Category Archives for "Software"
It’s really difficult for a piece of gear to become a standard that everyone must have. It’s especially difficult when it comes to compressors, since most of the classic designs were created 50 years ago or so and we’ve seen mostly variations on a theme since. That’s why Dave Derr’s EL8 Distressor is such a […]
Continue readingAll songwriters face writer’s block from time to time and search for anything anywhere for inspiration. If that’s happened to you, one excellent place to refer to is a new plugin from Plugin Boutique called Scaler that’s uses “Creative Chord Composer” as an apt description that’s almost guaranteed to get you thinking about music in […]
Continue readingYou probably read the headline for this post and thought, “Not another compressor plugin,” and I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that at first I thought the same thing about Boz Digital Labs’ Manic Compressor. But this plugin has a number of tricks up its sleeve that most compressors don’t have, which makes […]
Continue readingThere are a ton of different EQ plugins to choose from and all have their unique character. That said, most mixers still find a need for a sound shaping tool that adds a bit more than the traditional boost and cut. Enter Wavesfactory’s Spectre multi-band enhancer plugin that incorporates a graphic-style equalizer with the introduction […]
Continue readingIt’s surprising how much vocalists love the sound of their voice doubled, but manually matching a previous vocal can sometimes be a time consuming process. Through the years all sorts of gear has been created to attempt to automatically double a vocal (going all the way back to Abbey Road’s Automatic Double Tracker – ADT […]
Continue readingThere are lots of channel strips on the market that work well for drums, but up until now there hasn’t been one that’s been specifically tuned by a drum manufacturer for drums. Audio software developer Audified has teamed with DW Drums to change that, and the result is the DW Drum Enhancer. The plugin incorporates EQ, […]
Continue readingIt seems like everyone has at least a couple of DAW applications, but most of us rely on just one. It may be because we’re forced to because of professional reasons (like Pro Tools, for example), or we’ve just settled on one that’s compatible with our workflow. That said, Music Radar did a survey to […]
Continue readingAndrew Scheps is not only noted for his excellent mixing abilities for acts as diverse as Adele to Metallica, but he’s also one thoughtful guy, so when he comes out with a plugin, you can bet it’s something special. For instance, there are a lot of Neve 1073-style plugins available, but his Scheps 73 is […]
Continue readingAudionamix is a very clever company with a variety of intelligent software products specializing in extracting tracks for a full stereo mix. The company just introduced its new XTRAX STEMS app that will separate any song into its drum, vocal and remaining music components, which is a pretty cool trick when you think about it. […]
Continue readingIt often takes plugins to catch hold of the market, and many times they fail to capture the attention of pro users no matter how good they are. That’s not been the case with FabFilter, as the company’s products have been used on countless hits almost since Frederik Slijkerman and Floris Klinkert, started the company in […]
Continue readingDid you ever have an unusually dynamic vocal where your compressor works perfectly in one section of the song, then springs into over-compression on another? Of course you did. That’s something that everyone runs into on a regular basis. One way around this is to automate the parameters of the compressor, but that’s gets time-consuming. […]
Continue readingAs I’ve written before, there’s no need to do specific mixes for streaming services like Spotify, since most labels and aggregators like TuneCore will submit a 44.1kHz/16 bit file anyway. Plus, the streaming services do their own encoding and normalization, so there’s no benefit in doing it yourself. That said, it’s always good to know what […]
Continue readingToday’s mastering tools are better and better, but can also be much more complicated than the average engineer wants to deal with. That’s why some plugins are becoming smarter in how they operate thanks to incorporating artificial intelligence, and a perfect example is the Elevate mastering plugin developed by Newfangled Audio and distributed by Eventide. […]
Continue readingWhile many software developers concentrate on reproducing the sound of old analog favorite outboard pieces, there are others that prefer to explore the digital boundaries of what hasn’t been heard or done yet. Such is the case with Unfiltered Audio and their new SpecOps plugin. It’s hard to place SpecOps into a category, but something […]
Continue readingThere are so many digital audio workstation choices at all different price ranges and they’re all, at worst, pretty good. So why would anyone even consider a new one? For one thing, when it’s pedigree is Fairlight, and secondly, when it’s actually an all-in-one video editor as well. That’s what you get with the new […]
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