Make Any Plugin Multiband
Here’s how to create your dream multiband setup out of your favorite plugins, and share it with the world.
Multiband processing is a modern convenience. Some plugins aren’t just one processor – they’re four, six or even more processors in one. A plugin like Waves C6 is a compressor plugin, but it gives you six compressors alongside each other, working on the same signal but across different frequency ranges of it. A multiband compressor like C6 gives you way more control over compression than a single full-band compressor.
What if we could make our own multiband plugins out of our favorite bits of plugin equipment? Well, with StudioVerse Audio Effects, you can do exactly that – and then you can share your creations and download those by others, tapping into a world of human creativity.
In this article, we’ll explore five examples of “build-your-own-multiband” devices that you can create in StudioVerse. Or, if you prefer, you can simply download ours and start using them right away!
1. Analog Multiband Compressor
Multiband compressors are very digital devices, but what if it was possible to make one of them in the days of the hardware compressor device? With a copy of StudioVerse and your choice of our analogue compressor plugins, you can rustle up your dream device for surgical yet characterful mixing or even mastering. Here’s how…
Start by loading up StudioVerse on a channel, and select the Multiband Split device first in the chain. Click it and the two tracks it hosts will open (pictured below).
At the top of this pop-out, you can up the number of bands to four instead of two. We can go and add a CLA-2A to each of our four bands. Other analog-emulating compressors are available, of course!
We could control these compressors from their individual windows, but there’s an easier way to make this network into a single entity: set up macros.
StudioVerse’s eight macro knobs can be right-clicked, and a parameter selected from them to control. In our Analog Multiband Compressor, we’ve hooked four knobs up for Peak Reduction, with one connected to each of our CLA-2As, and we’ve hooked up macros to the three crossover frequency dials for easier tuning.
Here are the effects of the Analog Multiband Compressor network, taken before and after processing…
2. Multiband Delay
Mix with frequency-dependent delay times
This multiband device requires only three bands. After splitting the signal in StudioVerse (as before), we add an H-Delay to each band. This gives us three delay lines running from the same channel, separated by low, mid and high frequencies.
The trick here is that we’ve synced the macro knobs with the delay timing (BPM) and Mix controls for the top two bands, giving us different delay times for different frequency bands. These effects can be heavy-handed, hence providing the Mix control shortcuts for the Mid and High bands.
We recommend being most careful with the Mix amount of the bass band. Use delays sparingly on bass, and if in doubt, turn this control to zero.
Here’s how our three-delay network sounds, without and then with.
3. Bass Enhancer
A three-band device with essential bass processing effects
Here’s another three-band device, this time for enhancing bass tones. The anatomy of a bass can sometimes spread beyond the lowest frequencies, heading up throughout the frequency range. In this case, each band plays a different part in shaping the overall sound of the bass. Here’s how it works…
For the lowest frequencies, we’re bringing in some control, adding a CLA-2A compressor to reduce any unwanted wavering or peaks, and to generally tighten the sub frequencies.
In our mid band, which is usually between 100Hz and 300Hz (but there’s a macro to change it), we’ve added Berzerk Distortion to really ravage the sound when pushed. There are times to distort bass and times not to, so we’ve added Drive and Mix macros for this mid band to the StudioVerse patch.
Finally, on the high frequencies, we’ve added Magma BB Tubes, but with only its Beauty processing active (and connected via macro control too). The idea here is to very gently distort high frequencies without.
Hear the difference without and with our Bass Enhancer in the below audio examples.
Find out more about Distortion plugins and Saturation plugins, and the differences between them in these articles.
4. ‘Cautious’ Drum Tuner
Tune your drums without low frequencies too
More of a utility than a creative effect, this widget takes our Torque drum tuning plugin, and effectively adds a low bypass control for it. By splitting a two-band multiband setup in StudioVerse, we can add Torque to only the upper band and avoid having it process the lowest frequencies of a signal.
You’ll still have to set up the plugin’s main Focus and Torque controls, but by adding a Low Bypass (accessed in the macro controls), Torque becomes potentially useful for working on busses with more content, and in removing drum bleed before processing.
You could also filter out low end material and then set the plugin’s focus to a low-frequency value, helping you tune lows using Torque but not frequencies as low as the cutoff.
You could imagine using the same technique on a host of plugins that don’t have a low bypass built in already: from modulation plugins to distortion and dynamics, this simple multiband routing setup in StudioVerse will take you far.
Hear our drum tune before and after in the below examples.
5. Sheen and Smoother
Put an irresistible but very subtle sheen on your high frequencies with this multiband preset for StudioVerse
Similar to the previous multiband device, this one only uses two bands, and it places its processing on the highest parts. Rather than keeping the bass layer safe for its own purposes, though, the point here is to only process the highest frequencies of the channel’s audio.
By default, this device’s crossover (‘xover’) is set to 4kHz, and on the highest frequencies is where you’ll find both Enigma and Kaleidoscopes. The aim is to add a subtle layer of chorus and phasing to the highest frequencies only, smoothing into a sheeny, diffuse setup that avoids any harshness that often comes with high frequencies.
Specifically, through macros, you access Enigma’s Depth control, and Kaleidoscopes is a global output control, adding smoothing but also increasing the level of high frequencies.
This effect can sometimes be hard to hear, but that’s the point. We’ve upped the amount a little in the below audio examples.
How to Get StudioVerse
The magic of every Waves plugin you own, all chained into custom devices with downloadable patches. StudioVerse is a great way to get your hands on inspiring new effects chains and upload your own to the cloud to share with others. It’s the perfect companion to a Waves Ultimate subscription, helping you to use your included Waves plugins to the fullest.
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