Will This Saturation Plugin Change the Way You Mix Forever? 

Thanks. We haven't had a video from him in a while, so it's been nice having him back on the channel. Cheers!

thanks so much !

iIce one. Glad you've also been using Spectre and enjoying it. It's just such a useful tool. What kind of music are you creating?

@@warpacademy I lean towards UK Bass music, mainly the darker more emotive Electronic genres like Future Garage, Chill, Dubstep, etc.

Nice one. You should join up in our Discord server. Lots of producers there talking shop, posing WIPs and finished tracks for feedback. discord.gg/ZwNgZteGKw

@@warpacademy I just did. Cheers for the invite!

Nice to have you on board.

Hey Cam. A great question which I'm happy to answer. First of all, let me say that I love Saturn and Ozone Exciter; they're key tools in my daily workflow. I wouldn't say that Spectre is a replacement for these, as they all do different things. That said, Spectre has several key features that make it stand out and why it's in my "essential tools" lineup alongside the tools you mentioned. Feature 1: You can have the EQ node that's creating the harmonics (and the resulting harmonics) placed anywhere in the stereo field that you want: Hard panned left or right, mid, side, full stereo. And each node can be independently set. This is useful for adding mono-compatible width or cleanly saturating the mid but not touching the sides, for example. Saturn and Exciter use bands, not flexible parametric EQ with bells and shelves, so they cannot be as precise and surgical. Ozone Exciter can't pan harmonics at all, although it can be set to mid-side mode. Feature 2: Spectre has de-emphasis mode. There's a mix trick that's commonly used which involves creating ghost harmonics by driving an additive EQ node into a saturator (thus creating harmonics associated with the boost) and then using a subtractive EQ with the same settings to remove the boost after the saturator. This is a sneaky way of getting the very precise harmonics without dramatically changing spectral balance of the source sound, or creating a huge level increase. Spectre does all this for you automatically with the click of a single button. The way they've implemented this means you can work very quickly and cleanly with minimum fuss, and that's why this plugin is such a favourite of mine. Fast workflow and results means it gets used a lot and saves me time. You could "kind of" do this in Saturn, on a band level, by gaining up the drive, then compensating with subtractive gain on the band after - but it's really not the same thing, and you'd have to do this all manually which equals slow and clunky workflow. Now Saturn has some features that Spectre doesn't have; namely a very powerful set of modulators. That makes Saturn a super powerful sound design tool. And let's not forget iZotope Trash 2 - another completely unique and incredibly powerful plugin I use on the daily as well, with the Convolver and its own set of modulation options. Hope that helps answer your question. Feel free to ask any follow ups if anything else comes to mind. Subscribe and stay in touch. Cheers!

@@warpacademy Wow you completely sold me on this haha very good points, I might get the trial and see it for myself if there is one. Thank you for taking the time to respond in so much depth, I very much appreciate it!

You're most welcome. Definitely check out the demo, there is one: www.wavesfactory.com/audio-plugins/spectre/ Hope to see you around the channel going forwards. Cheers!

Thanks for watching and commenting. Yeah, you're totally right; that would be an excellent feature addition to the plugin. Some might say that you "should mix with your ears and not your eyes" but I'm with you; I think visual aids are a helpful addition to just going by ear. I'm sure Wavesfactory would be open to a suggestion and feature request. Reach out to them and let them know: www.wavesfactory.com/support/#contact. Cheers!