I got a Heat Mkii and was digging it, but it wasn’t blowing my mind yet. I had it hooked up via TRS in and out and was routing it into ableton as an external effect, trying it on busses and also the mix buss.
Fine and good but it was super hard to level match to where I could turn the Heat on and off and not have a drop in level. I adjusted the input volume…etc, it was working but I felt like I was missing something. I was doubting if the saturation would work on my entire mix.
So I downloaded the newest overbridge and loaded it up. I know a lot of people don’t use overbridge with this. And if I was recording through the Heat, I would not either. But using it as an insert is much better for me in Overbridge mode.
Main reason is I can fine tune the input volume. I also grabbed @DaveMech free master setting was able to dial it in to my mix (I mix to around -12db). I also studied it like a preset and realized that the saturation mode can indeed be used as an end of chain enhancer. I suspect Dave’s setup is meant for live performance because he is pumping the drive a bit when triggered by the kick. But I took his ideas and made my own saturation preset. First thing I did was turn off the Heat and get the input and output meters as close as I could. This changed the game for me, because then I was able to turn the Heat on and off and not lose a lot of volume when it’s off. On the hardware I can only choose between low medium and high input, but on overbridge I can fine tune it without having to adjust the source material.
From there I dialed in the drive and a little boost in EQ, and used the preset volume to control the level of the output. This makes it pretty easy to saturate my mix in a pleasing way that keeps the transients and keeps the mix sounding open and deep. I also can push the volume up to around -6db with the drive which is where I like my final mixes to be before mastering.
Anyway thought I’d share because I bought this thing thinking I wouldn’t use overbridge and it would be a hassle, but I can easily see myself unplugging the TRS cables now and saving some I/O. The main reason is I now can really dial the unit in and get a true understanding of why some people call it a magic box. Honestly before I did this, I wasn’t really hearing anything special about the unit, which makes me wonder how many people hadn’t truly dialed in the box before selling it.