios, each ratio acts as a separate compressor
giving you tons of versatility.
ATTACK controls the attack time of the compressor. Range is from 0 – 10 but
the eternal ms time response changes with each ratio.
RELEASE controls the release time of the compressor. Range is from 0 – 10 but
the eternal ms time response changes with each ratio.
STEREO IMAGE LINK links the left and right controls of the plugin when engaged
as well as sums the detector path for stereo compression.
BRITISH MODE engages a “all buttons in” effect that can be used on any ratio.
Best starting point is to have the ratio set to 1:1 and keep the attack under
4.
SC MODES HP can be used to engage a high pass filter in the detector circuit
of the plugin. Bell can be used to engage a wide bell boost around 6k to tame
harsh mid range. Link can be used to drive the internal compression signal to
give you a bit more of a boost.
TYPE MODES HP can be used to engage a high pass filter to cut out frequencies
below 80hz. DS2 Emphasizes 2nd harmonic distortion. DS3 Emphasizes 3nd
harmonic distortion.
SATURATION generates musical 2nd order
harmonic content.
WARMTH dials in a high frequency (HF) gain control circuit / limiter to
quickly attenuate harsh frequencies giving you a WARM sound that mimics tape
saturation.
COMP MIX blends between the dry and wet signal of the compressor circuit.
SAT MIX blends between the dry and wet signal of the Saturation circuit.
XTRESSOR MODE switches between mono, stereo and mid / side versions of the
plugin.
Troubleshooting
- Be sure to re-read through the Setup section of this manual just in case.
- Check the Kiive Audio FAQ to see if your issue is already listed.
- If not, contact [email protected] with your plugin version, the details of the issue, and the steps to reproduce it.