Louder Than Liftoff

Super Filter HPF/LPF Colour

$69.00

Description
Design Notes

The Super Filter combines a set of musical high- and low-pass filters with a meticulously tweaked multi-stage saturation circuit designed to get you "there" faster—at the press of a button.

Features

Compatible with the Colour Format
Adjustable high-pass filter
Resonant high-pass filter for "tape head bump"
25kHz, 6dB/octave low-pass filter
Custom tape saturation circuit

Recommended Settings

Very Analog: HPF = 23 Hz, LPF = BYP, SAT = IN
Fat Bass: HPF = 23 Hz, LPF = IN, SAT = IN
Tight and Clean: HPF = 23 Hz, LPF = BYP, SAT = BYP
Kick / Snare / Toms: HPF = 23 Hz, LPF = IN, SAT = IN
Drum Overheads: HPF = 50 Hz, LPF = BYP, SAT = IN
Electric Guitars: HPF = 80 Hz, LPF = IN, SAT = IN
Vocals / Acoustic Guitars: HPF = 120 Hz, LPF = BYP, SAT = BYP
General Purpose Lo-Cut: HPF = 50 Hz, LPF = BYP, SAT = BYP

Inspired By the Best of Tape

Analog tape allows us to achieve a smooth top end, and huge and punchy bottom end just by virtue of hitting the record button. However, this pleasing playback is the result of four sonic ingredients that are unfortunately missing from our DAWs:

A natural subsonic roll-off that tightens up the bottom end
Tape head bump in the 30-70 Hz range that enhances the size of drums and bass
Soft transient clipping that adds density and volume
Harmonic richness generated by the record and playback process

The Super Filter address all four of these "missing ingredients."

HPF & LPF

One of the easiest and most overlooked ways of getting tracks to fit in the mix is to filter out the the subsonic mud and high frequency hash. Cutting unnecessary bottom end on instruments that you don't intend to occupy the lower octaves is a very effective way to achieve a clear and powerful bass and kick sounds in your mixes. Cutting extreme top end on sounds that will mostly occupy the midrange softens and rounds tones, while creating space in a mix for airy vocals, cymbals, and synths.

Super Filter features four musically tuned high pass filter frequencies (23, 50, 80, 120 Hz), and the same silky VINTAGE low pass filter employed in the Silver Bullet and Chroma from Louder than Liftoff. The 23 Hz setting features a tape-like resonant bump at 45 Hz, drawing direct inspiration from our cherished MCI JH-110A 8-track deck.

Saturation

We created an ear-tuned multi-stage saturation circuit for the Super Filter inspired by our tape decks that achieves a rich harmonic spectrum while simultaneously soft-clipping the audio in a way that retains punch and clarity in the low end. We carefully designed the clipping threshold of the saturation circuit so that no matter how hard you drive it, transients won't clip your A/D converters.

Setting the HPF to 23 Hz and enabling the SAT circuit is an excellent set-and-forget starting point for capturing a very analog feel, especially when pushed.

Subtle and very useful

I use the filter in the 23 Hz setting on the mix bus. The small bump in the lows works well for most of my material so I leave it on most of the time. The saturation has more of a warm sound and can take quite hot levels. Does not always fit, but certainly useful.

Great filter with some hidden features

Have this running with saturation and the LPF in. In playing with the HPF settings I discovered by mismatching the jumpers you can alter the slope, I'm really loving mine set to give a resonant bump with the low cut at 50hz, what a sound for kick and electric bass! Experimentation aside it's a great sounding filter, very smooth. Highly recommended.