Waves has recently unveiled Curves AQ, a smart AI-powered EQ audio plugin designed to streamline your mixing process by automatically creating tailored EQ curves suited explicitly to your audio tracks. But does Waves Curves AQ genuinely enhance your workflow and mix quality?
Let’s explore the practical advantages this Waves EQ plugin can offer.
What Makes Waves Curves AQ Unique?
Curves AQ sets itself apart from traditional EQ plugins by intelligently analyzing your audio source and providing EQ adjustments unique to each track. Unlike generic presets, this AI EQ plugin personalizes EQ curves to your specific material, aiming to achieve better-sounding mixes faster.
Practical Testing
After testing Curves AQ extensively, here are some insights and results from practical mixing scenarios:
- Acoustic Guitar: Curves AQ quickly identified essential frequencies and suggested targeted boosts and cuts, enhancing warmth and clarity. Although initial suggestions might feel bold, adjusting the intensity with easy-to-use sliders quickly provided smooth, natural results.
- Vocals: Used on a female vocal track, Curves AQ successfully reduced boxiness and boosted subtle high-frequency detail without emphasizing harsh sibilance. After minimal tweaking, the result was a polished, radio-ready vocal tone.
- Snare Drum: Curves AQ effectively identified and shaped key snare frequencies, highlighting punch and clarity. Its dynamic EQ mode especially excelled, intelligently adapting to transients and creating a lively, professional drum sound.
Using MixSense
MixSense excels in situations where you have a fully mixed instrumental track paired with vocals. Start by loading Curves AQ onto your instrumental track or beat, allowing the plugin to automatically analyze and generate its initial EQ curve.
Next, engage the sidechain input on Curves AQ and route your vocal track into it. This configuration enables MixSense to adjust the EQ based on the vocal performance dynamically.
Fine-tune the MixSense intensity with its dedicated control knob to determine how aggressively the instrumental track frequencies are reduced, creating space for the vocals. This ensures that your vocals clearly cut through the instrumental mix without compromising the overall balance.
To confirm the accuracy of frequency reduction, utilize the Delta function. This allows you to audition precisely which frequencies are being affected, helping maintain natural and subtle adjustments.
The outcome of using MixSense is a clear, cohesive mix where vocals maintain prominence without overshadowing the instrumental, resulting in a polished, professional sound.
Workflow and Efficiency
One of the standout advantages of Waves Curves AQ is its potential to reduce EQ setup time significantly. The plugin’s intelligent suggestions provide an excellent starting point, enabling you to achieve professional results more quickly. Although some adjustments may be required, the process is intuitive and far quicker than manually equalizing from scratch.
Curves AQ is excellent for both beginners looking to learn about effective EQing techniques and experienced producers seeking quicker workflows. Beginners benefit from intuitive suggestions, while seasoned engineers can significantly reduce mix time without sacrificing audio quality.
Final Thoughts
Waves Curves AQ proves itself to be a valuable addition to any mixing toolkit, delivering efficient and intuitive EQ enhancements with intelligent AI technology. While it may initially suggest bold EQ moves, minor adjustments quickly yield smooth and professional results.
