Overview
Splits the sound into Low, Mid and High and compresses each on its own: tame a boomy bass without touching the voice, or a harsh top without dulling the rest. The bands add back up flat.
Getting started
- Click a band to choose it; set its Threshold and Ratio.
- Drag the crossover handles on the display to move the splits.
Controls
| Band buttons | Choose Low, Mid or High; Solo hears only it, Bypass leaves it uncompressed. |
| Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release, Makeup | The chosen band’s compressor. |
| Knee, Mix | Shared by all bands. |
Settings
The gear in the header opens the settings panel; it covers the lower panel until the gear is clicked again.
| Crossovers | The two split points as knobs: Low/Mid 40 to 1000 Hz, Mid/High 600 to 12000 Hz. |
What the screen shows
Each band’s level over the spectrum with the crossover handles; a gain-reduction needle per band.
Tips
- Solo a band while setting it to hear exactly what it holds.
Technical notes
- Linkwitz-Riley 24 dB/oct crossovers; the dry signal goes through matching all-passes, so Mix never combs.
Common to every plugin
| The header | Every window opens with the same header. On the left a dot-matrix display shows the main reading large and the details under it; text that does not fit scrolls. Next to it a hint with a coloured dot says what the plugin is doing or what to do next. On the right: Undo and Redo arrows (up to 100 steps of everything done in the window), the Bypass button, and the gear, which opens the plugin's settings panel when it has one. |
| Bypass | With Bypass lit, the plugin lets the sound through untouched. It is the same switch as your DAW's own bypass for the plugin, so either can be used and automated. The input is held back by exactly the plugin's latency, so the timing stays right, and switching fades over 10 ms, so it never clicks. Bypass is not part of Undo. |
| Input and Output | Most plugins have a column on the right with a pair of VU meters for the input and the output, each with its own gain knob (plus or minus 24 dB). Analog shows the classic VU scale, dBFS the digital one. A click on a meter opens a large view of it. The CLIP lamp lights when a sample reaches 0 dBFS. |
| Knobs | Drag a knob up or down to turn it. Knobs that go both ways, or that have a natural middle, catch briefly at their centre. A double-click returns a knob to its default. |
| About and the demo | A click on the xsidfx logo in the footer opens About. In the demo version the plugin's name ends in (demo), its settings are not saved with your project, and About opens each time the window does. |
