Designed with Grammy-winning mixer Andrew Scheps (Adele, Jay Z, Metallica), the Waves Scheps Omni Channel is a flexible channel strip, which gives you all of Andrew’s time-tested combinations of compression, EQ, saturation colours, and much more, all in one plugin.
Mixers choosing which channel strip to work with often face a dilemma. Channel strip plugins based on vintage mixing consoles can sound amazing, but tend to tie you down to a very specific and limited sonic colour. Modular channel strip plugins let you mix and match diverse processors with flexibility, but the different processors might not work together cohesively, and won’t necessarily interact as a true channel strip.
Scheps Omni Channel utlimately gives you the best of both worlds: over the years, he has perfected certain combinations of go-to processors (some based on classic hardware units, some being innovative modules developed from scratch), each with its own unique character. Now you can get access to the lot, via the Omni Channel.
The Pre module provides three types of analogue saturation, letting you add diverse colors of harmonic distortion as well as filters and thump (resonance) controls.Then there's the Compression module, with three totally different compressors, ranging from fast to slow and smooth, with a unified control set so you can quickly compare them. A Wet/Dry control allows you to parallel compress within the module.
The EQ module is a four-band equaliser, each band providing a distinct musical sound that holds up on its own or can be switched to fully parametric if surgical EQ is required.
The DS2 module offers quite a bit more than your standard de-esser: it boasts two full-range bands, and four filter types, allowing it to ‘de-anything’, as Waves puts it. And they have a point: it can remove any offending frequencies.
The Gate module gives you all the standard controls (threshold, attack, and release), but also lets you adjust the maximum noise reduction to maintain a consistent noise floor. And if that’s not enough, there is also an insert slot that can be positioned anywhere in the chain, where you can insert an additional plugin of your choice, including an extra instance of any of the Scheps Omni Channel modules.
We can certainly see how this bit of kit will help keep you focused while you mix, and the interface is so simple, too. Check out the video below for a more in-depth analysis from Andrew Scheps himself: