“Set your sound on fire”: Slate Digital’s free Heatwave plugin is a one-knob route to gritty saturation, EQ and compression
Some of the best Black Friday plugin deals have arrived early this year, but we anticipate that there should still be some nice surprises to come. In fact, Slate Digital has just provided one in the shape of Heatwave, a free one-knob saturation plugin that the company says will “set your sound on fire”.
Designed to add “grit and aggressiveness” to any sound it gets its dirty claws on - drums, guitars, bass, synths and full mixes are all suggested targets - Heatwave’s primary control is labelled Drive. This is used to adjust a combination of saturation, EQ and compression - just turn it up to increase the effect.
You can also tweak the input level, which itself can have an impact on the overall sound. The Clip button, meanwhile, adds a clipper to the overall output, and can help to control “unwieldy” transients.
Finally, you can adjust the overall output level, or turn Heatwave off using the Bypass button.
Heatwave runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats and can be downloaded now for free via the Slate Digital website.
