Sonnox makes quite an entry into the world of drag-and-drop EQ plug-ins with Claro, a powerhouse downloadable EQ designed to help you at the producing and mixing stages alike. This EQ has three different views to better suit producing mixes, tweaking sounds, and balancing the overall mix. All of this is accomplished with the smoothness of sound for which Sonnox is known.
In Produce mode, Claro more closely resembles a simple three-band analogue style EQ to help you tweak more quickly and keep your arrangement free from mud. Tweak view opens up the drag-and-drop interface, which brings goodies to the now-classic format such as Pultec-style shelf overshooting for a smoother sound, and relative scaling for easier operation. Finally, the Mix view helps you conceptualize all your tracks at once for easily balancing the mix. The software operates in Mac and Windows formats, and can work in AU, VST3, and AAX formats.
Note:
Please use VST3 in all DAWs which support VST3 and AU. Claro's Mix view is only supported for the AU format in Logic Pro X.
3 Views to Suit Your Workflow
Produce View
Produce view streamlines Claro into a quick, creative, and nondistracting EQ.
Tweak View
Tweak view opens up extensive correctional possibilities in the manner of a drag-and-drop EQ, with Sonnox's cleanest, most flexible filters to date. Also, a realtime analyser adapts to your EQ moves and helps you visualize resonances for amelioration or emphasis.
Mix View
The Mix view contains all the frequency-based information you need to understand and assemble your mix. All Claro instances in your project are displayed in context for you to prioritize, allocate bandwidth, explore frequency interactions, and quickly mitigate excessive overlaps.
Produce View in Depth
Easy Tools for Gut Choices
Claro's Producer view aims to make it easy for you. It offers an easy-to-read Energy Meter for indicating where the prominent energy is in a given track—not just in terms of Hz, but in the language we usually use to describe sounds. Just drag a horizontal slider towards the word Definition if that's what you want, then drag the circular gain control up or down to taste.
The same goes for the low- and high-cut filters above the energy meter. Just drag the left-hand Low Cut slider to the right to remove low end rumble, or reduce weight and mud.
Curves for Days
The set options for each band are inspired by various popular analog EQs. They've been chosen because they're frequently useful and are often a great starting point—close enough while composing and mixing quickly and fully adjustable later on in Tweak and Mix views.
Tone and Width
On stereo tracks, a Tone | Width button appears in the plug-in footer. Toggle it to switch between Produce view, overall stereo tone shaping, and stereo-width shaping. Bright width metering shows regions of the spectrum with a wide stereo image, while dark areas show where the signal is narrow, or mono. Bands that boost or cut in regions with little or no width will sound like they're bypassed.
Tweak in Depth
Tons of Bands
All of your tone shaping moves from Produce view are carried over and can be further adjusted. And up to 16 additional bands can be added, for a total of 18 bands—more than you need for a good mix.
Multiple Controls
In Tweak view, options expand from gain and frequency to Q, Slope Control, Listen Mode (for judging the band in solo), and other goodies like a stereo Split control and a Shelf Overshoot control. Shelf Overshoot is particularly interesting: It helps achieve Pultec-style dips before or after a boost in a more tweakable manner than the hardware.
Adjust Multiple Controls at Once
When multiple bands are selected, Gain, Frequency, Q, and Slope are adjusted relatively, while Shape and Channel are adjusted absolutely for a finer point.
Piano Note Display
A Piano note display shows the note value of the current band's centre Frequency. Double Click the value to enter the note value for which you want to set the band. Use the descriptors on hand to guide you.
Adaptive Spectral Metering
Claro's spectral metering adapts to your EQ moves, always showing you the most useful information. Whether you're tweaking overall tonal balance or resonance-hunting for a troublesome frequency in one stereo channel, the metering helps you in your craft.
Resonance Metering
When you're adjusting overall tonal balance with a wide bell or shelf band, the meter becomes slow and smooth, showing the overall balance of the spectrum. When searching for resonant areas to tweak, the meter shows precise peaks, and the peaks which resonate most over time are highlighted and shaded in higher concentrations. The result: You know where they are and you can tweak without sweeping.
Default to Tweak if Need Be
If you tend to use Claro for later-stage mixing projects and always want to dive right into the details in Tweak view, simply toggle the option in Preferences.
Mix View In Depth
See All Your Tracks at Once
Claro's Mix view contains all the information you need to understand and assemble your mix. All Claro instances in your project are displayed in context for you to prioritize, allocate space, explore interactions, and quickly mitigate excessive overlaps. A single Claro Mix view allows you to very quickly explore your entire mix and tweak any two Claro instances at the same time without needing to find and juggle too many plug-in windows.
View
There are four key sections in Mix view:
- The track list
- The Reference Track
- The Working Track EQ slot
- The footer, which contains features specific to Mix view
Track List
The left-hand track list shows the spectral energy of all tracks on which Claro is used. Blue meter areas show the overall energy of that track, just like the Produce view metering. Yellow meter areas show where that track overlaps with the energy of your Reference Track enough that their combination might sound muddy, harsh, or otherwise make the Reference Track more difficult to hear.
Any track that shows large or numerous yellow overlap areas is a good candidate to load into the Working EQ slot, so that its tone can be tweaked alongside the Reference Track.
Any track that shows large or numerous yellow overlap areas is a good candidate to load into the Working EQ slot, so that its tone can be tweaked alongside the Reference Track.
How To Use Mix View
- Decide which track should lead in each frequency range. For example, you might want a lead melody part or vocal to lead in the Body to Presence range
- Set that track as your Reference
- Check the track list for other tracks which show yellow overlaps
- Load one into the Working track EQ slot and tweak both EQs to taste, then load another and repeat
Fader Scaling in Compatible Hosts
In compatible DAWs, Claro's Mix view metering is scaled by your DAW faders to match what you're hearing, rather than matching the pre-fader track volume. And, the overlap metering is always relative to the Reference Track.This means that your DAW faders can be used to reduce the masking that you're seeing and hearing. For example, the amount of masking between a lead vocal track and a guitar track can be reduced if you lower the fader on the guitar track.
Invert EQ
Boosting on one track and attenuating on the other can reduce excessive overlaps while changing the tone of each track less. This is because less EQ gain is required on each track to create the same amount of difference betwen them. To do this quickly in Claro, enable the Invert EQ button, and EQ as normal.
Choose Your Level of Visibility
Claro lets you hide tracks you don't want to see by group: You can hide effects, buses, or tracks to help you concentrate on specific areas more quickly.
Other Features at a Glance
Stereo tone shaping
Intelligent auto gain
EQing above 20 Hz for gentle air effects