Brazier

Brazier adds heat in five characters: Tube for warm even harmonics, Transformer for thick lows, Fuzz for buzz and bite, Fold for synth-style wavefolding, and Crush for bit depth and sample-rate reduction. It runs at 4x oversampling (except Crush, which wants its aliasing), and Auto Level keeps the loudness steady as you drive it, so you hear the colour rather than just more volume.

The controls

Mode

Tube, Transformer, Fuzz, Fold or Crush.

Drive

How hard you hit it. A little is warmth; a lot is distortion.

Tone

A tilt around 1 kHz: brighter to the right, darker to the left.

Bias

Leans the curve to one side for more even harmonics in Tube and Fuzz, more folds in Fold, more weight in Transformer.

Bits

Crush only: the bit depth.

Rate

Crush only: the sample rate it holds each value for.

Auto Level

On keeps the output as loud as the input whatever the Drive.

Mix

Blend the saturated sound with the original.

Output

Level out.

Best for

• Bass: harmonics that read on phones and laptops
• Drums: thickness, or a crushed lo-fi edge
• Vocals: subtle Tube warmth at low Drive
• Synths: Fold for rich, moving harmonics

Starting points

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

Hints and tips

• Turn Auto Level on and compare with bypass: you're judging the colour, not the level.
• Parallel saturation (Mix 30 to 50%) keeps the attack and adds the body.
• Fold sounds best on simple waveforms: sines and triangles become rich and alive.

Chains it works best in

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

• Brazier then Lathe: drive, then remove the harsh bits
• Brazier then Clasp: saturation steadied by a compressor
• Brazier then Sieve: fuzzed synth through a moving filter

Watch out for

• Full Drive on a whole mix: it turns to mush.
• Crush on bass without high-passing what follows: the aliasing can add rumble.