AUDIOTHING WAVE BOX

With two wave shapers, two LFOs and an envelope shaper onboard, could this unassuming new plugin be the perfect distortion package?

Having set themselves a new benchmark with the stellar Outer Space delay (10/10, 245), Audio Thing’s latest plugin has a lot to live up to. Wave Box (VST/AU/AAX) is a dual waveshaper with a few nifty tricks up its sleeve…

In the Box

At the heart of Wave Box are its two waveshapers – Curve 1 and Curve 2 – each accessing a library of six waveshapes. These comprise sine, hyperbolic sine and tangent, floor- and ceiling-rounded square waves, and a linear function. The Curve 1 and 2 knobs control the amount of shaping applied – increasing the ‘step resolution’ of the Floor and Round waves, for example, or tilting the linear function towards vertical.

The way in which the two shapers are combined depends on whether the plugin is in Symmetrical or Asymmetrical mode, as switched between using the top left button. In Asymmetrical mode, Curve 1 shapes the positive side of the signal and Curve 2 shapes the negative, with the Bias slider shifting the centre point between them up and down from its central (50%) position. In Symmetrical mode, both shapers process the entire signal, and Bias mixes them together.

Whichever mode Wave Box is in, lowering the Ceiling slider narrows the dynamic range of the waveshaping by compressing both sides of the curve(s) towards the centre line. The shape of the transfer wave resulting from all these adjustments and any modulation applied (see Throwing shapes) is visible in the ‘oscilloscope’.

In the Master section of the interface, the Input knob dials in attenuation or up to 12dB of overdrive, and the Out knob ranges covers the same range at the other end of the signal flow. Parallel processing is on hand via the Mix knob, while the Hard Clip button kicks in a limiter, and up to 16x oversampling (for balancing aliasing with CPU hit) can be activated using the four multiplier buttons.

Finally, AudioThing’s ever-present randomisation system lets you scramble all parameters at the click of a button, with the option to render individual controls immune by locking them.

Ride the Wave

Wave Box not only sounds wicked but also demonstrates impressive versatility, despite its apparently straightforward architecture. With Asymmetrical mode generating even harmonics and Symmetrical mode generating odd harmonics, the difference in results between the two is profound; and experimenting with Curve combinations opens up a huge range of distortion flavours, from gentle presence enhancement to industrial-scale decimation. Of course, modulation is key to the whole – ahem – thing, with the LFOs bringing the rhythm and the envelope follower ideal for toughening up transients in drum tracks, adding bite to basslines and guitars, rounding off peaky signals and so on. We’re perplexed by the glaring lack of a filter, though, as even a simple low-pass model would surely prove enormously useful, not just for reining in the plugin’s wonderful but frequently ear-shredding excesses, but also as a target for creative modulation.

That obvious omission aside, Wave Box packs a wealth of quality waveshaping into an intuitive, musical plugin at a great price.