Recording - June 2021 - 50

-Review by Alex Hawley

Focusrite FAST Plugins

EQ, compress, and duck with speed and precision
Focusrite recently launched The Collective, an online platform intended to provide
musicians with tools and inspiration at every step of the music creation process. The
Collective will feature exclusive collaborations and original content focused on 'simple
and smart' technologies. Available now at The Collective: FAST plugins, designed in
collaboration with the AI gurus at Sonible. FAST plugins are built on Sonible smart:engine
technology to intelligently enhance your source audio in a matter of seconds.

creates broader and more subtle adjustments while ramping up the intensity creates sharper and more dramatic curves.
The Detailed view allows you to adjust frequencies, gain, and Q parameters manually. It also displays a realtime analyzer behind the EQ settings,
a handy feature found on many other
modern EQ plugins. While you can add
highpass and lowpass filters if desired,
you cannot create new EQ bands, only
modify existing points. This could be a
downside if you're a control freak, but it
fits the FAST paradigm as it should.

FAST Compressor

Overview

The FAST range includes: FAST Equaliser,
FAST Compressor, and FAST Reveal (essentially a ducker). As the name suggests, this
series is intended to get you up and running
with good settings quickly, even if you're a
novice. Each plugin comes with both 'FAST'
and 'Detailed' views, so you can either trust
and accept the AI-powered guidance, or
dig deeper and tweak the settings as you
would with standard plugins. The FAST
option comes in handy when you're in the
zone and want to keep moving along; you
can create workable settings in a matter of
seconds. Recording musicians can hand
off rough mixes with FAST settings, and let
their mixing engineers sweat the details (in
Detailed mode) later. In any case, the FAST
range of plugins is built for efficiency.
The workflow across all three is mostly
uniform. The process begins by choosing your source from a predetermined
list. Most instruments are available for
selection, along with a universal option.
Next, enable the 'Learn' button and play
a few seconds of the source material.
You can also give the AI information as
50 RECORDING June 2021

to what the source is and your desired
result. This is where the three plugins differ a bit, so let's dive into each one.

FAST Equaliser

The FAST Equaliser is approachable
and elegant. Tell it what the source is.
Once it learns your source material,
from there you can choose between
warm, neutral, or bright voicings.
The visual presentation is quite streamlined. When I used it on electric guitar, the
EQ bands came up labeled as body, picking, and air. On vocals, the bands were
labeled body, nasal, presence, and sibilance. This is both handy for beginners,
and a quick way for experienced users to
not overthink frequency bands since you
can simply boost more 'body' if your recording feels thin, or tame the sibilance
range without needing to think about what
the frequencies are. In the FAST view, each
band has a limited gain range to work-a
bit of training wheels, perhaps!
Another handy feature is the intensity
slider, which alters how dramatic the correction profile is. Dialing back the intensity

The FAST compressor works similarly:
simply pick the instrument type from the
dropdown menu; once the plugin has
'listened to' and 'learned' the source
material, from there select a compression type: soft, neutral or hard; these settings intelligently adjust the threshold to
suit your preference. Automatic makeup
gain makes it easy to evaluate the compression effect more objectively.
The display shows a live view of the
original and compressed waveforms,
so you can see the compression happening. The amount of gain reduction is
displayed in red on the right side-informative visual feedback that shows you
what the AI is doing under the hood.
The Detailed view reveals a few more
nuggets. In addition to the standard
compression parameters (and a wet/
dry mix control), there's a 'Spectral
Balancing' function intended to dynamically smooth out tonal imbalances. This
additional processing has its own 'learn'
routine, and it sounds like some multiband compression is added, tailored to
the source. It's a subtle effect.

FAST Reveal

FAST Reveal is similar to a multiband
compressor in some ways, but in practice it's much more surgical and geared
towards ducking. It provides a quick and
easy way to carve out space for vocals
in your mix or to ensure the kick drum
punches through the bass guitar track.
The plugin is placed on the background
material, while the foreground source
is fed into a sidechain input. Once you



Recording - June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2021

Fade In
Fast Forward
Plugin Outlet: Accusonus ERA 5 Pro Bundle
Arturia KeyStep 37
Soundware Showcase: Spitfire Audio Originals Mrs Mills Piano
Richard Barbieri: Living under a spell: interpreting dreams through texture
Erica Synths: SYNTRX Analog Synthesizer
Moog Sound Studio: Mother-32 & DFAM Analog Synthesis Experience
Patch & Tweak with Moog from Bjooks
Plugin Outlet: NUGEN Stereoizer Elements
Inside the Studio with Mark Hornsby: A little summin, summin!
Eventide: H9000 Next Generation Harmonizer (Part 2)
Reviewed & Revisited: Steinberg Cubase Pro 11
Radial Engineering: EXTC Stereo
Inside the Box with Joe Albano: Working In Multiple DAWs
Reviewed and Revisited: PreSonus Studio One 5.2
Plugin Outlet: Focusrite FAST Plugins
Session Log: The Angelheaded Hipster, Part 6: Plugins
Plugin Outlet: BOOM Library EnRage
Reviewed and Revisited: Modarrt Pianoteq 7
Readers' Tracks
Reviewed and Revisited: Ableton Live 11
Plugin Outlet: Waves Vocal Bender
Fade Out: Spaceship Syndrome
Recording - June 2021 - Intro
Recording - June 2021 - Cover1
Recording - June 2021 - Cover2
Recording - June 2021 - 1
Recording - June 2021 - 2
Recording - June 2021 - 3
Recording - June 2021 - Fade In
Recording - June 2021 - 5
Recording - June 2021 - 6
Recording - June 2021 - 7
Recording - June 2021 - Fast Forward
Recording - June 2021 - 9
Recording - June 2021 - Plugin Outlet: Accusonus ERA 5 Pro Bundle
Recording - June 2021 - 11
Recording - June 2021 - 12
Recording - June 2021 - 13
Recording - June 2021 - Arturia KeyStep 37
Recording - June 2021 - 15
Recording - June 2021 - Soundware Showcase: Spitfire Audio Originals Mrs Mills Piano
Recording - June 2021 - 17
Recording - June 2021 - Richard Barbieri: Living under a spell: interpreting dreams through texture
Recording - June 2021 - 19
Recording - June 2021 - 20
Recording - June 2021 - 21
Recording - June 2021 - 22
Recording - June 2021 - 23
Recording - June 2021 - 24
Recording - June 2021 - 25
Recording - June 2021 - Erica Synths: SYNTRX Analog Synthesizer
Recording - June 2021 - 27
Recording - June 2021 - Moog Sound Studio: Mother-32 & DFAM Analog Synthesis Experience
Recording - June 2021 - 29
Recording - June 2021 - Patch & Tweak with Moog from Bjooks
Recording - June 2021 - 31
Recording - June 2021 - Plugin Outlet: NUGEN Stereoizer Elements
Recording - June 2021 - 33
Recording - June 2021 - Inside the Studio with Mark Hornsby: A little summin, summin!
Recording - June 2021 - 35
Recording - June 2021 - Eventide: H9000 Next Generation Harmonizer (Part 2)
Recording - June 2021 - 37
Recording - June 2021 - Reviewed & Revisited: Steinberg Cubase Pro 11
Recording - June 2021 - 39
Recording - June 2021 - 40
Recording - June 2021 - 41
Recording - June 2021 - Radial Engineering: EXTC Stereo
Recording - June 2021 - 43
Recording - June 2021 - Inside the Box with Joe Albano: Working In Multiple DAWs
Recording - June 2021 - 45
Recording - June 2021 - 46
Recording - June 2021 - 47
Recording - June 2021 - Reviewed and Revisited: PreSonus Studio One 5.2
Recording - June 2021 - 49
Recording - June 2021 - Plugin Outlet: Focusrite FAST Plugins
Recording - June 2021 - 51
Recording - June 2021 - Session Log: The Angelheaded Hipster, Part 6: Plugins
Recording - June 2021 - 53
Recording - June 2021 - 54
Recording - June 2021 - 55
Recording - June 2021 - Plugin Outlet: BOOM Library EnRage
Recording - June 2021 - 57
Recording - June 2021 - Reviewed and Revisited: Modarrt Pianoteq 7
Recording - June 2021 - 59
Recording - June 2021 - Readers' Tracks
Recording - June 2021 - 61
Recording - June 2021 - 62
Recording - June 2021 - 63
Recording - June 2021 - 64
Recording - June 2021 - 65
Recording - June 2021 - Reviewed and Revisited: Ableton Live 11
Recording - June 2021 - 67
Recording - June 2021 - Plugin Outlet: Waves Vocal Bender
Recording - June 2021 - 69
Recording - June 2021 - 70
Recording - June 2021 - 71
Recording - June 2021 - Fade Out: Spaceship Syndrome
Recording - June 2021 - Cover3
Recording - June 2021 - Cover4
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