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Waves Masters Bundle

Published in SOS August 2002
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Reviews : Software

Waves Masters Bundle
Formats: Mac TDM and all native formats; PC VST, DirectX, RTAS and AudioSuite.

The latest bundle of plug-ins from the highly respected Waves company is intended for precision mastering, and comprises three tools: Linear Phase Equalizer, Linear Phase Multiband, and L2 Ultramaximiser. As the names suggest, it's the first to use their new 'linear phase' technology, which is designed to prevent the phase shifts that are generated by conventional EQ and filter algorithms and thus sound more natural.

The Masters bundle is available on its own, and is also included as part of the new Platinum bundle. For existing users of Waves' Gold bundle, it makes sense to upgrade to Platinum rather than buy a separate copy of Masters, since the upgrade is cheaper than buying the Masters bundle by itself and gives you the Renaissance 2 bundle into the bargain.

Waves have recently had some bad press concerning their use of Pace copy protection, so I was interested to test this out for myself. It allows anyone to download, install and use any Waves plug-ins for a period of 14 days before timing out. The Pace system generates a random set of challenge phrases, and for continued use you must register your product serial number at the Waves web site to open an account. You can then enter your challenge and receive a response code to unlock the plug-in(s). My response arrived by email within seconds, and once pasted into the Pace window unlocked the plug-in functions permanently.

I did have to manually register a couple of the plug-ins by dragging their DLL files into my main Wavelab window, but apart from this I had absolutely no problems after the installation, and certainly none of the crashes experienced by another reviewer. Waves told me these were due to a particular combination of driver build running under Windows XP with an AMD processor, and have since been cured. Mission-critical users will also be relieved to hear that signed fax reauthorisation requests have been abolished, and automatic email reauthorisation of several counts per product will soon be in place.

LinEQ Broadband is a five-band linear-phase filter presented in both stereo and mono versions, and anyone who's ever used the Waves Q10 or REQ plug-ins will immediately feel at home with its draggable button controls and their associated draggable points in the graph of frequency response. What is different is the range provided by the controls: each band offers gain manipulation over a massive ±30dB, while the range of the EQ graph can be switched between ±12dB or ±30dB.

The upper four bands have identical capabilities, with frequency adjustable from 258Hz up to 21963Hz, Q variable from 0.26 up to 6.50, and a selection of nine responses. These include the usual bell, resonant low and high shelving, and resonant low- and high-pass; the last four are also available in 'V-slope' versions, meaning that the Q value can be increased to provide an almost vertical change at the cutoff frequency for surgical work. The lowest band, which lacks the V-slope options, is designed for bass work and offers frequencies from 21Hz to 1000Hz and Q values between 0.6 to 2.0.

An overall Method switch lets you choose from three responses which offer different compromises between the accuracy of slope and amount of passband ripple (unevenness in the frequency response as it approaches the cutoff point), while the Dither button converts the internal double-precision 48-bit processing back to 24-bit for those applications that don't run internally at 32-bit floating point.

There's also a dedicated LinEQ LoBand plug-in in stereo and mono versions, providing three bands optimised for operation between 10Hz to 600Hz. They provide a subset of frequency responses, and are intended for surgical adjustment to the bass end, as well as DC offset and rumble removal.

The new linear phase design ensures that all frequencies emerge with the same degree of phase shift, unlike normal analogue and digital EQ, which adds phase distortion that may or may not sound musical. I was very impressed during my listening tests, judging the LinEQ plug-ins noticeably more transparent than Waves' own REQ, Steinberg's QMetric, and the TL Audio EQ1. They are ideal for critical mastering, where the constant linear phase processing delay of about 60mS for the Broadband version at all sample rates (compared with about 40mS for the LoBand version), and CPU overheads of 14 and 21 percent respectively with my Pentium III 1GHz processor, shouldn't be a problem.

Linear Phase Multiband has evolved from the C4 Multiband Parametric Processor, and now also offers linear phase technology in the crossover from one band to the next. There are now five bands rather than four, and each has Threshold, Gain, Range, Attack and Release controls, along with a set of Master controls to alter all five channels simultaneously. Crossover frequencies between the bands can either be set using buttons or by dragging on the multi-band graph. Gain make-up can be manual or automatic, and the response of the Release control can also be automated (in which case it nearly always outperforms the manual Release setting). The compressor response can be set to model optical or electronic hardware designs, while the knee characteristic can be altered smoothly from soft to hard. A new automatic Trim button lets you adjust the output gain control to trim the margin so that the peaks just equal the digital peak value, while the Adaptive control adjusts thresholds automatically to compensate for masking of softer sounds by louder ones in adjacent bands.

This is a complex plug-in, so it's as well that Waves provide a wide range of presets for multi-band and upward compression, low-level enhancement, multi-band opto, electro and adaptive mastering models, decompression (restoring dynamic range in over-compressed signals), de-essing and HF limiting. I found that LinMB provided more subtle control and transparency where required than any previous Waves compressor, and like the LinEQ plug-in, is eminently suitable for adding the final touches to complete tracks before L2.

L2 itself follows on from the popular L1 Ultramaximiser, combining a lookahead peak limiter and level maximiser with the IDR (Increased Digital Resolution) requantising and dithering system. You just drag down the limiter Threshold control to raise average levels, and set the Out Ceiling control to the desired peak output level, which should normally be a fraction below 0dB, as some cheap CD players will distort if presented with full-range signals. Only signals above the threshold are limited, and the Attenuation meter displays any gain reduction.

All this is the same as it was with L1. Like LinMB, however, L2 has an additional ARC button which should ensure more transparent results, and would therefore usually be used unless you specifically require pumping effects. Further improvements are to be found in the IDR section, which now offers ninth-order noise shaping instead of L1's second-order shaping, and a wider range of quantising options, although it doesn't support eight-bit output. L2 is perfect as the final plug-in in the CD mastering chain, and provides subtly improved audio quality over its predecessor.

Waves' plug-in bundles are seldom cheap, but their quality is usually superb, and I'm pleased to say that the Masters bundle is no exception. On its own or as part of the comprehensive Platinum bundle it represents the current cutting edge of quality plug-in design. Martin Walker

Mac/PC Native version £851.88; Mac TDM version £1703.75. Upgrade to Platinum bundle from Gold bundle: Mac/PC Native £763.75, Mac TDM version £1521.63. Prices include VAT.
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Plug-in News     A new Dutch group of programmers calling themselves AudioNerdz have released Delay Lama, a Mac/PC VST Instrument that "makes your computer sound and look like a singing Tibetan monk". The animated monk in question responds both visually and aurally to input from a pitch-bend controller or the built-in X-Y pad, producing different vowel sounds that are treated with the built-in delay effect. It's freeware, but satisfied users are encouraged to make a donation to the International Campaign for Tibet at www.savetibet.org. Delay Lama certainly provided an entertaining diversion in the SOS office — perhaps someone will even think of a practical musical application for it... www.audionerdz.com Jeff McClintock's shareware PD303 is claimed to be the first VST Instrument to use Casio's Phase Distortion synthesis technique, as found in classics such as the CZ101. It offers eight different waveforms, driven by a simple knob-driven interface, and boasts a built-in delay effect. www.synthedit.com/pd303.htm Norwegian developers Ultrafunk have added three new effects to their Sonitus:fx line of audio plug-ins for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. The series now consists of 10 plug-ins, all of which are available in both DirectX and VST formats and support VST plug-in automation. The three new plug-ins are FX:delay, an advanced stereo delay with tempo sync, FX:gate, a dynamic gate with side-chain filtering and lookahead, and FX:multiband, a five-band variable-knee compressor offering 'normal' and 'vintage' compression modes plus an output limiter. The seven updated plug-ins consist of a six-band parametric equaliser, a versatile modulation plug-in, a high-quality reverb, a phase shifter with phase meter, a variable-knee compressor with built-in peak limiter, a surround panner and a wah-wah guitar effect emulator. All the plug-ins now feature an enhanced graphical user interface, and have been updated with bypass, undo/redo and A/B comparison features, enhanced metering, optimised audio algorithms and more comprehensive documentation. The Sonitus:fx pack of 10 plug-ins costs $325, while single plug-ins can also be purchased and there are upgrade paths for registered users of existing versions. www.ultrafunk.com

Green Oak Crystal
Formats: Mac & PC VST

Crystal is one of the most interesting and flexible soft synths I've come across. In terms of sheer sound quality it can hold its own alongside some of the best on the market, and its comprehensive features put some manufacturers' products to shame. All the more surprising, then, that Crystal is being given away as a free download for anybody who wants it! What's the catch? Well, there really isn't one. Admittedly, you'll need a VST 2.0-compatible host application (Crystal works as a VST plug-in), and a computer with a fairly quick CPU and plenty of RAM, but that's all.

So what do you get for your, er, no money? Well, Crystal is a three-oscillator 'semi-modular' hybrid synth, capable of both subtractive and FM synthesis. Each oscillator offers a choice of five waveforms, has its own resonant filter (with saturation control), and boasts a miniature 'oscilloscope' window providing a visual display of the current waveform. In addition, two eight-stage graphical envelopes are tied to each oscillator — one for amplitude, one for filter cutoff — while a global modulation envelope can be set to affect up to six other parameters simultaneously. All envelopes are scalable, offer a loop mode, and can be sync'ed to the host sequencer's tempo at the click of a mouse.

There are no fewer than six independent LFOs, each offering a choice of six waveforms, and each patchable to just about any parameter you might think of. Like the envelopes, LFOs can also be sync'ed to host tempo simply by clicking a button.

Next come four independent delay effects featuring low-pass and band-pass filtering as well as Time, Feedback, Cross-feedback and Pan parameters. Delay times range from one millisecond right up to 10 seconds, and are also tempo sync'able. By assigning modulation sources to delay parameters, it's possible to come up with everything from simple ping-pong stereo echoes, to chorus and flanging effects and weird comb-filtered sounds. There's also a frequency splitter, which allows for selective processing of specific frequency bands in the sound.

Crystal comes with an extensive bank of presets, all of which do a fine job of demonstrating the instrument's considerable potential. Its eight-stage envelopes make it ideal for long, complex, evolving pad sounds, and some of the patches take advantage of Crystal's tempo-sync'ing capabilities to produce pulsing, layered, almost rhythmic patterns that really defy categorisation.

With such extensive features, it should come as no surprise that Crystal makes considerable demands of your computer. You should expect it to use about 20MB of the RAM allocated to your host application, while the number of voices you can have will be wholly dependent on the speed of your CPU. Owners of older, slower computers may find they need to keep the Poly button switched off, and even faster machines may struggle with multiple, polyphonic Crystals. However, the quality of the results more than makes up for the computational costs, and regular bouncing of Crystal parts to audio tracks provides a perfectly workable solution.

While it's often the case with music software that one only gets what one pays for, Crystal is an exception to this rule. It's a powerful synth, offering for nothing the kinds of features and functionality you'd normally expect to cost you good money. Patient patch programmers will find Crystal consistently rewarding — and, at this price, no-one with even a passing interest in synthesis can afford to be without it. Paul Sellars

www.greenoak.com/crystal

Plug-in Tips     When you're setting up an EQ plug-in, spectrum analysers and other metering tools can be very helpful, and it's usually a moment's work to place one into an insert slot on the relevant mixer channel. If you're not happy with the quality of your reverb plug-ins, try chaining two of them in series. This should produce a greater density of reverberation. When you're using tempo-sync'ed delay effects, try using delay times that aren't an integer number of beats. You can, for instance, generate interesting effects by having the delayed notes half a note off the beat. You can sometimes get interesting results by placing a phase reversal plug-in in series with a delay effect plug-in, so that the delayed signal is phase-reversed with respect to the dry signal. This is especially effective with short delays. Mike Senior