MELD
Multi-channel EQ, Level & Dynamics
For three decades, John Hanes has been an instrumental force in shaping the sound of modern music from the helm of the world-renowned MixStar Studios. Through our landmark collaboration, MELD now provides unprecedented access to his expertise.
We worked directly with John to deconstruct and meticulously model the modern and cutting-edge immersive workflows he has perfected at the industry’s highest level.
MELD is more than a product; it’s a direct line to a master’s process.
MELD provides a comprehensive signal chain for your ATMOS and stereo mix processing:
- 12-band fully parametric EQ with Analyzer
- Compressor
- Limiter
- Loudness/Clipping processor
- MixHead tape saturation processor
MELD is the answer to the problem of building a cohesive music mix in ATMOS. It was created to solve the key issue that John Hanes was encountering while building immersive ATMOS mixes to match stereo mix masters.
In ATMOS immersive mixes, channels are mixed to beds and objects.
A bed is a multichannel bus or stem, and may be processed similarly to how a stereo bus is processed (as long as you have multichannel capable tools - which MELD provides).
Objects, which are required for immersive overhead panning, are panned by the renderer - which means they must be delivered discretely. Simply put, with ATMOS objects, when you are processing audio that conceptually forms a bus, the bus you are creating is virtual (as there is never a sum available in the mix environment).
With a virtual bus there is no place to apply bus processing, which is a key technique in building proper music mixes for pop and rock.
MELD elegantly and quickly solves this problem. It turns out that solving these problems in ATMOS mixes yields great benefits for stereo mixes as well.
When you insert MELD into a session, every instance is aware of all the other instances. You can access any channel directly from within the MELD UI - no need to navigate your mix from the host DAW - everything (including Solo, Mute, Metering and grouping) is at your fingertips within the MELD UI.
MELD has 26 virtual busses (groups); any instance can be added to a group. All instances in a group share the same processor settings. This allows you to apply the same processing to many channels - same as you would if you bussed them together and applied the processing on the bus. But each channel is still available discretely to be sent to objects or processed further.
MELD also allows you to manage the detector sidechain for the dynamics processing blocks (Compressor and Limiter) in a group. This lets you key channels within a group or from any other channel or bus that has a MELD instance - all without having to manage complex routing within the host. The default shared-sidechain routing for groups allows you to achieve bus-compression for channels routed to objects.
MELD also provides exciting new tricks that are unavailable in traditional bus-processing workflows; since the channels that are part of the bus are still available discretely after processing, you can adjust levels and EQ post-bus compression - whether or not you plan to send the channels to objects or simply submix them back to a stereo bus or a multichannel bed.
And of course, it sounds great!
“So much of your mix sound is defined by your stereo mix buss and how it melds the sounds of the mix together; you don't want to lose that when you break it down and build it back again as an Immersive mix.
MELD brings back that stereo mix buss and mastering glue to the Immersive mix. It will help you keep the MIX sounding like THE mix.
MELD provides a Multichannel workflow designed by professionals for professionals.”
Key Features
- World-class Signal Processing and Workflow
- 12-band Fully Parametric EQ w/ Analyzer
- Compressor
- Limiter
- MixHead tape processing
- Loudness clip processing
- Instantaneous Process block reordering
- User-Selectable Over-sampling (up to 16x)
- Process-overview UI
- 26 Virtual Busses/Groups
- Integrated Solo+Mute
- Instance Table with project overview and metering
- LUFs and True Peak Metering per channel
- Reference LUFs and True Peak Metering readouts for selected channels
- Support for Mono to 9.1.6 channel instances
- Shared-sidechains between instances to support keying and virtual bus compression/limiting
- Many presets included
- Adjustable UI size
- MH Preset Manager - Provides cross-platform presets
Mixed With MELD (so far...)
| Title | Artist |
| The Life of A Showgirl | Taylor Swift (Album) |
| Returning To Myself | Brandi Carlile (Album) |
| Who Believes In Angels | Elton John, Brandi Carlile |
| Mayhem | Lady Gaga (Album) |
| The Dead Dance | Lady Gaga |
| I Forgive You | Cynthia Erivo (Album) |
| Eternal Sunshine Deluxe | Ariana Grande (Album) |
| Title (10th Anniversary) | Meghan Trainor (Album) |
| NOT OK | 5 Seconds of Summer |
| Everyone’s A Star! | 5 Seconds of Summer |
| Stranger | Doja Cat |
| Jealous Type | Doja Cat |
| Born Again | Lisa, Doja Cat, RAYE |
| In plain sight | Khalid |
| Out of Body | Khalid |
| after the sun goes down | Khalid (Album) |
| Free | Kid Cudi (Album) |
| Dreaming of You (30th Anniversary) | Selena (Album) |
| After All The Bars Are Closed | Thomas Rhett |
| Dance With You | Thomas Rhett |
| I’m That Guy | Thomas Rhett |
| Beautiful as You | Thomas Rhett |
| What Could Go Right | Thomas Rhett |
| Gone Country | Thomas Rhett |
| Bite Me | Renee Rapp (Album) |
| WOW! | BETWEEN FRIENDS (Album) |
| That’s Showbiz Baby! | JADE (Album) |
| American Heart | Benson Boone (Album) |
| Don’t Click Play | Ava Max (Album) |
| New Heart | Crash Adams |
| Jersey in July | Dom Innarella |
| Addison | Addison Rae (Album) |
| Beautiful Chaos | KATSEYE (EP) |
| Ruby | Jennie (Album) |
| LOVE LOOKS PRETTY ON YOU | Nessa Barrett |
| Dear God | Tate McCrae |
| Revolving Door | Tate McCrae |
| Miss Possessive | Tate McCrae |
| Sports Car | Tate McCrae |
Try It Free for 30 Days
We want you to hear how MELD can bring your mixes to the next level – that’s why we have a free, fully functional 30-day trial of MELD available for download.
Try MELD for yourself today!
Tech Specs
System Requirements
- Mac OS X 10.10 or newer. Intel Processor or Apple Silicon. AU, VST 2 & 3 or AAX (Pro Tools 11 & newer Native) host. 64 bit.
- Windows 7 or newer. Intel Processor. VST or AAX (Pro Tools 10, 11 & 12 & Native) host. 64 bit.
Licensing Requirements
- iLok.com account.
- License includes two activations for your account.
- iLok dongle is optional — you may install the license on your machine or on an iLok or the iLok Cloud for portability.
- Only one license required – works on all supported platforms.