Kilohearts Ultimate vs Soundtoys 5

Kilohearts Ultimate is a bundle of audio plugins for macOS and Windows, including the Phase Plant modular synthesizer, plugin hosts, effects, and Kilohearts Essentials. The listed products include Multipass, Snap Heap, Disperser, Faturator, Convolver, Filter Table, Shaper Table, Carve EQ, and Slice EQ. Phase Plant, Multipass, and Snap Heap use an open modular architecture for building instruments and effects. The included effects can run as regular DAW plugins or be combined and modulated as Snapins in a Snapin Host. The product page says a saved preset can be shared even if another person owns different Snapins. A DAW is required; documented system requirements include an x86 64-bit processor with SSE3, while macOS also supports Apple M processors. Kilohearts Ultimate costs $399, paid once and offers a 10-day trial. Content Banks are not included. Offline installers are available for Windows and Mac, with license keys required on the offline computer. Kilohearts Essentials is a free Snapins collection available with an account.

Soundtoys 5 is a paid bundle of 23 professional audio effects for reverberation, saturation, compression, distortion, echo, delay, vocal processing, modulation, and related work. Effect Rack lets users arrange custom chains and operate the rack as one plug-in. Version 5.5 adds SpaceBlender to Effect Rack, 67 presets, and resizable interfaces for individual plug-ins. The bundle supports 64-bit AAX Native, AAX AudioSuite, VST 2, VST 3, and Audio Units formats, with sample rates from 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz. Listed hosts include Pro Tools, Live, Cubase, Nuendo, Logic, Studio One, Reaper, and Bitwig. It runs on macOS 10.15 or later and Windows 10 or later; ARM-based Windows machines are not compatible. Soundtoys offers a free 30-day trial, activated with a code once. The listed bundle price is $599 as a one-time purchase, with two activations and an internet connection required at activation. Soundtoys describes the tools for professional mix engineers, musicians, and sound designers.