McDSP Chrome Tone HD

The Chrome Tone Amp has six distortion modes for everything from light grit to full shred. Distortion Drive, Type, and Frequency controls allow fine tuning of the distortion tone. The Amp also includes a full featured noise gate, compression and sustain circuits, low cut filters, shelving and parametric EQ, a guitar cabinet simulator (great for direct recording), and a reverb.

• Six distortion modes for light to heavy distortion. Distortion Drive types include various gain staging (Narrow, Wide, and Low), as well as many filter types for manual wah and other special effects.
• Fully programmable Gate to remove unwanted signal. Very useful for noise reduction in the signal path, particularly when large amounts of distortion are selected. New in version 1.3, the input section now boasts a full featured pre with more low end and several selectable Pre responses.
• Compression and sustain circuits to augment the recorded performance. This section can also increase the overall signal level in the Distortion section.
• High pass filtering, shelving and parametric EQ.
• Several new cabinet models and direct modes are now available in version 1.3.
• Spring reverb.

The Chrome Tone Wah has much more than the standard wah pedal offers. Three types of band pass (wah) filters are included, plus multiple low pass, high pass, and phasor filter configurations are available with 12, 24, and 36 dB/oct slopes. All filter configurations have selectable frequency and Q values. Using the Chrome Tone as a Wah, the wah-effect can be created in one of three ways:

1. Move the frequency control itself (manual wah)
2. Modulate the frequency control from a base setting with the Dynamic section (enveloped wah)
3. Modulate the frequency control from a base setting with the Auto section (auto wah). These three techniques can be extended to any of the other filter types in the Wah configuration.

The Q, or resonance, control, provides emphasis at the selected frequency, or at the currently modulated frequency. This can create filter effects commonly associated with synthesizers. The selections, bandpass, low pass, and high pass all come in 1/2/3 modes, corresponding to 12/24/36 dB per octave slopes. The intensity of the resonance increases with steeper filter slopes.

Chrome Tone Tremolo

The Tremolo effect is the modulation of the volume (gain) of a signal path. This effect is common in guitar and keyboards, and a variety of other instruments. The beating, or volume movements can add life to an otherwise dull performance.

The Chrome Tone Tremolo uses the same Dynamic and Auto sections found in the Wah configuration to modulate the gain in its tremolo circuit.

The Chrome Tone Tremolo section has two controls to adjust the Tremolo effect.

• Mix - the amount of dry (unaffected) signal and wet (tremolo'd) signal.
• Range - the overall modulation range from both the Dynamic and Auto sections.

The Chrome Tone Chorus section contains five controls to adjust the Chorus effect.

• Chorus Type - selects between Flange, Chorus 1, and Chorus 2 modes. In the Stack configuration, an Analog Delay mode is also available for up to 1 second of analog delay.
• Delay - the total delay line lengths used to create the delay modulated effect.
• Feedback - the amount of delayed signal feed back into the input of the delay line/s.
• Mix - the balance between the dry (un-delayed) and wet (delayed) signals.
• Range - the overall modulation range from both the Dynamic and Auto sections.

Performance Effects

As with other McDSP plug-ins, Chrome Tone is very efficient. DSP performance and usage is an important consideration whether you are running on the host or a dedicated DSP chip.

Performance also refers to how these plug-ins respond dynamically to a musical performance. Chrome Tone effects can take their cues from a number of sources - the original audio, side chain, an external controller or any MIDI track in the session. These signals can adjust the depth, speed and shape of the LFO, as well as modulate the original audio.

Modulation Effects

Chorus, Tremolo and Wah all have a Dynamic section that controls a modulation envelope with selectable triggering (input, sidechain, MIDI data). An Auto section includes a syncable LFO with selectable/mixable waveforms. The LFO shape, rate, and depth can be further modulated from the Dynamics section's envelope output.

The wah includes 3 different band pass filter configurations, which can create stronger Q and tighter response and 3 different high pass and low pass filter configurations offered in series. Additional Wah modes includes 3 different phasors, and phasor/filter combinations.

Modes offered within the Chorus are flange, two different chorus modes and a tape delay.

The Stack

Another way Chrome Tone offers flexibility is in the configurations of the effects themselves. There is an all-in-one mode called the "stack" (shown on the left as the Wah page) which contains all the elements of the Amp, Tremolo, Wah, and Chorus effects, plus a tape delay mode in the Chorus section. Chrome Tone also comes with individual plug-ins of Amp, Chorus, Tremolo, and Wah with Phasor. All of these configurations are made available in mono, mono to stereo and true stereo.