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moosers
Published on 09/08/10 at 13:16
The Metric Halo Channel Strip plug-in is an all in one channel strip that consists of a compressor, an equalizer, a gate, and a sidechain for both the compressor and the gate as well. The plug-in comes in either VST, RTAS/TDM, or AU formats, and I believe it's only available for OS X and not PC, but I'm not 100 % sure on this since I'm running it on a Mac. Installing the plug-in is really simple, as one just needs to follow the step by step instructions as you would for installing any software. The interface of the Metric Halo Channel Strip has a good amount going on, but they've done a good job of breaking it up into different sections, so it should be pretty clear once you break it all down. The EQ is made up of 7 bands, and there are graphs that show you all of what you need to know in terms of processing. The EQ graph is definitely the most helpful, however. A manual shouldn't be necessary, but I haven't seen one so I can't speak to it's make up.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
I'm currently running the Metric Halo Channel Strip on my home rig, which consists of Pro Tools LE 8 and a Mac Book Pro. The lap top has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM, while I run Pro Tools with a Digi 002R audio interface and I monitor everything with a set of Adam A7s. This system has been adequate enough for me to run this plug-in, but I can't go crazy with it as this does take up a decent amount of processing power. I usually try to limit it to a few instances per session and this seems to be okay...
OVERALL OPINION
There are a lot of benefits to having the Metric Halo Channel Strip in your DAW suite, as it's a great plug-in to have around. There's just so much that you can do with it, as it's flexible and versatile. It has a pretty clean and realistic sound generally speaking, but there are some aspects of it that I like better than others. For example, I think that the EQ is the cleanest sounding processor here, and I don't really use the gate all that much. The compressor is awesome for drums bussing and beyond. The cost of the Metric Halo Channel Strip isn't too bad, so if you're looking for an all in one channel strip plug-in, it's worth giving this one a shot but I'd also recommend looking at the Waves SSL channel strips as well as those made by URS.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
I'm currently running the Metric Halo Channel Strip on my home rig, which consists of Pro Tools LE 8 and a Mac Book Pro. The lap top has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM, while I run Pro Tools with a Digi 002R audio interface and I monitor everything with a set of Adam A7s. This system has been adequate enough for me to run this plug-in, but I can't go crazy with it as this does take up a decent amount of processing power. I usually try to limit it to a few instances per session and this seems to be okay...
OVERALL OPINION
There are a lot of benefits to having the Metric Halo Channel Strip in your DAW suite, as it's a great plug-in to have around. There's just so much that you can do with it, as it's flexible and versatile. It has a pretty clean and realistic sound generally speaking, but there are some aspects of it that I like better than others. For example, I think that the EQ is the cleanest sounding processor here, and I don't really use the gate all that much. The compressor is awesome for drums bussing and beyond. The cost of the Metric Halo Channel Strip isn't too bad, so if you're looking for an all in one channel strip plug-in, it's worth giving this one a shot but I'd also recommend looking at the Waves SSL channel strips as well as those made by URS.