Wavegrove Vastaus

Treble attenuator to eliminate annoying high frequencies

Vastaus lives in the instrument channels, busses and has been known to be seen in the main channel as well. Feel free to use and abuse it. Try adding an EQ before Vastaus and turn the treble up to the max to see how Vastaus reacts.

Vastaus is more neutral with input gain and attenuation at 0, at which point it reduces and locks out excessively harsh high frequencies present in vocal essences, smooths out cymbals, guitars and pretty much anything you throw at it.

Boosting Tame enhances that effect, but also provides more options with the React switch, as well as the Bias setting. React is a mode where Tame starts to let some transients through in a really interesting way, bringing out more detail and clarity, but smoothing out the sound. With Bias, you can further control the sound by limiting the effect to the positive or negative side of the audio samples, generating harmonics in the process. I’ve heard this referred to as silky, and apparently some well-known hardware unit manufacturers use a process similar to this.

Finally there is Gain. With input gain, you control the overall boost of the signal you receive into the unit, while output gain works like a pad, with a 100% level that adds no additional volume. Increasing the input gain can bring additional high end to the signal after taming it, which is especially useful with instruments such as electric guitar. In conjunction with the use of the Bias knob, the Vastaus can even act as a leveling tool, which also boosts and extends the high end frequencies well above where they ended up in the original signal.