Waves

T he latest collaboration between Waves and
Grammy-winning engineer Chris Lord-Alge is
an emulation of a full channel strip from the
latter’s actual SSL 4000 series mixer, with a
particular feature that can only be described as
‘killer’. Claiming to be “the irst multitrack”
plugin (Softube’s Console 1 system is similar in
concept but very diferent in execution), CLA
MixHub lets you access up to 64 instances of the
plugin via any one of them. Thus, a full SSL
console is efectively recreated in a single
window within the host DAW, conveniently
grouped into banks of eight channels at a time,
called ‘buckets’.
Bucket list
Once inserted into as many channels of the host
DAW’s mixer as you need (see Kicking the
Buckets), any running instance of MixHub can
be switched between its Channel View (ie, all of
its own channel strip components together) and
the grouped Bucket View, where the selected
bucket of up to eight channels is lipped
between grouped operation of one of said
components at a time. While that’s certainly the
headline, however, it wouldn’t count for much if
the channel strip itself wasn’t up to snuf –
which, fortunately, it very much is. The four main
component modules largely mirror their SSL
W a v e s
CLA MixHub $199
When Chris Lord-Alge puts his name to a plugin version of his own
mixing console with a novel twist, great things are expected…
“A full SSL
console is efectively
recreated in a single
window within the
host DAW”
PLUGIN INSERT
Insert a Waves plugin
anywhere in the chain
EXPANDED VIEW
View the Insert plugin,
stereo channels and more
INPUT
FILTERS
Get rid of
unneeded highs
and/or lows
COMPRESSOR
Call up the SSL original
or the 1176-style “Bluey”
MIC GAIN
With up to 50dB
of Gain, there’s
plenty of
distortion on tap
ANALOG &
NOISE
Activate these
two for authentic
analogue vibes
COMP MIX
Blend the dry and wet signals
for parallel compression
GATE/EXPANDER
Including the Ducker
mode and sidechaining
BUCKET VIEW
Click to view eight
groups of eight
channels at once
ASSIGN MENU
Assign the channel to one
of eight ‘bucket’ groups
EQ
Four bands of glorious
SSL-style equalisation
inspiration, comprising Input, Output, EQ and
Dynamics. There’s also an Insert slot into which
you can plumb any one of your installed Waves
plugins. Input, EQ and Dynamics can each be set
to stereo, dual mono or mid-side coniguration,
and clicking the Expanded View button on a
module blows it up to two separate channels
(left/right or mid-side) for independent
tweaking, and reveals the Dynamics module’s
Sidechain EQ, or opens the interface of the
Insert plugin. The EQ, Dynamics and Insert
modules can be freely rearranged by dragging
them left and right.
All module cons
The Input section has Line and Mic input level
controls, each dialling in its own style of
harmonic distortion when pushed hard, and Mic
adding up to 50dB of gain. This distortion (and
more at the output) can be disabled by
deactivating the Analog button, while the Noise
EDITOR’S CHOICE
OUTPUT
SELECTOR
Choose your
output channel
format
94 / COMPUTER MUSIC / May 2019
> reviews / waves cla mixhub
CMU268.rev_mixhub.indd 94 05/03/2019 14:01