Check out the
Everett PDF and review pages 9 and 10. Remember this is a bus effect and should be used only in parallel. If you use it as an insert effect, it will not only not sound right, it will be pretty much useless.
For more info on the concept, the following is from my
Tip of the Week thread. The implementation is more basic than the FX Chain, but the principle of operation is the same. Please listen to the
Sizzle Bus demo video to hear it in use.
Week 50: The “Sizzle” Bus Sure, buses are great for reverb processing. But they have many other uses, and here’s one of my favorites—the “sizzle” bus. I've uploaded a
Sizzle Bus demo video (with audio, of course) - it plays a guitar track, the same track with sizzle, then the sound contributed by the sizzle itself.
Bus Basics. SONAR can tap a signal off a track and send it, through its own send control that varies the level, to a bus. Because each track has its own send control, you can mix in as much or as little signal as you want into a bus.
There are two main bus applications: utilitarian and processing. For example, a utilitarian application would be to create a bus with a particular headphone mix, like a mix for the bass player that has more drums. You then send the bus output to the bass player’s headphone amp.
A traditional processing example is reverb. Because you’re emulating the sounds of instruments in a room, it’s logical to send a little bit of each track into the “room.” The reverb bus’s output feeds into the master bus, so you can vary the total amount of reverb in the mix.
However, there are many more ways to apply bus processing, so let’s use the ProChannel to build a “sizzle bus” that can impart a subtle, but important, dimension to a mix.
How to Construct a Sizzle Bus. A lazy way to create a similar effect is just to boost the treble a bit on the master bus, or maybe switch on the QuadCurve EQ’s Gloss control. However in today’s music, there’s likely to be a disparity among brighter tracks, like digital synthesizers, and
acoustic and electric instruments that may sound a little dull compared to the electronic instruments. So, it can be more effective to set up a “sizzle” bus—which is not about a standard type of EQ or tone control—and send signals from duller-sounding tracks as needed to bring them more into line with the brighter tracks.
Create a ProChannel effects chain as follows:
QuadCurve EQ. Enable the highpass (HP) filter. Set the slope to 30 dB/octave, Frequency to around 10 kHz, and optionally enable Gloss.
Tube Distortion. Use Type 1 (important), turn up Drive all the way, Output up about halfway, and use Input to vary the amount of distortion. Start with Input all the way down.
The EQ eliminates all but the highest frequencies, which are then distorted to create artificial harmonics above the natural harmonics. This is similar to how the original “exciter” hardware circuits worked.
Setting it Up. Parameter setup is crucial, as this effect needs to be extremely subtle—otherwise it will add harshness instead of sparkle. Acoustic guitar is a good test, because it has lots of high-frequency artifacts that can provide a good “reality check.” Send some guitar to the exciter bus at about 0 dB, and solo the sizzle bus output so you don’t hear the main guitar sound.
With the distortion bypassed, adjust the QuadCurve highpass filter so it catches only the highest frequencies. You won’t want to go much lower than 10 kHz, if at all.
Now start turning up the Tube Distortion’s Input control. You’ll need to turn it up quite a bit, as the signal feeding the Tube Distortion will be very low. If the little tube graphic winks red periodically, it’s in about the right zone. The distortion shouldn’t be an obvious distortion, but offer just a hint of breakup.
Next, unsolo the sizzle bus, bring its fader down, and mix the acoustic guitar track to the desired level. Slowly bring up the bus level. You’ll find a “sweet spot” that’s almost subliminal—you’ll hear a little extra sparkle. Any less, and you won’t hear the effect; any more, and you’ll hear distortion instead of sparkle.
This creates a reasonably good baseline for the exciter bus level. Now send other tracks as needed—lead and background vocals lend themselves to excitation (probably the maximum amount that you’ll send from any track).
But really, there are no hard and fast rules. If you’re used to brightening by using overall EQ in the master, try this somewhat more refined technique. You might find that you’ll have a hard time going back to just slapping a treble boost onto the master output bus.