Klevgrand Haaze 2 Review

I made a review video that’s posted at:

Now here are my notes:

The Haas Effect w/ Klevgrand Haaze 2

Named after Dr. Helmut Haas, the man who discovered that when one sound is

followed by another with less than 40 ms or less they are audible as one

source. Also that the direction that sound comes from is perceived by the

first sound.

Why use the Haas effect during music mixing? To add stereo width to mono

sources. Also, to better position tracks in the stereo field. Ideally

recording two or more good takes is better but that’s not always possible,

particularly in live recording scenarios.

Typically I will use the haas effect trick with electric or acoustic

guitars. Synths or violins would also work. There are several steps

involved and it takes a little bit of tweaking to get it to sound right.

Klevgrand Haaze, now in version 2, aims to make this process faster and

better.

Before I get into the technical details, let’s listen to a few samples of

what it can do. I’ll have these handy phase colleration and stereo field

meters on screen at all times so you can visualize what’s going on and see

if it retains mono compatible throughout.

Play samples

Available in AU, VST, AAX and also AUv3 for iPad users, the Haaze 2.0

interface is simple enough. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be

resizeaable.

Under the hood, Haaze uses four main processes to get an otherwise complex

job done. The Haas effect itself, stereo panning, sum and difference also

known as mid-side processing and finally gain. All these processes are

accomplished using frequency bands instead of as a whole.

I’m go through the presets and play the tracks again. Pay attention to the

meters and of course use your ears.

I like the Natural and Musical left/right presets. Yes on some the tone

changes so you just need to adjust EQ after you find a preset that you

like. When panning in a sparse arrangement you don’t typically want to have

the audio fully one channel or the other. These presets make it very

simple. Other presets are good for sound design purposes.

Draw Mode simply allows you to move left and right. Useful for playing

around through the different modes.

Does not have a custom presets ability. In REAPER this isn’t a problem but

it could be in other DAWs.

Can also be used as a utility plugin for mix checks on the LoFi presets.

Check mono compatibility on each instance!

All in all this is a very useful plugin. I highly recommend trying it out.

I’ll definitely be using it on a lot of mixes in the future.

Acustica Audio SAND3 Released!

Most of the hit records that you hear are mixed on large format Solid State Logic consoles. SSL gear is not cheap at all…but now with Acustica Audio’s latest release, you can get close to the sound of the top dawgs.

SAND3 gives you not one, not two but FIVE equalizer modules.
-A: 4000 G
– B 5000
– C 9000 J
– +E 4000 E clone
– +G 8000 GB clone
Source

For the intro sale price of about $68 that would be more than enough…but Acustica have also included three compressors as well. Two variations of the classic quad buss compressor AKA “the glue”. Plus the new channel strip compressor, which should help make your drums pop!

I almost forgot to mention, their extensive new saturation options. You get 56 samplings of mic preamps, line inputs and group/mix busses to complete your virtual SSL console.

Just keep in mine, these aren’t designed to be over driven, so gainstage everything as if it were analog gear! Peaks at around -14 to -10 will do you well. Read more and buy it at https://www.acustica-audio.com/store/products/sand-fab4