Abbey Road Plug-ins RS 127 Box

Unlike the RS 127 rack, I don't seem to have any trouble "grabbing" the knobs on the interface. To be honest, that is the one thing that makes me feel the Box is any different than the Rack. I will talk more about that later. No need for a manual, two knobs. After using it for a minute, you get the general idea of what each one does (frequency range, db amount of brilliance added or taken away). The only thing simpler than this plugin is one with just one knob. Yes, both are located right on the front of the GUI.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

So far the RS 127 box has had zero issues running on a Macbook Pro i7, Fireface 800 and Logic 9. No crashes, no hiccups in audio. As for performance, I am having trouble distinguishing the difference between this plugin and it's sister plugin the RS 127 rack. I spent some time just A-B ing the two and sometimes I think the Box is a hair thinner. Other times, I think my mind is playing tricks on me. Either way, it's negligible enough not to really notice, at least for my ears. It kinda makes me wonder if they slapped a different GUI on the box in order to make you feel you got a better deal (3 plugins for $125 instead of 2). I am not officially saying that is what happened but its really hard for me to tell them apart. I have been using this plugin for about a month now.

OVERALL OPINION

Like I mentioned in my review of the RS 127 rack, this unit does get you quite close to that vintage Beatles sound. It can really reduce the mud in a mix quickly and efficiently but I really wish the DB knob wasn't so rigid. I feel like I would have been more apt to use this plugin if the knob was more fluid and allowed you to slowly increase the db instead of jumping up and down by 2 db. Of course if they did that, it wouldn't be a true replication of the real unit, so I should probably stop whining about it I will say this, if you have 5 minutes to impress a client on a mix, and said client likes vintage sound, grab this guy (or it's twin the RS 127 rack). Overall I prefer the BBE Sonic Maximizer's over these guys (hardware or plugins) mainly because there are a few more options to control. I would probably not get this (these) again, only because I tend to do more electronica these days and it (they) don't really do much for that field.

The Abbey Road Plug-ins RS 127 Box is a simple filter plug-in that is part of Abbey Road's Brilliance Pack of plug-ins. Also included in the bundle is the RS 127 Rack and the RS 135 filters. I don't own this bundle, but the studio that I work at does and I've used this and the other plug-ins in the bundle a decent amount for not having owned it. I just love how simple they are! Since I don't own this, I wasn't involved with installing it. Without exaggerating, the RS 127 Box is the simplest plug-in in the world, with the others in the bundle being equally as easy to use. All this plug-in has is a large knob for setting the boost or cut level, and a three way frequency switch that allows you to choose between frequencies of either 2.7 kHz, 3.5 kHz, and 10 kHz, not unlike the frequencies you'd find on many consoles. I've never needed to look at a manual for this, nor do I ever anticipate needing to.


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

We're running the Abbey Road Plug-ins RS 127 Box and the full bundle at the studio that I work at on a few different systems, as we've got a bunch of different rooms. All of them are Pro Tools HD based, and I can't say that I've ever encountered a problem running any plug-ins at all, let alone one like this that clearly takes up a small amount of processing power. It's hard to say how well any given plug-in will run on any given system, but this one should be as safe as any since it's got such a simple make up.

OVERALL OPINION

Abbey Road Plug-ins' RS 127 Box plug-in has become one of my go to plug-ins when I'm looking to add a little bit of color and/or brightness to a track. It's so easy to use that it makes it quick and easy to give your tone a little high mid/high end boost. I love using it on electric guitar especially as it can really help a guitar track to cut through a mix. It's also useful on vocals, drums, and on anything where you might want an increase in the high mid - high end presence. The other plug-ins in this bundle are similarity useful, so the Abbey Road Brilliance Pack is definitely one I'd encourage you to check out as a whole if you like this plug-in, as it's the only way you'd be able to get it. The RS 127 Box plug-in is one the simplest and most useful that I've been using a lot recently...