WAVES Greg Wells ToneCentric Plugin User Guide
- June 7, 2024
- WAVES
Table of Contents
WAVES Greg Wells ToneCentric Plugin User Guide
Introduction
Welcome
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Product Overview
The Greg Wells ToneCentric plugin is part of the Greg Wells Signature Series,
created by Waves in collaboration with multipleGRAMMY®-nominated producer,
songwriter, musician, and mixing engineer Greg Wells (Adele, Katy Perry,
OneRepublic, Mika, Twenty
One Pilots), who has songs on over 85 million units sold. Greg Wells
ToneCentric is a quick solution for enriching your source material and adding
harmonic distortion and depth. It can be used on the master track or
individual tracks, as well as instruments, vocals, etc.
To the untrained ear, ToneCentric may seem quite subtle, but once you learn to
“feel” the differences in harmonic distortion, you’ll hear how the process
stands out and dramatically changes the tonality of a song.
A Word from Greg Wells
“I’m always on the hunt for ways to pull more music out of the speakers. You
get a beautiful effect when you run audio through healthy vacuum tubes and big
transistors wound the right way, and record it to a great tape machine. This
plugin is an homage to the great
analog gear that leaves a wonderful sonic footprint on your sound.
“There are certain pieces of gear in my studio that consistently do this for
me without fail: a holy grail a 1950s mono tube compressor, a tape machine,
and a custom-made vacuum tube console.
“Several plugins do a great job pointing in this direction, but at least to my
ears I find the high-end often suffers. In developing ToneCentric, it was
important to me to keep things sonically quite full overall, but with an added
depth of field.
“As with all the plugins in my Signature Series, there is an enormous amount
going on behind the simplicity of the single-knob interface. Different
settings on the knob will yield different results and I encourage you to
experiment with subtle to mid to drastic levels. “Here’s to more tone-filled
music! I hope you like it as much as I do.”
Components
WaveShell technology enables us to split Waves processors into smaller plugins, which we call components. Having a choice of components for a particular processor gives you the flexibility to choose the configuration best suited to your material. Greg Wells ToneCentric has two components:
- ToneCentric Mono – mono in to mono out
- ToneCentric Stereo – stereo in to stereo out
Quick Start Guide
- Insert the Greg Wells ToneCentric plugin on any track or buss that you wish to process.
- Adjust the Input so that the Sensitivity LED is solid yellow during the loudest part of the program.
- In order to keep equal loudness between input and output, press the I/O Link button. This inversely links the output and input level controls: Increase one control and the other changes by the same amount but in the opposite direction.
- Turn the Tone control clockwise to apply more harmonic distortion and compression until you reach a suitable setting.
- Adjust the output, if needed, to make up for gain change as a result of the process.
Interface and Controls
Interface
Controls
Input
Adjusts the plugin’s input level.
Your input level will not change when you load a preset.
Range: -18 dB to18 dB in 0.1 dB increments
Default: 0
Reset: 0
IO Link
Adjusts the plugin’s output level with the same inverted amount as the input,
or vice versa.
Range: On and Off
Default: Off
Reset: Off
Sensitivity LED
Indicates when appropriate levels are reached:
o LED off (too low)
o Green (good)
o Yellow (optimal)
o Red (very hot)
Turn the Input control until the LED lights up to the desired color. For best
results, set up the level on the loudest part of the track (highest peaks).
Tone
Determines how much processing is applied to the signal.
Range 0 (min) to 100 (max) in 0.1 increments.
Default: 0 Reset: 0
Output
Adjusts the plugin’s output level.
Your output level will not change when you load a preset.
Range: -18 to 18 dB in 0.1-dB increments
Default: 0 Reset: 0
Analog Noise
Greg Wells Tone Centric is modeled after specific elements in the analog signal flow. Part of this modeling includes adding a small amount of noise. You can use Tone Centric processing without the analog noise to achieve a very clean, but slightly different, sound. Open the Toolbar menu in the upper right corner of the plugin to turn analog noise on or off. Default: off.
Wave System 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.
References
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Read User Manual Online (PDF format) >>