Drums Channel Strip

Getting started

Drums Channel Strip is installed and activated through Harmovant Audio Hub. You do not download the plugin from the website: the Hub downloads, checks and installs it for you.

1. Go to harmovant.com/downloads, sign in (a free Harmovant account is enough) and download Harmovant Audio Hub for macOS.
2. Open the Hub and sign in with the same account.
3. Find Drums Channel Strip in the Hub and click Install. macOS asks for your administrator password once. The plugin goes to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (AU) and /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3.
4. Activate it: use your purchased licence, a Stage Pass subscription, or start the 14-day free trial on this Mac.
5. Open your host (DAW or live host), rescan plugins if needed and insert "Drums Channel Strip" (listed under Harmovant Audio) on the channel.

The footer of the plugin shows the licence state. If it says DEMO, see the Licence and Troubleshooting sections.

The screen

The window has five areas:

• Header: PRESET display with ◀ ▶, A / B / A→B, undo ↶ and redo ↷, IN and OUT LED meters, and the LIVE / HQ switch.
• CHAIN bar: the five stages in processing order. Drag to reorder, Alt-click or right-click to bypass. Each slot has a small gain-reduction bar.
• EQ display: spectrum analyser (PRE EQ and POST EQ) behind the 12-band EQ.
• Module cards: GATE, CONSOLE, TRANSIENT and COMP. Each card has its own on/off switch in the header.
• OUTPUT column: IN / GR / OUT meters, Output, Mix, AUTO GAIN and Ø (polarity).

The footer shows the mode (LIVE or HQ), the latency in samples, the sample rate, the version and the licence state.

A new instance opens flat (Init): gate open, EQs flat, transient neutral. Only the compressor is on, at its starting values. You start from your mic, not from a preset.

Chain order and bypass

Default order: GATE > CONSOLE > TRANSIENT > COMP > EQ (EQ last).

• Drag a stage in the CHAIN bar to move it. The change is made during a very short duck, with no click.
• ⟲ DEFAULT ORDER returns to the default order.
• Alt-click or right-click a stage to bypass it (or use the switch on its card). Bypass is crossfaded.
• The order is saved with the session, with A/B and with presets.

GATE

Gate and expander for close mics. The header LED shows OPEN or CLOSED. A gate opening and reopening near the threshold does not click.

CONSOLE

A console channel: input gain, high- and low-pass filters, a 4-band EQ with two characters (BROWN and BLACK), console harmonics (THD) and output.

TRANSIENT

Transient shaper with two detectors. CLASSIC is continuous: it reacts to the level rising (attack) and falling (sustain); the attack side needs some level to act. SMACK is triggered: each hit opens an attack window with a shape, and the sustain side works on the decay. SMACK is level independent. Zero latency in both.

EQ (dynamic EQ)

The EQ has 12 bands drawn over a spectrum analyser. Each band can be static, dynamic (it moves only when the signal crosses a threshold) or spectral. Every filter is minimum-phase IIR: zero latency in every mode.

• Colours: static bands are champagne, dynamic bands purple, spectral bands orange. The ring around a node shows the dynamic range; its stroke shows the current action.
• Double-click empty space: create a band. Double-click a node: delete it.
• Drag a node: frequency and gain. Hold Shift for fine moves.
• Alt-drag a node: solo the band while you hold the mouse button.
• Cmd-drag a node: set the dynamic range (the band becomes dynamic).
• Mouse wheel over a node: Q. Cmd + wheel: range.
• Right-click a node: band menu (Shape, Slope, Stereo Placement, Dynamic, Spectral, Auto Threshold, External Sidechain, Delete Band).

Clicking a node opens the band panel under it, split into EQ and DYNAMICS:

The analyser can show the spectrum before the EQ (PRE EQ) and after it (POST EQ). A new instance starts with no bands: double-click to add the first one.

COMP

A compressor with two models behind the 160 / XT switch. 160 is a VCA compressor with an RMS detector, hard knee, program-dependent attack and a constant-rate release: punchy on kick and snare, glue on a bus. XT drives the signal into a fixed threshold, with eight ratio characters, attack and release from 0 to 10, built-in make-up gain and optional distortion. The card has a VU for gain reduction.

OUTPUT

Presets

The factory presets were calibrated on a live multitrack (kick around -28 dBFS RMS, -6 dBFS peak): the output lands within about ±3 dB of the input with peaks under -2 dBFS. On another console or recording, set the gate Thresh and the level into the plugin first.

• Init (flat): the neutral starting point of a new instance.
• Kick In - Punch & Click (Kick): inside kick mic; gate keyed on the low end, box scooped at 350 Hz, beater click at 4 kHz, extra attack from TRANSIENT in SMACK mode, 160 for punch.
• Kick Out - Deep Thump (Kick): outside kick mic; weight at 60 Hz, less attack, longer sustain, gentle 160.
• Snare Top - Crack (Snare): fast gate with short hold, body at 200 Hz, crack at 5 kHz, CLASSIC attack, XT 4:1 for snap.
• Snare Bottom - Wires (Snare): hard high-pass, only the wires (4-8 kHz), gated, no compression.
• Toms - Gated Boom (Toms): rack tom; gate with a musical release, cardboard cut at 400 Hz, stick at 4 kHz.
• Floor Tom - Big (Toms): deep fundamental around 80 Hz, long hold and release so the note rings, SMACK sustain for size.
• Hi-Hat - Clean & Bright (Cymbals): high-pass at 250 Hz against kick and snare bleed, 2-3 kHz tamed, light air, no gate.
• Overheads - Wide Cymbals (Cymbals): keeps the kit image, low cut at 100 Hz, smooth 3 kHz, air on top, slow glue on the 160.
• Room - Smashed (Room & Bus): XT NUKE with fast attack, Dist 3 for grit; blend with Mix.
• Drum Bus - Glue (Room & Bus): 160 at 2:1 with 2-4 dB of gain reduction, light console colour, a touch of low and top.
• Drum Bus - Aggressive (Room & Bus): XT 6:1 with Dist 2, 50% parallel, attack shaped by the transient shaper, bright top.
• Live - Safe Kit Channel (Live): starting point for any close mic on stage; gentle gate (10 dB range), HPF 60 Hz, mild 160, nothing extreme.

• ◀ ▶ step through the factory presets. Click the preset name for the menu: Init (flat), factory presets by category, your presets, Save Preset As... and Open Presets Folder.
• Your presets are saved as .hvdc files in ~/Music/Harmovant/Drums Channel Strip/Presets.

Loading a factory preset resets every parameter not stored in it to its default, including LIVE / HQ (back to LIVE) and Ø (off). Check both after loading.

LIVE / HQ and latency

• Switching LIVE / HQ while playing is safe.
• If HQ is on, all drum channels should use the same setting, or your host must compensate the latency, so the mics stay aligned.
• No clicks: stage bypass is crossfaded; reorder, presets and A/B use a short duck; the polarity flip glides over 5 ms.

Tips for the stage: start from Live - Safe Kit Channel or the preset for the position; set the gate Thresh while the drummer plays the kit, then add Hyst if toms chatter; use the SC filters so other drums do not open the gate; on the bus, aim for 2-4 dB of gain reduction.

A/B, undo and reset

Meters

• Header IN and OUT: LED ladders (green, amber, red).
• OUTPUT column: IN, GR (total gain reduction) and OUT meters, with numeric values below.
• CHAIN bar: a thin gain-reduction bar under each stage.
• GATE card: OPEN / CLOSED LED.
• COMP card: VU meter of the compressor's gain reduction.
• EQ display: PRE EQ and POST EQ spectrum.

Licence

• One-time purchase: a lifetime licence with lifetime updates. Every new version of the plugin is included, with no renewal.
• A Stage Pass subscription also unlocks Drums Channel Strip.
• One licence runs on 2 Macs at the same time.
• 14-day free trial per Mac, started in Harmovant Audio Hub.
• Activation and installation are done in Harmovant Audio Hub. The Hub writes the licence file to the Mac and renews it in the background.
• The plugin checks the licence on the Mac, without internet. It keeps working offline for weeks. Before the offline window ends, the footer says "Connect to the internet within N days": open the Hub with internet once.

Without a valid licence the plugin still loads and keeps your settings, but runs in DEMO mode: 2 seconds of silence every 20 seconds, with short fades (never a hard cut). The footer shows the state in red (for example "DEMO - NOT ACTIVATED ON THIS MAC") and an OPEN HUB button, which opens Harmovant Audio Hub (or harmovant.com/downloads if the Hub is not installed).

The plugin never cuts the audio in the middle of a show: if a licence ends while audio is running, it keeps playing until a long pause. Only then does it switch to DEMO.

Troubleshooting

Specifications