Get started

As with everything, there’s always more than one way to perform a certain task, but to understand how the processing reacts, and to get acquainted with Syrah, we have created this basic walk through.
First of all, make sure all settings are at their default value (easily done by creating a new instance of Syrah).
Then while listening:

Another thing that can create quite interesting results is when modifying the Input Gain with different Amount settings.

The Relax parameter is much more efficient and significant when Lookahead is enabled.

Try the invert (Inv) without Thickness on drums or other percussion, you will pretty soon find out that this can create some very interesting results..

With the Gain Comp enabled, Syrah will adjust the Output Gain, which can make it easier to compare with the incoming signal and understand the changes you have made on the sound. And then you can enable the clipper to increase the Output Gain and make your sound louder.

And some extra tricks

As Thickness is completely level independent, and since it’s not adding any compression, you can add a lot off thickness and still fine tune the amount of compression by doing the following:

  • Set Amount and Thickness to 100 %
  • Enable the gain Link control
  • Now start decreasing the Input Gain

Now you will see and hear the Thickness acting, but the compression will decrease. Now try it again, but make sure to adjust all the other parameters to get the kind of processing you want first.

Another little trick, is to decrease the Amount up to round about 50 %, this will be particularly interesting when in “Dynamic Deep” Mode.

Have fun!

Now you should have a basic understanding of how the processing works, but never forget that Syrah tries to adapt to material you are processing and the result can be astonishingly different for a voice than for a bass or for drums, or a keyboard, guitar etc. and of course, for a complete mix…