Hi I think I need to explain better some points on this new plug! :)
bitflipper
OK, I can see the appeal for beginners. It can be an instant sound-gooderizer
Yes! that is what it's meant to be, or to be more precise, not just beginners, but for those in a hurry too.
I'll give you some background, sometimes I have to make quick demos and I always end up using almost the same parameters, so I tried to put this "experience" inside a plugin
bitflipper
What it is: a compressor and a (shelf?) EQ, with presets you can't modify.
It's a little bit more complex than this, the code behind is the same of my ChannelStrip, minus oversampling and analog emulation. What happens is that some "standard" starting point are chosen when you select each algorithm (let's call them preset) these presets are then modified using the effect amount knob. The differences varies from algo to algo, sometimes they are soft, other times very drastic (like for instance the "Room" algo)
But what actually means "modified", well, let's say you choose the kick algo, it starts giving some dBs @50Hz, cutting some dBs @800Hz and adding some @4000Hz, turning the knob towards 100 not only increases those actions (adding more and cutting more) but also for example moves the high peak down in frequency, to increase the beater sound, and this happens on almost every algo.
The same applies to the compression, the gain reduction remains always almost the same (around 6dB max in the kick algo) but increasing the effect for example shorten the release time while slightly increasing the attack.
bitflipper
The auto-gain feature often made the track way too loud. The lack of actual decibel values was disorienting to me, and the input/output level indicators weren't very helpful (they "turn green when the signal peaks at +0VU", whatever that means; they read the same whether there's a signal or not).
You should probably use a more advanced mixing tool like the ChannelStripMK2, the TrackShaper is meant to be quick and dirty, and everybody wants loud tracks :) regarding the indicators, the only read peaks, that's why they are always on, the green dot is turned on when the signal peaks @ +0VU, considering 0VU with the european broadcast standard of -18dBFS, of course VU measures some kind of loudness having an integration times of 300ms, so the peaks in your audio will be much louder and should be around -6dBFS that is what most mastering engineers suggest as maximum peaking value for your tracks.
bitflipper
Bottom line: it's cheap and might be useful to those who don't know how to use compressors and equalizers.
That is exactly what is meant to be :) but i think it's useful also for those who want to make a quick demo, just drop it on track, and eventually fix with some corrective EQ what you think it's wrong.
Sorry for this quite long explanation but I hope I have clarified what the plug is!
Saverio