Audified Tonespot CM
> Step by step Exploring ToneSpot CM
1 Tonespot CM may look like a basic plugin, but it has lots going on under the hood. Its preset-based design has nine processors similar to those found in Audified’s Pro and Express plugins, except you don’t get to edit the parameters. That’s why there are a bunch of target specific presets.
2 The point and shoot simplicity has one caveat, and that is that you set up the input levels properly. So with an instance loaded, and some audio ready to process (we’ve loaded up a bass guitar part), select the spanner in the top right and choose the Set Calibration option.
3 You’ll now see a slider in the top bar and all you have to do is play your track and adjust the slider until the signal peaks roughly around 0dBVU. You’ll see from the picture that for our bass guitar part this is roughly -13dBVU.
4 Now let’s load a preset. From the bass folder we’ve used Edge Bass. This brightens the attack and is an overall more polished sound. If we switch metering to gain reduction, we can also see that there is minimal compression. However, increase the input and we get some gain reduction and a gently driven effect.
5 Let’s try the next bass preset, Fat Bass. Straightaway we hear quite a bit of compression and this is confirmed by the meter (up to 10dB gain reduction). If it’s too much, we could reduce the input. Alternatively, to mix in the heavy compression, use the Dry Mix blend.
6 Tonespot CM has a number of drum kit focused presets. Here we’ve loaded up our tutorial drum kit sounds, and first up are the kick and snare. We’ve found a couple of suitable presets and then adjusted the Input levels to get the right level of compression. Also try adjusting the Dry Mix to get a better blend.
7 For the room sound we’re going for a lo-fi effect and the Room Destroyer preset is ideal. Once again we’ve reduced the Input level to control the amount of compression and used the Output as a gain make up.
8 Let’s finish up with some guitars. First acoustic, and the Clear Strumming preset from the Acoustic folder works quite well. It incorporates reverb as well as sweetening EQ and compression. We’ve used the Dry Mix control to get just the right balance of effect.
9 Finally, for our electric guitar riff sound we’ve used the Atmo Ballad preset from the Electric folder. This is super spacey and the original delay setting is quite long (1/2 note). We’ve reduced this to 1/8 and again used the Dry Mix to get the overall effect mix we want.