Mic preamp
InterMic
A warm mic preamp for live vocals, with air, a gain rider, stage bleed taken out by a custom-trained AI model, and feedback caught as it starts to ring.
- Latency
- 0 samples
- CPU
- 0.9%, Apple M4 Pro
- Formats
- VST3, Audio Unit
- Platforms
- macOS, Windows
- Channels
- Mono, stereo
On the panel
Gain
The preamp's input gain, ±24 dB.
Beef
Warm saturation: L thickens the body, H adds bite on top.
Add air
Smooth air on top of the voice, following its level. FREQ sets where the top of the lift arrives.
Ride
A gain rider, working within RANGE, up to 12 dB.
De-bleed
Turns the stage sound down around the voice, between the words and between the lines.
De-feedback
Finds feedback and notches it as it starts to ring.
Rider target level
The band on the input meter: drag it to where the signal should sit, and RIDE keeps it there.
Rider floor
The wedge beside the input meter. Below it RIDE stops riding, so it doesn't pull the stage up between phrases.
How I use it
On a live vocal
- Set the target: the band on the input meter, where RIDE holds the voice. The default, −20 dB, is usually where I want it, so I often leave it.
- Bring the voice up to it with GAIN. Aim for the vocal to sit around the band.
- DE-BLEED, about 30%. On a quiet stage with a strong singer, 20 to 30% is enough, and buys me a few dB more gain before feedback. On a loud stage and singer I might go further.
- DE-FEEDBACK around 40%, where the Live vocals preset puts it.
- LP to shave the very top. Taking off the highest frequencies takes away more of what can feed back.
- ADD AIR to put the detail back. I end up between 40 and 60%. Where FREQ goes is taste: move it until the voice opens up again.
- Let RIDE work about 3 dB: set RANGE to around 3 dB.
- HP around 120 to 150 Hz, unless something after InterMic already cuts the lows (InterTone, for example).
The preamp
Start here. GAIN brings the voice up. BEEF adds warm, mostly second-harmonic saturation: L thickens the body, H adds bite on top.
Add air
Smooth air on top of the voice, without the hiss and harshness. It follows level, band by band: quiet material comes up a long way, and loud material hardly at all. The fader sets how much and FREQ where the top of the lift arrives, at a fixed frequency that no longer follows LP. It's subtle by design.
- Amount
- 0 to 100%
- Freq
- 6.5 to 14 kHz, 9 kHz at 12 o'clock
The extras
Three things a vocal channel on a stage needs, in the same insert.
Ride
A gain rider that keeps the vocal at its level: it boosts within RANGE, up to 12 dB, and ducks further than it boosts.
De-bleed
A custom-trained AI model hears the singer, and InterMic turns the stage sound down around the voice, between the words and between the lines. ECO uses a lighter model and less CPU.
De-feedback
Finds acoustic feedback and notches it as it starts to ring, with up to four notches at once.
Specs
- Latency
- 0 samples
- CPU
- 0.9% of a 14-core Apple M4 Pro, every stage on, mono, 48 kHz
- Formats
- VST3, Audio Unit
- macOS
- Apple silicon and Intel
- Windows
- x64
- Channels
- Mono, stereo
- Version
- 0.12.12
Download
Your download has started. If nothing appears, use the buttons above.
New in 0.12.11
DE-FEEDBACK stops mistaking long held notes for feedback. On a clean, strong voice, it could take a long sustained note for a howl and notch it down, and that note and others at the same pitch stayed turned down for 10 to 25 seconds. Replaying 72.7 hours of raw vocals from a four-day gig with no real feedback, InterMic made 273 of these notches. It now makes 26.
- Between 250 Hz and 1.1 kHz, where a singing voice's main notes sit, DE-FEEDBACK now asks one more question before it notches: a voice carries harmonics and its pitch moves, and a howl usually does neither. Nothing changes above or below that range.
- A few false notches remain: 26 in those 72.7 hours, 8 of them above the range the new check covers.
- Check this at your next soundcheck. A real howl between 250 Hz and 1.1 kHz is now caught a little later, about 0.1 to 0.2 seconds in my tests, and a few dB louder before the notch lands, because a howl grows quickly. That comes from a simulated room: I have no recording of real feedback in this range to test against, so this is the part I have not been able to prove.
- Push the gain until it rings, on a few notes in that range, before you rely on it at a show. If a howl gets through, or the notch lands too late, I would like to hear about it.
- No control, default or setting changed, and your projects and presets open as before. CPU use is the same.
The rest of the family
Adaptive tone
InterTone
Set the tone a source should have. It stays there as the playing changes, on vocals, guitars or drums.
Compressor
InterComp
A fast FET stage to grab the peaks, then a smooth optical leveller, with auto gain to keep the level matched.
Resonance, width, limiter
InterSilica
Shave the harshness, then seal the ceiling: a resonance suppressor, a one-knob stereo width and a limiter.
Network audio
InterStream
Sends a track or a mix out as NDI® and SRT, or plays a feed in from the network.
Mix balance
InterBalance
Checks your mix against a target in loudness and tone, and nudges it there slowly when you let it.
Master glue
InterMaster
One knob that glues a whole mix together and makes it sound fuller, then a limiter seals the ceiling.
Tape delay
InterTape-delay
A tape delay for vocals and instruments: each repeat comes back darker and further away, and the dry stays on time.
Reverb
InterVerb
A reverb for vocals and instruments: plates, halls, rooms and Fresh air, at zero latency and light on the CPU.
The Suite
Every Interwebbi plug-in, with one licence and one installer.