Wave Arts
Tube Saturator 2
User Manual
Copyright © 2016, Wave Arts, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1. Installation and Registration.............................................................. 5
1.1 Activation using iLok .................................................................... 5
1.2 Registration using Wave Arts Licensing .......................................... 7
2. Plug-in Control Operation ................................................................. 8
2.1 Knobs ........................................................................................ 8
3. Menu Bar and Preset Manager ........................................................... 9
3.1 Bypass ...................................................................................... 9
3.2 Undo ......................................................................................... 9
3.3 Copy ......................................................................................... 9
3.4 A/B buffers ................................................................................ 9
3.5 Preset name and arrow controls .................................................... 9
3.6 Preset menu .............................................................................. 10
3.7 Factory Presets .......................................................................... 10
3.8 User Presets .............................................................................. 10
3.9 Save As… .................................................................................. 11
3.10 Save ...................................................................................... 11
3.11 User Preset Manager ................................................................. 11
3.12 Tools menu ............................................................................. 12
3.13 About ..................................................................................... 12
3.14 Register… ................................................................................ 13
3.15 Offline Register… ...................................................................... 14
3.16 Open User Manual .................................................................... 14
3.17 Preferences ............................................................................. 15
4. Tube Saturator 2 ............................................................................ 17
4.1 Overview .................................................................................. 17
4.2 About Tube Saturation ................................................................ 18
4.3 About the Technology ................................................................. 22
4.4 Tube Saturator 2 Schematics ....................................................... 22
4.5 Using Tube Saturator 2 ............................................................... 24
4.6 Parameters ............................................................................... 25
4.7 Presets ..................................................................................... 27
Support ............................................................................................ 29
Index ............................................................................................... 31
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1. Installation and Registration
1. Installation and Registration
On Mac OS-X, Tube Saturator 2 supports AU, VST2, VST3, and AAX plug-in
formats, both 32-bit and 64-bit. On Windows, Tube Saturator 2 supports
VST2, VST3, and AAX formats, both 32-bit and 64-bit. Installers for Mac and
Win platforms are found on the Wave Arts web site Downloads page.
Download and execute the installer for your platform. On Mac, the installer is
a “.dmg” file which reveals a “.pkg” file when opened, and on Win the
installer is a “.exe” file.
Tube Saturator supports both iLok licensing (required for AAX format) and
Wave Arts licensing. The installer will suggest installing AU and VST formats
using Wave Arts licensing and AAX format using iLok. Pro Tools users may
wish to put all licenses on their iLok account, so we provide the option to
install AU and VST formats using iLok.
The procedure to activate the plug-in differs depending on whether you are
using iLok or Wave Arts licensing.
1.1 Activation using iLok
When the plug-in first runs, or during installation of AU and VST formats on
Mac, it will check for a iLok license associated with the machine, or on any
iLok dongle plugged into the machine. If a license is not found, it will pop up
the following dialog:
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Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2
Clicking the activate button will bring up a dialog asking for your Pace
activation code. See below on how to get the activation code. You can
copy/paste it into the field and click Next. Then you will need to login to your
iLok account or create a new account. This is because the license needs to be
associated with an iLok account. Then you have the option of moving the
license to your machine or to an iLok2 dongle, original iLoks are not
supported.
To run as a demo, select “Try”. This will ask to login to an iLok account, or to
create a new account. Once the account is identified, a 14-day trial license is
deposited. Then you have the option of moving the license to your machine
or to an iLok2 dongle.
When you purchase Tube Saturator 2, you will receive an email containing
the product serial number, of the form WA-TS2-XXXXX-XXXXX. Go to our
website registration page, enter your name, the serial number, your email
address, and select Pace/iLok licensing. This will generate a Pace redeem
code, display it on screen, and send it to your email address.
There are two ways to redeem the code and generate a license. When
opening the plug-in the window shown above will appear giving you the
option to Activate the plug-in. You can paste the activation code there, and
proceed to create or login to an iLok account and then transfer the license to
an iLok or your machine. Otherwise, go to http://www.ilok.com, create an
iLok account, and download and install the iLok License Manager. Within the
manager, under the Licenses menu, select “Redeem Activation Code” and
paste your activation code. Then transfer the license to either an iLok dongle
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1. Installation and Registration
or your machine. The plug-in will run only if it can find a license on an iLok
dongle or the machine.
1.2 Registration using Wave Arts Licensing
When using Wave Arts licensing, the plug-in will run as a 30-day time-limited
demo until it is registered, which unlocks it. When you purchase Tube
Saturator 2, you will receive an email containing the product serial number,
of the form WA-TS2-XXXXX-XXXXX. To register, open the plug-in, and select
the Tools->Register option. Then enter your serial number, name, email
address. The plug-in will be unlocked.
If your machine is not connected to the internet you will need to follow the
offline registration procedure. This is described in chapter 3.
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Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2
2. Plug-in Control Operation
2.1 Knobs
Please refer to the following guide for information about the various ways you can
use knobs:
Function Mac
Increase/Decrease a parameter value (rotate
clockwise/counterclockwise)
Fine adjustment — increase/decrease
Reset knob to default value
Click on the knob +
drag up/down
Shift + click + drag
up/down
AAX: Command +
click
Command + click
-or-
Double-click
Click on the knob +
Right click + drag
Shift + click + drag
AAX: Ctrl + click
Windows
drag up/down
up/down
-or-
up/down
Control + click
-or-
Double-click
AAX: Option + click
AAX: Alt + click
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3. Menu Bar and Preset Manager
3. Menu Bar and Preset Manager
Tube Saturator 2 has the following menu bar displayed at the top of the plug-in:
This section describes the operation of the menu bar, preset manager, and the
other functions available in the menus.
3.1 Bypass
Clicking on the bypass button bypasses the effect, that is, audio will pass through
the effect without alteration. The button is lit when the effect is bypassed.
3.2 Undo
Clicking the Undo button causes the parameters to revert to their settings prior to
the last edit. Only one level of undo is available, so clicking the undo button again
will restore the parameters after the edit. Both A and B buffers (described below)
have their own undo buffers.
3.3 Copy
Clicking the Copy button copies the current set of effect parameters to the unused
A/B buffer. Hence, if the A buffer is currently selected, the parameters are copied to
B, and if the B buffer is selected, the parameters are copied to A. A fter clicking
Copy, you can continue to make changes, and then revert to the original copied
settings by clicking either the A or B buttons to switch buffers.
3.4 A/B buffers
The A/B edit buffers allow you to compare two different sets of parameters or
presets. One of the A or B buttons is always lit; the button that is lit shows the
current buffer. Clicking either the A or B button will switch to using the other buffer,
thus changing the effect settings (assuming different settings are stored in A and
B).
Here’s how to use the A/B buffers to compare two different presets. Select a preset
from the Preset menu, then switch to the other buffer and select a different preset.
Now switch between the A/B buffers to alternate between the two different presets.
3.5 Preset name and arrow controls
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Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2
The currently selected preset name is displayed in the text field in the menu bar.
Changing any parameters causes an asterisk (*) to be displayed at the end of the
name. This indicates that changes have been made to the preset. In order to save
the changes to a user preset you must select the “Save” or “Save As…” item in the
Preset menu, described below.
The arrow controls to the left and right of the preset name cycle through the set of
factory and user presets. Clicking the right arrow goes to the next preset, clicking
the left arrow goes to the previous preset.
3.6 Preset menu
The Preset menu contains lists of factory and user presets for easy selection, and
options for managing presets. The functions are described in the following sections.
3.7 Factory Presets
Factory presets are selected from a rolloff menu at the top of the Preset menu.
Factory presets cannot be modified or deleted. The Default preset is always first in
the list; it defines all default parameter settings.
3.8 User Presets
User presets are selected from a rolloff menu just below the Factory presets in the
Preset menu. When you first run a Wave Arts plug-in, there will not be any user
presets and the menu will be empty. When you save a preset using the “Save As…”
option the preset is added to the User menu. All instances of a plug-in share the
same set of user presets. So, after you save a preset with one instance of a plug-in,
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3. Menu Bar and Preset Manager
you can go to another instance and find that the preset can be found in its User
preset menu too.
User presets are stored in a text file called “TubeSaturator 2 Presets.txt”. On
Macintosh, the presets are stored in the folder “/Library/Application Support/Wave
Arts/Tube Saturator 2”. On Windows the presets are stored in the folder
“C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Wave Arts\Tube Saturator 2”. If the preset
file is deleted it will be created automatically by the plug-in.
3.9 Save As…
When you have created an effect you want to save as a preset, select the “Save
As…” option. You will be asked to name the preset and the preset will be saved in
the set of User presets. If you supply the same name as an existing user preset,
you’ll get two presets with the same name.
3.10 Save
Select the Save item to save changes to an existing user preset. This option is
disabled when you are not editing a user preset, or if the preset has not changed.
3.11 User Preset Manager
The User preset manager is used to rename, delete, and re-organize user presets.
The manager is shown below. Click the Rename button to rename a preset, click
Delete to delete a preset. The organization can be changed by selecting a preset
and clicking the Move Up and Move Down buttons to change the preset’s menu
position. Click Cancel to ignore changes made, OK to accept changes.
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Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2
3.12 Tools menu
The Tools menu contains various important options, described below.
3.13 About
The About option displays important information about your plug-in. An example is
shown below:
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3. Menu Bar and Preset Manager
On the top line, the plug-in name and version are displayed, along with the current
plug-in format (VST, AU, or AAX) and architecture (32-bit or 64-bit). This is useful
if you aren’t sure which format of the plug you are running. The build date of the
plug-in is displayed on the next line. The registration status is shown below.
3.14 Register…
Select this option to register your plug-in. The Register and Offline Register options
are shown only when using Wave Arts licensing and when the plug is running in
demo mode. The Register option puts up the following window:
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Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2
Enter your serial number (sent to you when you purchased the product), name, and
email address. Your name and email address are needed to recover your serial
number in case you lose it. When registering a plug-in which is part of a bundle,
you can register any product and the entire bundle will be registered.
3.15 Offline Register…
Use this option to register your product without an internet connection. The Offline
Register option puts up the following window:
Using another computer that has an internet connection, open a browser and go to
the Wave Arts registration page (http://wavearts.com/support/registration). Select
“Wave Arts” licensing, and enter your serial, name, email address, and the 5-digit
machine ID shown in the window. You will be emailed a key file. Copy the key file
onto a flash drive and move it onto the target computer, then click “Open Keyfile”
and browse to the file and open it. You may also copy the text in the file and paste
it using the Copy/Paste option.
3.16 Open User Manual
This will launch a PDF viewer and open the user manual.
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3. Menu Bar and Preset Manager
3.17 Preferences
Select this option to customize the user-interface. The following window will be
shown:
The “Show knob value popups” option will popup a value display when a knob is
changed. This can be useful to accurately set a knob value.
The Knob drag mode has the following settings:
Drag mode Description
Circular Drag in a circular arc around the center
point of the knob
Left-right Drag horizontally left and right
Up-down Drag vertically up and down
Left-right/up-down Drag either left-right or up-down
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4. Tube Saturator 2
4. Tube Saturator 2
Figure 4-1. Tube Saturator 2 user interface.
4.1 Overview
The Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2 plug-in is an exact digital simulation of a dual
triode tube preamp with a three-band equalizer. Tube Saturator 2 authentically
recreates the sound of a tube amp being overdriven. It can add a touch of analog
warmth to a recording, or can be driven heavily into distortion.
Tube Saturator 2 features the following:
Dual triode preamp
12AX7 and 12AU7 tubes
Drive control for distortion adjustment
Baxandall 3-band EQ, with pre and post EQ modes
2x oversampling mode
Wet/dry mix and output gain
Bypasses for saturation and EQ
Accurate analog circuit simulation technology
Analog style metering
Tube Saturator 2's audio routing is shown below:
Figure 4-2. Tube Saturator 2 audio routing.
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Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2
The signal is first upsampled to twice the sampling rate if the 2x oversampling
option is enabled. It is then processed by the saturation and EQ modules. The EQ
processing happens first if the EQ is in “PRE” mode, if in “POST” mode the EQ is
applied after saturation. Saturation is achieved by overdriving the tube preamp.
The Drive control adjusts the amount of tube amp saturation by increasing the gain
at the input of the circuit; higher levels of input gain increase the amount of
saturation. In order to keep the overall gain roughly constant, the Drive control also
adjusts the output gain to counteract the input gain, this happens automatically.
The saturated and equalized signal is then mixed with the dry signal, optionally
downsampled, and then the output gain and metering are processed.
4.2 About Tube Saturation
Tube amps have long been revered by guitarists and other musicians as having a
fat warm sound that solid state (transistor) amps lack. This section will describe the
basics of tube amplifiers, their distortion characteristics, and why they sound better
than solid state amplifiers.
We will start with the basic building block of tube amplifiers, the triode, whose
circuit schematic element is shown below:
Figure 4-3. Basic triode circuit element.
The triode consists of a plate (also called anode), a cathode, and a control grid.
These are metal components sealed in a vacuum, usually a glass tube, and hence
the term "vacuum tube". The cathode is heated with an electric heating element not
shown in the above schematic. In operation, a high positive voltage is applied to
the plate. Negatively charged electrons escaping the heated cathode are attracted
to the positive plate, and hence electrons flow from the cathode to the plate. In
electronics the convention is to discuss the flow of positive charge, hence we say
there is a current from the plate to the cathode. The control grid is a metal screen
between the plate and cathode. Applying a negative voltage to the grid impedes the
current flow because the electrons leaving the cathode are repelled by the
negatively charged grid. By adjusting the voltage on the grid, the current flow from
plate to cathode is controlled. The triode functions much like a water valve with the
signal on the grid controlling the current flowing from the plate to the cathode (in
fact tubes are commonly called "valves").
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4. Tube Saturator 2
Figure 4-4. Simple triode amplifier. Input voltage on grid controls the current flow and hence the
output voltage.
The circuit in figure 4-4 above shows how the properties of the triode can be used
to construct a voltage amplifier. In the circuit a 300 volt power supply is connected
to the plate through a 100 kilohm resistor. Current flowing from the power supply
to the plate to the cathode causes a voltage drop across the resistor. With a 100
kilohm resistor, a 1 milliamp current causes a 100 volt drop. The graph in figure 45 shows the relationship between the voltage applied to the grid and the voltage at
the output. With no voltage applied to the grid, i.e. grid at 0 volts, there is
approximately 2 milliamps of current flowing, the voltage drop across the plate
resistor is about 200 volts, and hence the output voltage is 100 volts. With the grid
at -1 volts, there is less current flowing and the output voltage rises to about 170
volts. Hence a 1 volt change in the input has resulted in a 70 volt change in the
output, so this simple circuit can amplify the input voltage by a factor of 70.
Figure 4-5. Relationship between grid voltage and output voltage in triode amp from figure 4-4.
For small swings in grid voltage around -1 volt we see that the graph is reasonably
straight, that is, the amplification is fairly linear and distortion-free, though a small
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Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2
amount of distortion is created due to the curvature of the graph. We also note that
this amplifier is "inverting", that is the output voltage rises when the input voltage
drops and vice-versa.
For large negative or positive grid voltages, the graph flattens out because the
amplifier can only produce a limited r ange of voltages. This means that large input
signals will result in clipped, or distorted, output signals. Clipping is also called
"saturation", wh ich explains the name "Tube Saturator". The nature of the clipping
in a triode differs for negative and positive inputs.
For large negative grid voltages, the current flow nears "cutoff" where there is no
current flow from the plate, and the output voltage approaches the power supply
voltage, in this case 300V. This type of clipping is called "plate cutoff".
For large positive grid voltages the output voltage reaches a minimum which is
determined by the maximum current the plate can pass. However, this type of
clipping does not occur in practice because another phenomenon usually dominates
the behavior. When the grid voltage is positive with respect to the cathode,
electrons leaving the cathode are attracted to the positively charged grid rather
than repelled by it. The onset of grid current for positive grid voltages is rapid, and
the effect is to immediately decrease the input signal voltage due to current flowing
through the internal resistance of the circuit driving the grid. Hence, grid current
causes the input signal to be clipped. The mechanism of grid current clipping the
input signal determines how the amplifier will clip positive input signals.
Figure 4-6. Complete triode amplifier including cathode bias circuit and DC removal circuit.
A complete triode amplifier schematic is shown in figure 4-6. It has a few additional
details missing from the previous example. First there is a "cathode bias circuit"
whose purpose is to apply a small positive voltage to the cathode, in this case
+1.5V. This allows the grid voltage to assume positive values up to +1.5V without
causing a positive grid to cathode voltage which would cause grid current and input
clipping. Hence for small input signals oscillating say between -1 and +1 volts the
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4. Tube Saturator 2
cathode bias ensures linear distortion-free amplification. The second addition is a
"DC removal circuit" on the output which removes the large constant power supply
voltage. So, instead of the output ranging from say 0 volts to 300 volts, the output
will range from say -150 volts to +150 volts.
Figure 4-7. Left: 100 Hz input sinusoid. Right: resulting response of the complete triode amplifier for 1
volt input (blue dotted), 2 volt input (green dashed) and 4 volt input (red solid).
The response of the complete triode amplifier is shown in figure 4-7. On the left is a
single period of a 100 Hz input sinusoid with amplitude of 1 volt. On the right are
the outputs of the amplifier for different input amplitudes: 1 volt (blue dotted plot),
2 volts (green dashed plot), and 4 volts (red solid plot). One can clearly see that
the 4V input has caused an output that is clipped. However, the clipping is smooth
with rounded edges on both positive and negative waveforms. The other important
factor is that the output waveform is asymmetrical: the negative amplitudes are
greater than the positive amplitudes and the shape of the positive and negative
clipping is slightly different. The positive input causes a negative output which is
clipped due to grid current, while the negative input causes a positive output which
is clipped due to plate cutoff.
Transistor amplifiers have very different characteristics. They are very linear until
they hard clip, and the hard clipping characteristic is the same for positive and
negative inputs. Hence, transistor amplifiers will clip by producing square waves
whose positive and negative shapes are symmetrical. The symmetry is important
because it determines the harmonic content of the distortion. Symmetrical
waveforms as produced by transistor amplifiers produce odd harmonic distortion,
for example a 100 Hz tone would produce distortion harmonics at 300 Hz, 500 Hz,
700 Hz, etc. Asymmetrical waveforms as produces by tube amplifiers also produce
even harmonic distortion, for example a 100 Hz tone would produce 200 Hz, 400
Hz, 600 Hz, etc. in addition to the odd harmonic products. The even harmonics,
being octaves of the original tone, have a different (and many would say more
pleasing) timbre than the odd harmonics.
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Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2
In summary, the basic triode amplifier can produce linear distortion free
amplification for small input signals. Larger input signals cause clipping, but the
saturation characteristics are very smooth. Hence the onset of distortion is very
gradual rather than abrupt and the distortion is less harsh. There are different
mechanisms responsible for positive and negative clipping, this results in
asymmetrical distortion and the production of even harmonic distortion products
which gives a more musical tone.
4.3 About the Technology
What makes Tube Saturator 2 special is the technology used to simulate the tube
sound. On the surface, it appears similar to a myriad of other plug-ins that purport
to reproduce the sound of some analog circuit. However, under the surface, Tube
Saturator 2 uses technology that really does accurately reproduce analog circuits.
The technology, aptly called “circuit simulation,” is not new. The best known circuit
simulation program, called “SPICE,” was developed at UC Berkeley in the 1970s.
Using SPICE, an engineer can enter the schematic of a circuit and then simulate its
operation with a very high degree of accuracy. SPICE was not intended to simulate
circuits in realtime; typically SPICE users simulate circuits for brief periods of time
to verify proper operation with particular input signals. Wave Arts has developed
circuit simulation software similar to SPICE which has been optimized to run in
realtime, hence it can be used as the basis for digital audio effects. This technology
was used to implement the original Tube Saturator plug-in. However, it was still
very CPU intensive, and there was demand for the same authentic sound quality
with significantly less CPU consumption.
For Tube Saturator 2, we’ve taken another step forward. In order to greatly speed
up processing, Tube Saturator 2 uses large tables of pre-calculated data output by
our circuit simulator. Using the pre-calculated data speeds up the processing with
negligible decrease in accuracy. To ensure accuracy, we carefully compare the
output of the data-driven model with the original circuit simulation and adjust the
data sampling until the two models match with a high degree of precision.
4.4 Tube Saturator 2 Schematics
Tube Saturator 2 combines a Baxandall 3-band equalizer and a two stage triode
preamp. The circuit schematic for the equalizer is given in Figure 4-8.
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4. Tube Saturator 2
Figure 4-8. Baxandall style equalizer used in Tube Saturator 2, derived from version by Chu Moy,
http://www.headwize.com/projects/equal_prj.htm.
The bass control implements a low shelving filter with a transition frequency of
approximately 100 Hz, that is the frequency at which the shelf is at half-height. For
example, when the height is set at +12 dB, the response will be +6 dB at 100 Hz.
The midrange control implements a parametric boost/cut with a center frequency
of 800 Hz and a very low Q of about 0.2, hence the boost/cut lobe is very wide.
The treble control implements a high shelf filter with a transition frequency of
approximately 1 kHz, that is the frequency at which the shelf is at half-height. For
example, when the height is set at +12 dB, the response will be +6 dB at 1 kHz.
The circuit schematic for the preamp is shown in figure 4-9.
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Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2
Figure 4-9. Preamp consisting of two triode amplifier stages.
Both triodes are either the 12AX7 or 12AU7 type.
The preamp in Tube Saturator 2 is responsible for generating the saturation effect.
The preamp consists of two common cathode triode amplifiers based on the 12AX7
or 12AU7 tube. This configuration is quite typical to find in tube guitar amps or tube
hi-fi amps. Multiple stages of amplification are usually needed to bring a signal from
the millivolt range up to the volt range in order to drive the input of a power
amplifier. Here we are using the amplifier sections to simply model the sound of
tube amplification and overdrive. A single 12AX7 or 12AU7 tube contains two
triodes so this circuit would be implemented with a single physical tube.
When the Drive control is at minimum, the amplifiers are running in a very clean
mode with no appreciable saturation effect. However, there is still a small amount
of harmonic distortion created by the tube amplification which is not perfectly
linear. As the Drive is increased, the input gain is increased and the second
amplifier stage will be overdriven and will begin to saturate. Further increases in
Drive will cause the first stage to saturate too.
4.5 Using Tube Saturator 2
Tube Saturator 2 can be used to add the subtle harmonic distortion caused by tube
amplification. Unlike solid state amplifiers which generate odd harmonic distortion,
tube amps also create even harmonic distortion which sounds decidedly different.
At low Drive settings the harmonic distortion simulates clean tube amplification. At
higher Drive settings you will start to hear tube saturation effects, increasing to a
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4. Tube Saturator 2
fairly distorted sound at maximum Drive. The character of the distortion is greatly
affected by the selection of 12AX7 versus 12AU7 tubes. The 12AX7 tube distortion
features prominent even harmonics, whereas the 12AU7 distortion has both odd
and even harmonics.
Because a tube amp naturally implements a soft peak limiter, it is possible to send
transient signals through Tube Saturator 2 with enough gain to bring up the low
level signals cleanly while the high level signals cause soft clipping. Essentially this
is soft peak limiting, and it will sound like compression with the transient peaks
getting fattened by the soft clipping. Try it with drums and percussive sounds.
The EQ has bass, mid, and treble frequency bands, each with a +/- 12 dB level
control. The bass is a low frequency shelf with 100 Hz transition frequency, the mid
is a wide parametric filter with 800 Hz center frequency, and the treble is a high
frequency shelf with a 1 kHz transition frequency. When running in PRE mode the
EQ alters the frequency content before saturation, so for example you could boost
the bass to get a fatter sounding distortion. When running in POST mode the EQ
alters the tonal balance of the harmonic distortion. In combination with the wet/dry
mix control this provides a lot of flexibility for tailoring the effect.
Distortion effects create harmonic overtones. When these overtones exceed half the
sampling rate (the Nyquist frequency), they wrap around, becoming inharmonic –
this is called aliasing. To reduce the amount of aliasing, you can simply turn on the
2X oversampling option. This doubles the sampling rate of the saturation and EQ
modules using a high quality sample rate conversion algorithm. Of course it takes
roughly twice the CPU power to run in 2X mode.
When running in stereo, the left and right channels get independent effects sharing
the same parameters. It's just like running two mono Tube Saturator 2 effects, one
on each channel. The output meter shows the peak across the stereo channels.
Internally, Tube Saturator 2 runs at only the following sampling rates: 44.1, 48,
88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz. When processing sound sampled at a different rate,
the sound will be automatically resampled to the closest higher supported rate.
Also, the 2X oversampling mode is not available at rates higher than 96 kHz,
enabling it has no effect.
4.6 Parameters
The table below lists all the internal parameters of Tube Saturator 2 and shows the
range of values as would be displayed by a generic parameter-value plug-in
interface. All of these parameters have a one to one correspondence with controls
on the user interface.
Parameter name Values
Enable 0 = Off, 1 = On
Sat Enable 0 = Off, 1 = On
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Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2
Tube 0 = 12AX7, 1 = 12AU7
Drive 0 to 10
EQ Enable 0 = Off, 1 = On
EQ Pre/Post 0 = POST, 1 = PRE
Bass -12 to +12 dB
Mid -12 to +12 dB
Treble -12 to +12 dB
2x Rate 0 = Off, 1 = On
Mix 0% (dry) to 100% (wet)
Out Gain -12 to +12 dB
The parameters are described in more detail below.
Enable — This parameter enables/bypasses Tube Saturator 2. It is controlled by
the Bypass button on the menu bar; enabling the Bypass disables Tube Saturator 2
and vice versa.
Sat Enable — This parameter enables/bypasses the saturation circuit consisting of
the tube preamp with drive circuitry.
Drive — The Drive parameter simultaneously controls the input and output gains
around the tube preamp circuit, as shown in Figure 4-2. At low drive levels,
increasing the drive increases the input gain and also decreases the output gain. At
higher drive levels where the tube preamp is already saturating and hence limiting
the output, increasing the drive simply increases the input gain. The idea is that the
drive control sets the amount of distortion while keeping the level roughly constant.
However you may still need to adjust the output gain.
At maximum setting, the Drive control increases the input signal level by a factor of
100, or 40 dB, relative to the minimum setting. The actual range of the Drive
control depends on the tube type in use. For the 12AX7 tube, the Drive control
changes the preamp input signal level from a minimum of 10 millivolts to a
maximum of 1 volt. For the 12AU7 tube, the range is 100 millivolts to 10 volts, i.e.,
+20 dB relative to the 12AX7 range. The 12AU7 triode has much lower
amplification gain than the 12AX7, hence to achieve the same saturation effect,
Tube Saturator 2 drives the 12AU7 triodes harder.
EQ Enable — Enables/bypasses the equalizer. Because the EQ is a genuine circuit
simulation of an analog EQ circuit, it consumes more CPU power than a standard
digital EQ, so you may want to bypass the EQ when not in use.
EQ Pre/Post — In PRE mode the equalizer processes the input to the tube preamp
saturator. In POST mode the equalizer processes the output of the saturator.
Bass — Sets the EQ bass level. The bass is a low shelf filter with a transition
frequency of 100 Hz.
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4. Tube Saturator 2
Mid — Sets the EQ midrange level. The midrange is a parametric filter with a
center frequency of 800 Hz and a Q of 0.2.
Treble — Sets the EQ treble level. The treble is a high shelf filter with a transition
frequency of 1 kHz.
2X Rate — Enables/disables the 2X oversampling mode. When enabled both the
EQ and saturation effect run at twice the sampling rate of your audio in order to
reduce aliasing distortion and to more accurately simulate true analog circuitry.
Mix — Mixes the unprocessed (dry) signal with saturated and/or equalized (wet)
signal.
Output gain — Sets the output gain.
4.7 Presets
Tube Saturator 2 factory presets are listed in the table below.
Name Description
Default Default settings
Subtle Warm Very mild saturation
Warm-a-mix Fatting loudness control for mixes
Tube X Crunch Light distortion with X tube for even harms
Tube U Crunch Light distortion with U tube for all harms
Tube X Shred Heavy X tube distortion
Tube U Shred Heavy U tube distortion
Bass boom Pre distortion bass boost
Bass enhance Bass distortion harmonics mixed in
Harm mix-in Mix in some harmonic distortion
Clean loud EQ Clean EQ with bass and treble boost
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Support
Support
For assistance, please send email to:
support@wavearts.com
If you are having problems with a plug-in, please include the following information: plug-in
name, operating system, and host software you are using. The version numbers are also
helpful.
For software updates, revision history, frequently asked questions (FAQ), and more, please
visit our website at:
www.wavearts.com
Contact information:
Wave Arts, Inc.
99 Massachusetts Ave.
Arlington, MA 02474
support: 866-925-5070
tel: +1 781-646-3794
fax: +1 781-646-7190
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Index
Index
A
A/B buffers ................................... 9
Audio routing ............................... 17
B
Bass ............................................ 26
Bypass ......................................... 9
C
Circuit simulation .......................... 22
Copy ............................................ 9
D
Drive ..................................... 24, 26
E
EQ .............................................. 22
F
Factory presets ............................. 10
H
Harmonics ............................. 21, 25
I
iLok ............................................. 5
K
Knobs........................................... 8
M
Menu bar ...................................... 9
Mid ............................................. 27
O
Offline Register ............................. 14
P
Preamp ........................................ 24
Preferences .................................. 15
Preset name ................................. 10
Presets .................................. 10, 27
R
Register ....................................... 13
S
Saturation .............................. 20, 21
Save preset .................................. 11
Serial number ................................ 6
T
Tools menu .................................. 12
Treble ......................................... 27
Triode ......................................... 18
U
Undo ............................................ 9
User manual ................................. 14
User Preset Manager ..................... 11
User Presets ................................. 10
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