Biggest Ever Audio Mixing Contest is ON!
The Waves SSL E-Series channel strip is probably The Most Important Effects Plug-in released in Native or TDM format. UAD has their own version of the E-series channel, but that requires a UAD-2 card. I say it is the most important because the SSL sound is the most famous sound of modern music from mixing boards. The eq curves and dynamics (c...
De-essing is often over-looked as a mixing technique. A de-essing specific plug-in a really nothing more than a frequency specific dynamic compressor. This kind of processing can be achieved with a standard compressor by using a side-chain input. Waves made it really simple to 'de-ess' by creating a specific plug-in where the side-chain is se...
Waves NLS can be used to remedy the problem of digital recordings sounding sterile and lifeless. Each of the different consoles add their unique 'color' or 'flavor' to your tracks. I really like the EMI console in this plug-in because it thickens up drum tracks, and can be used to take off the harsh top-end of electric guitars. Waves NLS has so...
Some people won't like that there aren't more controls for tweaking. Honestly though, I have plenty of other plug-ins if I want to tweak. I don't really need another one to do the same thing. What I like about this plug-in is that I can throw it on a track and it makes things sound better. Generally I will use other amp sims ...
Some people won't like that all the functioning of the effects are happening behind the scenes (no control of attack, release, ratio, knee for the compressors for instance). I'm sure part of the idea for this plug-in was to make a product for the amateur and semi-pro musician who doesn't know much about mixing. If you don't know much about mix...
I really like to use delays on my instruments. But historically a lot of the ones I've tried end up sounding too digital. That's understandable because it's hard to emulate warm analog delay sounds with a vst. I've been through my fair share of wannabes. In general I find most of them to lack transparency and warmth. They make then tracks s...
I like how easy this plugin is to use and I think if it didn't sound so dynamically processed it might be my #1. The "magic" button is a mystery to me really. The manual doesn't really explain jack about it. Well, it tries but does more harm than good I think. I get the feeling this vst was supposed to be geared toward beginners. Makes sens...
This is a very solid plugin if you're looking to reduce noise from the overall track, and I find it works great for that. You can really sculpt where you want to reduce the noise and clean up the overall signal. It works awesome for some of those older analog recordings you may have laying around. You can use it as a normal gate, but I find t...
This has been my go-to DeEsser for quite awhile. It's easy to use, you can get solid results from it and it doesn't take up too much processing power. I don't use this too often given that I'm a death metal guitarist, but for the spoken word stuff, it has really saved me quite a few times. If you get a chance, I recommend checking it out. It...
I used to use this plugin all the time back when it first came out. I'd always put it on the master buss and start adjusting everything from there. It served me well throughout the years, and I highly recommend it to anybody out there. I've since moved onto another combination, but after typing up this review, I'm thinking of going back and u...
