¶ Haze
¶ This user manual will guide you through the features and functionality of Haze, helping you harness its full potential.
Let’s dive in and bring the haze to your mix!
¶ Installation
For Mac and Windows, follow these steps to install Haze.
¶ Mac:
Run viator-haze-au.pkg for AU plugins or viator-haze-vst3.pkg for VST3 plugins.
¶ Windows:
Run viator-haze-setup.exe. If you see an "Unknown Publisher" warning, click "More info" to proceed.
¶ Signal Flow
The signal processing in Haze follows this order:
Input → Saturation → Wow & Flutter → Delay → Output
¶ Main Controls
¶ Saturation
Tape saturation is a form of analog-style harmonic enhancement that emulates the warmth and character of recording to magnetic tape. When audio is driven into a tape machine, the medium naturally compresses transients, rounds off harsh peaks, and introduces subtle harmonic distortion. This results in a rich, musical tone that makes digital recordings sound warmer and more organic.
In Haze, the saturation feature recreates this effect by introducing controlled harmonic distortion, soft compression, and a natural-sounding frequency response. Depending on the input level and settings, saturation can add anything from a slight warmth to a vintage-style coloration.
Haze has five controls for shaping the saturation effect:
¶ Drive
Adjusts the input gain into the saturation algorithm.
Higher values increase the intensity of distortion, adding warmth and rich harmonics.
¶ Volume
Controls the level of the wet (saturated) signal, allowing you to manage gain staging and maintain balance in your mix.
¶ Mix
Blends the processed and dry signals, letting you find the perfect balance between clean and saturated tones.
¶ Tone
A low-pass filter applied before saturation. Lowering the cutoff helps tame excessive brightness, preventing harsh distortion.
¶ Compress
Enables a post-saturation compressor, mimicking the natural compression that occurs when overdriving a tape machine.
¶ Wow & Flutter
Wow & Flutter are pitch and timing variations caused by imperfections in tape playback mechanisms. These fluctuations add movement and a natural, vintage feel to audio.
Wow & Flutter
In Haze, Wow & Flutter simulates these classic tape irregularities, adding controlled pitch modulations to create an analog-style warmth and depth.
Haze has five controls for shaping the wow & flutter effect:
Controls the speed of the slow pitch modulations.
Adjusts the intensity of the wow effect.
Sets the probability (0–100%) of flutter occurring.
Defines the intensity of fast, high-frequency pitch variations.
¶ Mix
Balances the processed and dry signals, letting you dial in subtle or extreme modulation.
¶ Tape Delay
Haze features a tape-style delay, modeled after classic analog delay units, providing warm and natural repeats that degrade smoothly over time.
Haze has five controls for shaping the tape delay effect:
Sets the delay time in milliseconds or beats, depending on the Sync button state.
Controls how much of the delayed signal is fed back into the delay line, determining the number of repeats.
Blends the delayed signal with the dry signal.
Toggles the Time control between milliseconds and beat-synced delay timing.
Offsets the right delay signal slightly to create a wider stereo image.
¶ Additional Features
Save and switch between two local snapshots of your settings.
Easily compare different configurations.
Any changes made after selecting A or B are automatically saved.
The global preset manager, where you can save, browse, and load custom or factory presets.
Quickly recall your favorite settings or explore new tones.
Select the desired processing mode:
Stereo: Processes and outputs the signal normally.
Mono: Sums the stereo signal to mono for centered processing.
Mid: Applies processing to the mid (center) part of the stereo field.
Side: Processes only the side (stereo width) signals.
Choose the level of oversampling (Off, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x).
Higher oversampling rates reduce aliasing but increase CPU usage.
Toggles the audio processing on or off, allowing you to bypass the plugin.
Access essential resources, including:
Support links
User manual
Discord server
Support email
End User License Agreement (EULA)
Tooltips
At the bottom of the plugin interface, you’ll find a dynamic tooltip area.
¶
Hover over a control to display a brief description of its function.
The tooltip disappears when you move your cursor away, keeping the interface clean and clutter-free.