Eventide - best known for plug-ins that bend reality of time and space in sound. You only need to play around with the H910 Harmonizer or H3000 for a short time to understand this. What you may not be aware of is that Eventide offer a couple of really cool channel strip plug-ins called the EChannel & UltraChannel.

I'm not the biggest user of channel strip plug-ins as I find I will only like certain modules within the chain such as dynamics or EQ, rarely both. These two channel strips plug-ins by Eventide though have strengths in both these areas and recently I've used them more and more in my workflow.

At first glance, both channel strips look rather similar. Both do share the same DNA yet both have some differences in feature sets. Let's start with the features in the EChannel, or as I like to call it - The UltraChannel Lite.

EChannel

The first user feature that was not clear to me when first using the EChannel was the drag and drop function for positioning modules in the chain. This is a great feature as the plug-in GUI changes with the repositioned changes. As for the modules, we have 3 to play with.

• Gate
• Compressor
• 5 Band Parametric EQ

Each of these modules are easy to use and produce really transparent results, especially the compressor. The compressor has a saturator switch that I find I keep on as it adds a very subtle something to my tracks that I like and I can't quite put into words how it sounds.

The EQ section is equally as good. The only area where it could be improved is when dragging bands around on the curves display. This can sometimes be a bit hit and miss with the mouse cursor.

UltraChannel

In addition to the modules found in the EChannel, the Ultra channel features three extra modules:

• O-Pressor (Based on the Eventide Omnipressor)
• Micro Pitch Shift
• Stereo Delays

The O-Pressor is a great compressor for drum mixing applications. I've found it sounds at it's best when used on kick and room microphone tracks as it results in really vibey aggression when pushed hard. The micro pitch shift module is a nice addition in this channel strip as it enables me to add depth, interest and width to my tracks whilst I'm in the process of adjusting EQ and dynamics. The stereo delays section is the only area I don't use in UltraChannel because I have my "go to" dedicated delay plug-in that I use in a send to aux workflow.

Eventide Ensemble - Plug-in Subscription

Both the EChannel and UltraChannel are available in Eventide's Ensemble Plug-in Subscription. Please visit the Eventide website for more information and to download the free trials of both plug-ins.