Waves have released BB-Tubes, a new plug-in that emulates valve saturation. Equipped with two distortion sections that offer a wide range of overdriven tones, BB-Tubes promises to help any vocal or instrument sound jump out of a mix.
A Beauty section provides a delicate harmonic overdrive which emphasises low-mid content, whilst a Beast control offers a more aggressive sounding distortion, which Waves say sounds tight and controlled even more extreme settings. The former section cascades into the latter, allowing users to combine the two and create a wide variety of saturation sounds. The Beast section also features two selectable modelled tube types.
The plug-in is also recommended for use across a whole mix, with the soft clipping of the modelled valves lowering the level of peaks whilst increasing the perceived loudness of a signal. A Tone section provides simple pre- and post-effect high shelf EQ facilities, and a Bass Relief control allows users to remove low-frequency content from the plug-in’s side-chain.
Some internal gain staging adjustment is provided by a Sensitivity control, which offers pre-valve level control, and an Out control offers ±18dB of adjustment after the processing has taken place. A Mix control is also present, allowing for quick and easy parallel processing.
Check out the video below to hear BB-Tubes in action:
Compatibility
Waves BB-Tubes is supported on PCs running Windows 10 or 11, and Macs running macOS 10.15.7, 11.6.5, 12.4, or 13.0. Both Intel and Apple Silicon processors are natively supported.
Pricing & Availability
BB-Tubes is available now, and is being offered for an introductory price of $24.99 as part of the Waves Cyber Monday Sale, after which the price will increase to $149.
