Waves Ships Silk Vocal Plugin

US A smart EQ and Dynamics plugin for vocals 27/11/23

Waves Audio is now shipping the Silk Vocal plugin, which they describe as a smart EQ and Dynamics plugin for vocals. Here's the details in the company's own words...

Silk Vocal takes your vocals from raw to pro--in no time. Using innovating technology to intelligently process EQ and dynamics, the plugin helps you achieve balanced, well-mixed vocals quickly and easily. With this plugin, you can seamlessly bypass the technicalities and guesswork of mixing vocals, leaving you less fatigued and better equipped to make creative mixing choices.

As any engineer knows, the intricacies of mixing vocals pose a unique set of challenges, as each vocal is distinct. Overly resonant frequencies, boominess, harshness and sibilance often prevent vocals from sitting naturally in the mix, and addressing these issues sensitively requires considerable time, precision, and an accurate monitoring environment.

Silk Vocal simplifies and accelerates your vocal mixing process, helping you solve these problems with ease. Silk Vocal automatically detects resonances across 2000 analysis bands, zeroes in on problematic resonances, and successfully balances your vocal tracks. Its smart vocal engine determines where and when processing should occur – all you will often need to do is just dial in the extent of the processing if desired.

Using just the automated processing of this one plugin, you can get the polished vocal mix results that you would normally need several plugins to achieve.

If you want to further fine-tune Silk Vocal's automated processing, the plugin includes several additional easy-to-use controls:

Low: Tightens the boomy, muddy, inflated low end that vocal recordings often suffer from due to proximity effect and room issues, while ensuring that the natural warmth of the vocal stays intact.

Mid: Addresses the most critical area in the vocal to get right in mixing, with adjustable filters which determine which frequencies will be processed by the smart EQ. Finely focused EQ reduces harshness and bite without losing the voice's character.

High: Toggles between Sibilance and High processing, to determine which one gives you the smoothest and most balanced top end.

Dynamics: Features the most musical single-dial compression possible. Once you've tonally balanced your vocals with the smart EQ, a few dB of compression helps to keep them tight, upfront and consistent.

Auto Makeup Gain: The default setting of the plugin is with auto makeup gain on, meaning smart EQ reduction is continuously and adaptively compensated with a level increase. You have the option of turning this off and setting your own levels.

Additionally, Silk Vocal advanced settings include:

HPF: A high-pass filter at 60 Hz, which filters out sub frequencies from the vocal.

Speed: Adjusts the envelope of the smart EQ processing by way of a fixed attack-release ratio that, depending on the vocal, you may set for faster or slower processing.

Precision: Adjusts the sharpness of the Q in each of the processing bands. Choose lower values for more surgical processing, and higher values for smoother results.

When you purchase Silk Vocal, you also receive a license for Silk Vocal Live, a separate plugin, SoundGrid compatible, which is a real-time version of Silk Vocal. It operates like the original but utilizes minimum phase curves rather than linear phase, resulting in significantly reduced latency. Silk Vocal Live is not only for live settings; it can also be used for recording in the studio, letting you monitor exactly how the plugin sounds on the voice in real time.

Waves Silk Vocal Features:

Smart EQ and dynamics processor for vocals

Remove boominess, harshness and sibilance from vocals

Includes license for Silk Vocal Live, a real-time version of the plugin

Male voice and female voice modes

Includes High Pass Filter, Gate, Mix, band solo, band bypass, Delta (hear removed audio), Speed & Precision controls

Transform raw vocals to balanced and mixed vocals in no time

Accelerate your vocal mixing and remove guesswork

Seamless and musical dynamics control

Linear phase processing curves

Adjustable midrange tuning for more focused processing

Pricing and Availability:

Waves Silk Vocal is available as a single plugin, or in the Mercury, Vocal Production, Pro Show, and SD7 Pro Show bundles. It has also been added to the Waves Essential plugin subscription, which includes over 110 plugins, and Waves Ultimate plugin subscription, which includes all 230+ Waves plugins as monthly or annual subscriptions.

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