Leapwing Audio
Ever since the impressive DynOne made us
re-think everything we knew about parallel
compression, the Belgium-based Leapwing
Audio have kept us well fed with a slew of
instant-buys. From the algorithmic, spatial
manoeuvring of CenterOne, to the clever,
harmonic sculpting of RootOne, Leapwing have
cemented themselves as key plugin players.
With their latest sound tool, the company
veer of from the ‘One’ series (to be honest, it
was getting quite confusing) and deliver a series
of carefully crafted sonic proiles under one roof,
tailored to enhance speciic instruments in a
mix, as well as the entire mix bus. The source of
these proiles, one Al Schmitt – legendary
producer of Jeferson Airplane and Neil Young,
and engineer for Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles,
Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Madonna, who
sadly passed away as we went to press.
Needless to say, Al’s studio processes helped
shape some of humanity’s most beloved music.
So, having this genius’s twinkly aural magic sat
on your hard drive, waiting to be applied to your
own tracks, is an incredibly appealing prospect.
Take flight
In making this plugin, Leapwing studied Al’s
worklow across the decades, carving the
nuanced proiles from his favoured approaches,
Leapwing Audio
Al Schmitt £139
Bottling the sonic signature of the sadly departed producer, Leapwing
Audio’s latest plugin promises the sound of a legend…
“Having this genius’
twinkly aural magic sat
on your hard drive,
applied to your tracks, is
an appealing prospect”
SOURCE TYPE
Select between the
six main profiles
INPUT GAIN
Adjust level of the
signal coming into
the plugin
ECHO TYPE
Choose between three echo
chambers and hardware types
MAIN GUI
Displays an image of the current
profile, with real-time volume display
AIR TYPE
Switch between three
types of Air adjustment
COMPRESSION
Scroll between various compression
ratios and thresholds
BODY LEVEL
Boosts or reduces
the sub 1kHz
frequencies based
on Al’s specifics
PRESETS
Flick between the preset options
for the selected profile
AIR LEVEL
Boosts or reduces
the top end of the
EQ based on
Al’s specifics
OUTPUT GAIN
Adjust output level
and allow for
gain staging
ECHO LEVEL
Adjust the
reverb level
ranging from mix-wide considerations, to
subtler harmonics per instrument. The six
district proiles are Vocal, Piano, Bass, Brass,
Strings and Mix, each of which have unique
parameters. There are a handful of presets
within each proile, though not multitudes (just
14 in total) as the emphasis here is on getting to
the ‘instant Al’ sound quickly.
Upon installing, and loading up the Vocal
proile, we add an instance of Al on a dryly
recorded vocal track. We’re presented with the
gorgeous (and scaleable – tick!) UI. At the centre
of which, we see an image of a small, old school
vintage microphone. As we quickly skim
through the proiles, we see the main image
change to relect what’s currently selected.
Sticking with the Vocal proile in the irst
instance then, we try out the Edgy Vocal preset,
which adds a heap of compression but lots of air
to our track, immediately altering its attitude
and tone. Flicking to the second of the three
70 / COMPUTER MUSIC / July 2021
> reviews / leapwing audio al schmitt
CMU296.rev_Leapwing.indd 70CMU296.rev_Leapwing.indd 70 30/04/2021 12:4430/04/2021 12:44