CLEAN
A hard-knee soft clip with a near-linear region up to the threshold. Minimal colouration, maximum transparency — ideal for mastering and for adding loudness without changing the character of a mix.

GLUE
A smooth algebraic saturator that rounds peaks from the very first decibel, with no hard knee. It adds subtle even harmonics and a sense of cohesion that glues drum buses and mix buses together — without pumping.

TUBE
Asymmetric, tube-style saturation that generates even-order harmonics which react dynamically to signal density. TUBE engages the full 3-band multiband engine, so you can drive each frequency range independently.

YIELD — Natural Transient Response

YIELD is at the heart of what makes SOL-5 sound musical. It controls how quickly gain reduction is applied. At 0% the clipper is instant and hard — pure digital clipping. At 100% it follows a gentle, natural curve. Push it toward 200% and the response slows down into a soft, tape-like character that lets transients breathe. One knob takes you from surgical to smooth.

3-Band Multiband Engine

In TUBE mode, SOL-5 splits the signal into low, mid, and high bands using clean Linkwitz-Riley crossovers. Drive each band independently — keep your low end tight and clean while saturating the mids, or tame harsh highs without touching the body of the sound. Crossover points are fully adjustable, with solo buttons for each band.

Auto Gain Comp

Clipping changes loudness, which makes honest comparison difficult. Auto Gain Comp links OUTPUT to DRIVE so the level stays constant as you add saturation — letting you judge the effect, not the volume.

Emphasis

The Emphasis section applies a pre/de-emphasis EQ pair around the clipper, focusing clipping on the ear-sensitive region near 2.5 kHz. The result is loudness with less harshness and listening fatigue. A Blend control sets how much of the effect is applied.

Oversampling & Metering

Oversampling up to 8x keeps clipping clean and alias-free. Integrated LUFS metering (ITU-R BS.1770-4) gives you an accurate loudness reading, alongside a live transfer curve, waveform and gain-reduction history, and a real-time harmonic display so you can see exactly what the clipper is doing.

Mastering — Start with Tender or Patina for a warm, natural result, or use CLEAN for maximum transparency. Set your ceiling, raise drive until the transfer curve starts to bend, and let the integrated LUFS meter guide you.

Bus Processing — Tender and Patina add warmth and cohesion on drum and mix buses, while GLUE mode glues things together without pumping. Use the parallel MIX control for clipping that keeps transients sharp.

Individual Tracks — Tame pick attack on guitar, control piano dynamics, or keep bass steady. The factory presets give you a starting point for each source.