Waves

Waves’ clearly successful partnership with
Grammy-winning producer/engineer Andrew
Scheps (Adele, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jay Z et al)
continues with the release of this all-
encompassing channel strip plugin. The design
brief was to create a comprehensive modular
suite of processors to deliver the “classic
deinition of a channel strip” along with the
lexibility of a “mixing and matching” approach.
Scheps Omni Channel (VST/AU/AAX) is hardly
the irst plugin to do either – or both – of these
things, of course, but production legend Tony
Visconti already rates it as his favourite channel
strip, and we really liked Waves Scheps 73 (8/10,
203), so expectations are high.
Omnipresent
Scheps Omni Channel’s ive main modules
comprise Pre, EQ, Compressor, Gate and DS
2
, all
of which are freely reorderable by dragging.
There’s also an insert slot into which any one of
your other installed Waves plugins can be
instantiated; and at the very end of the chain is
the Master section, where I/O levels are
adjusted, monitoring is controlled and brickwall
limiting is applied.
When irst launched, all ive modules are
visible, but clicking the button at the top right of
any one of them pulls it out into the Expanded
View. This not only makes certain knobs bigger
and thus easier to manipulate, but also reveals
more controls – sidechain parameters, for
example – and gives access to separate strips for
the Left and Right or Mid and Sides channels,
depending on the stereo mode currently
selected for the module.
A clever feature that we hope Waves will roll
out to future plugins, Focus Mode highlights
those controls that the designer of the current
preset (the illustrious list of which, incidentally,
includes Scheps and Visconti) has deemed the
most pertinent for adjustment based on the
intended source material and usage. The
highlighting is a tasteful orange glow, and Focus
Mode is genuinely helpful and educational.
On to those modules themselves, then, and it
should come as no surprise, given the parties
involved, that they all sound delicious,
individually and collectively. The Pre module
features two harmonic distortion modes (Odd
and Even) and a modiied clipper (Heavy)
algorithm, iltering, and 2dB or 4dB of optional
low-frequency boost. Gate lips between gating
and expansion, and enables adjustment of
(internal or external) sidechain ilters and
hysteresis. Compressor is also fully sidechain-
tweakable and made super versatile with its
VCA, FET and Opto modes. DS
2
is like a two-
band de-esser, fed by an internal or external
sidechain, but with each band able to target any
frequency range from 20Hz to 20kHz for
adjustable gain reduction with one of four ilter
shapes – just the thing for targeted dynamics
control of any source signal. Lastly, EQ is
discussed in All things being EQ, below.
Omni-potent
With its lexible routing and stereo functionality
(there’s no restriction in terms of per-module
L/R or M/S – Gate the mids, EQ the sides, then
Compress the decoded end result, for example),
stellar sound, admirable ease of use and handy
Focus Mode, Scheps Omni Channel is another
winner for team Waves-Scheps.
Web www.waves.com
W a v e s
Scheps Omni
Channel
$149
This all-in-one plugin channel strip comes from the mind of one
of the world’s most revered engineers – but will it make waves?
Verdict
For Fabulous sound and response
Mid-side mode available to each
module individually
Focus Mode is ace
VCA, FET and Opto Compressor modes
Against Modules would make great
single plugins, too
Only one insert point
A versatile channel strip that sounds
gorgeous and is a delight to use
8 / 1 0
Alternatively
Slate Digital Virtual Mix Rack
214 » 9/10 » $119
Build your own channel strips from
a growing library of powerful
lunchbox-style modules
LVC-Audio T-Chain
N/A » N/A » $20-30 per module
Another modular strip plugin with
a handful of units included and
more to buy as required
Every one of Omni Channel’s ive processors
is a thing of beauty, but our favourite is the
EQ, which we’ve found ourselves using on its
own (within the main GUI – sadly, you don’t
also get the modules as separate plugins) on
almost everything we’ve done since writing
this review.
You get four frequency bands to work
with, every one sweepable all the way from
16Hz to 21kHz, rather than each covering its
own range, and yielding up to 18dB of cut or
boost. All four can be used as parametric bell
ilters, but each band also ofers two
alternative modes. The top and bottom bands
double as shelving ilters, with ‘standard’ and
Resonant variants, the latter applying
resonant bumps to the front and back of the
shelf. The central Mid and Tone bands,
meanwhile, include Wide and Narrow bell
shapes. Narrow is a fairly sharp peak, and
Wide difers in width between the two, being
tighter and more focal in the Tone band.
All things being EQ
98 / COMPUTER MUSIC / May 2018
> reviews / waves scheps omni channel
CMU255.rev_omnichannel.indd 98 3/6/18 5:45 PM