Console Shaper
Console Shaper is a Mix Engine FX plug-in that offers quick, easy-to-manage console emulation. Quality analog mixing consoles are revered for their depth and richness of tone, forgiving gain staging, and for a number of charming technical "flaws" that are unseen in digital mixers. These issues, such as circuitry self-noise and crosstalk (a low-level bleeding of signals between a console's channels and busses) were once the bane of console designers. Ironically, they are now thought to contribute to the euphonic nature of analog summing.
Console Shaper is uniquely qualified to provide these sought-after analog attributes for your own mixing within Studio One. This is due in part to the special processing functions of the Mix Engine FX system, which enable inter-channel crosstalk, just like a physical console.
Insert Console Shaper into the special Mix FX slot on your Master Bus, or on any Bus you wish to process separately (such as a drum bus). All Channels flowing to that Bus are processed individually at their source, and tone shaping parameters for all affected tracks are set simultaneously with the controls on the central Console Shaper plug-in window or Console controls.
Channel Volume Controls
When a Channel sits in a Bus affected by Console Shaper, the Channel's volume fader does double-duty as both a standard volume control and input gain control to the processes in Console Shaper. This means that you can safely crank the volume of affected channels, and analog-style soft saturation will result, rather than undesirable digital "overs." This further works to lend the forgiving feel of an analog console to your digital mixing experience.
The following parameters are available in Console Shaper:
- Drive Lets you dial in the right amount of analog-style saturation for your mix. Lower settings bring just a hair of pleasing drive, while higher settings can get into crunchier territory.
- Noise Lets you add analog-style noise to the channels affected by this instance of Console Shaper. This type of per-channel noise can have a "gluing" affect on your mix, and add a sense of depth to some sources. Lower settings add just a bit of noise to each channel, while higher settings can add a more significant amount.
- Crosstalk Lets you add a specified amount of inter-channel crosstalk to the channels affected by this instance of Console Shaper. Lower settings let smaller amounts of crosstalk occur, and higher settings give you more. Note that as you add crosstalk, overall signal level rises.
All Console Shaper parameters offer on-off switches, for easy toggling of a given feature.
