Item: Overloud Gem Voice
Rating: 4.0
Author: Lyubomir Dobrev

13 Sep 2020 by Lyubomir Dobrev |

3,3 / 5,0 | Approximate reading time: 11 Minutes | Our Rating: 4,0 / 5,0

Overloud's Gem Voice: A new vocal processing plug-designed for ease of use · Source:

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You are an aspiring producer, podcaster or content creator and you want to sound better than the rest. Especially when it comes to your voice. However, audio production – especially vocals – is not a job for the faint-hearted or budget-constrained among us. Or is it? Products like Overloud Gem Voice exist to challenge such notions. This is an affordable, all-in-one suite of virtual processors, all derived from tried and true professional studio equipment. So, technically, it’s not only for vocals – it will do just fine on instrument tracks, too!

What makes Overloud Gem Voice stand out among some incredibly adept competitors is its sheer simplicity and ease of use. So far, no audio developer has made a conscious effort towards creating a full-blown virtual analog channel strip that’s approachable even by the very novice. Understandably, that’s no walk in the park. It takes some careful considerations and top-tier technology to accomplish such a task without shipping a severely compromised product. Has Overloud succeeded? Let’s find out!

Overloud Gem Voice: The GUI

Upon launching Overloud Gem Voice, you are greeted by a fully assembled channel strip that’s yours for the twiddling. The tour begins from the Initial Preset, where all modules – except Space and Delay – are switched on and set to unity, ready for exploration.

Overloud Gem Voice: The user interface

The GUI is not scalable, but it looks appropriately sized and legible on my MacBook’s Retina display. The graphics are clean and nicely detailed, more on the slightly cartoon-y than the scientific side. The knobs are also big enough and move quite precisely, permitting surgical adjustments when needed.

The function strip up top is mostly about the presets menu, which is right next to the On/Bypass button. There, you will find 6 factory banks, with each bank holding up to 50 presets. More banks can be added by the user. Gem Voice ships with a good bit of presets, some designed by name producers like Joe Barresi. They serve well to explore the suite’s potential and provide solid starting points for further refinement – not to mention a peek into the workflow of professionals doing exemplary productions.

The Save button lets you capture the current settings as a preset, while the A/B buttons enable quick comparisons between two presets. Undo and Redo buttons are available, along with a Menu button where you can access the user manual, support, and a Preferences panel. There, you may want to enable the ‘Keep Master level while changing presets’ option for easier judgement and to prevent being caught off-guard by abrupt volume spikes.

The factory presets are plenty, and consistently good.

Looking at the modules, there are Level knobs, as well as On/Bypass and Solo buttons at the bottom of each. This way, you can hear what exactly a specific module is doing to your audio in isolation. Also of note is the spectrum analyzer (center-bottom), which visualizes your compression or equalizer settings, depending on which module you are using at the moment. It is also possible to operate the equalizer while looking at the compression and vice-versa, which is useful.

Note that the modules cannot be rearranged by the user. This does simplify the plug-in for beginners, but also stands in the way of flexibility – one cannot place the equalizer before the compressor, for example, or put the tape sim at the end of the chain. There’s a workaround, such as running multiple instances of Gem with only the specific modules you need enabled, in the order of your choice. But an optional ‘Advanced’ mode with some liberty in chaining modules would be a more elegant solution.

With the interface now familiar, let’s see what each module has to offer…

Mic Preamp

Choose your preamp dojo.

Our first stop is the mic preamp module. There are four models to choose from, complemented by a Gain knob, low-cut, and phase reverse buttons. The preamp emulations are dead-on, as far as I’m concerned. The S4000 (SSL) sounds surgically clean, the N80 (Neve) is expectedly smooth, the T88 (Trident) is warm and gooey, and the Sun 69 (Helios) is musical and present. Judged solely on their own, the differences in sound are subtle. Yet, the more processing you add down the chain, the more pronounced each preamp’s character becomes.

Tape Sim

The tape machine simulation is incredibly fun and realistic.

Simple as it looks, the tape module is very fun and realistic-sounding. There are 6 models with different recording speeds, as well as 4 “character” models. The available controls are Drive and Blend. I was pleased to hear how each tape model sounds and distorts noticeably different from the rest. The Drive control can be pushed quite hard, well into delightfully grimy or creamy-sounding tape overdrive. But if you are more about that subtle warmth and compression, simply dial back the Drive and blend to taste. Fans of tape saturation and distortion will have a field day with Gem Voice.

Enhancer

The Enhancer does what it’s supposed to without the danger of destroying your audio.

The Enhancer module is a simple one-knob affair with a choice of 5 fixed frequencies – generally in the ballpark of 3 – 4kHz. This can be the answer when you want to help an instrument or vocal cut through the mix with added attitude.

Being so basic, this module may seem a bit half-baked if you are used to something like an Aphex exciter with its separate Low and High controls. However, I get Overloud’s intention here. With a great exciter/enhancer comes great responsibility. A more powerful module could easily end up overused by the kind of users Gem Voice targets, turning perfectly good recordings into boom and shrill. This one is just capable enough to deliver the goods without devastating your audio.

Multiband

The mutliband module is a useful corrective tool.

The Multiband module is a compressor optimized for getting rid of boxiness and de-essing. It takes some fiddling of the Freq knobs before you home in on the exact frequencies you want to suppress. But otherwise, a processor of this type couldn’t have been made simpler. A thoughtful feature is the Auto Cue button, which automatically soloes the module while you are making adjustments. It is easier to hunt down the boxy and ess-ing stuff this way.

Compressor

The compressor module is all about that analog goodness, but without the extra tweaking.

A combined compressor and gate/expander, the Compressor module aims to simplify what are, perhaps, the toughest audio processors to master. The Gate/Expander only has a Threshold control, while the Compressor has Comp (threshold), Time (combined Attack/Release), and LF Sens. controls. These are tied to 3 kinds of compressor emulations.

Overloud is going for the tried-and-true with a choice between the punchy, present character of the UREI 1176 (FET) or the sweet, gentle tube sound of the Teletronix LA-2A (Opto Tube). The latter is also available in a slightly edgier-sounding Solid State variant.

Overloud’s take on the 1176’s characteristic strengths is particularly smart. The three presets let you use it for basic peak reduction, all-out limiting (hello, drum bus!) or just for the added harmonics. Regardless of your choice, it’s difficult – though not impossible – to over-compress your audio. Tread carefully.

Equalizer

The equalizer is as good as a three-band EQ can get.

The Equalizer module is incredibly solid for a basic three-band unit. You get sweeping Low/Mid/High Gain and Frequency knobs to play with, along with a high-pass filter. All four can be controlled either from the knobs, or from the spectrum analyzer – drag the dots and listen.

Overloud loves hardware emulations, so it’s giving you a nice set of options – an SSL 4K-series EQ (Shelving or Peaking), a German EQ (probably Neumann or Studer), a British EQ (must be a Neve or Trident), Proportional Q (the EQ bandwidth gets increased the more you apply it), and Band Limit (careful here, sailor!). It’s a great choice of workhorse EQs that stood the test of time for a reason.

Space

The reverb sounds great and is very usable in mixes.

The Space module contains a superb reverb with a comprehensive, but intuitive control set. My advice is to go for the presets right away, and tweak from there. They are many and are remarkably well done. Nothing too esoteric – just properly applied, very usable reverbs that give voices and instruments depth and dimension in the mix.

Delay

The delay module does a bit more than it seems.

The Delay module is very basic, but there is a time and place for complex multi-tap delays and this isn’t it. Simply adjust the delay time in milliseconds or note values, and blend to taste. For more creative applications, head to the presets and you will hear doubling, swells, ping-pong, and slapback. I think the delay engine is more capable than it seems. Therefore, some more controls (or presets) to explore its potential wouldn’t have hurt.

Master

The limiter can bring up your voice or instrument in level.

Our last stop is the Master section, which contains a simple Limiter with threshold control, and output volume controls which can be linked for Stereo operation. Don’t forget to switch to Mono when loading Gem Voice on a mono track to give your computer an easier time.

Pricing Overloud Gem Voice

At the intro price of EUR 99 (down from EUR 169), Gem Voice offers immense value. It’s a full-blown channel strip containing well-known and excellent-sounding gear emulations that are greatly simplified, but not dumbed down.

Overloud Gem Voice Alternatives

The EUR 99 intro price for Gem Voice is very fair. But at EUR 169, we have some powerful alternatives to consider.