Process Audio are a new company but are run by some familiar faces. Fab DuPont is one of the people behind this new plug-in which looks extremely interesting, offering a four band process which promises to bring special sauce to mixes using an intuitive interface.
What Is Sugar?
Process Audio describe it as “the ultimate audio sweetener”. This is one of those plug-ins which offers results without asking you to worry about exactly how the result was reached. This approach doesn’t suit everyone but it is undeniably effective, just asking of the user, “do you like this? or this?”. If it sounds good, it is good.
The amount of processing for each of the four bands can be adjusted to taste, in each band there is an alternate mode and it is recommended that both are auditioned. Descriptive names like “thick” or “punch”, “shine” or “excite” are offered instead of technical descriptions and when a pleasing balance of the four bands is achieved the central “Jog Wheel” is used to control the level of all four processes, like a VCA controlling the four individual band controls. The crossovers are linear phase so this is safe to use in parallel on individual sources or across stems and mixes.
Saturation in four flavours can be applied across the sum of the wet and dry signal paths, as can high and low pass filters.
Sugar Learning Center
To cut the user’s learning curve of this new tool, Process Audio created an expansive Learning Center featuring many video tutorials on how to best use Sugar on distinct audio sources, as well as a thorough run-through of all the features.
Sugar owners can also enjoy a full 20-minute mixing video tutorial by prominent engineer Fab Dupont, demonstrating how he exclusively used Sugar to mix the soundtrack of the plug-in’s release video. Users can freely download the source session of the mix and look at the settings in their own DAW. The session is available in Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Studio One, and Ableton formats.
Key Features:
4 bands of processing (Low, Mid, High, Air), with 2 different colours per band
8 Colours: Thick, Punch, Warm, Broad, Shine, Excite, Yin, Yang
Jog wheel blending knob
High-pass and Low-pass filters for fine tuning
3 Saturation circuits: Drive, Distort, and Destroy
Linear Phase Mode for the 4 band crossovers and the 2 filters
Level Management to prevent bursts of energy
FX-only switch in order to hear what Sugar adds to your sound
Input/Output gain
Works in mono, stereo and M/S mode
Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Windows (64-bit) version 7, 8, 10 or higher or a Mac with OS X 10.9 or higher
Format: VST 2.4, VST 3, AU, AAX (native)
Protection: iLok Cloud or iLok 2+ compatible
Sugar will be available on March 6th, 2019 at $149 USD as a direct download from the Process Audio website.
Sugar can be tested with a free 14-day trial using a free Ilok Cloud account or with a user’s iLok 2+ dongle.
Sugar will be made available to all pureMix Pro Members as part of their monthly subscription package.
When Can I Get Sugar?
Lots of information is available in the Process Audio website, with audio examples, a demo session for most DAWs and a full user manual. Sugar will be available on March 6th and will cost $149, a 14 day demo is availble..