Waves IDX: Say Goodbye to Lost Tracks and Muddy Mixes

Dec 05, 2024

Frustrated when tracks disappear or sink into your mix despite sounding great in solo? Maybe your mixes tend to sound a bit too boomy? Waves IDX can help.

Waves IDX: Say Goodbye to Lost Tracks and Muddy Mixes

Certain track types have a remarkable ability of sounding punchy, clean, and full of life in solo only for them to lose those incredible characteristics the moment they’re folded back into the mix. To get that desired punch back you may try raising the fader, dialing in aggressive EQ, or adjusting compression only to find you’ve now upset the delicate balance of your entire mix – very frustrating! So, what’s the alternative? How can we mix in extra punch and control to get tracks standing proud in a production without feeling like we’re undoing everything else we’ve built in our mix? Enter IDX, Waves’ latest dynamics plugin, expertly developed to help music makers get the perfect amount of energy, impact and focus dialed into any track, mix bus or group with supreme simplicity and intelligent precision.

What is Waves IDX?

IDX is a frequency-dependent compressor designed to tame excess energy in any type of track. Got a drum mix that’s too boomy? Let IDX handle it. Struggling to make your guitar tracks stand out against the bass? IDX can fix that too. Even if your entire mix is lacking impact, the solution is simple: just IDX it.

Unlike traditional compressors or multiband tools that often require significant fine-tuning, IDX simplifies the process, dynamically controlling excessive energy buildups in your audio. It’s an intuitive yet powerful plugin that streamlines the process of achieving clarity and presence in your mixes.

Think of IDX as a supercharged multiband compressor alternative but with an important twist. Instead of you manually setting up bands and fine-tuning parameters, IDX works across countless microbands in real-time targeting problematic frequencies and applies just the right attitude of compression automatically. The result? A cleaner mix, improved dynamics with better overall loudness, without compromising the tonal integrity of your instruments.

How Does IDX Work?

Every track, even the best-recorded ones, carry some degree of unnecessary energy. Combined, all this energy can build up and clutter a mix. So, how does IDX work? First, with it’s smart processing, IDX focuses on frequency-specific issues to ensure your tracks cut through without muddiness. Second, IDX keeps it simple. With just a few intuitive knobs being the main processing dial, Threshold Tilt control/display, Speed and Auto Makeup Gain, you can achieve polished results quickly.

How To Use IDX

Whether you are working on individual tracks or across a mix buss, here’s an IDX quick start guide:

Adjust the Processing: Start by increasing the main dial. The Threshold curve in the display is set to neutral by default so the full range of your audio is going to get some IDX attention. Dial in the main dial until you hear your track start to take shape in ways that simply sound right. The main display shows you in purple exactly where the dynamic reduction is taking place.
Compare Before & After: IDX does an excellent job of keeping before and after (input and output) levels in check but IDX goes further with a Quick Match option that you can select while in playback. This ensures you have the fairest ability to hear and judge what is happening in IDX.
Choose the right compression attitude:
As this is a dynamics plugin at its core, it would have been wrong not to have knee control options. Both knee flavors in IDX can help you further tailer the impact your tracks as needed:
- Hard Knee: Gives the processing an abrupt “in your face” feel.
- Soft Knee: Applies the dynamics processing in a more gently way.
Focusing the Threshold with Tilt: The Tilt control allows you to prioritize specific frequency ranges:
- Move the Tilt wheel to the right and lower end frequencies will be processed more which can give a brighter, airier sound.
- Tilt to the left to focus on higher frequencies to bright out extra controlled body and midrange focus.
Optimize the Output Gain and Trim: After processing, compensate for any level changes using the Quick Match. IDX also has a hidden built-in ceiling that ensures whatever comes out of IDX is super clean and distortion free.

Let’s now cover 9 quick examples of how you can get the most out of IDX in a mix.

Constant Control over Complex Pads

Sometimes a sound, especially when it is a pad or any other sustained sound, can build up excess energy through a mix causing a trail of muddiness. IDX can mop this up for you though.

Waves IDX compressing a pad sound in a DAW

Since IDX breaks the audio into many frequency windows and controls the level in each one individually, it’s perfect for controlling runaway synths like this. In our example below, we add the plugin to our complex pad, keep the processing neither slow nor fast, push the main prcoessing knob quite far, and bias the Threshold towards where we feel the processing is most needed. The result is a more controlled pad that swells in character but not in opposition to our mixing goals.

A Quick Way to Compress Kicks and Snares

Next, with a drum signal on the workbench, let's show you how the Tilt can come in handy, especially when you not only want better energy and impact but some say over tonal feel. You can hear in our original sounding like this…

With the Tilt control you can either bring out the transients in a kick to make it more well-rounded, or focus on compressing the lows to bring more smack out of it.

Waves IDX used to process energy and impact in a kick drum track

Instantly Polished Bass Guitar

For bass, IDX is a great alternative to compression for warming things up and making a bass mix-ready. Here we’ve got a bass part but it needs to reach the standard of the other tracks in the mix and also fit in with the kick, which has been soloed in our example.

IDX has a lot of ways to sound good on a bass. Below, we’re running things at a somewhat lower Speed, with a Soft knee and moderate processing. We’re not using the Tilt. The result is a much thicker bass that’s ready for some small refinements.

From here, you can go on to add additional plugins to further process the bass’s character, knowing full well that the power and energy is set perfectly.

Vocal Soothing for New Character

Here we have a vocal that’s good to begin with. There’s an instance of Space Rider after IDX to give the voice a sense of depth and width.

IDX can take the edge off sibilance in a very similar way as a de-esser would when set to a fast Speed, but that’s not a big issue here. Instead, what we get here is a bigger sense of tonal balance in the signal, and we’ve done this keeping IDX’s settings close to it’s defaults.

Here, with the plugin placed before Space Rider in the chain, any inconsistencies in vocal tone are reduced, giving a more balanced spread of frequencies.

A Quick Drum Buss Improver

Here’s a chance to try IDX with its Hard knee setting. On our drum buss, first we push the Speed to very fast, and then switch the knee to Hard. As we push the main control up, the peaks of our signal start to get compressed, leaving the rest of the signal unscathed.

We can pull back on this a little by reducing the Speed again, letting the processing last longer for more character.

As for the Tilt, that’s all about how your individual drum tracks are mixed, and how you’d like them to sound in the end.

Try IDX on Reverb to Control the Space

Your reverb’s frequency response should be about the same as your input signal’s frequency response, right? Wrong. A reverb response can play havoc with any spectral balance you’ve built up in your signal, as the dimensions of the reverb’s virtual room create resonances that can imbalance things.

But IDX can solve exactly this sort of resonance quandary. Add it to a reverb signal (inserted after a reverb effect chain) to tame and smooth the response once again, letting your original input source’s character stand out against it.

Help Pick Out a Synth Arp

In our next example, we’ve got a synth arp that’s not as clear as it could be. We’ll add IDX to the channel and turn up the Speed slightly for a quicker reaction, but not so quick it squeezes all the life out of the sound.

Next, we turn the main control quite far and play with the Tilt to crack down hard on the frequencies that feel too much, leaving more of the snappy, high-frequency elements up front.

Now, playing with each control, we can adjust things until the arp has just the right amount of snap to peek through the mix. In the audio below, note that the levels are matched before and after IDX, so this extra energy in the arp has come without simply turning it up.

Multiband Compressor Alternative for Mastering

IDX is well worth giving a try in your mastering chain, you may find it could even be a potential replacement for a multiband compressor.

Don’t let its simple operation fool you, IDX has a lot going on under the hood, and its spectral compression talents are good enough for it to be on your candidate list when mastering. A great starting point is to set the knee to Hard, set the Speed very fast, and start tweaking the main Threshold control, as well as the Tilt.

From here, you shouldn’t get much of a response from the gain reduction display, but use your ears to hear if IDX’s cuts are being made in all the right places.

Sides-only Smoothing

Using the same audio from the last example, how about using IDX over only the Sides signal? When the sides are taken alone, even with some more heavy-handed processing, the stereo image is slightly smoother and free from excessive energy in any one place.

An easy way to use IDX in a mid-side processing manner is to use StudioVerse. Create two Parallel Racks, set one to mid and the other to side with IDX inserted in the side... or mid rack if you’re feeling adventurous.

Get IDX Now

Click here for more information on IDX and to hear more examples of it in action.

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