Toy Tips

Welcome to Toy Tips, a tips and tricks section for all the SoundToys plug-ins. Feel free to submit your own tips and tricks and we'll be happy to post the really cool ones. We'll add to this area each month unless our day jobs get in the way, or some piece of hardware changes and we have to stay up all night re-coding all our plugs. In other words, we will need your help to keep packing this area full of useful ways to get the most from your toys.

Tips and Tricks - Mono-to-Stereo

What better time to talk about the new Mono-To-Stereo features than when we release the Mono-To-Stereo Preset Expander? None! OK, so we realized we hadn't really talked much about how to get these new versions to do their thing. So here's the scoop. In SoundToys V3, FilterFreak 1 & 2, and Tremolator now have a mono-to-stereo option in the plug-in list. (See the Preset Expander for just how cool this really is. Awesome!) The controls for these can be found in the Tweak menu on Tremolator and FilterFreak1. FilterFreak2 doesn't need extra controls (We'll cover more on that later). It's all fairly straight forward, but we'll go over them anyway.

Starting with the easiest and working our way down.

FilterFreak 2: This one is so easy. Start with a mono track or aux and open FilterFreak2 Mono-to-stereo. Filter1 is the left filter and filter2 is the right filter. They still use the single modulator, but other than that you can make completely different settings for left and right now. High pass on the left and Band pass on the right, or whatever you choose.

Tremolator: Tremolator: OK, same thing, mono track or aux, and then open Tremolator mono-to-stereo. Still really simple. Hit the "Tweak" button and open the tweak menu. As you see, on the left side of the tweak menu is a new control called "Width". This offsets the right and left channels from each other. A little bit of width makes for some subtle stereo motion and a whole lot makes for some serious panning type effects. NOTE: actually the width features works with Stereo to Stereo as well for Tremolator so you can use it anywhere.

FilterFreak1: Now this one is a teensy bit more complicated. Open the FilterFreak1 mono-to-stereo and open the Tweak menu. On FilterFreak the Tweak Menu is found at the top of the list where you choose your modulation type. Here, you'll see 2 new controls. An "L/R Offset" knob and a switch for Normal or L/R Flip. So the idea behind this is that FilterFreak is using complimentary filter types in each channel. That means, if you choose a LowPass filter on the front panel, the LowPass with be the left channel filter and a HighPass filter will be on the right. Make sense? LowPass & HighPass. BandPass and Band Reject. OK, from there you can offset the two filters from each other. Without getting too techy, this will add more or less perceived separation of width between the channels. The Switch allows you to switch or flip the left/right relationship of the filters. All in all, what you really need to do is check out the new preset expander and then play around with these new controls and hear the results. It'll make sense (or if it doesn't it'll still sound cool).

Fat Kick - Using FilterFreak to give your kick a "kick"

If your kick is "lacking" in the mix, FilterFreak may just be the ticket. You can use it to beef up a thin kick, add beater noise to a soft kick, tighten up a flabby kick, completely transform into something new and more. You can also use the Analog Mode to compress, distort, or shred for more punch and then mix it back in with your original for that perfect kick

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Tuning Vocals with Score Control

What is Score Control? Wait, you've never used Score Control? OK, basically it's a short cut to automating pitch correction with PitchDoctor using the same automation tools you use for everything else. No freaky graphs or weird interfaces. Just Pro Tools automation.

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Groovy Delay Dude

Locking an echo to a swinging bass, or funky drum loop can be a tricky thing. Not with EchoBoy. Get the quick dirty guide to funky echo.

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Tremolator Gater

It's easy to get great classic tremolo from Tremolator, but our favorite use for Tremolator is it's powerful auto-gating ability. This tip gives you some easy ways to dig deeper into this more radical side of Tremolator.

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