Plugin Showcase: Elysia Karacter
Updated: Mar 31, 2019
So today I wanted to share a plugin that I have been enjoying a lot of late. This plugin is fantastic as a tool to add a little extra snap to snares or claps or bring elements forward in a mix in situations where you may not want to use too much compression or EQ.
The tool I have been using is the excellent Elysia Karacter from Plugin Alliance. When I first tried this plugin we installed it in our mastering room and quickly found it a little overpowering at least for our tastes so took a pass. A few months later however it came on sale so I gave it another shot but this time in the mixing room and I quickly realised it has some fantastic applications.
My favourite of which is on snares or claps where it does an excellent job in providing extra energy and power to transients with higher distortion settings with the added bonus of easy parallel processing. Karacter’s unique feature of three separate distortion settings in the default mode, FET Shred and Turbo Boost provides a range of tones that can be used to control and shape the sound of the processed signal. I particularly like the Turbo Boost mode for an almost TS808 style distortion which funnily enough is well suited to distorting 808’s and other bass instruments that need more presence or aggression in a hip hop mix. Naturally this kind of sound is also excellent on guitars.
The built in colour control provides a useful means to manage the relative distortion of the bottom and top end of the processed signal and is a welcome addition but excellent results can be obtained withoutit in many cases. I find that it is most useful on more complex sources or when an exaggerated tone is desired.
In my opinion this plugin is not the most subtle, hence my prior misgivings about its application in mastering, however I find it excellent for use in mixing wherever signals need an added bit of attitude or aggression. The “master” version does provide some very mastering centric features in its M/S controls however I find these very useful for complex stereo sources such as synths, buses or drums.
Give this plugin a go when its next on sale or download the demo from the Plugin Alliance website. You might be pleasantly impressed as I was.