10
Contour®
Truth
: Contour is only active when ‘Edge Contour’ is selected on the
Sidechain Shaper.
Hype
: Edge Contour is one of the coolest controls any compressor
has ever sported; see next section for additional hype.
Sidechain Shaper®
Truth:
Sidechain Shaper offers an array of on-board filters that are
automatically inserted into the Sidechain of the Tweaker.
Hype:
Of all the extraordinary capabilities the Tweaker exhibits, the
Sidechain Shaper is arguably the most powerful and transformative.
If I can offer this way of looking at things: the Drive, Threshold,
Attack, Release, and Curve controls, both individually and
collectively, let you dictate when and how the Tweaker compresses.
But the Sidechain Shaper lets you dictate
why
the Tweaker
compresses, or perhaps another way of looking at it is that you now
have an unprecedented level of built-in control over which parts of
the signal the your compressor pays attention to, and which parts it
ignores.
In short, with a little studied practice, you can get the Tweaker to hear
the way you hear, and to focus on the aspects of the sound you
want it to focus on. The impact this has on your ability to sculpt the
compression cannot be overstated.
If you’ve ever patched an eq into the sidechain of a compressor, or
keyed a bass track or entire mix to the kick drum, then you
understand what the Sidechain Shaper does. Essentially, it has
various filters that eq the detector path of the compressor but not
the main audio path, so the compressor reacts to your input as if it
were completely different than it is. But to do what the Sidechain
Shaper’s ingenious bank of filters does, you’d need a spare pair of
gentle outboard HPF’s at 60Hz and 300Hz laying around. You’d
also need an eq that has a 600Hz high shelf and 4k low shelf which
