Hi! i was wondering, does anyone use the AH on their master mix in their daw using the overbridge plugin?
Which settings are your favorite (algorithm, drive level, level knob, and mix)?
things like the input sensitivity setting and such are not necessary to set when using overbridge right?
thanks!
Yes, I do. Honestly more often on mixbuses than on the master, but when it’s on the master I do it very conservatively on enhancement mode, full wet, low drive, level to gain match.
And yes, input sensitivty is not applicable when using overbridge.
It’s a different job, but I love to send the master mix to the AH+FX with much more aggressive settings, and subtly blend it back to the master mix.
hey, I’ve just recently started using the Heat on Overbridge for mastering.
I’m trying to keep things simple, at the moment it’s mostly just set to Clean Boost, with Drive, Level and Mix all set to full.
If it looks like it’s clipping a little on the outgoing signal then I just adjust the Level knob.
(I’ve got one track so far which was a little more minimal and so I was able to set it to Enhance, think it was around 65% wet).
I tend to start with the EQ set on both to around 3 o’clock.
I did have the high eq set further but dialled it back as certain rims and snares were hurting my ears with headphones on.
I really want to lean in to the Heat sound, but so far I find Clean Boost on full is a manageable amount of crunch (worth noting that a lot of the parts from my tunes are individually recorded through the Heat in the first place, so probably a fair amount of crunch going on in the mix).
The first thing I noticed when I started these masters was how nicely everything sat in the mix. I’m really pleased at the overall feel the Heat gives the tunes.
If you want reference, here’s the tracks:
thanks! also saw an ezbot video today on how he uses the analog heat + fx
I think ezbot doesnt understand what to do with this device
I use my AH+FX nowadays for ALL my mastering work, both in the DAW (via OB) and dawless. Pretty much an integral part of my sound nowadays. For my trance tracks I use the Enhancement saturation the most, for techno and breakbeat the Saturation. The other modes I use mostly, when I record hardware instruments and vocals (same with the effects). I also use the Filter to shape the master and expecially its Dirt a lot for some extra flavour, when mastering. And I of course use the EQ and the Bass Focus, when using it for mastering. But yeah, this was a huge reason why I even bought the AH+FX to begin with: mastering duties over the Overbridge. And I love it, IMO totally worth the money, as I use it in many ways, not only mastering. But the mastering, like said, is a HUGE part why I love this box.
the filter has dirt? or do you mean the dirt in the heat section?
would love to hear more about your settings (for mastering, in most cases)?
Yeah, they call it Dirt, which I believe is filter drive (like other filter manufacturers call it 
). The nice thing is that you can add that drive on everything that passes thru the box. For example you can have the Clean Boost and then add some drive from the filter, even if the filter would be 100% open and not affecting the signal any other way. You can also combo that with let’s say Enhance or Saturate to create a new type of a saturation/overdrive.
Generally AH+FX is quite fantastic box, when you think outside of the box. Many of the tools have many uses. Like if you’d play a live-set, you could easily use the Bass Focus for cutting your bass or even do some bass/treble mixing on the fly. Or you could use the filter in the Bits effect as a “DJ-filter”, cutting away the lows or highs, without adding any sample/bitrate reduction. The compressor’s gain can be used for gain staging and so on.
When it comes to my mastering settings, I don’t have any “one setting to rule them all”. But generally I usually add some saturation from one of the main distortion units, I might cut some low end with the HP-filter and add some Dirt (filter drive) on top of the main saturation. Then I pretty much always have the Bass Focus on, putting the low frequencies into a bit more focused spectrum stereo-wise. I also use the Compressor as a kind of a semi-limiter in some cases. In some rare cases I also use the Bits to add some artefacts into the sound, but these are usually special cases. But I really like the sample and bit rate reduce algorithm in this box in general.