Quick start
- Put Smelter on a track or bus: drums, bass, vocals, a mix bus or the master.
- Pick a preset made for that job. The names say what they're for, such as Snare - Fat & Cracking or Master - Subtle Glue.
- Turn up Drive on a band and listen to what it adds. With AUTO GAIN on, the volume stays put.
- Drag the crossover handles on the spectrum to move where the bands split.
The window
- Header: the BANDS and MOD pages, the preset box with < and >, the number of bands, QUALITY and AUTO GAIN.
- Spectrum: your input (grey line) and output (filled, in each band's colour), with each band's style and drive written above it. The round handles at the bottom are the crossovers.
- Band strips: one per band, with its frequency range, S (solo), BYP (bypass), style, Drive, Tone, Mix and Level.
- MASTER: Input, Mix, Output and the in/out meters.
Bands
Choose 1 Band to 4 Bands in the header. Drag the handles on the spectrum to set the crossovers (from 20 Hz to 20 kHz). S solos a band so you hear only that range; BYP leaves it clean.
| Control | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Style | 8 styles | The kind of saturation (below). |
| Drive | 0 to +36 dB | How hard the band is pushed. |
| Tone | Dark to Bright | Darkens or brightens what the saturation adds. |
| Mix | 0 to 100% | Blends the saturated band with the clean band. |
| Level | -24 to +12 dB | The band's volume after saturation. |
Styles
| Style | Sound |
|---|---|
| Soft Tube | Gentle and warm, with a touch of even harmonics. Safe on anything. |
| Hot Tube | Strongly asymmetric, thicker and more obvious when pushed. |
| Tape | Very soft with a wide knee. Rounds off peaks; glue for buses and bass. |
| Transformer | Firm ceiling with a soft approach. Density and weight. |
| Transistor | A harder knee than the tubes. Bite for mids and guitars. |
| Diode | Asymmetric clipping, one side earlier than the other. Crisp and aggressive. |
| Fuzz | Hard clipping with a little octave grit. An effect more than a polish. |
| Fold | A wavefolder: the louder it gets, the stranger it gets. |
Master
- AUTO GAIN: matches the output loudness to the input as you drive, so you judge the colour, not the extra volume.
- Input: level into Smelter (-24 to +24 dB). Driving the input pushes every band at once.
- Mix: blends all of Smelter with the dry signal (parallel saturation).
- Output: final level.
- QUALITY: Off, 2x, 4x or 8x oversampling. More reduces harshness at high drive and costs more CPU.
Modulation (MOD page)
Smelter can move its own settings over time.
- LFO 1 and 2: Sine, Triangle, Ramp Up, Ramp Down, Square, Random or Drift. Rate from 0.02 to 20 Hz, or SYNC to your song in values from 4 bars to 1/32.
- Env 1 and 2: envelope followers that listen to the Input or to any one band, with Attack, Release and Threshold. They make Smelter react to how hard you play.
- Slots 1 to 8: each takes a source (LFO 1, LFO 2, Env 1, Env 2), a target (any band's Drive, Tone, Mix or Level, or a crossover) and an amount from -100 to +100%.
The Drums - Hit Harder (dynamic) and Master - Kick-Aware Lows (dynamic) presets show envelope-driven settings; Pumping Grit (tempo) and Fold Wobble (tempo) show synced LFOs.
Presets
31 presets in seven groups: Start, Drums, Bass, Vocals, Guitars & Keys, Mix Bus & Mastering, and Creative. < and > step through them, and hovering over the preset box describes the one that's loaded. Your own settings are saved with your project.
Tips
- On a master, keep Drive under +6 dB and Mix under 50%. You should feel it more than hear it.
- To make a bass audible on small speakers, saturate only the band above about 120 Hz and leave the sub band clean.
- Solo each band while you set its drive, then listen to the whole thing with AUTO GAIN on.
If something's wrong
- It sounds harsh: lower Drive, turn Tone toward dark, or raise QUALITY.
- The low end sounds thin or phasey: move the lowest crossover, or use fewer bands.
- The level jumps when switching AUTO GAIN: that's expected; it was making up for the drive. Set Output by ear with it off.