FabFilter Saturn 2's top section consists of a large interactive multi-band display, which makes
it very easy to create and select frequency bands and adjust their level and drive settings. At
the same time, it's also a real-time frequency analyzer.
To add a new frequency band, simply click on the small '+' button that
appears at the top of the display when you move the mouse here. By clicking this
button, the current frequency band splits with a crossover frequency at the current mouse
position. The new band will copy its settings from the band that has just been split.
Simply click anywhere in a band to select it.
Click and drag on the display background to select adjacent bands by
dragging a rectangle around them.
If only one band is active, it will be selected by default and the band controls control the settings of this single band. Once you have
multiple frequency bands available, the display highlights the level buttons of the selected
bands and the band controls are linked to these bands. In the
screen shot above, the middle band is selected. In addition, the band controls will slide
underneath the selected band.
Click and drag a selected level button vertically to adjust the level
setting of all selected bands. If you have multiple bands selected, the level of all selected
bands will be adjusted with the same relative change. Alternatively, simply use the mouse
wheel while hovering anywhere above one of the selected band. You can also double-click the level button to type the level value directly.
Ctrl-click (Windows) or Cmd-click (macOS) to reset the band level.
Hold the Alt key to adjust the drive setting of the selected bands
instead, while applying one of the above changes via dragging, mouse wheel or click.
Hold the Shift key (Ctrl in Pro Tools) to fine-tune band levels or drive
while applying changes via dragging or using the mouse wheel.
To change a crossover frequency, click and drag the vertical crossover split.
Alternatively, click and drag a level button horizontally to change the crossover frequencies
at both edges of the band. Double-click a crossover split to
type a frequency value directly.
Via the crossover slope button in the middle of a crossover split, you can choose the steepness of crossover filtering,
ranging from a gentle 6 dB/oct to a very steep 48 dB/oct.
Tip: About everything in the display can be modulated, even the cross-over splits. Simply
drag and drop a modulation source to it!
Solo and mute
If you hover the mouse over the top of the display and there is more than one
band, small solo and mute buttons in the left-top corner of
each band will appear. The solo button lets you listen to a single band, while the mute button
does the opposite and mutes the band, letting you hear all other bands. Of course, you can solo
or mute multiple bands at the same time, just like with tracks in your DAW.
Hold down the solo or mute button to solo or mute a band only temporarily, as long as the
mouse button is pressed.
To solo or mute a band exclusively, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Cmd-click
(Mac) the solo or mute button.
Solo and mute changes can be automated and are saved with the other parameters, so you can
also use them for creative effects.
