Four separate plugins with four separate sounds.

Complicated=Easy

Phat Ketchup, Phat Mustard, Phat Mayo, and Phat Sriracha are four complicated plugins with an easy-to-use interface.  Featuring internal multiband processing and vintage compression modeling.

Phat Ketchup

The main controls of Phat Ketchup interact with a 4-band EQ that attempts to add bass without adding mud (Phat) and adding high frequency sparkle (Sweet).  Phat Ketchup includes mild stereo widening of high frequencies and multiband saturation.  The output signal is processed through a full-band compressor emulating FET-, Opto-, and Console-style functioning.

Phat Ketchup works well on many different types of audio signals.  This includes single instrument tracks, drum buses, and master tracks.  To create more dramatic sounds, increase the In gain to increase the amount of saturation and clipping.  The indicator under the Thick knob shows the relative level of compression that is occurring on the output signal.

Phat Mustard

Phat Mustard features mid/side EQ of high (Spice) and low (Phat) frequencies.  After EQing, the signal is split using a crossover, and multiband digital compression and saturation is applied based on the Spice and Phat amounts.  The indicators attached to the Phat and Spice control indicate the level of multiband compression.  The output signal is processed through a full-band compressor that emulates FET-, Opto-, and Console-style functioning.

Since Phat Mustard predominantly features mid/side EQ, the plugin works best with stereo tracks.  With buses and masters, Phat Mustard can be used to impact the punch and sizzle of the stereo signal.  In general, increasing the Phat amount will increase the bass amount of the mid channel, and increasing the Spice amount with increase the high frequencies within the side channel.  This tends to tighten the bass stereo frequencies and increase the stereo imaging, but without drastically changing the overall EQ of the track.

Phat Mayo

Phat Mayo uses dynamic EQ centered on bass and treble frequencies.  Both Phat and Tang controls have positive and negative values, so you can boost or cut bass and treble.  In addition, the Phat and Tang controls apply dynamic saturation (if enabled) and dynamic stereo width.  For both saturation and stereo width, the amount increases the further the control if moved away from 0%.  The indicators show the amount of dynamic EQ (Phat and Tang), and the amount of compression (Thick).

Just like the other plugins, the output signal is processed through a stereo compressor.  The Type control determines the compressor type, and emulations include console-, FET-, and Opto-style compressors.  Compressor side chain filtering and stereo linking is also applied.

Since Phat Mayo mainly functions as a dynamic EQ, signals that are dynamic work best.  This includes drums, bass, vocals, buses, etc.  For tracks that are more sustained with minimal dynamics (e.g., synth pads and legato strings), Phat Mayo will be a more subtle effect.  Just like the other plugins, the In gain can always be increased to produce various distorted effects.

Phat Sriracha

Phat Sriracha splits the signal using a one-pole (6 dB per octave) crossover.  The input is split into 3 channels, and gain and stereo width is applied based on the Phat and Spice controls.  Then, the mid and high channels are combined, and the resulting two channels (low and mid+high) are sent through a transient processing and saturation.  The output signal is processed through a full-band compressor that emulates FET, Opto, and Console-style functioning.

Phat Sriracha can be used on a variety of sound sources.  Just like Phat Mayo, the Phat and Spice controls have negative and positive values.  Negative amounts cut EQ frequencies and positive values increase the EQ frequencies.  The further the knobs are set from 0%, the more stereo width and transient processing are applied.  Stereo width is generally narrowed with the lower bands, and slightly widened at higher frequencies.

Since Phat Sriracha functions as a transient processor, it can be pushed too hard on certain sources.  This can result in a pumping/gated sound.  This is highly dependent on the controls, as well as the dynamics of the input signal.