Ferrum

Ferrum is a console channel's weight and colour: Heat drives the class-A stage, Iron the transformers, and the channel's high, mid and low EQ and high-pass shape it. It turns thin recordings into records.

The controls

Heat

Class-A drive in dB: from clean to thick and saturated.

Iron

Transformer saturation: weight and gentle low-end thickening.

High

High shelf, ±12 dB.

Mid Freq

Where the mid band sits: 0.36 to 7.2 kHz.

Mid

Mid band boost or cut, ±12 dB.

Low

Low shelf, ±12 dB.

High-pass

Off, or 50 to 300 Hz to clear rumble and mud.

Best for

• Every track at the start of a chain: vocals, bass, drums, guitars
• Drum overheads: weight and bite
• Thin DI guitars and synths: body
• Vocals: presence at 3.2 or 4.8 kHz

Starting points

Load Ferrum, set these, then adjust by ear. In the plugin, Level match helps you judge the sound, not the loudness.

Hints and tips

• Use Heat as a colour control, not just level: compare at matched loudness.
• Set the High-pass first: it cleans up what every later unit has to deal with.
• Small EQ moves sound bigger through Heat: 2 to 3 dB is usually enough.

Chains it works best in

Every Original works in a chain with the others and with members' hardware. These are good places to start.

• Ferrum then Lumiq then Platen: a complete vocal chain
• Ferrum then Fettle: bass and drums with weight and bite
• Ferrum then Mutone: a rich, expensive vocal

Watch out for

• Lots of Heat and Low boost together: it gets muddy. Add High-pass if it does.
• Boosting the same Mid Freq on every track: they'll fight in the mix.