Opening up the plug-in for the first time reveals a fairly simple design, with four sliders corresponding to each of the four frequency bands (low, medium, high and air) – although there’s no real indication as to where exactly the crossovers for each band is set. Furthermore, Sugar also has high- and low-pass filtering built-in, as well as a saturation circuit with drive, distort and crush settings for everything from a little touch of tube drive to rip-roaring mayhem. Sugar starts with these sounds, and opens up the creative options available to the mix engineer, with control over four frequency bands, each with two distinct tonal colour alternatives. Sugar is an analogue-inspired audio sweetener, bringing a modern digital approach to the kinds of sounds you’d expect to hear from an Aphex Aural Exciter processor, or the old ‘Dolby A trick’ – a processing option which used the Dolby A noise-reduction encoder to enhance the top end of a recording, creating a sense of more air and clarity. So it should come as no surprise that he is now developing a line of plug-ins, and with that background, we can be sure that Fab knows what is needed in the modern studio environment, both by professionals with plenty of experience and beginners just setting off on their audio journeys. Alongside this and developing pureMix, he has also been influential in developing the sound of the Lauten Atlantis and Eden microphones. As a mix engineer, Fab’s credit list is impressive and includes André 3000, David Crosby and Shakira. Process.Audio is the new plug-in wing of pureMix, the online education company founded by Fab Dupont.