Membranes
A compressor, saturator and tone shaping tool.
Overview
Membranes combines compression with a soft clipped drive stage. It can be used as a typical compressor or in tandem with four serial stages of soft clipping overdrive. Each clipping stage is followed by a tilt EQ for additional sculpting.
The Compressor
The Threshold and Ratio dials work together: Threshold determines when compression begins, and Ratio determines how firmly the louder parts are reduced. Lowering Threshold brings more of the sound into compression. This can make the body of a sound more consistent relative to its peaks.
Attack and Release contour that response over time. A fast attack catches the beginning of a transient and a slower attack allows more of the initial impulse to be heard. Release determines how quickly the level recovers after the compressor is triggered. The attack and release can become part of a rhythmic pulse.
The Saturators
The Drive dial changes how hard the sound enters the saturation stage, adding harmonics and rounding its peaks as the Drive is increased. You can think of the saturators as being plugged into each other in series, with a tilt EQ placed between each one.
Each stage can be enabled using the toggles next to the tilt EQ sliders. You will notice that disabling a saturator layer in a position above other enabled saturators will disable layers below it. That is by design. The layers are meant to be stacked with their tilt EQs each pivoting on successively higher frequencies.
The saturator layers can be used subtly to great effect on simple input signals like sine and triangle waves. At low Drive settings, a single saturator will introduce even harmonics and add richness to simple signals, making them cut through the mix. On the other hand, the saturators can be used to create extreme distortion effects. Overall, Membranes is a very versatile tool for controlling dynamics and sculpting tone.
Properties
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Processes Audio | Yes |
| Sequencer Driven | No |
Controls
| Control | Description | Default | Minimum | Maximum | Units | Options |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold | Sets the level where compression begins. | -24 | -64 | 0 | dB | |
| Ratio | Sets how strongly signal above the threshold is reduced. | 12 | 1 | 20 | ratio | |
| Attack | Sets how quickly compression reacts. | 0 | 0 | 1 | seconds | |
| Release | Sets how quickly compression relaxes. | 0.25 | 0 | 1 | seconds | |
| Drive | Sets the gain into the saturation stage. | 1 | 0.3 | 16 | Gain | |
| Gain | Sets makeup gain after processing. | 1 | 1 | 8 | Gain | |
| Saturation Toggles | Each toggle enables or disables a saturator layer. | |||||
| Tilt EQ Sliders | Each adjusts the tilt of the EQ following a saturation stage. |