Recording - June 2016 - 40

accurate parallel processing. Warmth is a control that takes
hard-peaking signals and smooths them out with harmonic saturation, from gentle rounding to soft clipping.
Rounding out Envolution is a button marked DIF (DIFF Listen),
which is essentially a solo button that lets you listen to just the
effects-processed signal. There is a global Bypass button as well.
My first use of Envolution was on a snare track. I used it to
trim up the hits, making them much more punchy, fat, and in
your face, while simultaneously lessening the bleed of the hihats and other kit pieces. This plug-in excels at tasks such as
tightening up a snare drum and toms, even to the point of faux
gating. It was also great for adding in beater click to kick
drum that was only front-miked; it sounded much more real
and natural than trying to EQ in the click frequency.
Additional uses include highlighting or lessening pick noise
on both bass and guitars, and adding punch and focus to a
full drum mix. Thanks to the Mix control, you can also use it
effectively to add definition to a full 2-bus mix without sounding too processed.
Envolution is also a fantastic sound design tool, especially on
synth parts and pads where it can significantly alter the source
material in cool and unusual ways. In every application, it
should be noted that it is very clean and transparent-it affects
the signal without adding a sound of its own.
It is also quite CPU-light, using about as much power as a
high-end compressor plug-in. The only issue I encountered with
Envolution is that the sound clips and spikes at extreme Attack
settings when un-bypassing the plug-in within a DAW (rather
than using its own user interface's bypass button). Sonnox
reports that it has a fix for this issue coming in the next update.
This is a fantastic entry into the world of transient shapers
and one I will make use of often.-PV

Softube Fix Flanger and Doubler
$149; www.softube.com

Envolution is a frequency-conscious envelope shaper designed
to smooth out or tighten the transients in a source and/or to
lessen or lengthen the decay. Unlike most transient shapers,
which use singular controls for both attack and sustain, Envolution
offers multiple parameters for each, complete with a live waveform display so you can see how the source is being affected.
In addition to ±24 dB of Transient and -48/+24 dB Sustain
shaping, on the Transient side you can adjust the Attack, Hold,
Release, and overall Sensitivity. On the Sustain side you can
adjust the Hold, Attack, and Release. Each section can also be
independently bypassed.
The frequency controls are equally full-featured. Both the
Transient and Sustain sections have their own Spectral
Shaping, which Sonnox describes as a "frequency dependent
wet/dry mix". There are two modes: A broad Tilt style EQ,
where you can tailor the shaping to only effect the highs or
lows of a source, and Focus, a bandpass EQ where you can
notch out or bump up a specific frequency.
Additionally on Envolution are an Output fader with a
graphic LED meter, and a Mix control which allows for phase40

RECORDING JUNE 2016

Paul Wolff is a well-known gear designer whose portfolio
includes designs for API, Tonelux, and recently Steven Slate. His
latest venture is Fix Designs, and his first two products are software plug-ins developed in conjunction with Softube. The Fix
Doubler and the Fix Flanger are sold as a bundle; both plug-ins
feature a similar look and feel with a single window GUI.
Fix Doubler is based on a hardware doubling box designed
by Paul called the Real Time Auto Doubler AD-2. It was a custom device and never entered production, but was a secret
weapon of many live and studio sessions.
Automatic doubling dates back to the 1960s and arguably
the Beatles. Abbey Road engineers used a tape machine and a
variable oscillator to develop what they called ADT (automatic
double tracking) for John Lennon, who wanted a doubled effect
on his voice, but did not want to sing a track twice. This same
type of process also gave birth to tape flanging effects.
Fix Doubler has 10 adjustable parameters: Mix (effects balance), Engage (on-off), Stereo (widens the signal), Regen (delay
feedback), Auto Double, Delay Offset (delay time), Sweep,
Rate, Dual Sweep (dual independent out-of-phase doublers) and
Sweep Type (Triangle, Sine & Random). There are also 3 LED
meters for Level, Sweep and Delay Time (in milliseconds).
As is implied by the parameters not only is the Fix Doubler
adept at doubling a source, it can widen a mono source to
stereo and even functions as a full-scale chorus effect.
Of special note is Auto Double, which is described in the
manual as the "secret sauce". Essentially this is a short auto-

http://www.softube.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2016