WAVES Abbey Road Saturator User Guide
- June 10, 2024
- WAVES
Table of Contents
WAVES Abbey Road Saturator
Product Information
- Saturation plugin that adds warmth and life to instruments and tracks
- Combines two classic EMI tools: a compander and console saturation chains
- Precisely emulates the original TG12321 unit fed into the REDD or TG desks for an excited saturation effect
- Two console chains have different saturation behaviors, providing creative flexibility
- Two EQ panels control the signal hitting the compander and mold the final color
- Provides control for creating a subtle harmonic enhancement to powerful distortion effects
Product Usage
- Install the Abbey Road Saturator plugin and manage your license through a free Waves account at www.waves.com
- Refer to Waves Support pages for installation, troubleshooting, specifications, and more
- Select either the mono or stereo component of the plugin
- Adjust the input level and set which channel will be used for distortion processing (stereo component only)
- Apply low/mid/high filters before compander/saturator using the input pre-EQ section
- Select the desired ratio for the compander/saturator to add soft clipping or gentle to full distortion using higher gain settings
- Mold the final color using a post-saturation EQ panel
- Use the plugin to create elegant saturation and distortion effects for instruments and tracks
Introduction
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Abbey Road Saturator
Saturation brings warmth and life to an instrument or track. It can come in
the form of pleasing harmonics in a drum or vocal or as full-blown console
distortion that makes a synth, bass, or guitar part ‘sing’ in the mix. Abbey
Road Saturator delivers a unique saturation sound, along with creative
flexibility, by combining two classic EMI tools: a compander and console
saturation chains. Companders were initially designed to reduce noise in
telecommunications. They compress a signal before transmission and expand it
on the receiving end. In 1962, building on this technology, EMI Central
Research Laboratories patented a tape noise-reduction system called the
TG12321. The first generation of pop engineers quickly discovered that using
the encode-only part of the process results in a beautiful-sounding high
frequency emphasis that adds air and excitement to any track and helps
instruments cut through the mix—a secret weapon in the studio. Pioneering
Abbey Road engineers, including Peter Bown and Geoff Emerick, came to be known
as fans of using the TG12321 in this unusual way. A similar top-end
enhancement effect was later achieved with the “Dolby A Trick,” which became
extremely popular throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Abbey Road Saturator uses this
single-end compander process to excite the signal before it’s sent to the
saturator. The Abbey Road Saturator precisely emulates the original TG12321
unit fed into the REDD or TG desks for an excited saturation effect. These two
console chains have very different saturation behaviors, so the choice between
them is very important in building the saturation effect. Two EQ panels
control the signal that’s hitting the compander. Pre-compander EQ can be
adjusted to control the signal hitting the compander, and post-Saturation EQ
can be adjusted to mold the final color. Abbey Road Saturator is simple to
use, yet it provides all the control you need to create elegant saturation and
distortion, from subtle harmonic enhancement to powerful distortion effects.
Components
There are two Abbey Road Saturator components: mono and stereo. Their interfaces are identical, except that the input section of the mono component does not have an active stereo input selector.
Processing Sections
Signal flow through the plugin is: Input➝Pre EQ➝Compander➝Saturator➝Post EQ➝Output
Controls
Input
INPUT GAIN CONTROL
Sets the plugin’s input gain. You can, alternatively, adjust the input gain
from the DAW, but this will result in a somewhat different sound. Use the
adjacent VU meter for adjustments.
- Range: -24 dB to +24 dB
- Default: 0 dB
INPUT PEAK LEVEL LIGHT
A LED above the knob indicates input peak level. When the LED is blank, input
gain is probably too low for the plugin to work properly. Green or yellow
indicate an appropriate level and red shows input clipping. It is very
unlikely that the plugin will clip internally, but the input level will
influence performance. You may achieve desirable results by clipping the
input—try it.
STEREO MODE
Sets how a stereo signal will be processed:
- In Stereo mode, the entire stereo image is together.
- In M mode, the middle of the stereo image is distorted. Sides are not processed.
- In S mode, the sides of the stereo image are distorted. The middle is not processed.
MID OR SIDE MODE INPUT LEVEL CONTROL
When the Input section is set to Middle (M) or Side (S), this knob controls
the input level of the M or S signal, independent of the plugin input. When
Stereo input is selected, this control is inactive.
- Range: -24 dB to +24 dB
- Default: 0 dB
Pre EQ
This module is a three-band EQ that filters the signal before it enters the
compander.
PRE-EQ SECTION ON/OFF
Bypasses the Pre EQ section.
FILTERS
Low Shelf
- Gain: -36 dB to +36 dB, Default: 0 dB
- Frequency: 200 Hz
Bell
- Gain: -18 dB to +18 dB; Default: 0 dB
- Freq: 40 Hz to 10,000 Hz; Default 740 Hz
- Q: 0.5 to 100; Default 4.05
High Shelf
- Gain: -36 dB to +36 dB, Default: 0 dB
- Frequency: 2550 Hz
Compander
The compander compresses the Pre EQ signal, passes it through low-pass and high-pass filters, and then expands it. This excites the signal and provides control over how different frequencies are distorted based on the compander ratio.
PHASE
Reverses the phase of the compander module. It tends to change the effect from
“pulling” to “pushing.” It can result in a significant change in character,
depending on the program material.
RATIO
Ratio sets which frequencies will be compressed and enhanced. Lower settings
result in more low-frequency sounds being soft clipped and compressed. With
higher settings, higher frequencies are affected, and results range from
gentle clipping to crunching.
- Range: 1.0 to 4.0
- Default: 2.0
HI PASS AND LOW PASS FILTERS
Sets the bandpass range of the compander.
- Ranges: High pass: 80 Hz, 160 Hz, 380 Hz; default: 80 Hz
- Low pass: 750 Hz, 1.5 kHz, 3 kHz; default: 3 kHz The default settings provide the maximum compander bandwidth.
COMPANDER BLEND
Sets the mix between the compander and the input signal. Range: 0 (input
signal) to 100 (compander output)
Saturator
This section creates controllable saturation, modeled after the signal flow of two very different mixing consoles from EMI, both of which became bread-and- butter consoles at Abbey Road. EMI REDD 17 is a valve mixing desk, first developed at Abbey Road in the 1950s. Its saturation sound is typically edgy and aggressive.The EMI TG12345, introduced in 1969, was the first solid state mixing console designed by EMI for Abbey Road Studios. It saturates with a rounder, often warmer sound. The differences between the saturation sound of the REDD valve-based consoles and thetransistorized TG consoles are significant. Experimenting between these two saturation types is an essential part of creating a saturation sound. And remember that saturation behavior is very content dependent. You can also turn the Saturator Off altogether. To hear the effect of the saturator alone, switch off the Pre-EQ section and set the mix of the compander to zero. Set the saturator mix to 100% wet.
CONSOLE TYPE
Selects which console model signal flow to use to create saturation. Range:
TG, REDD, Off; Default: TG
GAIN
Sets the amount of saturation that will be generated from the selected
console. The behavior of the Gain control varies depending on the setting:
Value (approximate) Effect 0–50 Increasing amount of harmonic distortion with
clean headroom. 50–100 Initially, gentle clipping, increasing to a full crunch
effect. Range: 0 to 100; default: 50
MIX
Sets the mix of the overall processed signal. Range: 0 (dry) to 100 (processed
signal)
Post EQ
This module is a three-band EQ that filters the signal after all processing,
before the output section. Use this to sculpt the final sound.
FILTERS
Low Shelf
- Gain: -36 dB to +36 dB, Default: 0 dB
- Frequency: 200 Hz
Bell
- Gain: -18 dB to +18 dB; Default: 0 dB
- Freq: 40 Hz to 10,000 Hz; Default 740 Hz
- Q: 0.5 to 100; Default 4.05
High Shelf
- Gain: -36 dB to +36 dB, Default: 0 dB
- Frequency: 2550 Hz
OUTPUT
Sets output level of the plugin. An output limiter is set to -0.9 dB, so the
signal will not clip at the DAW, but heavy limiting will affect the sound. The
LED next to the knob is a limiter activity indicator. Range: -24 dB to +24 dB
Meters
Input or output gain is displayed on a single VU meter. Use the switch on the
left to select a source. In the stereo component, the meter displays the
louder of the left and right channels.
HEADROOM ADJUST
Click on the headroom adjustment screw at the bottom of the meter to calibrate
the VU meter to the DAW’s reference level. When, for example, headroom is set
to “18,” then a -18 dBFS reference tone will equal 0 dB VU on the meter.
Range: 8 dB to 24 dB
Excluding Selected Frequencies from Distortion Processing
You can use the Pre EQ and Post EQ controls together to remove certain
frequencies from distortion processing. This is most commonly used to leave
low frequencies largely untouched, usually to maintain the color and
robustness of the bass or to prevent the bottom end of the distortion from
becoming muddy. The idea is to use the Pre EQ to strip away the frequencies
you want to remove from the signal so that they don’t pass through the
compander and saturator, and then use the Post EQ to recover the same
frequencies after processing.
- Raise the Pre EQ low shelf value until you remove most of the low frequency sound you want to protect.
- Set the Post EQ to approximately the same value, but opposite, of as the Pre EQ. The selected frequencies will remain unaffected while the rest of the signal will be distorted.
- Adjust both controls to get the color of the output to closely match that of the input.
WaveSystem Toolbar
Use the bar at the top of the plugin to save and load presets, compare
settings, undo and redo steps, and resize the plugin. To learn more, click the
icon at the upper-right corner of the window and open the WaveSystem Guide.
Abbey Road Saturator/ User Guide