Crane Song Phoenix Luminescent

Crane Song's Phoenix Luminescent is one of five that makes up the Phoenix bundle of analog treatment plug-ins. These plug-ins aim to recreate digitally a tape saturation sound to help digital tracks sound warmer and more realistic. Each of the five plug-ins in the bundle including Luminescent serve the same purpose, but each has a different take on it and provides users with different colors to use for different situations. They all do share the same interface, with a make up consisting of three modes to choose from - opal, sapphire, and gold, as well as a knob for setting the amount saturation desired. Once you understand the format, you'll be able to use each of the plug-ins independently and easily since they're all the same. I really like this simple make up as it makes it as easy and as possible to get the most from the plug-in. A manual shouldn't be necessary here...

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I'm currently running the Crane Song Phoenix Luminescent plug-in (as well as the other Phoenix plug-ins) on my home studio's system. Included in this set up is a Mac Book Pro laptop computer with a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM, which I'm using to run Pro Tools 9. I use the plug-in only in Pro Tools since that is my main DAW for mixing. I've never had any problems at all with the performance of it since I only use a few instances of it at a time anyway.

OVERALL OPINION

Crane Song's Phoenix Luminescent plug-in is the cleanest of the bunch in the Phoenix bundle of analog treatment plug-ins. I don't use it as often as I do some of the others like the Dark Essence plug-in, but it still comes in handy a lot if I'm looking to warm up a sound without adding too much coloration. I like this one for mixing individual tracks because of this, while I mostly will use Dark Essence on a master buss. I think the Phoenix bundle in general is one that every DAW owner who is working mostly inside the box should have. There are a lot of analog treatment plug-ins out there, but most of them don't sound nearly close to the real thing, and while this doesn't necessarily sound exactly like you ran it through a tape machine, it's the closest you're going to come in the world of plug-ins. Definitely worthwhile for everyone with a DAW to have...