Shade

Please note: Shade is also available in the UVI Sonic Bundle

Shade is a next-gen Swiss Army knife filtering tool, designed to shatter the boundaries of conventional EQ, filtering, and modulation effects.

More than a filter, Shade is a creative environment, combining an unparalleled selection of 35 filter shapes with 10 types of modulators. Drag-and-drop modulation onto any parameter in a fully-configurable semi-modular system, complete with one-to-many and many-to-one routing, cross-modulation, envelope followers with sidechain and filter inputs, featured MSEGs, triggerable envelopes that can sync to host, audio, or MIDI, comprehensive multichannel support, and more.

Shade delivers the EQ and filtering features you already know and love, while opening a whole new world of creative effects to explore.

What's new?

Integrating community feedback and feature requests, version 1.2 adds pitch tracking, 20 factory presets, usability improvements, and more.

• NEW! 20 new post-production presets from HAL Audio
• NEW! 'Pitch Tracking’ modulation source, from MIDI or audio input
• NEW! MIDI keyboard to main display, for quick filter frequency snapping
• NEW! Display of selected filter’s note value on frequency axis
• NEW! Display of modulation depth overload on knobs
• NEW! Display of modulation depth value in target parameters units
• NEW! Support for Protools automation modifier keys
• NEW! Global UI refresh rate setting in Preferences panel
• Improved automation parameter names
• Under-the-hood enhancements

Approach

With Shade, UVI aimed to create something unique, that would both improve your process and simplify the toolset required to achieve it, something that helped open doors to new kinds of sounds and experimentation, but also really nailed the bread and butter tasks that you rely on to get the job done.

To do that, they started from the ground-up. From the filter engine, modeling shapes, and the modulation system, getting everything to sound right even at the extremes, while keeping the CPU cycles in check so you don't have to think twice about loading it, to usability, putting everything in reach, without it being in the way, allowing you to go as deep as your inspiration takes you without being visually overwhelming, or pulling your attention away from the sound.

It's been quite a process but UVI have done their best to tick those boxes, and they hope you find it as inspiring to work with as they do. While the building blocks in Shade are simple in appearance, they come together to do some really special things, quickly, and with very few limitations.

In-depth

Digital, Analog and Beyond

With 35 unique filter types Shade excels at traditional and creative uses alike, easily completing tasks that would have required numerous plugins before (and many that were previously impossible.) Shade includes everything from digital to analog-modeled nonlinear filter shapes, and many mind-bending multi-resonant ones. With Shade you can make broadstroke adjustments transparently, surgically and dynamically balance and tame unwieldy resonances, and add hardware-modeled warmth, effortlessly, in a single plugin instance.

Radical Shades

Filters in Shade were designed to offer extreme versatility. Resonant filters have discrete Q-Up and Q-Down controls, and all shelf and peak shapes provide fully-continuous slopes up to 2000dB/octave. Transition smoothly from subtle to insane, create soft-knee brickwall filters, and with the dynamic modulation system, radically mangle and destroy signals like never before.

Modulate All The Things

Shade's modulation system is a gateway to a world of new sound design possibilities. 9 modulators can be instanced, including: XY, Macro, Spread, Random, LFO, Envelope, Figure (an XY LFO), MSEG, and Follower. All filter and modulator parameters can be targeted, with one-to-many and many-to-one routing, cross-modulation, muting, and all are easy to keep track of thanks to double-click show/hide and click-drag rearrangement. It's difficult to overstate how powerful the modulation system is and how easy it is to use.

Modulators

• LFO - A feature-complete LFO, including variable shape, phase, symmetry and pulse width. The Multiplier control supports advanced metrics (5, 7, 11, 13, 15 etc.), and Swing provides up to 200% of the conventional range.
• Follower - A featured envelope follower, allows the creation of any sort of dynamic effect in Shade, from classic Dynamic EQ, to multiband compression effects and beyond. Can be driven by input, sidechain, or the spectral band of individual filters within Shade.
• Figure - A two-dimensional LFO, Figure allows you to create continuous morphing between simple circular forms and complex, spirograph-like shapes with up to 8 vertices, and support for rotation. Additional features include Direction, Sync/Free toggle, variable Speed and Phase, and Trigger/Retrigger modes.
• Envelope - A classic DAHD envelope with variable curve shapes. Triggering is set through the global trigger mode menu, and can be made by host sync interval, audio threshold, or MIDI note.
• Spread (Multichannel) - The Spread modulator allows you to create channel-specific variation for any parameter (on filters or modulators), in L/R, M/S, or Surround. Simply expand the panel and adjust relative values for each channel as desired. Use it to create ultra-wide fx, or any type of creative multichannel filtering effect you can think of.
• MSEG - For absolute control, the MSEG (multi-step envelope generator) provides a DAW-like automation lane with both stepped and linear drawing modes with easing. A customizable grid with grid-snap allows for precise point placement. Click-drag multiselection with bounding box transform allows for easy editing. Additional features include Loop toggle, Trigger/Retrigger modes, Sync/Free toggle, variable Speed and Phase, and Smooth interpolation.
• Random - Add jitter to any parameter to impart variability, movement, and added interest. Can operate in Mono or Stereo, for added width.
• Macro - The Macro modulator lets you easily control many things from one place. Map it to as many parameters as you like, and assign each their own depth as needed.
• X / Y - A classic two-dimensional modulator. Perfect for morphing between parameter settings on filters or other modulators. Control it with an external joystick via Macros.
• Pitch Tracking - A pitch tracker that can be used to control any parameter (typically used to drive filter frequency). Monitor pitch from the main or sidechain audio inputs, or from the MIDI input.

Extreme Phaser / Flanger

Shade is an extremely capable phaser and flanger. Combine any of the classic or more exotic phaser and flanger filter shapes with Shade's modulation system, LFO, MSEG, Figure, Spread, and animate to taste. Roll your own or check out the fantastic collection of phaser and flanger presets for instant gratification.

Dynamic EQ

Right-click the gain of any shelf or peak filter in Shade to add a Follower, and you've got instant dynamic EQ. Unlike most dynamic EQs, however, any parameter in Shade can be dynamic. Pair that with a capable cross-modulation system and ability to drive envelope followers based on individual filters' spectral content, and you’ve got massive creative potential.

High Quality, Zero Latency

Most of the filters within Shade have been digitized using advanced techniques to achieve extremely accurate analog magnitude matching across the high-frequency spectrum. This is done without any additional processing cost, and with zero latency, making Shade both extremely accurate and CPU efficient.

Multiselection

Do more with less. Shade supports editing of multiselections in the graph area, allowing you to easily modify or add modulations to shared parameters of multiple filters with one click. Don't forget, multiselection works just as well in MSEG and Envelope modulators.

Presets

Shade's preset system, both globally and per module, are all written in plain-text. This allows you to store and share configurations with ease using copy/paste/load/save commands available in both main, and module menus.

Workflow

Being a semi-modular system with nearly unlimited possible configurations it was important for us to make Shade as immediate and as easy to use as possible. To that end we made a concerted effort to mitigate complexity in the UI, displaying only what's pertinent to the task at hand so that you can stay focused and in the zone no matter how deep you dive.

A Modern Take On A Classic

A go-to mix tool, versatile creative effect, and a no reservations audio mangler, Shade is a modern, efficient, and highly-capable processor limited only by your imagination. Throw Shade on your track and don't look back!

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System Requirements

• iLok account (free, dongle not required)
• Internet connection for the license activation

Licensing

3 activations per license on any combination of machines or iLok dongles

Operating System

• macOS 10.14 Mojave to macOS 15 Sequoia (64-bit, Intel or ARM)
• Windows 10 to Windows 11 (64-bit)

Compatibility

Supported Formats:  Audio Unit, AAX, VST, VST3