Manual
This is the practical operating guide: quick start, LIVE vs POST, signal flow, section behaviour, workflows and troubleshooting.
AUTO tools are starting points. They only make a decision when they hear suitable material: if the evidence is weak, a tool leaves its settings unchanged, and that is intentional.
Quick start
The manual's shortest useful path through the plugin.
Modes
The mode switch is a workflow decision, not just a quality label.
Use LIVE when latency matters: tracking, monitoring, streaming and broadcast. LIVE adds zero samples of latency, forces oversampling off, and uses zero-lookahead versions of Tuning, De-Esser and Limiter. Clean is Gate-only in LIVE; Deroom, Denoise, Click, De-Breath, Harmony and Character wait for POST.
Use POST for editing, mixing, rendering and final delivery. POST enables the full-quality chain, reports latency to the DAW, and is the mode to use when printing final results.
Gain matching
The current manual separates the gain-matching tools because each one moves at the speed its section needs.
Continuously keeps the section output close to its input. It is on by default, so Drive and Mix can be judged by tone rather than apparent gain.
Continuously matches EQ output near its input for fair Tone, Cleanup and Colour decisions. It is on by default.
Restores average compression loss slowly while voice is present and holds through pauses, rather than chasing each word.
Matches loudness around the complete tape stage. It deliberately moves much more slowly than the other section matchers.
Enables a safe limiter setup, measures a short pass and matches processed output to the plugin input without forcing a quiet source toward an arbitrary target.
Signal flow
This is the complete manual signal flow, including tuning and creative effects. The De-Esser PRE/POST switch moves it before or after Dynamics.
Sections
Short operating notes from the manual, trimmed for quick scanning.
Prepare level, HPF and LPF before the rest of the chain. Input AUTO sets conservative gain and voice filtering from the material it hears.
Gate, Deroom, Denoise, Click and De-Breath reduce unwanted noise early. Delta helps check that cleanup is removing noise, not performance.
Tube, Transformer and Solid State styles add harmonic colour before tone shaping. AUTO GAIN keeps its output near its input loudness so louder is not mistaken for better.
Tone handles broad Body, Clarity and Air. Cleanup handles mud and boxiness. Colour adds guarded Warmth, Honey, Bite and Silk. AUTO GAIN keeps EQ output near its input for fair tone decisions.
Targets S, SH, CH and bright mouth noise with focused detection. AUTO needs real sibilant events and should not guess from silence.
Combines fast Peak control with smoother Level riding. Peak into Level is usually clean; Level into Peak can feel denser. AUTO GAIN restores average compression loss slowly without chasing each word.
A complete machine stage with subtle character even at zero settings. 30 ips is tighter, 15 ips is balanced, and 7.5 ips has broader low-end bloom. AUTO GAIN slowly loudness-matches the whole section.
FX opens tuning, harmony, character, delay and reverb. The suite master and individual module switches must both be on.
Finishes the chain with Trim, Push, ceiling, limiting and lookahead. Output AUTO matches processed loudness to the input. Keep the limiter as a safety net.
Workflows
Use these as starting checklists, then use your ears.
Troubleshooting
The fixes below cover the most likely beta-test support moments.
Lower Input gain, reduce Mic Pre Drive, Tape Sat or Push, Character Drive or Output Push, keep the limiter on as protection, and look for clipping before PublishMode in the DAW.
Play a section with clear normal singing or speech, avoid long silences before the voice starts, and rerun AUTO on a representative phrase.
Lower Gate amount, increase release, and use less aggressive cleanup before compression.
Reduce Denoise, Deroom, De-Breath or Click amount. Use Delta to check whether vocal tone is being removed.
Open Vocal Suite with FX, turn on the suite master switch and the individual module, raise that module Mix, check that the full plugin is not bypassed, and switch to POST for Harmony and Character.
This is expected. Enabling Tape engages its baseline machine path even at zero user settings. Sat, Push, Tone, Bias, Bump, Wow and Flutter alter that base sound; they are not the on/off switch for it.
Delay and Reverb Duck do not lower the dry lead. They reduce the wet return while words are present, so the combined meter reading can fall even though the lead stays unchanged. Compare the dry lead with the ambience modules bypassed.
Switch to LIVE while recording, confirm the quality display says OS OFF, and disable lookahead-heavy processing elsewhere on the monitored path. Use POST only after recording.
The Bearded Beanie