ZScorch

ZScorch splits your audio into 1 to 4 bands with Linkwitz-Riley crossovers, saturates each band independently, and recombines them through a ceiling limiter and dry/wet mix. Because each band can use a different saturation topology, you can keep low end clean while adding tape warmth to the mids and diode edge to the highs.

Three macros — Lift, Character, and Mix — shape the whole chain. Lift drives the saturation amount, Character steers the tonal balance, and Mix blends the processed and dry signals. A dynamic spectral tilt adds or removes high-frequency energy, and a dedicated exciter high-passes around 3.5 kHz to add air and presence.

Insert ZScorch on a drum bus to glue and energize, on guitars for aggressive or musical distortion, on a bass to add harmonic weight, or on a mix bus for gentle analog-style saturation and top-end sparkle.

Lift — Master saturation amount (0–1). Drives harmonic content across all active bands.

Character — Steers the tonal balance of the saturation (−1..1), from darker to brighter harmonics.

Mix — Dry/wet blend (0–1) of the processed and delay-compensated dry signals.

Band Count — Single, Two, Three, or Four bands. Crossovers are user-adjustable Linkwitz-Riley (defaults 250 Hz / 1.5 kHz / 6 kHz).

Saturation Mode (per band) — Tube, Tape, Germanium, Transistor, Diode, or Wavefold.

Harm Reduction (per band) — Spectral shelf that reduces harmonic build-up in the high end (default 0.7).

Tilt — Dynamic spectral tilt with complementary ±3 dB shelves at a 1 kHz pivot (net ±6 dB).

Exciter — High-frequency enhancer gated above 3.5 kHz, generating harmonics with a 2x oversampled x + k·x³ polynomial.

Pre/Post EQ — Low shelf (20–500 Hz, ±12 dB), bell, and high shelf before and after the saturation stage.

Output Ceiling — Ceiling limiter (−12 to −0.1 dB) that tames peak overshoot from saturation.

Oversampling — 2x standard, 4x optional. Wavefold mode requires 4x.